Tuesday, December 28

One cute story and another first

Right after I finished nursing Milo yesterday (post-boob but pre-shirt down), Milo was sitting in my lap, and he turned toward me, leaned over, and blew a raspberry on my belly. So hilariously cute.


Milo climbed up his first stairstep. We were at the ski rental shop, and they had a couple of steps there. They were deeper than most staircases, so I think that made it easier for Milo to get up. But he bent his knee and pulled himself up completely on his own. Wow. I thought we were a long way from climbing stairs.

Thursday, December 23

Ear Update

Milo's surgery went well. We arrived at the surgery center at 6:30 this morning; we left around 8:30. Fluid was sucked out, tubes were put in.

Milo was a little fussy afterward, but I suspect it was more from hunger than anything. I nursed him, and he ate well. And we were ready to go home.

When we got home, he was in a fantastic mood. He was smiling and bouncing and crawling around like he always does. Right now he's napping in Grandma Susan's arms. I'd say he's doing just fine.

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Wednesday, December 22

More About the Tubes

Last Thursday we sought a second opinion on Milo's ear infection situation and went to an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat doctor). The doctor checked Milo's ears and told us that he has what they (affectionately, I'm sure) call "glue ear." It means that the fluid has been unable to drain in his ears and has accumulated for so long that it has become thick and gluey. This kind of mucousy fluid is unlikely to drain and will probably continue to become infected.

We also learned that Milo's hearing is being affected by all this fluid, and that he probably has about a 40 percent reduction in his hearing. So that sucks, and may explain why he no longer seems to know his name. I hate that Milo can't hear. How can a little guy learn to speak or begin to understand what we're talking about if he can't hear properly?

Combine the hearing loss with the "unlikely to drain" comment with the fact that I don't want Milo on antibiotics for the next four months, and we had our answer. Milo was going to get tubes. The doctor went over everything with us, explaining the procedure, the recovery, and what having tubes would mean for future care. It was all pretty straightforward. In spite of his pediatrician's hesitation, we were ready to move forward.

Of course, we saw the pediatrician the next day and after discussing the fluid in his ears, Milo's sleeping and eating habits, and the fact that Milo is on the low-end of the growth charts, the pediatrician actually said that getting tubes was probably a good thing for Milo, especially considering that it is still so early in the winter cold/flu season.

This made us feel much better about getting the surgery. We are hoping that we come home with a new and improved baby. (Okay, not a new baby, just an improved one.) I think Milo may start sleeping better. He might have an improved appetite (important for gaining weight). I think he will quit getting ear infections. And I know he'll be able to hear us.

I'm still nervous about taking my baby in for surgery, but I'm confident that we're doing the best thing for him. Surgery is tomorrow morning at 7:30am. Wish us well!

Tuesday, December 21

9 Months Old... The Stats

Milo had his nine-month check-up on Friday. Here are the official stats.
  • Weight: 17 lbs., 1 oz. (5th percentile)
  • Length: 27 in. (20th percentile)
  • Head Circumference: 13 3/4 in. (50th percentile)*
*I'm not so sure about this one... at his six-month check-up, his head measured 17 1/2 inches.

At nine months, Milo is a funny, sweet, silly little boy.

At nine months, Milo is a good eater and will sometimes just keep shoveling food in his mouth until we take the food away. He still doesn't like peas, though. Also not a fan of pureed zucchini and summer squash. And, surprisingly, he doesn't care for applesauce.

At nine months, Milo is transitioning to eating mostly table foods. He's into turkey/vegetable soup, pasta, carrots, butternut squash, mango, peaches, banana, yogurt, ground beef, buttered rolls, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, hard-boiled and scrambled egg yolk, pizza crust, chicken, broccoli-cheese soup, potato-cheese soup, and, I'm sure, much much more.

At nine months, Milo is getting really good at picking up food and getting it all the way to his mouth. His pincer grasp is improving all the time.

At nine months, in spite of being a great eater, Milo is not gaining enough weight and has dropped a lot on the growth charts. We're weighing the options in terms of how to fatten him up, from adding butter to all his veggies to feeding him cheese and meat, to supplementing with formula. (More on this topic to come.)

At nine months, Milo continues to babble. He gets sort of stuck on a single sound and repeats it over and over. This month, it was first "da da da" (to my dismay, he would not say "mama") and now it is a raspberry sort of sound, where he blows his spit all over everything.

