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.

Games

This morning, Fenix crawled over to Curtis, flopped onto his back right next to him, gently grabbed C's hand, and pulled it over his (F's) stomach. We think he meant "tickle me, daddy" because that's what happened next, and he laughed and laughed and laughed.

He has this game he plays on the way home, or in the car, or in bed now, or in the kitchen. He yells, and then we yell in synch. Over and over and over.

Have you ever called Goog-411? It's great, you call, talk as if you were inputting a command to google, and it phone-directory-connects you to whatever you like. But if you say something it can't interpret right away, the voice-recognition software burbles and blabs and tips and clicks until it figures it out. It sounds EXACTLY like the baby right now - trying out sounds, burbling, combining, whispering, playing with his tongue in his mouth. So cute. So if you want to hear what the baby sounds like now, call 800-GOOG-411, and ask for something strange, in a strange town.

Mommy's Toys

The baby spends lots of time in the kitchen now. We have failed to baby-proof the cabinets and drawers, thus far. And frankly, I don't intend to proof all of them. I like that he can come into the kitchen, open the drawer or cabinet and pull out cans of beans, pineapple and eagle-brand milk, and then boxes and boxes of pasta. I even think it's cute when he plays with an acorn squash as if it were a ball. I am amused by his interest in cookie cutters, bowls, little tartlet pans, the funnels, the tongs, and the whisk for the blender.

I do not like him eating the cheesecloth. I am fearful that he will pull the stack of ten graduated glass bowls out of the cabinet with as much force and abandon as he pulls the spatulas and plastic lids. I don't think he's old enough to play with the plastic wrap, not just because of the suffocation hazard, but also the finger-slicing cutting strip on the corner of the box. And definitely, certainly, without a doubt, the under-the-sink/chemical cabinets should be off limits. So I'm hoping this weekend we get baby-proofing gear installed in the cabinets and drawers in sink and kitchen. And then the baby will be so mad when he can't get Mommy's Toys anymore. I'll have to take a picture!

Caption - "Don't do it, Mommy. Please don't lock the cabinets!"

Bye-bye

This morning, I got baby ready while Curtis showered, as is our wont, and then brought him to the shower to say hello before we went to the kitchen. As we left the room I told Fenix to say bye-bye to daddy and waved. The baby waved his little arm, and said "bah bah." Is that a proper "first word?" Or is that saved for more proper words like mama and dada and up and down and all that?

Fun baby

The baby is recovered fully from being ill. I am 95% recovered, and I suspect Curtis is close as well. Curtis' parents are visiting this weekend, and we're having a nice time. Baby is fun, calm, hungry, happy. I am, too (or rather, was until I decided 28 Days Later was OK to watch, before I remembered it scares me). I look forward to hanging with the family tomorrow as well. I am going to Boston Mon-Tues, and hope that goes OK. Not sure how the pumping will go, as I think I might be getting another case of thrush. Just have to wait and see how it goes.

Pictures of baby to follow tomorrow.

Skill developments: baby was in big chair, crawled across a gap to the ottoman, then turned himself around so his feet would go first, and got down, with no trouble or falling. Slow, careful, effective. Good boy!

Eating: black olives with dinner - he liked them, which seems surprising somehow. Still a strawberry and canteloupe fiend. Bread remains tops. Cottage cheese loses steam but is still good (if no longer a staple). Need to push yogurt for a while to counter the thrush potential.

Sick baby?

I have no idea how we're supposed to know sometimes that baby is sick, vs. just very grumpy. He's almost a year old, he's supposed to be grumpy! But over the weekend, I think he had what I now have; aching joints, a bit of nausea, headache, sore throat and tired. I should've gone home yesterday, and I stayed home today, to attempt to recover. Baby did not tell us, as he is a baby, that he had a headache or sore throat, and if he was tired? who can tell that apart from normal baby tiredness?

I think he's on the mend, but once again feel bad that we didn't know what was wrong. What could we have done? Given him tylenol to feel better, but we didn't think he had a fever. The first time this happened was with his first little teeth, and we didn't know he was teething (he drooled and chewed on things and fussed for probably 4 months) until the little teeth popped out. Oh little baby! We would've given you cold things to chew and oragel!

We'll all live, I'm sure (though dad is now coming down with same sickness). Moral of the story? More temperature taking, even if we don't THINK it's warranted. It's hard, though, to mentally justify anal temperature-taking if he is NOT sick. But I guess that's how we'll know.

