As of today, Griffin is a week shy of 5 months old. It amazes me how much he has grown and even more so how advanced he seems to be. I have been watching the things he is doing now and how much or his personality is starting to shine through.

4 Month Doctor Visit

His 4 month old doctor visit was the first surprising bit for us. After measuring him, the nurse came back to tell us how he compared with other babies in the US.

• Weight: 17lbs. 13oz. (95^th percentile)
• Height: 27½ in. (100^th percentile)
• Head circumference: 44cm (90^th percentile)

New Clothes

Seeing as his growth is off the charts we have had to swap out the clothes that he has been wearing, of which most were in the 3-6 month range. He is actually wearing 9 month clothes. It still blows my mind that he is wearing clothes that were meant for twice his age and they fit him pretty well.

We were fortunate enough to have been given quite a large bunch of clothes from Heidi’s sister, so we really haven’t had to buy any clothes for him since birth. We have bought a couple things here and there that we liked.

Eating Whole Foods

He has also started eating something other than formula. The first meal we made him was rice cereal and it cracked us up to watch him eat it, but he got the hang of it almost immediately. Within a couple days, we began feeding him puréed veggies which he actually seemed to enjoy. A couple days ago we gave him his first taste of bananas and it was hilarious to see him eat it. It was the first time he didn’t seem to enjoy eating solid food and kept spitting it out.

Tummy Time

A couple months back we began starting his tummy time. He would usually get really upset after a minute or two. In the past couple weeks he began rolling over onto his tummy on his own and now does it quite frequently even in his sleep. Sometimes we think he even prefers to be on his tummy.

Sitting Up Unassisted

We have also been working with him by holding him by his sides to help him sit up. He has been showing signs for the past couple weeks when he is laying down by lifting his head and legs as if he is doing some ab workout. Yet he just gets frustrated. By sitting him upright and holding onto him, it has slowly enabled him to gain a lot of core strength and also quite a bit of balance. At times now we can remove our hands and he will sit up on his own for a moment or two before leaning to one side or the other and tipping over.

Giggling

There have been many occasions where something completely random will make him giggle one time after another, such as a silly sound or a facial expression. Then oddly enough, the next time we attempt to do that silly thing again, he doesn’t giggle. Then a day or two later, we stumble onto something else. He giggle is so infectious it makes us do so many silly things now just so we can hear that adorable giggle.

Over the past two to three weeks, Griffin has changed so much in personality and also in abilities. It is just so amazing. I would have never though that parenthood would be like this, so enjoyable. I am really looking forward to more of his warm happy personality to develop and shine.

1. Timing

According to our pediatrician and a few other sources 4-6 months is a good indicator. We had been hearing and read many times 6-8 months.

2. Head Control

He also mentioned that when your baby is able to hold their head up by themselves with no support. This is important when they are eating as they can hold their head up to chew and swallow.

3. Appetite

When your baby is eating between 6 and 8 ounces in a bottle for every feeding except middle of the night ones. This means it is a good time to start introducing heavier foods other than formula or breast milk.

4. Watches You Eat

When you are eating in front of your baby and they watch your movements with great interest. This can be spooning something into your mouth to chewing. Griffin was fascinated with us when we were eating. He would watch every time I would put something in my mouth. I would also make yum noises and smile while doing it.

Additional Tip

Our pediatrician also mentioned to us when Griffin was 3 months old that we could start introducing rice cereal into his diet. He suggested that we just mix a tablespoon or two right into hos formula. We did have to increase the nipple to a Stage 3 through to get it to flow well. He mentioned that this may have helped him in his advancement towards solid foods.

Image courtesy of Fernanda Mancini {Flickr}

1. Close the Door

If you have the luxury of an office, den or additional room with a door, use that to get your work done. We have an additional room that we have made into an office. If you don’t have an additional room, consider using a bedroom. Closing the door helps me mentally break the pattern of needing to stay connected to everything my son is doing allowing me to focus easier. This is also a good way for other family members to know that you are working and not to be bothered. I have told my wife and mom that if they need me for and urgent
reason to come get me, but to let me work
without distraction as much as possible.