At nine months, Milo explores his world. He is a fast crawler now, and goes after anything he sees that looks appealing.

At nine months, Milo pulls up to standing on just about anything. He uses his mouth to help him pull up, too. Picture a baby sucking on the edge of the coffee table, his little butt sticking out behind him as he tries to twist himself into an upright position. Pretty cute.

At nine months, Milo is over Sophie the Giraffe.

At nine months, Milo is over his little pink lotion bottle.

At nine months, Milo has started grabbing onto the framed prints that hang on the wall above the changing table. Not good.

At nine months, Milo twists and turns during diaper changes. Did you know that it is difficult to snap a diaper onto a baby who is on his hands and knees?

At nine months, Milo is still addicted to his pacifier. I'm already dreading the day we have to take that one away.

At nine months, Milo STILL has no teeth. And I STILL can't believe it. There was a tooth! I saw it! But somehow it just went away. Hmmm.

At nine months, Milo walks and walks, if he's holding on to someone's hands. He has pretty good balance. I predict his first solo steps are—nope. Not going to make any predictions (see: teeth).

At nine months, Milo has stood unassisted for a couple of seconds at a time. I think he falls when he realizes he isn't holding on to anything.

At nine months, Milo does not cruise around the furniture. He just pulls himself up and stands there. Sometimes he bounces, but no sideways movement.

At nine months, Milo has been in the world longer than he was in my belly.

At nine months, Milo pokes at my face and taps my nose and grabs onto my mouth when he's nursing. He'll pause from nursing, look up at me, smile, and start trying to reach into my mouth. I nibble his fingers and tickle his side and he giggles. It's our little game.

At nine months, Milo does not like to be set down when we get home in the evenings. He cries and cries until he's picked up again.

At nine months, Milo enjoys the lights on the Christmas tree. He also likes watching the Little Mermaid ornament that plays music and spins around.

At nine months, Milo is fascinated by this little tabletop Christmas tree decoration that spins, lights up, and plays "Oh Christmas Tree" or "Carol of the Bells" when you push the button. He stares at it, then slaps his hand on the table when it stops, indicating that he would like to hear it again, please.

At nine months, Milo sticks his hand in his mouth when he smiles and giggles. It's too bad; we rarely see his full smile.

At nine months, Milo throws his head back—to check out the ceiling, when he laughs, when he is unhappy—doesn't really matter. The boy just likes to stretch out his neck, I guess.

At nine months, Milo has such a sweet little voice. I just want to bottle it up and take a whiff whenever I'm having a bad day.

At nine months, Milo has big, beautiful blue eyes.

At nine months, we still can't really tell what color Milo's hair is. I thought it was darkening up, but just a couple days ago it looked really light in the sun. I don't think it's red at all anymore.

At nine months, Milo lights up when he sees me. That is the happy face I will lock into my memory and picture forever. It's pure joy and it makes me feel so good.

At nine months, I love LOVE snuggling with my baby. Milo is a great snuggler, too. When he's tired, he just collapses into me and rests his head on my shoulder.

At nine months, Milo loves bouncing. Jumping up and down while holding him? Guaranteed smiles.

At nine months, Milo still struggles with napping at daycare. If he sleeps an hour there, it's a triumph. Frustrating, because he often takes a two-hour nap on the weekends.

At nine months, I've gotten more baby snot on my clothes than I care to think about. Milo still has a constant cold and snotty nose. We spray saline up his nose after almost every diaper change.

At nine months, Milo has a diaper rash that comes and goes and comes and goes (but never really goes away all together). If anyone has tips, we'd love to hear them. But believe me, we've already tried just about everything.

At nine months, Milo has had two more ear infections and two more antibiotics. He'll be getting tubes in two days. More on this in another post.

At nine months, Milo rarely sleeps through the night. I can't tell if he wakes up and cries because his ears hurt or because he knows we'll come in and hang out for a bit.

At nine months, I'm exhausted all the time. I've never had such dark circles under my eyes before, and I don't find it very becoming.

At nine months, I have lost all the baby weight and then some. Thirteen pounds to go to get to my goal weight.

At nine months, Andrew is an amazing dad. Milo loves him and loves playing with him.

At nine months, we are finally settling into our roles in our little family of three. Andrew is the bather and dishwasher; I am the feeder and diaper washer; Milo is the smiler, the pooper, the cryer, the open-mouth kisser, and the light of our lives.

