9mo Well Baby and Neverending Cold (9m)

Kieran saw his Pediatrician today to get checked out for this cough he’s had for 3+ weeks and to have his 9-month Well-Baby visit.

Kieran’s stats from his 9-month checkup:

  • Age: 9 months, 2 days
  • Weight: 19.6lb (was 18lb @ 6mo)
  • Length: 27.75″  (up from 26.75″)
  • Head Circumference: 46.5cm  (up from 45cm)
  • He’s dropped to the 35th percentile for height/weight from the 50th, and his body is starting to catch up to his huge head: he’s down to the 82nd percentile!

I was surprised that Kieran had actually dropped in the height/weight percentiles.  He seems so much bigger to us in the last 3 months, way more than just a pound and a half!  Granted, he is moving around more than he used to, but as he’s not crawling or cruising yet, I don’t think the increased activity is enough to slim him down any.  (If anything, I think the whole 1.6 pounds went to his belly and thighs!  He has the absolute most MUNCHABLE thighs now.)

Dr. Hodapp was his usual self, practically backing out of the exam room as soon as he walked in.  (Paul and I had a chat – I’m strongly considering changing Pediatricians…)  But in the few minutes we talked, Dr. Hodapp pronounced Kieran just perfect.  He’s not concerned at all with the slow-down in growth, as obviously Kieran is thriving.  Kieran’s developmental gains are doing great, since he babbles to everyone (Mama, Daddy, Teachers, Doggy, Kitty, Baby in the Mirror…) and is happily pulling himself up on everything.  Dr. Hodapp confirmed my suspicions that Kieran probably won’t bother to crawl – since he’s showing no desire to do it now and is moving towards cruising on the stuff he pulls himself up on.  I was told to focus Kieran’s nutrition on solids, using formula to “top him up” after a meal of solids.  (Ugh, that’s a whole ‘nother post I wanna make… I’m so frustrated with conflicting information about solids/formula at this age.)  Kieran’s tubes look great, which was a relief. (Kieran’s been patting at his left ear for a few days now.)  Dr. Hodapp thinks it’s teething.  I’m inclined to agree, as the drool has started up again and Kieran has been chewing on his hand more recently.

As far as Kieran’s never-ending wet, productive cough: IT’S A COLD.  I really didn’t want to accept that.  I pushed, and re-iterated that he’s had this wet, productive, body-wracking, eye-bugging, baby-exhausting cough for three weeks now.  It’s worse at night, but still very much there during the day, so much so that Kieran hasn’t wanted to eat for a couple of days now.  But, I have to admit also that he hasn’t been running a temperature, and the accompanying sinus involvement has been on-and-off, and all-around not as bad as previous colds.  I wasn’t looking for meds, but I really wanted some reassurance that this truly is just a cold (or 2-3 colds back-to-back) and not something to worry about.  I asked about possible allergies too.

Dr. Hodapp listened to Kieran’s breathing, and had them check his oxygen saturation.  Both were good – lungs are clear, and his O2 was at 96-97.  Dr. Hodapp encouraged me to bring Kieran back in a week or two if the cough is still there.  (I made an appointment for my next furlough day at work, with every hope and intention of canceling it the day before.)  I mentioned the fact that we were unable to ever get in to see anyone at this office while Kieran had his ear infections – basically I got told that we had the misfortune of having a sick kid during the “bad” season.  Meh.  Again, more reason that I wanna consider changing Pediatricians. But for now, Kieran just has a cold and we’re to keep doing what we’re doing: nose sucking and humidifying his room at night.  No need for meds.  If he has this exact thing next Spring, it could possibly be allergy-related, but Dr. Hodapp said that babies Kieran’s age just don’t have seasonal allergies like that.

I’m glad we were able to get Kieran checked out.  I feel a lot better with confirmation that there isn’t something terribly wrong.  So now we can focus on enjoying this weekend with Grampa John and Great Grandma Cat.  We’re going to take pictures in Kieran’s Dodger outfit to celebrate the start of Baseball season and just do our level best to enjoy the lovely warm weather we’re having.

Pool Adventures! (8m2w)

There are benefits to living in Las Vegas.  While most of the country was blanketed in snow last weekend, we were in the pool at Grammy & Grampy’s house!

