Road Trip

Rob

Lindsey

Sophie

Drew

5 Months?!

Dear Drew,

Where is the time going?  I cannot believe you are 5 months old.  (Do I say that every month?)

This last month has been nothing short of amazing.  We moved you upstairs to your own room and started pushing you to go through the night with no food.  You took that pretty quickly and now go about 11 hours overnight without eating.  You have slept through the night a couple of times, but you tend to wake up at least once and cry until someone comes and puts your paci back in your mouth.

Like Father, Like Son

We started you on cereal about 1/2 way through this month.  You did not love it at first, but it didn't take long.  You figured out the "chewing" and swallowing, and now really seem to love to eat.  You will sit in your high chair and strain against the restraints trying to get your little mouth on that spoon.  I have read that one thing a parent can do is give the kid their own spoon when they try to start reaching for the spoon they are feeding you with.  I think we may be there in the next week.  You get 4 8-ounce bottles a day, plus a pretty big serving of cereal.  I think we may be starting some other foods in the next week.

You haven't hit any huge milestones this month, but I have watched small things get more refined every day.  You now reach for different things with both hands at the same time (it used to be that you only had the ability to reach for one thing at one time).  If I hold you on my lap in front of a table or desk, you begin to hit it with your hands.  If you sit in front of a plate of food, your hand is in that food.

A few days before your 5 month birthday you were wearing socks with red toes and sitting in your bumbo (which you seem to like again) and I guess the red attracted you, because from then on you have been grabbing at your toes whenever they are in reach.  It is really quite cute.

Still love your puppy!

Like most babies, eve.ry.thing. goes directly into your mouth.  Or you attempt to put it in your mouth.  You are still working on things that small, and quite a few things go into your eye, and not your mouth, but you seem quite pleased with yourself nonetheless.  You are reaching out and trying to hold your bottle when I feed you, and on occasion you have directed the bottle right into your eye. 

First Attempt at Self Feeding

Our biggest thing this month was worrying about your head.  After a scare from the pediatrican, the craniofacial surgeon said you were just fine and we were to keep you off your head as much as possible.  So you spend a lot of time standing these days!

Drew, you have been an absolute joy this month.  You have such a good time just giggling and laughing with me.  You like your newly-formed schedule (and so does your mama!).

Yes, we still enjoy dressing you up

We cannot wait to see what is yet to come.

Love,
Mom and Dad



(The outtakes)

Ok mom, I sat still for 60 pictures.  This is 61.  I'm out.

It's South by!

This week and weekend Austin is hosting South by Southwest, also known as SXSW, also known as "South by" to those who are too hip to actually complete the entire title.

I enjoy live music, but I've never been a festival person.  Back when I was in college I couldn't afford (or chose not to afford) a ticket to the events.  And now that I'm older, I realize they don't sound near as fun to me as they once did.  One year we were in the middle of a drought, and all the pictures I saw from that one involved people wearing yard masks to keep the dust out of their respiratory system.  The next year the festival organizers decided to fix the dust issue by putting in brand spanking new grass before the event.  We had more rain that year, and all the feet on the brand new grass quickly turned to mud and there was talk of what was actually in the "dillo dirt" that everyone was covered head to toe in.

Not my cup of tea.

So while Austinites and 200,000 extra people enjoy and enjoyed all that Austin has to offer, I am spending my time up in my little corner of Northwest Austin, shopping at big box stores and eating at chain restaurants.  Normally I love all the unique things Austin has to offer, but for these two weeks, I'll stay far, far away.

The Vocal Stylings of Andrew Edward

For about the last month Drew has been a MARATHON sleeper.  On the craziest of days he was taking 3 2-hour naps in addition to his 11 to 12 hour nightly sleep!  I was googling "How much sleep does a 4 month old need?" and the numbers were coming in much, much lower.  I figured he was just going through the world's longest growth spurt or was trying to fill up the sleep bank that Rob and I deprived him of for the first 3 months of his life.

Well, as of last night the need for sleep was OVER.  He slept fine until 9:30PM, and then he proceeded to wake up EVERY HOUR from then on out.  Rob was out of town, so I was doing the trek up and down the stairs each hour alone.  At 1:30 I finally came to my senses and brought Drew back to the pack and play that is still up in our room.  If I was going to get up hourly I was going to take as few steps as possible.

 About 3:30, I came to realizing I was hearing him.  But he wasn't crying.  Oh no.  He was going through every vocal sound his little vocal chords can make.  Vowels, consonants, cooing, laughing, and his newest favorite, gargling.  It was quite cute, but I wasn't sure 3:30AM was the time for this!  I let him talk for awhile, then stuck the paci back into his mouth and he went back to sleep. 

