Cheerios

Last night before bed I was snacking on some Cheerios. I rolled up the bag inside, closed up the box, and then completely forgot to put them away and left them on the coffee table.

Adam and I got up this morning, ate our breakfasts, and then he got a bath and dressed. I set him down to play in the family room, which is the only room in the house that is completely baby-proofed with safety gates and everything.

Guess who was scarfing down Cheerios while I was washing bottles in the kitchen...

Just a Tuesday

I've posted three times today but I'm just playing catch-up. Amazing how much there is to say when you have a near-toddler! Adam is able to "walk" on his knees with his new Stride to Ride Dinosaur, he's able to go from standing to sitting/crawling and sit up easily by himself. He falls about the normal amount, I guess, but he's also pretty graceful.

He's become a fast crawler and a speedy pull-upper. He sees Shannon when Shannon comes home from work and smiles, squeals and makes a bee-line towards him, and when Shannon picks him up he immediately tries to steal Shannon's glasses. He can stand up in his crib and yell for someone to get him (and when you do, he's all smiles when he sees you). He fights sleep, and when he "wins," he lets you know with a big smile.

He's working on standing up without having to hold onto anything and is very happy when you hold his hands and help him walk from one place to another. He's also practicing moving from one object to another without help (no steps, but turning from the couch to the coffee table, the coffee table to the toy table).

He LOVES to do things on his own. Mr. Independent, Mr. Athletic, Mr. Blue Eyes, Mr. Smiles.

He's doing better at playing by himself for longer periods of time. He likes people so much that it's actually torturous not having someone to watch, or talk to, or play with... and at 7 months, it really is "play with"... I've walked into daycare in the last month to see him next to a "friend" and playing with a toy together a couple of times.

We've noticed that when he's upset or frustrated, he does his chewbacca growl (very gutteral, and sounds like a growl). It comes out the most when you make him stay still for a diaper or clothes change. He's learning the word "no," although usually when I say it he stops and looks at me, then grins really big and goes back at it. His smile is contagious so it's hard not to smile back. When I mean it, though, he listens. Whenever Shannon says it, he knows he means it. But Mr. Charming doesn't know what it means to be "in trouble" (yet). He also can "pat" like they teach on "Little Einsteins," which is amazing because we don't really play it that much, and when we do, he's only half paying attention. And he only "pats" (pats the table, his legs, the floor, in rythym with the beat), when Mom does, not when the show tells him to.

And this evening, when Shannon was vacuuming, he chased the vacuum until there was no room to chase, and I picked him up into my lap, when I lifted my legs to let Shannon vacuum the floor beneath me, Adam lifted his legs too. Too cute. How do they learn so fast?

He's also eating Cheerio's and soft table food, and is almost begging for it. We are still in the bad habit of feeding him "his food," then eating ours an hour or two later while sitting on the couch watching TV (while he's playing). It looks like that habit will have to change soon because he sees our plates and comes looking for a bite, opening his mouth while holding onto the couch and standing at our knees. Today we had an argument on whether the red beans and rice (w/sausage) that I was eating was actually "Mom's Lunch," or "Adam's snack." I won, but it was a long, well-fought battle on his part. He is a worthy opponent.

Pulmonologist

Yesterday Adam had his first appointment with the pulmonologist. I called a couple of weeks ago because it seemed like Adam was in pain every night, and while his spitting up had gotten better since starting the Nexium, it really only improved with age, as it does with every baby. Plus, the cough and congestion that he has had since he was two months old was still around whether he had a cold or not. He has been on Nexium for almost 3 months and I haven't seen any improvement directly related to that - the only improvement I have seen are related to the little tricks that Shannon and I have picked up over the last couple of months. I just couldn't wait another month and a half to "follow up" with the stupid Gastrolentologist, who is so convinced I'm over-reacting and who has no interest in hearing me out.

So I made an appointment for Monday morning.

Of course, just when you say "enough is enough," and make an appointment with a doctor, isn't it typical that the symptom you were the most worried about improves or disappears altogether? Adam hasn't been acting like he's in pain lately, but the spitting up is still around - his shirt is constantly soaked, there are spit up cloths everywhere, all over the house, and we change his clothes at least twice a day - usually three times. And yes, "babies do spit up." I get that.

Adam started a 10 day cycle of amoxicillan on the 3rd, but it wasn't working after 5 days so we were given a new antibiotic. He finished the new 10 day cycle of antibiotics on Sunday the 19th. By Friday the 24th, he had a new cold. 15-16 days on antibiotics, 4 days healthy, and already a new cold. He hadn't even been at daycare much that week.