Well, we were in the pool for a little bit.  At 80 degrees outside and 82 in the pool, it was still a mite too chilly for Kieran.  So we popped into the jacuzzi and enjoyed ourselves!

Pool (1)Pool (19)Pool (27)

Kieran LOVED the bubbles, and his new floaty thing.  The jets turned his floaty into a spinning ride that allowed him to take in everyone around the pool – Grampy, Grammy, Daddy, Nonny, and all three dogs!  Mama stayed in the jacuzzi with Kieran, of course.  Kieran had to have SOMEONE other than himself to splash!

Pool (6)Pool (5)Pool (7)

We’re looking forward to many many days spent in the pool at Grammy & Grampy’s – by this time next month it will be plenty warm enough!  There’s pictures a-plenty, of course. (And Daddy is working on a video!)

Eight Months and counting!

I could crawl if I wanted to.  I just don't wanna.I’m continuing to do monthly pictures of Kieran in his crib – but it’s getting harder and harder to duplicate the style of the previous months’ pictures.

You see, I have a VERY busy baby these days.  He doesn’t want to sit still in the crib – and forget about laying down!  It’s a matter of being quick on the shutter to get pictures of him with his stuffed animals these days, before he flails them around or before he rolls away towards the railing to pull himself up yet again.

So this month’s pictures are a little sparse.  I couldn’t manage to get all the usual suspects in shots with him, and after a long photo session, I forgot to take one of him and me.  Oops.

Best outtake of the whole shoot?  Right here.  I’m pretty sure Eeyore farted.

Eeyore, did you fart?

In case you hadn’t noticed, I created an individual page for all of the monthly comparison shots.  They’re all grouped together, making it ever easier to see how much he’s grown.  The pictures link to the gallery though in case anyone wants to see the full size image.  (Some of the thumbnails are better than others, I can’t do anything about since they’re automatically generated.)

Next month I’ll be sure to get everyone in the pictures (including me!)

Big ‘ol update

There’s so much I want to write about here – just never seems to be enough time.  I’m not complaining, mind you – just wishing I could find a few more hours every week.  But there’s always dishes to do, diapers to wash, bottles to clean, and food to make….  and I have this silly notion that I’d like to spend some time with my husband too.  (As it is, I’m just starting to write this at 10:00 on Saturday night as Paul is getting ready to go to bed.  I should be joining him.  It took three sessions over the weekend to get this one post made.  Arg.)

I worry that time is slipping by too fast.  Kieran is growing and changing so much every day: learning, reaching, Happy boy, with no teething pain!exploring, achieving.  I need to be blogging this stuff if for no other reason than to remember when he started doing stuff.  (Cuz yeah, I haven’t touched his baby book since we came home from the hospital.)  So let’s see, what’s the boy been up to recently:

We have TOOTH! Two weeks ago, Kieran finally popped his first tooth – and with nary a tear thanks to his Baltic Amber teething necklace.  Our only indication that he was actually teething was that he started drooling again.  (One of the benefits of the amber necklace is that Kieran isn’t a total drool fountain anymore!)  It’s just the one tooth, but that sucker is SHARP!  We’ve got no indication of other teeth coming in to join the first one – so we’ll just have ourselves a snaggletooth baby for a bit.

Look who's standing!Pulling up on things – mainly us.  A month ago, he started pulling up on his crib to get onto his knees.  Now he’s pulling himself up to standing.  Thankfully he hasn’t tried it yet from the inside of his crib, he’s contented to be on his knees in there for now.  But when playing with Paul on the floor in his room, he’ll pull himself up to standing on his crib or the chair or ON Paul.  He does it to me when we’re playing on his playmat in the living room in the evenings.  He’ll just grab a fistfull of my shirt and heave himself up.  I’m convinced that he’s not going to bother crawling – he’s going to be like my brother and I and just get up one day and walk.  I fear that day is coming very quickly.  Kieran will get up on all fours, but he shows no desire to put any forward momentum into play.  He’s lightening fast when he wants to be by rolling around.  There’s no putting him down in the middle of our California King bed anymore, unless one of us is right there with him.  I’ve caught him trying to roll off twice now.  (Talk about scaring the heck outta Mama!)