Poor Baby!

Bagels and HATE

NO MOMMY NO FINGERNAIL CLIPPING!!!!!

I tried to trim his fingernails today because they are SO SHARP and he scratches me. He was NOT interested in the trimming and we fought over it until I got tired of it. I told C about the problem, and he asked if he could do it. Would it be "heroic" if he did it. I agreed that it definitely would, because I could not manage. We'll see if he gets it done haha.

Then fed him some bagel and canteloupe for breakfast. Big hit.

Cleveland and back

I went to Cleveland Mon-Tues., and returned at around 9 last night. Did not wake the baby, wanted him to sleep well. But this morning, when I picked him up out of the crib, he looked at me, said mama, and petted my face. His fingernails are long so it was a razorlike petting, but it was so sweet! Turns out while I was gone, Curtis taught him to stroke his cheek, while saying (C, not baby) "nice." So baby is trying to make nice.

This morning was buttered toast, and canteloupe. The toast was roasted garlic and monterrey jack bread, which surprisingly, baby is fine with. I gave him about 5 pieces of canteloupe, and he picked one up, took a bite, then moved on to the next one. He at the toast slowly and methodically, periodically exclaiming how much he liked it, scrunching up nose and eyes and smiling.

We gave him pizza on Sunday night for dinner. I think he may have even eaten a mushroom (on the pizza).

The top two teeth are about 2mm in now.

TOAST!

Darn, we should've taken a picture. We gave the baby toast this morning, with apparently no ill effects. Thus, wheat might be considered safe. Wheat, one of the cornerstones of today's American diet. A BIG STEP towards eating what everyone else eats. Pasta, bread, cake, etc. Now the only remaining "allergic foods" are egg whites, citrus, and nuts. Baby is ON HIS WAY.

And cute! He looked at it for a while, not sure it was food. Curtis took a bite to show him. Then he nibbled a bit, and a bit more, and ate probably 3 sq. inches of it. And then discovered he could disintegrate it with his fingers, and crumbled a bit onto his lap. And ate a little more. I'm so pleased.

Baby progress

Two teeth recently sprouted on top. They appear crooked now; I bet they straighten out over time.

This morning, rather than daredevilishly climbing all over the kitchen, he played happily with a small acorn squash, and the whisk attachment to my stand mixer. He was mad when we started to eat cereal without him, so I got him some applesauce and oatmeal cereal and sat him down with us. He made funny little cute baby faces almost the whole meal.

Sleeping has become more regular, down around 8, up at 5. I suspect he should sleep a little longer, but he doesn't seem to wind down until 7-7:30. I still want to nurse him at night, but at the same time think he needs to go to bed without that "sleep crutch" sometimes, too. What to do!

He is paying more attention to toys now, somehow. The new favorites are a little siamese cat and a chocolate lab toy that his cousins provided over the weekend. He likes it when we make dog and cat noises to go along with the toy, though both C and I need to work on our "purring" noises, as they are sub-par. He seems like he's trying to say Meow Meow in response to our little meows.

Lunch today - beans and rice, avocado, sweet potato, some yellow zucchini (that he won't eat, in place of the cucumbers that he doesn't eat), cottage cheese, cheerios, strawberries, and a peach. MMMM.

I won't be heading home after work until after he's in bed, since my work team is having a celebratory dinner tonight. I will miss baby. I hope he does OK with dad; he always does, so there's no call to worry!

Locomotion

He stands up! Not independently yet, and no steps are on the horizon. But he stands in his crib, and he stands in the living room while leaning on the fireplace and chewing on dad's shoe strings. He crawls very quickly now, either in military or all-fours crawling (still not his favorite). I think he'll walk before he crawls all-fours 100% of the time.

He looked at me and called me MaMa the other day. He looked at C and called him DaDa yesterday. He started making new noises, too...oggoggogggogg.

Baby food

Here's what the baby got for lunch today:
2 bottles of milk (4-5 oz, human)
cottage cheese
banana
strawberry
pear
plums
cucumber
sweet potato
beans and rice
cheerios

I am trying to think of new things to give him, and coming up blank. He also eats green beans, oatmeal, berries, yogurt, applesauce, and lots of other things. I guess the mental blank is for entrees, more or less. I think fruit is good for him, sure, but he also needs something a little more substantial. Or perhaps that's what the milk is for. Oh, and he eats the cottage every day now, no problem from daycare.

