It's been a busy month full of fun stuff to update about.
Lets work backwards...
Today I went in to get Elba from his nap because I heard him in there chatting away...he is full of dadada's at the moment. Mitch is sure he knows what he is saying, but I'm not so sure...I haven't seen very good evidence of this. Anyway, so I go in and low and behold he is standing in his crib! He has been trying to pull up on stuff for some time and crawling over low obstacles, the under table of the coffee table and inside the bottom disk of the excersaucer.
He is also officially signing 'milk'. I thought he had done it in the past couple of weeks but it wasn't totally clear. It certainly is now. Even more awesome, is we are getting kisses! Okay, they are open mouth tongue kisses, but it is so cute! He will turn his head to put his open mouth on mine and then stick his tongue out. He will figure out the logistics soon enough, but in the meantime it is the most touching and hilarious kisses I've ever had.
I brought him to the pediatrician last Saturday because his cough got really bad Friday night, so bad that he was sort of choking and I got scared that if it further got worse over time he might stop breathing or something. While very rare, he was diagnosed with a sinus infection and ammoxicillin (sp?) was prescribed. He has been lightly coughing since about 4 months old but the doctor didn't seem worried about it because that is common with the excess saliva of teething and then once they figure out how to cough they do it for fun a lot too. At his 6 month visit he was still doing it but the doc said everything looked fine. Maybe a week later the cough started to change, getting a little deeper and wetter. The changing weather has everyone coughing though. So anyway, there I am dropper of pink nasty crap squeezing it into the side of his cheek. Elba swallowed and immediately gagged. As soon as I was offering his bottle he vomited everywhere. Not spit up; fountain of lunch and everything from his mouth, out his nose...it was disgusting and I'm glad I had him laying on a blanket! For round two I tried to mix it (4ml) into his regular bottle (5-6oz). I did this twice and he immediately threw up the entire bottle within 1-5 minutes of drinking it. With the Internet at my disposal, I got worried he might have an intolerance, slight allergy etc. Another forum of moms had one piece of advice I was going to try the next morning or back to the peds we go! I mixed the 4ml with 1oz of very cold milk. He drank it...and kept it down. After 30 min then I gave him the rest of his bottle and since then we haven't had any problems. Okay, so when you body is fighting an infection off...what happens? Fever. The first fever is scary. Unless you have already committed the magic number of 103 to memory it means ripping through baby books to find it in a bit of a panic when the thermometer reads 101.7! What a bad time to be out of Tylenol. Off to Walgreens we go! There is nothing more pitiful than a sick baby. They can't say what is wrong, what hurts...they just kind of look at you seeming to ask, "Can't you do something here, this sucks!" And there isn't much we can do...I just held him and rocked him as he sort of cried and moaned; feverish, little red rimmed eyes sporting the 'booboo lip'. I think the meds were upsetting his tummy too. Poor little bug. The fever broke, lots of gross is coming out of his face and I think he has gotten used to the medicine. Today is day ten and he is almost back to normal.
Oh, I cant forget to mention the great yogurt experiment. Elba started eating more interesting foods, as he can now use the pincer grip (thumb and pointer) so this has opened the door to Cheerios's, all kinds of baby puff edibles, etc. Well, we also tried avocado (a big hit), cottage cheese (not so much!), cheese (so-so) and yogurt. I bought baby yogurt and he LOVED it; at the whole container! His stomach did not on the other hand. He went to bed a little before 8 and at 9:30 I realized I forgot to turn the humidifier on, so I snuck back up and into his room. As soon as I opened the door I could smell it. The worse part was that he must have puked quickly after being laid down because it was in a pool under his head, about an inch above and down mid belly. I tried to formulate a plan of action. Waking him was unavoidable. I moved him to a not puke pooled area of the mattress which was enough jostling to wake him gradually. He was happy as could be. He and the bed had to be changed. It was in his ear! This happened twice more. I kept giving him more milk each waking (4-5 oz) to keep him hydrated. Suffice to say I didn't make it to work the next day.
Not much interesting is going on with me. I did my taxes and immediately put all the money toward one of several student loans that is almost paid off now. I did feel a little too responsible and deprived about this decision so I went to the mall and spent several hundred dollars on some new shoes, clothes and makeup. I'm packing up the preggo clothes. I just have to...I need pants with a non stretchy waist line now. There is no incentive to drop that extra ten pounds otherwise. I need new bras too, but I'm still pumping so I don't want to get those until I'm done because I have no idea what size I'll be when this is over.
Some of my trail friends are starting to hike the AT again this season. They start within the next two weeks. Bluto is going to keep a blog (or try to I think) and I'm really excited to follow on his journey. I told him if they get to where I stopped I would think about joining for a week. The more and more I think on this...I don't know. I'm super out of shape and I think after they have been hiking for two months I might not do so great out there now. My knee is really bothering me too and I wonder when it will finally die. I'd hate to have it be on the side of a mountain. Lastly, after re-reading my blog and A Walk In The Woods I remember now much backpacking sucks sometimes. I don't know if I'm there. More to think about and maybe start getting back in shape would be a good thing anyways.