Because I had been so completely written off at the gastroentologist, I was nervous. But a friend had given me Dr. Peter Schochet's name and I was done trying to pretend that the constant colds, the constant chest congestion, the constant spitting up, and the nighttime pain  was "normal".

Of course, since it was 2 days after Christmas, we had a pretty long wait at Dr. Schochet's office. For an appointment time of 10:30am, I had a pretty bored, tired, and hungry baby when we finally saw the doctor at 12:15 pm.

Ready to go home!

But I liked Dr. Schochet. Even though we waited a while to see him, he at least sat down with us and thought about the problem and let me talk about what was going on.

He looked over Adam's symptoms and asked if Adam's soaked shirt was a normal thing, which of course, it is (and what he was looking at wasn't as bad as it could get). He said that since Adam wasn't dying and was obviously thriving, he usually addressed things practically and didn't want to start out by ordering a million tests. He said that obviously there was something going on and a constantly soaked shirt and gallons of drool wasn't normal. He said he actually didn't believe the problem was related to acid reflux, but perhaps to a problem with his swallowing, which could lead to the constant colds (a sort of reverse reflux that causes some of his food to go up into his nasal cavity), the chest rattling and congestion (part of the formula goes into his lungs), and of course, the spitting up and drool. The pain he is having at night could be from him swallowing so much mucus since he's been sick so much over the past 4 months.

He gave us a 3 week antibiotic for Adam's constant cold, which he believes is just one cold that isn't going away completely. With this antibiotic he recommends yogurt every day, even twice a day. Poor Adam, having to eat his favorite food every day for three weeks. How miserable. :)
 
Anyway, long story wrapping up - Adam is having a swallow study next Tuesday. He will have to drink/eat barium while they x-ray his chest to see how he swallows... and I'm not worried, really. I guess I haven't had time to think about whether this is the problem - the idea in and of itself is new to me - and Dr. Schochet said it wasn't a huge deal if this was the problem. We would just know for sure that Adam would need his formula/juice thickened with something other than rice cereal.

And I guess just knowing what is actually the problem (and not having to buy/prepare/give Nexium twice every day when it wasn't really working) is enough for me, right now.

Oh, and this is something that clearly the gastroentologist could have ordered herself if she had taken the time. I have already explained to our pediatrician that I wasn't impressed or going back to the gastrolentologist she recommended (and she said thank you for telling her - they didn't like referring to doctors that didn't seem helpful). If this does turn out to be the problem, Dr. Mona Dave will be getting a note from me.

Christmas Day (First Christmas Number 2)

Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house and ate Mexican food and played Wii with the Rackler's. We stayed a while and got home about 10:30 - 11. Despite coming down with (yet another) cold, Adam was wide awake when we got home. But he didn't fuss when we put him to bed. He hung out there for a while, playing with his pacifiers, until he finally dozed off.

Christmas morning, he woke up not feeling well and wasn't all that interested in opening presents. In fact, he was downright nonchalant about the entire process. He went down for a nap for a while, then we went to Denny's (Adam tried some pancakes, no syrup, and was impressed) and then we went back over to my parent's house. He was a little more cheerful about the second round of present-opening. I forgot to whip out my camera there (I know, I know...) but we stayed all day, had steak, baked potatoes, green bean casserole and stuffed zucchini for dinner, and Adam said "Chris" once (but no one believed me), then "Robin" twice. It's sad when I have witnesses to his genius and still everyone says, "oh, it just sounds like he's saying those words but he's not..." Until . . .

Me: "[blah, blah blah, something about Chris]..."
Adam: "Chris"
Me: "Yes, that's right, Chris."
Everyone Else: "Ha ha, you are just taking his syllables and assigning words to them. He's not really saying Chris."
Me: "Sure, okay. Whatever you say... "
2 minutes later.
Me: "[Blah, blah blah, something about Robin]..."
Adam: "Robin"
Me: {to everyone else} "You see!!"
Everyone Else: "He didn't say 'Robin.'"
Me: "He did too say 'Robin.'"
{Robin walks by Adam and out of the room. Adam turns to watch her.}
Adam: "Robin."
{I throw my hands up in the air and look around the table.}
Everyone Else: "Okay, it really did sound like he said 'Robin.'"

Thank you, Adam, for finally giving me witnesses.