He’s talking up a storm. Too bad we have no idea what he’s saying!  But he talks and talks now since getting the tubes put in.  He would talk before, but not like this.  I swear he’s making speeches and telling us stories.  His tone of voice changes, and he gets excited. He tells jokes too – or at least he thinks they’re jokes.  He cracks himself up.  But then again, he loves to laugh – so any excuse works for him.  I can look at him and say “Hee Hee Hee” and he’ll crack up.  He’s so much fun to interact with.  He sings along with the radio or TV and with us too!  Oh, and he loves blowing raspberries.  He’ll go back and forth with us blowing raspberries until Paul or I are lightheaded.  He has said things that sound suspiciously like “Mama” and “Dada” but we know he isn’t referring to us yet.

Playing: This kid is a MACHINE!  He’s so good at playing with his toys.  He has mastered closing all the little doors on his 5-in-1 jack-in-the-box thing.  Even better, he’s figured out that if he flops it over, all the doors will close on Playtime with Scout Dog!their own.  Smart boy. He enjoys all the toys on his exersaucer even more now.  The spinning top is a new favorite because Kieran has figured out how fun it is to watch the balls inside spin around.  And if you ask him to show you “Peekaboo” he’ll twist the mirrored face around and push the button to make it say “Peekaboo, I see you!”  He knows which rings go on each of his two ring stackers, and he understands that he can put the shapes in the holes on the front of his shape sorter, but he has to pull them out from the back.  His newest toy is his Ball Popper: he knows how to turn it on and is fascinated by the balls popping out the top, and by Daddy frantically collecting them and shoving them back down the tube.  It’s the best game ever! Kieran’s favorite toy right now though has to be his remote control.  He always reaches for the remote on our bed or in the living room, so we cleaned up the old broken Harmony remote and gave it to Kieran.  He loves that thing.  (And since he’s not getting our phones, the remote is the next best thing.)

Solid foods: I’m still making all of Kieran’s solid foods other than his applesauce.  (I figure store-bought is just fine, as long as the ingredients are just apples and water.) So far he’s tried Greek yogurt, carrots (steamed and roasted), roasted butternut squash, roasted sweet potatoes,Ah, sweet potatoes hit the spot! steamed green beans, steamed peas, bananas, pears, avocado, pumpkin, mango, oatmeal and rice cereals.  I’ve got edemame, strawberries and blueberries on deck for this next week or so as well.  Kieran doesn’t like anything green, but I’ll keep trying.  He’s also not a fan of bananas or mango.  Weird kid.  He gets sent to school with two 1/2 cup containers of food for lunch, a cereal with yogurt and fruit and a veggie.  He gobbles them both, and has cheerios at snacktime too.  He has a big dinner with me at home every night now too – usually a veggie with cereal and maybe some applesauce for dessert. I’m increasing the texture of Kieran’s foods now, as well as making them much thicker.  I don’t feel comfortable moving him to chunky stuff just yet, but we’re getting there.  Once he gets better with more texture I’ll add in shredded cheese and over-cooked pasta to his menu.  Then we’ll start in on meats.  His formula intake is decreasing accordingly with his solids intake, but we’re not concerned – he’s obviously growing just fine.

Sleeping: It’s hard to tell because until very recently, the poor kid has been sick constantly.  He had been down to one wake-up a night, but towards the end of Kieran’s last ear infection he was back up to 3 or 4 wake-ups a night.  I don’t want to jinx anything, but this week we’ve had two nights where he slept ALL THE WAY THROUGH – I’m talking 11+ hours here.  I’m assuming the big solids dinner before bed has something to do with it, as well as possibly just getting old enough.  He usually naps twice at school, which I can only think has helped things too. Whatever it is, I’m enjoying it.  Now, that doesn’t mean that *I’m* sleeping through the night – but eventually I’ll learn how to sleep more than 4 hours again.  To be honest though, as long as we were only doing one wake-up a night: I was fine with it.  There are worse things than sharing a mid-night cuddle with a snuggly baby.  But I’m sure that sleeping all night long is better for him though, so I completely support it.  (I think the current cold is responsible for breaking the all-night-long streak we had going.  He’s coughed himself awake and upset for the last few nights, but it’s only been once a night at that.  Ah well, we’ll get there eventually.)