Until 5:30, when he remembered how much fun he was having at 3:30 and started right back where he left off.  I let him talk until 6, when I got up to feed him.

Outside of the poor timing, last night was precious.  But I do hope he decides that he wants to sleep tonight!

Well Rested

I woke up to this

this morning.


He slept through the night.

It shall be a day of celebration around our house.

A head report

So glad I didn't go to med school because I hate needles, blood and body parts.

The end of the story is his head is fine.

Here's the story of the day.

Our appointment was at 8:15 but we were late because daddy mis-estimated the amount of traffic at 7:15 and mommy wanted to stop for Starbucks.  We still arrived before the appointment time, but after the "get here 15 minutes early to fill out paperwork" time.  Bad Parents.

I knew we were at a hospital when we had to pay to park.  Booo.

The staff at the Dell Children's Craniofacial Clinic were awesome.  They were great with Drew, but especially great with parents who had no idea what was going on.  I filled out some paperwork while Rob answered some questions for the nurse.  The paperwork had to be the hardest part of the whole thing.  It asked questions like:

• What was his head shape at birth?  Like literally at birth?  Aren't most kids coneheads right after they are born? (Apparently some are not).
• When did he first hold his head up? Like ever?  I think he could hold his head up for one second since birth, and it's gotten better from there.  Please give me more information.  I don't want you to mis-diagnose my child because I say "2 months" because that's when he could do it for 2+ minutes, and you meant "at all."
• How much tummy time does your child get per day? Is Tummy Time the important thing here, or is "off his head" the important part?  Because he gets about 45 minutes of "tummy time," but spends a lot of time in his "stay off his head" devices (walker, jumper, exersaucer, bumbo).  Am I going to look like a neglectful parent who leaves my kid in his crib 23.25 hours a day because I only answer "45 minutes?"

After the nurse asked Rob questions and I wrote essay answers to the above questions, we went to the photo studio so they could take pics of the shape of Drew's head.  Because Drew has hair (he does, but it's basically clear), they put this panty hose hat on his head to really see the shape, and I commenced calling him "my little bank robber."  Here is a not-so-great pic.  We decided it was better for us to get what we could and stay out of the way of the tech.

Then the doctor came in, felt around his head, diagnosed him with something that I didn't ask her to repeat because she followed it up with "this is totally cosmetic, won't affect his development, and should be able to be corrected without a helmet."  WIN!  Rob asked if it was mild or severe and she said it was mild.  Double win!

(Note, a google search says he was diagnosed with plagiocephaly)

The good news is it's his entire back of his head.  Why is this good, you ask?  Well, if it was one side or the other, him favoring that side would probably cause the ligaments and muscles in the side of his neck he favored to shorten, thereby causing him to even more strongly favor that side.  So along with repositioning techniques, we would have to be doing stretches and basically forcing those muscles to stretch.  Luckily, we don't have to do that.  I'm supposed to keep him off his head as much as possible, roll a towel up under him while he is napping to force him off the back of his head, etc. 

All in all, the best diagnosis possible.  The doctors said that we came in really early (most kids come in between 6 and 8 months), so it should correct pretty fast.  We have a follow up appointment in 3 months, but she said if we think it has corrected before then to cancel our appointment. 

So again, if any of you mamas have any great things your kids love that keep them off their head, please send me a note and let me know!  We have a stationary jumper, an exersaucer, a walker, and a bumbo.  I was considering a doorway jumper.  Anything else??

Solid foods: NOT a hit

Drew has been giving us some signs that he is ready to start solids.  For instance, he desperately wants to hold his own bottle when we are feeding him.  The other day when there was about an ounce left I went ahead and let him, and he ended up a mess.  But he was pretty proud of himself.

Our pediatrician told us to hold off starting cereal until 5 months unless he was acting hungry after he finished his bottle.  Well, he was acting pretty hungry, so Saturday night we decided to give rice cereal a run for the money.  It was NOT a hit.  At all.

[This is where I spent 2 days trying to upload a video to the blog and it never worked.  Sorry.  It was quite funny.  Here is a picture of the second or third try of rice cereal.  It still wasn't a hit that day, either.  This picture was taken between the screams.  He really isn't happy.]

On another note, I LOVE having friends with kids around my age.  At 1:30 on Saturday morning I posted "my son has reverted to newborn" on facebook.  46 SECONDS later I had a response (Hi Courtney!).  Made my entire night.