2. Headphones and Music

For the really challenging times where Griffin is screaming or crying, playing music helps me to drown out the noise. I invested in a comfortable wireless headset and a subscription to Pandora One. The wireless headset fit comfortably without letting much outside noise in and I can wear them all day without them hurting my ears. The subscription to Pandora One may not be necessary if you have a large music collection, but I have found that picking a favorite station sets the mood and doesn’t need to be managed and introduces me to new artists. I mention a Pandora One account specifically over a standard Pandora account because I found the occasional advertisements were as distracting as a screaming kiddo sometimes.

3. Take Breaks

Don’t be afraid to stop working for a few minutes. This helps me stay focused longer believe it or not. I find that if I just try to plow through work for hours on end, I feel burnt out and end up taking longer breaks or not wanting to work much at all later in the day. I work for a while, getting some things accomplished and break for a couple minutes, then get back to working again. It is kind of a loose version of the Pomodoro Technique which has you work in 25 minute blocks with a couple minute break in between. Doing this I push distractions away until I finish. When I break, I read emails, return missed calls, etc. Another thing I do from time to time is pop in to see my son and say hi to my mom for a few minutes which also helps with that need to connect with other people.

4. When You Stop, Get Started Again

If you happen to stop because the distraction was too great, handle what you need to handle. Once you have finished doing it, immediately get back to work. Make it a point to say to yourself “once I am done with this I am getting back to work.” A 10 minute distraction can easily turn into 40 minutes away from your work as I can find tons of distracting things to do around the house.

5. Dress the Part

I know I love wearing some flannel pajamas and sitting on the couch with a warm blanket, but unfortunately it keeps so comfortable that my productivity can go down the drain. I find that getting dressed in the morning helps keep that corporate work mindset in place. I see PJ’s as comfort and not needing to work which affects my minset, whereas getting dressed tells my mind that I have things to do other than sit around.

6. Have a Schedule

It is easy to work whenever I feel like it, but I notice I am much more productive form the times of around 7am and 5pm. Don’t get me wrong, I have been known to burn the midnight oil coding until 1am, but it is rare. Having a loose schedule in mind on a daily basis gets my mind in the right place to know that it’s time to work.

Another thing that I tend to keep a loose schedule on is snacks and lunch. I take a short mid morning and mid afternoon break to get a snack and something to drink. I also plan to have lunch around 12. Keeping this schedule has also primed my metabolism to eat every few hours which helps me to break the pattern of working too long at one time. My stomach has become something of an alarm clock letting me know, it’s break time.

Bonus

If you are fortunate enough to have a laptop and an exercise machine like an elliptical, treadmill or stationary bike you can kill two birds with one stone. I like to prop my laptop up and get some exercise in while working. I find that I can burn up an hour in the blink of an eye on out elliptical. Doing this keeps me from having to make time to work out in an already scarce schedule being a new parent.

Do you have any other tips that you find help keep you focused while working at home?

This post was day 2 from the ebook 31 Days to Build Better Blog.

Image courtesy of Robert S. Donovan {Flickr}

An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds, or 100–150 words).”—Wikipedia

Now that I understand what one is I am going to share the process I used for creating mine.

What Need Am I Solving and What is My Audience?

Mommy-blogging has become very popular over the past few years, but I believe that there is an undeveloped niche for the stay-at-home or work-from-home dads out there.

Thinking about my blogging experience and recently becoming a new dad, I really began thinking about wanting to share my experiences of this journey.

Between figuring out how to work from home, exercising, eating healthy vegan and vegetarian meals and spending quality time with my son Griffin, I figure I have a ton of stuff to chat about. If anything it will be a way for me to connect with other Dad-bloggers or Dadgers as I like to call us.

My Elevator Pitch

RedDolan.com is about connecting with other stay-at-home or work-from-home dads about health, fitness and most importantly the joys and challenges about being a new dad.

So, what are your thoughts of my elevator pitch? Does it pique your interest to follow this blog? Leave your feedback below in a comment.

The idea behind the book is to teach you techniques to assist you in developing a better blog. Each day you learn a new technique or concept, each compounding on another or something new all together.

Some of it may be common knowledge to me or some of you but I plan to share what I am experiencing each day and blog about it, to be completely transparent. In going through these exercises I may also share info/data related to the other blog I am with MattersofGrey.com as I may not have enough info on this blog to make it worth sharing.

This is a great goal for me, something that I believe will challenge me to:

• Learn new things
• Stick to a schedule
• Have some accountability
• Build another network with the potential to support me financially

Thanks for your support and I would appreciate your feedback.