Daycare/school is going great. Kieran’s teachers love him, and it’s obvious that he enjoys himself there with his friends.  He gets to finger-paint (with pudding usually) and make art projects.  He plays with toys he doesn’t have at home, and is learning to share with the other babies.  Yes, he still catches every cold that goes through the place, but we expected that.  (He’s currently suffering with a new cold, the first one to include a cough.  And a nasty, wet, productive cough it is.  Poor Kiddo.)  Paul is everyone’s favorite Daddy there at school, because he stays and plays with Kieran (and any other babies in the play area) instead of just swinging by and dumping the kid at the door.  Frequently the teachers have to pry Kieran out of Paul’s arms so they can start him on an art project or something.  We will get a book of all Kieran’s paintings and projects when he moves up into the Toddler Room.  In the meantime, we enjoy seeing new artwork displayed in the Infant Room and finding the ones Kieran made.

I know I sound like a broken record when I say this, but Paul and I just love the dickens out of this kid.  We take joy in telling each other Kieran stories from the morning or evening (since Paul and I have distinctly different daily schedules, Paul still gets up early with Kieran – and I have him to myself in the evening before Paul gets home from work.)  He is absolutely the light of our lives.  He just keeps getting better and better as he grows.  And as much as we want him to stay our tiny baby (ha!) we’re excited for him as he engages with his ever-growing world.  We love sharing our little man with friends and family, but more than anything we are so thrilled at the little family we’ve become.

There’s a bunch of new pictures in the main Photo Gallery – The Story So Far

Ears, Nose and Butt Update – part II (8m1w)

What a difference a week makes!!  Last weekend was a blur of temperatures, Tylenol, cold bottles and worries.  This weekend was relaxed and full of hanging out at home, playing on the living room floor while Daddy was at work installing a new server.

Ears: The procedure on Wednesday went GREAT.  Other than having a hungry, fussy baby in the pre-op area, there was no troubles at all.  In and out in about 25 minutes.  Kieran was awake and happy to see us when we got back into the post-op area (which happened to be the same as the pre-op area) and nommed his bottle like a good boy.  The doctor described Kieran’s left ear as “a terrible mess” and his right as just completely full of fluid, but not nearly as infected.  He said the powerful antibiotics we’d been giving Kieran were just “barely holding things at bay.”  So we’re very glad we went ahead with the procedure, even with as young as Kieran is.

He’s doing great now.  He obviously hears much better – he spent all day Thursday in wide-eyed fascination of EVERYTHING.  There’s been a tiny bit of drainage from his left ear, but that stopped already.  He finished out his Cefdinir oral antibiotics, and is still getting ear drops for a few more days.  We don’t need to worry about getting water in his ears now – although I’m not 100% clear if we’ll always need to have ear drops on hand in the future or not.  I’ll be sure to confirm that with the ENT at our follow up appointment on the 17th.

Nose: Still congested, but not nearly as much as he was.  I don’t know if it actually has anything to do with getting his ears drained out, but I’d like to think the general pressure in his head has been reduced.  We haven’t had to suck out his nose since Wednesday morning, so I’m calling this a success as well.

Butt:  Kieran was still on the Cefdinir, but diligent use of the new, gentle diaper care products has produced amazing results.  Plain water with baby washcloths, the California Baby Gentle Diaper Wash spray, and when dry, a spritz of the Boudreaux’s Rash Protector.  The damage from the fire poos has been abated, and I think the probiotics that Dr. Meghan recommended have worked their magic, as the fire poos themselves seem to have abated as well.  We’ll be back to our regular Up & Up  sensitive skin wipes in another few days I’m sure.  But it’s nice to have a go-to regimen to clear things up in the future.  The Boudreaux’s Rash Protector really was great in place of diaper cream – nothing to rub/wipe onto red, irritated skin.

Again, thanks to everyone for their kind words, prayers, good thoughts and suggestions over the last week or two.  Paul and I are so grateful to have such amazing friends and family.