The stats August 10, 2010

Hayden and Layla had their 3 year and 2 (and a half) month check ups last week.  They were both at the top of the charts!

Hayden – 36.5 lbs (90th percentile), 40 in(95th percentile)

Layla –  14.1 lbs, 24.5 in (95th %ile for both)

They are both doing well.  Layla has a red mark under her left eye, which the dr diagnosed as a hemangioma.  It is “an abnormal buildup of blood vessels” which can occur anywhere in the body.  It grows for the first 12 – 18 mos of a baby’s life and will completely disappear on its own.  Luckily, it is completely harmless as long as it does not start growing into her lower eyelid.  If it does that then it will impede her vision and we will need to get it removed.

Ear Infection and Loosy Lucy May 14, 2008

Yesterday was crazy.  I had a busy day at work to start.  Hayden’s day care called at one point to say his ear was bleeding a little bit, they thought he had scratched it or something but couldn’t find where it was bleeding from.  I asked if it looked like it was coming from inside his ear because I would want to get that looked at right away, and they didn’t think it was but said they would call if it got worse.  When I picked him up it did look to me like it was coming from inside his ear which seemed like a bad thing.  I called the pediatrician but it was right when they close so no answer.  Their office is right next door to the day care (and I was still at day care at this point), so I walked over since I figured they were still there just not taking calls.  They were there and the dr said he would see me (he is really nice).  He was worried Hayden’s eardrum might have ruptured but it was only an ear infection closer to the outside of his ear (not all the way to his eardrum).  Phew!  I didn’t expect them to see me, I just wanted to know if it looked serious and if I should go to the hospital.  It wasn’t proper blood but more like fluid that was a little pink like there was a bit of blood mixed in, but it seems like if there is a chance there is blood coming out of your ears you would need to get that checked out!

So anyway the dr gave him a prescription for a week of drops twice daily, then I had to go pick Lucy up because she was at doggie day care where she will be boarded when we go on holiday in June.  She had to have an evaluation day because during the day it is a dog day camp where the dogs all play together and they go to their own crates at night to sleep.  So in order to check she gets along with other dogs she has a trial day.  So I go picked her up and we went to the pet store to get some cat litter, and you can take dogs in there so I was getting her out of the car while holding Hayden and she slipped out of her harness!  I managed to grab one paw so she couldn’t get away, but I couldn’t move because I was holding Hayden and was in a position where I’d have to let one of them go if I moved.  So I tried to get someone walking by to help but they couldn’t hear me (I will give them the benefit of the doubt anyway).  Someone did notice us though and a young woman came over and held Lucy for me while I put Hayden back in the car so I could get Lucy back in her harness.  Luckily Hayden thought the whole thing was hilarious and he was just laughing the whole time – I would hate to add baby screams on top of that!

Meanwhile, while I am dealing with a good 1 1/2 – 2 hours worth of this drama, Hayden is just saying da da da da da da DA non stop!  Where’s the mommy love?!  Actually, it’s exciting because I think he is starting to mean me when he says mama now.  🙂

Skin problems April 14, 2008

I had to take Hayden to the doctor last week because he got another bad rash on his face, neck, and torso.  I think it’s to do with his sunscreen because he had some painful blotches in Florida after a couple of days wearing sunscreen, then he had the same thing before I took him to the doctor and daycare had put sunscreen on him 2 days in a row so he could go outside for a while.  The doctor wants him to see a pediatric dermatologist, so we have that appointment next week.  In the meantime, he put us back on the prescription cream for his trouble areas, hydrocortisone ointment on his face and neck (where he is not supposed to have the prescription cream applied), and he advised us not to give him eggs, nuts, or fish/shellfish until he is 2 years old since he seems to be sensitive to allergens.  Also, he wanted us to switch to a hypoallergenic formula as that can sometimes help.  Hayden looks completely better now, and surprisingly he took the formula without fuss.  It smells different from his regular formula, and the doctor said that he might not want to take it because of its taste.  But he was fantastic with it, which surprised us because he is never a hugely eager bottle drinker in general.  But I think I might start giving it to him 80% of the time and give him his regular organic formula the rest of the time, because I don’t like that the hypoallergenic stuff isn’t organic (it’s miles from organic!) and it’s super expensive as well.  Plus, I have stocked up on his old stuff because it went on sale.  Luckily that stuff keeps well, but he is only on formula for another 3 1/2 months so there isn’t all that much more time for him to use it.

