Sad sad baby

He came down with an ear infection on Friday. Daycare called, said you need to come get him, he's got a fever and isn't feeling well. So we get a doctor's appointment. Waiting in the waiting room we're fine for about 20 minutes, but 20 minutes more, and he's freaking out. Desperately wants to get out of the 10'x10' square we've been in for the last 40 minutes. Finally get back to the room, and wait another 45 minutes there. The entire time, if I am not walking in circles with him in my arms, he is screaming NO NO NO NO! And then, AT LAST, the doctor arrives.

She takes one look in his ear and says "Yeah, that's infected." Then the other ear - fine. The throat - infected. Here's an antibiotic, tylenol or motrin for pain and fever, come back in 2 weeks to confirm his ear is improved. Bye!!!

I waited 1.5 hours for 5 minutes of doctor time. I hate the doctor.

So then we go home, and he's still pretty cranky and basically inconsolable. But now I'm exhausted too, and can barely cope. So dad takes over for a bit, we put him to bed early, he conveniently wakes just after the pharmacy lets us pick up the prescription, so we can change him and drug him and put him back to sleep.

Saturday - sleeps off and on most of the day. We cannot leave the house, as the baby is quite ill. Hot hot hot! Pretty pitiful in fact. Not much appetite, but drinks plenty of juice. You can tell he's feeling bad, because whenever his ear hurts, he sits and yells "NO NO NO" over and over, and swats at his sore ear.

Sunday - thought he was better! Fever gone, appetite returns, anger lessens. But daylight savings time and parental optimism lead to melting down at the grocery store. Time to go home and rest again, baby!

Monday - still very touchy. The tiniest thing causes a tantrum. He is clearly not feeling great. I stayed home with him. Extra nap in the morning - 2 hours rather than 1. Went for a walk in the afternoon. Curious, happy, inquisitive, though still irritable.

Tuesday - slept through the night!!! Must be better. Back to daycare, where everything was fine, though there were a few rough patches.

Wednesday - much much better.

Kitties

When dad dropped off the baby at daycare this morning (at the lady down the street's house), the cat ("Pookie") was sitting on the half-wall between door and living room. F walked over, smiling, to pet the cat, and reached his hand up to her. She reached out her paw and placed it on top of his hand, in a friendly way. Cute, right?

NO! The baby started bawling, crying, full of tears, not just yelling-to-come-get-me-out-of-this-old-crib crying. C sat with him for probably 5 minutes before he settled down again.

Poor baby! But what did the cat do? It seemed harmless!

At last

Wow, it's been a while since the last post! We took Fenix to North Carolina in the 1st weekend of September, which was fun but somewhat difficult (naps on the road, you know). Then we all got sick, and have been for quite a while. Baby is finishing week 2 of the pink antibiotic stuff, and is feeling better. I have been traveling a ton for work, a trip each week, one night and two days away from home, and I HATE it. I miss the baby.



But I'm back! And while I haven't seen it, due to being out of town again, I hear that the baby has taken several successful steps!

Standing

Baby is determined to stand, and perhaps to walk someday. He climbs up our legs, then stands for 2 seconds, then sits or leans again. He walks quite well while holding onto things. He wants to stand very much! He also wants to get into everything, and sees that standing will allow far greater access to the forbidden stuff.

He said "Hi, Da" yesterday morning, with much coaching.

He does not like having his teeth brushed.

He does not like food anymore. Well, that's an exaggeration. He eats maybe half as much as before, though. Yesterday, though, once we sat him down for dinner, he crammed as much fruit in as possible. He stuffed enough watermelon into his mouth that he gagged and spit a bunch out. He ate a little cottage, and a little rice. He picked up one black bean, put it in his mouth, picked up another, and while the other was moving towards his mouth, spit out the first bean and dropped both on the floor.

When bath time is over, in his opinion, he now stands up and tries to climb out. Luckily the baby tub has firm footing. Once we switch over to the big tub, this might be a bit more slippery!

He likes to throw his little wooden blocks.

Doctor's visit - 12 months

We had our VERY WORST doctor's visit EVER yesterday.

First of all, I thought his one year visit was going to be in late September, because by the time I called to schedule it, the doctor was booked until then. Oh wait! That's because we already had an appointment scheduled, for Monday at 9a.m.! They called me Friday to remind me! I was very surprised, but it worked out OK. Sort of. On Sunday I thought "why would we schedule an appointment at nap time? That seems bad" and I was So Right.