We were all wiped on Sunday, and he had a case of need-to-be-with-Daddy all day. Shannon couldn't leave the room without a little crawling shadow or a screaming Adam.

Unwilling Santa Baby... (I'm not making him wave).

Pictures

Okay, I have to say that I did try to steal this idea from Dee because her picture of little Cooper turned out SO cute! Adam's didn't really turn out the way I had hoped, and actually it was a bit of a struggle. For some reason the tree (well, being so close to the tree) kinda freaked him out. And I struggled with the lighting. We were lucky to get this one. It's the one and only decent one.

 I also caught some good ones of him playing with (aka, chewing on) his boats in the bubble bath last night:

Adam's Favorite Things at 33 Weeks Old

Adam is 33 weeks old today. Here are some of his favorite things:

Favorite Color: RED

Favorite Song: The Theme Song to Little Einsteins
(Man, does he love this song. He can be completely engrossed in playing, hear this song, and turn immediately to the TV. I've even seen him come crawling out of the kitchen to watch the opening song)



Favorite TV Show: Wheel of Fortune

Favorite Toy: His Leap Frog Musical Table

Favorite Commercial: iPad (Maybe we watch too much TV). Whenever this commercial comes on he has to watch. HAS to watch. It's the music he likes.

Favorite things to do:
1. Smile at everyone
2. Pull Dad's glasses off
3. Stand Up
4. Cruise

Favorite Foods: Meatloaf and Blueberry Yogurt

Favorite Drink: Ice Water out of a "Big Person" cup, preferably a red cup.

Favorite Pet: It's a toss up. Caley because he can do whatever he wants to her. Eli (or Ah-Ah) because he thinks Eli is funny.

(Gus gets left out because Gus does NOT want to be touched by Adam, but at the same time, Gus is the first to go running for me when Adam cries . . . then Gus meows, and bites my wrists and my calves, and looks at me very seriously. His eyes say, "fix it. Adam's sad. But don't let him touch me.")

Favorite item to sleep with: His Pillow. (Newly Discovered: He's had it 3 days and consistently puts his head on it throughout the night.)

Most Talented: Picture Taking. He sees the red flash before the picture snaps or the beep when the camera turns on, and he turns to the camera and smiles.

Adam also likes to help me decide . . . "Green or Yellow?" "Do you think Daddy would like this Dallas Cowboys Santa hat?" "Which toy for your cousin?" "Which outfit do you want to wear?" "Do you want Carrots or Green Beans?" ... He smiles like he's so pleased you asked his opinion, looks at each object for a while, and reaches for one.

He also loves when you show him pictures of himself on the digital camera.
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But Adam doesn't like everything . . .

Dislikes:
- Sitting Still
- Being in the car seat for a long time
- Wind
- His shoes
- Being bored
- Wiping his nose
- Taking a nap
- Sleeping through the night (I'm not sure if it's truly a "dislike," but after 7 1/2 months, it's certainly starting to feel intentional!)

*Note on the sleeping-through-the-night thing: We do try to let him cry it out. Last night at 1 o'clock am I let him cry for 20 minutes . . . I thought he was going to go back to sleep, too. I watched him in the video monitor as he made it back to his pillow, had his eyes closed, and was whimpering softly. Then I guess he remembered that he was STARVING, so just before he fell back asleep he picked up his entire body, threw himself down and screamed like he was saying, "seriously, I am NOT kidding!" When I gave in and fed him he chugged 7 ounces and went right back to sleep, which he usually does.

We've also tried over-feeding him during the day to get enough calories in him before bedtime, which is a big FAIL. And we've talked to our pediatrician who says that he is a big kid with a high metabolism, so there might not be much we can do until he levels out. The lack of sleep didn't really bother us until 7 months. At 7 months, you start to feel it.

But I guess if you're going to have just one flaw (like his mom, ha ha), it's forgiveable.
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First Christmas Number 1

This past weekend we went to Shreveport to visit with Shannon's family for Christmas at Mike and Debbie's, Shannon's neice's grandparents. It was fun and exhausting, but a good ending to my entire week off last week, in which I cleaned, shopped, napped, went to Costco, went to the grocery store, etc, etc. . . .












Adam has realized that he can move around whenever he wants and while he's improving his crawling speed, he wants to walk. He wants to walk BAD. I should stamp "What's Next??" on his forehead because that's all he's thinking.  And while I was home with him, I did not entertain or burn enough energy to keep him on schedule. He was refusing bottles left and right, refusing to sleep, refusing to sit on the floor by himself. I should just call last week "Refusal Week."