Poor little lad February 1, 2008

Well, Hayden has had a rough few days.  His first two teeth have finally pushed through, so he seems to have a bit of relief from that, but now he is suffering through his first illness.  Sunday he developed this terribly phlegmy cough.  Monday he still had the cough and a low-grade fever, so I kept him home with me while I worked.  The fever and cough have continued, so he ended up staying home all three days.  Yesterday his fever shot up to 100.9.  I got him into the doctor, and he was diagnosed with bronchiolitis.  There is really nothing they can do for it, but it is highly contagious and takes a while to go away.  So I have already told his day care that he will not be coming in next week, either.  I don’t want any of the other babies to get sick, even though he probably got it from them (I even know which one, the little bugger 😉 ).  John is going to try to work from home one day next week and my mom is going to watch him another day – typical that I have a really busy couple of weeks workwise coming up.

Anyway, so he is soldiering through that.  He is really sleepy from it, but doesn’t want to take naps on his own (not that he ever does – but when he cries you can hear the strain in his voice so I am trying to keep him from crying as much as possible), so during the day he just snuggles me and sleeps most of the time.  He was sleeping really well in the evenings until last night when he was up most of the night.  I was up several times cuddling with him to try to soothe him.

Yesterday the doctor gave me some signs to watch for which meant that Hayden was struggling to breathe and told me to call if I saw that happen.  This morning he was showing those signs so they had us come in right away.  Luckily he was getting enough oxygen through his system according to a machine they read from his toe.  It sounded like if that wouldn’t have had a good reading he would have had to go to the hospital.  They have me a nebulizer machine to give him some medicine via vapors that he inhales.  He also has an ear infection today, even though yesterday his ears looked good.  I feel so sorry for him.  He’s not been in good spirits, either.  Hopefully he will start to get better next week.

Sitting up January 6, 2008

Hayden started sitting up on his own a couple of days ago!  He can sit for a few seconds before he slowly starts to fall over. 🙂  He also holds his bottles!  He is given a little bit of water after his solid food, and he just grabs the bottle and holds it himself.  Apparently when other people give him milk in a bottle he does it then, too.

We are deep into sleep training.  He is doing really well at night.  We’ve had to let him cry it out a little over night when we know he can’t be hungry, and (touch wood) he seems to be catching on.  Naps are taking a bit more work at this point, but that is natural (according to my book).  We are implementing ‘cry it out’ during nap time too, and he is somewhat coming along but he seems awfully stubborn at times!  I think it is slowly coming together, but it will just take some time.  And if ever it does come together, he’ll go off to day care for three days in a row and everything might come undone! 😉  Right, I guess that means I need to give up work!!! 😛 (It’s worth a try, hey?!)

Hayden had to go to the doctor on Thurs because his skin was struggling a bit.  We found out he has eczema at his last well child visit last month, and the doctor gave us some things to try to heal it up.  It has been up and down since that visit, and on Wednesday he developed a rash all along his back so we decided it was time to be seen again.  He has a medium case of eczema, with rashes on all of the creases of his skin (legs, arms, armpits, neck).  He’s on an antibiotic and a medium steroid cream.  It is looking a lot better already.  They weighed him with his clothes on and he was 19 lbs 8 oz!!!!  I suppose that would equate to somewhere around 19 lbs without clothes.  There’s no stopping his growth!

