Finding a Schedule

It's been an interesting week here at the Fletcher house. We think Kole is old enough to where we kind of went into a second gear finally. He's getting bigger and a little personality full of sounds and kicks and reaching is starting to evolve like a chick pecking its way out of a shell. Plus, all the books have said that between 2-4 months, we'll want to get a couple of things accomplished: get him on a nap/sleep and feeding schedule, and get him sleeping in his own crib.
The sleep thing, thankfully (and knocking on wood) he's been real good about. Two nights ago we put him down around 9:30 after a feeding and he went solid until 5:15am. We were both like ... damn! Last night he went down closer to 10pm and woke up hungry around 4am. So, the schedule is coming. KOLE-TV is alive and well in our room now. Our baby monitor has a little A/V plug and I run a cable from that to our TV so we get his little spy cam on our big 38-inch bedroom TV. So long, David Letterman, hello Kole - every kick and squirm live and in war-like night-vision video. He took to his crib real easily. We had been putting him there for a while, letting him lay on his back watching his mobile while stretching and kicking. Now he sleeps like a lazy dog.
We also made a formula change, which all the doctors and books preach against. But, Nestle Good Start with Natural Cultures goes for about $29.49 for a 24-oz. can at our Tom Thumb when it's not on sale. It's the most expensive formula on the entire formula shelf, simply put. But, formula is formula, we're learning. The FDA has such strict standards of what has to be in baby formula, and what cannot be in it, that the back labels of the name brands and the generics are a mirror image. Target sells its brand of denatured whey cultures with DHA & ARA and all the stuff Good Start has, and sells it for $17.29. It takes Kole about 5 days to suck down a can of formula. Do the math. The one thing the Target brand doesn't have is a reuterin additive, which produces antimicrobials. Good Start had it, and it's found naturally in breast milk - simply put, it helps digestion. So, we found a good reuterin additive from the Vitamin Shoppe, we give him a 1/2-teaspoon a day. When we made the formula switch, he at first was grumpy and occasionally screaming in pain, grunting in pain, and he'd have poops that were hard as a rock. The poor kid was constipated and gassy. But, with the reuterin additive he's back making green and yellow chili in his diaper, ooh-ing and smiling more.
I've done a bad job of updating the 'Milestones', but he's now kind-of reaching for toys when he's on one of those play mat things with little toys dangling around. Either that, or he's wildly throwing his arms around and hitting them over and over again.
[PHOTO: Maggie still hasn't warmed up to Kole one bit, but we're still trying.]