Thursday, December 16

A Breakthrough

Yesterday evening I got a call from my trainer, Scott. He said he wasn’t feeling well and would have to cancel our session that night.

And you know what? I felt disappointed.

Never before have I been told that I would no longer be working out as planned and felt anything other than unadulterated joy. But maybe—just maybe—working out regularly for the past five months or so has finally flipped a switch in me. Could it be that I miss exercising when I have to miss exercising? Or does it just make me write confusing sentences?

Tuesday, December 14

Milo's First Stocking

1:15pm - Survey crafting area. Hmmm. Lots of baby stuff.

1:16pm - Much better.
Ready for The Stocking Slash Crafting Event 2010. But wait—something's missing...

1:18pm - Ambience. I'm missing ambience.

1:25pm - Uh oh, baby's awake and he's coming this wa1zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzRRRRRRTttg

1:26pm - Must move ambience. It is a choking hazard.

1:36pm - Daddy came for baby. Where was I? Oh, right. Stocking. Must gather supplies.

1:38pm - Begin tracing existing stocking. So far so good.

1:43pm - Tracing complete. Now where did I put that candy? I mean, ambience.

1:45pm - Size check. Looks just right for this little guy's first Christmas.

1:49pm - Milo back. Decide to not stop him from hitting the keyboard and instead grab camera.

1:50pm - Decide to not delete Milo's first typing. He is brilliant, no?

A!!!!!!!!!~~~~~~AQq ``````````````````````````````````````````````AWQQQQQQ W A `11111AXQAW

1:52pm - Pins: good idea or not? Will try pins.

2:17pm - Ack, the distractions! Finished nursing Milo. Time to get back to business.

2:18pm - Must move cat first.

2:20pm - Ready to cut!

2:22pm - Zadie watches. More cat sabotage in store?

2:26pm - Cat attacks! Why does she hate Christmas so?

2:31pm - Two pieces of felt, ready to become a stocking.

2:31:30 - Note the time. Wonder how come crafting takes so long.

2:40pm - Turn pieces inside out so red outline won't show.

2:41pm - Damn. It shows. Attempt to trim it off.

2:42pm - Give up. Decide red outline gives the stocking holiday ambience.

2:42:30pm - Speaking of ambience...

2:48pm - Gluing going well. Last time there was hot glue. This time tacky glue. People who craft, tell me: which is the better choice? Maybe the sewing-machine type of glue is really best. But I don't know how to use that kind.

2:56pm - Gluing complete. Taking a quick timeout to play with Milo.

7:30pm - Well. Back to work. Break was longer than expected.

7:31pm - Survey crafting area. Hmm. Lots of baby stuff.

7:32pm - Much better. Ready for The Stocking Slash Crafting Event 2010, Part 2. But wait—something's missing... Ambience.


7:35pm - Determine ribbon arrangement. Not a lot of options, really.

7:38pm - Cut ribbons. Prepare to glue.

7:54pm - Sigh. Ribbons not staying put.

8:02pm - Jeebus. Ribbons finally attached. Crossing fingers that they stay put.

8:09pm - Ribbons all falling off. Determine hot glue is the way to go for this type of project.

8:10pm - Ask self once again why I ever attempt crafty projects.

8:19pm - Begin tedious work of cutting out letters.

8:29pm - Ready to do some ironing and take this project to a whole new level.

8:33pm - Feeling lazy. Decide to let glue fully dry and finish this project tomorrow.

9:25pm TWO WEEKS LATER - Finished stocking, like, forever ago. Forgot to take any more photos. Please enjoy this slightly blurry photo of all three completed stockings.

Sunday, December 12

I swear, I thought I was telling the tooth.

(Wow. That's a lame post title.)


So you know how I was all excited about Milo's new tooth? Well. He doesn't actually have a tooth. I wouldn't have guessed that there could POSSIBLY be any ambiguity regarding teeth, but I guessed wrong.

It seems that the tooth I saw was still below the surface of his gums. I could see it, but it had not "popped through," per se. I'm sure that one of these days he'll get teeth. I can't be wrong forever, after all.

Sorry to get you all excited. I appreciate your enthusiasm, and I will attempt to quit crying wolf in the future.

Monday, December 6

Finally!

Milo's first tooth popped through today! Very exciting stuff. And now we have an explanation for last night's excessive crying.

In case it matters, the tooth is on the bottom, in the middle. I can't even tell if it is on his left or right. Much like the color of Milo's hair, we'll just have to wait and see.

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