I’m really excited because we signed up today for Aquababes, which is a parent/baby swimming class.  I have been on the waiting list for only a couple of days, but I didn’t think we would be able to be in the class until March.  They said he has to be 6 months, and he isn’t 6 months until Feb 3.  The class starts in two weeks.  They must not be that strict about the age, because they took his birthdate so they know he is a couple of weeks shy of 6 mos.  John and I decided if we could just get him signed up somehow they would never question him being old enough once they saw him.  He certainly looks older than 6 mos!  So anyway, I ordered him a swimsuit online today.  There aren’t any in the shops at the moment.  Next I need to find some swimming diapers.  Hopefully there will be some at Target even though it’s out of season.  Otherwise, I might need to implement the help of my Floridian friends!  It’s always swimming season in Florida!

Still the biggest baby December 15, 2007

Hayden went to the doctor for his 4 month check up on Dec 6.  He was 17 lbs 5 oz, 26 3/4 inches.  He’s still the 90th percentile in weight, height, and head circumference.  He had had a rash on the back of his knees which was diagnosed as eczema, so he got some creams for that and it healed up really quickly.

He’s not where we thought he would be now with night sleeping.  He’s good with his routine and goes down fairly easily, but I have to get up at least once in the middle of the night still and in fact it’s more normal to have to get up twice.  My theory is he is so big that he just requires more food and therefore more feedings.  We had hoped though that at 4 1/2 months he would at least be sleeping through from the 11 pm feeding to about 6 am or so.  I imagine we will start feeding him cereal soon to try to fill him up a bit before bed.  I had planned to start on Thursday and told John to plan to get home early so we could give him cereal for the first time before his bath, but then Wednesday night he had a rare night with only one waking so we postponed the cereal.  I would like to wait until as close to 6 months as we can before we start cereal, but he’s going to have to start having more good nights than bad nights really soon in order to make it much longer on breastmilk alone!

John and I went to a concert on Tuesday night with my stepmom Gretchen while Grandpaman watched Hayden.  We went to see the Kooks, who are a British band who were playing at the Vogue in Broadripple.  We were so tired from Hayden giving us many consecutive sleepless nights and I think all three of us would have been tempted not to go if we hadn’t gotten the tickets in advance.  But it was a really great show so I was glad we dragged ourselves there in the end.  It was a charity show and they had a silent auction for the charity with three signed guitars – a toy one signed by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, an electric IU (my university) guitar signed by the Kooks, and a regular guitar signed by the Goo Goo Dolls.  John went to the auction right before it closed and won the Ryan Adams guitar!  It was great from both angles – we were glad to support the charity (Rock to Read) and really happy to get the guitar signed by one of our favorite artists!

What else have we been up to?  I know it’s been a while since either of us has blogged.  We have been really busy getting ready for Christmas.  I was hoping to have some time to nap on Thurs and Fri (since I have the days off) to catch up on the lost sleep that has accumulated, but I didn’t have time to even think about sitting down in the end.  I seem to be spending all my time baking or shopping.  Our friend Sunil had a chili cookoff a couple of weekends ago which was quite fun.  Everyone brought a chili and we voted on our favorites.  Neither John nor I won (fix!!) but it was quite fun.  We suspended Hayden’s bedtime routine so he could join us.  It seems whenever we show up somewhere without him the first thing everyone says is ‘Where’s Hayden? We don’t want to see you!  We want to see the baby!’

It’s snowing quite heavily today.  We’re in the midst of a winter storm apparently.  It’s supposed to snow all weekend to reach 8 to 12 inches!  It’s my dad’s birthday today, so we are supposed to go out to dinner tonight.  We’ll have to see what happens with the weather to see if it’s safe enough to rough the roads.

