Hypnagogic Designs: May 2005

Monday, May 16, 2005

My name is ...
(c) 2004-2005 Scott Everett

On turning nine . . . months that is

We hit the big nine on Friday. Next, we're into double digits. Its definitely been an interesting ride. To add to the lists of firsts, we think Andrew has said his first word. After nursing one morning, the dog came into his room and Andrew looked at him and said "dogdog". I looked at him and said "That's right, Midnight is your doggie." Drew then looked from me to the dog and said "doogie." And so ends the mom or dad debate. He also likes to say "duck dut". On occasion this is even directed at his rubber duck.

In a not so happy first, we've all also survived the first fall off the couch. skot was changing the channel and I was cooking dinner and heard a thud. When I turned around, Andrew was on the floor preparing for the scream.

Ok, I started this post one week ago. Boy what a week. In order to pacify the doctors and not use a feeding tube, we agreed to force Andrew to take a bottle. This way we can concentrate the formula or breastmilk and increase its caloric value. Well, the weekend went ok. It took Andrew about twelve hours to decide if this is all there is then I better eat it. So Saturday and Sunday were a little wacky (so much for my first Mother's Day), but it looked like we were settling in. Then Monday morning came around and it was as if Drew decided the weekend was over let's get back to normal. Bottles were out. Finally on Tuesday, we realized that he was only rejecting the formula. It took a lot of mixing of formula and breastmilk, but by Sunday we convinced him to take formula again. Apparently, he will take breastmilk cold, but not formula. That seemed to be the secret. It was a week of bad baby days and tired cranky mom days since I was pumping constantly to have enough to feed him. In the end Andrew lost 2oz., but I expect him to recover that by his weigh-in today.

There was some good that came out of last week. In his frustration, Andrew figured out how to sit up. Bedtime was rough without our nightly ritual of nursing to calm him down. So there was a lot of crying by all of us. One night, when it was skot's turn to try and soothe him, skot went into his room and came out and called me. There was Drew sitting in the middle of the bed screaming. Next night, same thing. The following day Andrew didn't want to nap and I found him sitting and reaching for his mobile. Since that time Drew is getting quite good and sitting. I wouldn't call him an expert, yet, but give him a few days. The first time I saw him sit, it was almost painful to watch. He pushes up on all fours and then pushes/crawls backward until he can get one leg underneath him. Then he pushes up and sits. Half of the time he ends up a couple of feet from where he started, but he's getting better.

Its also amazing how much one weekend can change your world. On Friday, Andrew was just getting so he could sit up almost at will. By Sunday night he'd made his first attempts at crawling forward. He's still really shaky, but usually gets in a few movements before he ends up on his belly. He still prefers rolling, because its faster, but for long. He's also trying to pull himself up on everything. So far he only gets to his knees. I'd say next he'll be driving, but that would have to be from his carseat, facing backward.

One last peice of news, Andrew has started wearing 6-9 month clothing. Hey, you've got to take what you can get.

liz