We got there at 8:45, went back almost immediately. Measured baby (32" tall, 18" head, 22 lbs; >95th%ile, 90th, and 40th, respectively), then stuck a bag to his groin to try to collect a urine sample. That is a strange strange system. Literally taped a bag to his groin. Waited a few minutes for the doctor, who checked him out, said everything was fine, made a suggestion or two, etc.

Time for vaccinations. OH NO. He used to cry briefly then stop, and act as if nothing had happened. Not this time. He cried and cried and cried, and cried a little more. I nursed him for maybe 4 minutes to calm him down, give him a smidgen of milk. Probably could've given more, in retrospect. It's probably 9:45 now, 45 mins past naptime. And then we got to wait for the lab, for a blood draw, a finger stick. The waiting was long. The baby hungry. And tired. Then we finally get into the lab, and they poke his finger and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze blood out of it until they have maybe 1mL (which is not that much, I know). But Fenix was so tired and angry and hungry, he did not care for this at all. SCREAMS and screams and screams and tears. We terrified all the other children!

Here's the funny part of all this - still no urine in the urine sample. He usually pees all the time, from what I guess, but the second they want a sample? Nope. None. For 1.5 hours.

Finally done, took him to the car, gave him a piece of bread (he ate maybe 2 nibbles before falling asleep), and things were ok.

And then I got to work, 5 minutes after I was supposed to call some doctor in Pittsburgh, which I didn't realize until an hour later. This mistake, plus the fact that I was up 1.5 hours the night before with an upset stomach, meant my day was miserable. I spent the whole day feeling guilty about the baby's shots, and hoping he wouldn't pull the bandaids off, eat them, and choke, AND just wanting to cry. It was pathetic. I sat in a meeting glazed and depressed. Went home a few minutes early. Once I saw that he was OK, I felt Much Better.

Party - year one

We had a big party for the baby's 1st birthday last weekend! I know he won't remember it, but we had a good time! I invited family, friends and coworkers. My parents all came, my mom's parents, too. Several aunts and uncles, a cousin or two, two nephews, and C's parents were here. My sister came with her boyfriend, and brought their new turtle! She took several little pieces of fruit and veggies for the turtle, too.

We made a very pretty cake for the baby, and he even got to eat a few bites, along with some ice cream. Strawberry, peach and banana ice cream, and a little of my coffee ice cream. The first bite was cold! he made a displeased face, but recovered quickly and gobbled up the rest. Everybody sang for his birthday, and he grinned and giggled.

Fenix did not know what to make of Grandpa Kim's beard - it was scary! But interesting. But scary! He seems to think white beard hair is troubling, whereas brown hair (on "uncle" Rusty, for instance) is OK. He enjoyed visiting with all the grandmas, though.

Baby and dad were dressed in the same outfit - green and blue striped shirt, and little gray/blue striped shorts. Very cute.

Words

The baby can _almost_ say "tickle." He burbles now, and it sounds like talking. One of his favorite phrases is ollygollygollygollygullygully etc. I wish that there were a thing that was called a golly, because he's got that word DOWN! And oddly enough, if you flip it around a little, so it's llygol-llygoll-llygoll then it's pretty close to "tickle" which is what he says when we tickle him in the morning.

First blood wound yesterday; Fenix really wanted Curtis' laptop, and so C moved it away a bit. Baby fell and hit head on table. Then once more, Fenix wanted the laptop, so C moved it away, which baby did not expect, and so he fell a bit, and busted his lip a tiny bit. Poor baby! So upset!

He's actually been cranky for a few days. And those stubborn teeth are still not in (he has four, 2 on top, 2 on bottom, and 2 more on top trying very hard for days to come in. Soon, I hope!

Black olives. New favorite baby food. Never would've thought. Even kalamata olives. Baby also enjoyed a blueberry muffin this weekend, and some corn mash, black beans and rice at the Blue Mesa at Saturday night dinner. Oh, and spaghetti - proper spaghetti, long skinny noodles, not rotini or penne or what have you - was a revelation for him. He LOVED it, immediately.

He's making progress in holding his sippy cup. He holds it fairly well, drinks from it fairly well, but prefers dropping it on the floor to any other activity. Also, the cup is overactively non-spill, so when he drinks from it for a bit, all the air is sucked out, and no more liquid will come out without some devacuuming from parents. Actually, we THOUGHT he was drinking from it pretty well, until I put milk in it yesterday. Curtis suspects about half or more of the milk went down the baby's chest, rather than in his mouth. What a milky mess.