Lucy had a vet appointment this week for her yearly boosters.  We took her back to the vet who had kept her litter while they were trying to be adopted.  Everyone in there was going so crazy for her, and she was so excited to be back.  She hasn’t been there in months and months, and yet she clearly remembered the place and was so excited to be there and see everyone.  Laura, the woman who kept the puppies at her house, said she looks just like her mom.  We had never seen Lucy’s mom.  She also kept going on about how good Lucy was and how she was very chilled out.  I think Lucy was on her very, very best behavior because I can’t think of the last time she was described as a good dog!  Certainly not in our house anyway.  She keeps escaping under Macy’s fence and ending up in various yards around the neighborhood.  She is the BIGGEST knucklehead.

I think that’s pretty much it.  We are excited for John’s sister Michelle to get here.  She’ll be here for a week over Christmas.  She’s not seen Hayden yet, so we’re really excited for that introduction!

John in San Francisco November 18, 2007

John was away in San Francisco for a conference last week, from Sun – Fri. I don’t know why I do it to myself, but for some reason when he’s gone I watch this show Criminal Minds which is a drama about FBI profilers who work on these murder cases. John doesn’t really like the show so I save them to watch when he is not around. And then I turn off the TV and the episodes creep into my consciousness and make me paranoid. You would think I would learn to watch nice things like Sesame Street. You always feel good after watching Sesame Street.

We got on ok while John was gone, but of course the week was not without drama. On Tuesday when I went to Hayden’s daycare to feed him he started screaming at the top of his lungs for quite a while and didn’t really eat much. I figured he must not have been well because that is not like him, especially when it is me holding him. They called me in the afternoon and said he had a little temperature, so I picked him up early and talked to a nurse at his dr who thought he might have had an ear ache. He had a good night that night and was well enough (although not completely back to normal) the next day to go back to day care. He has been fine since.

Lucy threw up two different times while John was gone. She would be off doing her own thing elsewhere in the house, then run into the family room where I was and throw up three times. Thing is, she had alllllll this tile she could have thrown up on her way to the family room, but she had to get into the carpeted area where I was so I could 1) be there to witness the act and 2) get to clean it up off of the carpet instead of the easy tile. She is so thoughtful! 😉

Today was Emily’s baby shower. She is in town for Thanksgiving. It was a lovely day! I cannot believe she is already 30 weeks and due in two short months. She told me she was pregnant the day of my baby shower, and she was only 8 weeks then! Where does the time go? I took Hayden and everyone thought he looked just like me. Yessss! In your face, John! 😛

Random: Have you seen The Illusionist?  It’s a movie that is out on dvd now.  We watched it last weekend and it is fantastic.  See it.  Do it.

Two month checkup October 3, 2007

Today Hayden is two months old!  He had his two-month doctor’s appointment.  He weighs 13 lbs 15 oz and is 24 1/4 inches long.  He’s in the 90th percentile in weight and height!  I can’t remember when they are supposed to double their birth weight, but I’m sure it’s not 2 months!  It won’t be long before he’s 14 lbs 8 oz.

The doctor said the thing on his lower gums is not a tooth, but an Epstein Pearl.  He also has them on the roof of his mouth.  They are harmless and apparently pretty common.

He also got three shots in this visit, which he was NOT happy about.  He was asleep by that time, and boy did he get a rude awakening!  He was screaming and crying and his face went all red.  Poor little guy.  Not easy for Mommy to watch.  Now he has these little cartoon band-aids on his thighs.

The doctor asked me if Hayden had colic.  I said no but he was fussy in the evenings.  He said that he considers that colic and that I was in denial (I have not been impressed with this guy’s bedside manner and this didn’t help, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he was trying to be funny).  Everything I have read on colic says it’s uncontrollable crying for three or more hours, three or more times a week, for three weeks.  Hayden does have periods of inconsolable crying in the evenings, but they only last a few minutes.  So I still don’t consider him colicky, as from what I’ve read 80% of babies do this in the evenings at his age.  Anyway, it is supposed to stop in the coming weeks.

Apart from that there is not too much new to report.  Hayden is still getting along really well.  He is getting more and more smiley which is so much fun.  We are still really focusing on his sleep and trying to make sure he is getting good quality rest at night and during naps.