Sleep vs. Eat?

The past few days have been sort of tough for me. Baby is waking at least once a night, and there are a variety of possible reasons for this. Teething. Hungry. Developmental stuff - he's learning to crawl properly, getting beyond the "Military Crawl" he's been doing for ages. He wakes, we try to ignore so he goes back to sleep, then I get up and feed him for a half hour and he goes back to sleep. Sometimes I'm so asleep I forget about the "try to let him go back to sleep on his own" and just go get him. I don't know if I'm enabling poor sleep behavior, and using nursing as a "sleep crutch" or if I'm just doing what we need to do to get the baby and me all the sleep we possibly can, given all of the above.

Last night was to bed at 7ish, up at 1ish, back up at 5. That's not terrible. The night before, though, he was up at 11 and back to bed at 1, then sleep until 5:45. That doesn't SOUND worse, but it meant I got about 6 hours total. If I get less than 7, I start to lose functionality. I injured myself twice before getting to work yesterday - once on the fridge at home, once on the car in the parking lot. I knew that mentally I was unlikely to function well in critical thinking tasks, so I focused on easier, administrative-style things to do. My desk is the clearer for it. I think I am improved now, having gotten more than 7 hours last night.

I think baby does not get enough to eat during the day, but perhaps that's a mistake to think that. He gets bottles, plus a bit of solid food. He always finishes the cheerios we send, and the fruit. The vegetables, less so. The cottage cheese? never. I think that's because the first time she gave him the cheese, he didn't like it, and now she doesn't believe that he will eat it, and doesn't offer. He loves it at home, though. I also wonder if he doesn't get a ton of food during the day because she is busy busy busy with all the kids. Again, not sure if that's fair to say, since he does get bottles, and eats fruit and stuff, and probably does fine.

30 inches long, 20 pounds. Big boy!

Ouch

Baby bonked his head last night on the table behind the couch. I was attempting to feed him before bed, trying to adjust how we were sitting, and he writhed around, slipped my grasp and fell and hit the edge of the table. He cried and cried! We examined him, and for a few minutes couldn't see any evidence of the hit, but then a spot pinked up along the upper eye socket. I don't know if it will bruise or not, might give him his First Baby Shiner. I guess we'll find out soon!

The thing that surprises me most about being a parent is how much I enjoy being with the kiddo, with my family. It's nice just being around everyone.

Da

This morning, baby was eating, popped off, turned to look at dad and said "Da Da." And then some more babble. This is like when he was first born - is it a smile, or is it gas? Is this calling Dad Dada, or is it babybabble? I choose the former...

Baby has 9-month appointment at the doctor's office today. Perhaps Dad will update afterwards.

Edited to add - the very next day the baby sat up this morning and said "Hi Dada." Still we are skeptical, but it really did sound like that!

Good morning, 9-month old boy

We love the baby. He is a nice boy. He giggles in the morning and tries to eat my telephone. He kicks his legs and thrashes his arms and says "ney ney ney" with his little baby voice. It is so sweet.

He eats lots of things now: pears, applesauce, yogurt, cottage cheese (sometimes yes, sometimes no), cream cheese (does not like it), watermelon, canteloupe, strawberries, grapes (not sure about these yet), cereal (rice, oatmeal), cheerios (loves to pick them up with tiny fingers), black beans, white beans, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, carrots (not a favorite), rice, banana (eats half at a time, very efficient and funny). Possibly one or two more things I'm forgetting now. Plan to add peaches, and broccoli this week.

Rolling over, climbing off the couch onto cushions, downward-facing dog, crawling with legs down, i.e. more creeping or "commando crawling" than proper crawling, but he's working on it. When he wakes up he scoots himself into a corner, and hasn't yet realized the potential to climb the walls of the crib. I go to pick him up out of bed, and he pulls himself up with my help, half-stands, half-teeters, then clings like a baby monkey as we walk to the bedroom for breakfast milk.

We shower together, though he's getting a little too strong for that, trying to escape. He enjoys baths, though spends 90% of the time grasping frantically for his tiny bath turtle so he can jam it in his mouth and chew. Splashing also is a favorite. I waited and waited for splashing, when we used to bathe him in the tub, and thought "someday he will splash and it will be cute and darling" and it IS, but it is also very wet.