We drove to Shreveport Friday night and stayed at The Courtyard. We took the pack n' play for Adam, and he slept in it about half the time. The other half he spent in the king-size bed, being cuddly and sweet. It was actually kind of ironic that while I had him all to myself last week, for the first time it actually felt like a vacation in that hotel room, where he wanted to play with me and I had nothing else on my mind but to play with him. I wasn't rushing to work, rushing to clean, fold laundry, make a bottle or heat up baby food, change a diaper or run an errand. I had nothing to do but play with him, and nothing on my mind but how to make him giggle. I just needed 2 hours of that.

On Saturday we drove over to the house and Adam played all day (with a long nap in the morning and a short nap in the afternoon) with his cousins, visited every person at least once, and passed around smiles all day. He enjoyed opening presents mostly because he could bang on the boxes, and he just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer at about 8 o'clock. Then he fell asleep in my lap.

 

Adam and his cousin Caden

We drove back to Dallas on Sunday and had to pull over half-way home to change a leaky diaper, and discovered that the extra clothes were buried deeply in the trunk and the sweatshirt was too warm to wear in the car. So he went shirtless the rest of the way home.

Yesterday we had a scare with a diaper that was very red, almost like blood. We called the pediatrician and got a 2:30pm appointment. When we got there they saw us right away and rushed around trying to figure out what it was . . . I told them I wasn't even sure it was blood, but that he hadn't eaten anything even close to the color red. Turns out, it wasn't blood. It's either dye (I have no idea where that would come from), or from the antibiotics he was taking (which was my first hunch).

We felt kinda stupid but at least we know for sure. I wasn't panicking at all, and I should have known when I had this face looking at me right before the appointment!

Last night Adam tried meatloaf and LOVED it. I put some small bites on his plate and he actually chewed and swallowed, and grinned ear-to-ear. He screeched happily for more. I also gave him a little bite of mashed potatoes and he made his typical "gross" face.

When I was finished with my dinner he held his mouth open as I walked by him with my plate. Real subtle.

Then he opened his Christmas present from "Aunt" Sarah. He loved the red penguin box the best, and I liked the clothes. I have some pictures and video. He wasn't really in the mood for a Christmas bow on the head, as you can see. I need to stop torturing him I guess.

 

Snacks

Here are some videos of Adam from this morning.

This first one is pretty funny. He puts the Mum Mum in his mouth and sort of points to it. It falls out of his mouth, and he sighs one of those loud, shoulder drooping sighs. Man, life is tough for him this morning.



In this second one, he spends a lot of time contemplating the Mum Mum, and then decides to act silly...

The Weekend

Here are some pictures from last night - a laid back Sunday. Adam had a great time with Caley and playing with Shannon.

 

   
Adam has exploded developmentally in the last few days. He's crawling fast and pulling up all the way to standing like a pro. He's trying to move between objects while he's standing (the coffee table to his musical table, the table to the couch, the couch to the laundry basket). He can if they are close enough but has fallen enough times to know when they are NOT close enough.

I have the week off of work this week, then go back next week for four days before Christmas, and then I'm off work again the week between Christmas and New Year's.

This week I plan on finishing Christmas shopping, doing laundry, cleaning the house, maybe getting a nap . . . maybe . . . and getting ready to go to Shreveport this weekend for Shannon's family "Christmas" - we're doing it early so everyone can be there. And of course, I plan to spend a bunch of quality time with Adam.

He started the week off with a bang by waking up with a dirty diaper at 5:30 am, ate half a bottle and then wouldn't go back to sleep. An hour later, another dirty diaper - and fussy, but wouldn't take a nap or eat. He fussed at me for an hour before I finally gave him some cereal, which is what he really wanted. Then at 8:45 am, another dirty diaper. After that was done, he played on, around, and in the laundry basket while I was folding clothes.

Now he's asleep, and instead of napping I'm still folding clothes and updating the blog instead of taking the nap I had intended. Oh well. I'm going to need a red bull to finish this day, I think.

Sharing some pictures from this morning:

 That last one is my favorite.

Here's a video of him crawling and standing. We have a pool going if anyone wants to put in a guess as to when he takes his first steps.

I'm taking January 8.



See the next blog for videos of him eating this morning. Talk about personality.

In a week

Last Sunday Adam started crawling "for real"

6 days later he's pulling himself up.

Here are some pictures from today.