I have thrown myself completely into domesticity.  I have started using coupons.  We get the Sunday paper now, so I get my weekly stash of coupons and then marvel in my savings at the end of every shopping trip.  I suppose the other end of the sword is that I would not be buying a lot of the things I buy if it weren’t for the coupons.  Evil marketing geniuses.  But I can’t deny the satisfaction I get from the bottom of the receipt where it tells me how much I saved!  Also, I have been baking from scratch quite a bit, which is a new thing for me.  Domestic goddess?  Me?  Nah!  Yeah ok maybe a little! 🙂

Two weeks already! August 19, 2007

Hayden had his two week doctor appointment on Friday.  By two weeks they hope that babies have regained their birth weight.  Hayden was 7 lbs 4 oz when he was born.  At his two week check up he was 8 lbs 8 oz!!  He’s such an overachiever!  His length was 21 3/4 inches.  That makes him 50th percentile in weight and 75th percentile in length.

He hit a milestone on Thursday night as we were getting ready for bed — his umbilical cord fell off!  So Friday he was able to have his first proper bath instead of a sponge bath.  He was pretty tolerant, although I would be going too far if I said he liked it.  He did like the nice warm towel that Helen and Wyn got him, though!  He was all snuggled up in that for quite a while afterwards, as his reward for being so good. 🙂

My recovery is coming right along.  I stopped taking my pain medicine on Wednesday, which means hopefully someday soon I can start driving again.  I’m not supposed to drive until I’m off the pain meds and I can stomp my foot hard on the ground (to signify that I could brake suddenly without problems).  I have not gotten up the nerve yet to stomp my foot, as even though I don’t need pain medicine anymore things are still a little tender.  I’m trying to get out and take walks when it’s not too hot and humid, and that is really nice.  Hayden comes along in his stroller and when John comes with us we usually have Lucy in tow (I can’t take Lucy on my own yet because I can’t correct her if she pulls just yet).

John has been a really great daddy, and seems to really be enjoying it as you might tell from his blogs and all the photos! 🙂  He does a great job of soothing Hayden, and he’s an expert swaddler!  I have the edge on soothing I think because I have the magic food, which is the most efficient way to calm him.  Even when he’s not really hungry he gets comfort from the sucking.  But John gets right in there and uses the tools in his disposal — bouncing him, rocking him, singing to him, changing him, etc.  Speaking of changing him, we have a rule that when we hear that he is dirtying his diaper whoever is touching him or touched him last has to change him.  I think I started that, which was unwise looking back because John used to take a lot of the diaper duty whenever he was home (since I obviously do it while he’s at work), but now I find I am doing a lot of the changing because he dirties a lot of diapers while he’s eating!  I think the boys are ganging up on me!

Doctor’s office August 10, 2007

Wednesday I had my first doctor appointment.  My daddy had to go to work in the morning because he had some meeting for new employees, so Grandma Hammond came to help my mommy for the day since she is still recovering from having me.  Her doctors say she can’t drive for a while because of her medication and her incision.  So Grandma drove us to the doctor.  They weighed me and according to their scales I already weigh 7 lbs 9 oz.  When I left the hospital I weighed 7 lbs 1 oz, and of course when I was born I weighed 7 lbs 4 oz.  It’s normal for babies to lose weight after they are born, but Mommy’s not sure that I really gained all those ounces in 2 days, even though I’m such a good eater.  Anyway, the nurse who looked me over in my appointment was really happy with my progress and she even said I was a stud!  I get all the girls.  They love my hair.

Grandma Hammond was so helpful while she was here.  She got lots of cuddle time with me, so I was a very happy boy.  She also ran some errands, like getting my doggie Lucy some dog food.  And she did lots and lots of laundry, which was a huge help to my mommy and daddy.  I think she did like 100 loads.

Further to my previous post about how leaking on people is the highest compliment in baby land, last night I leaked onto Mommy while we were cuddling and watching TV.  I got her good and soaked through her top!  I love my mommy so much! 🙂