First Cold, First Tooth!

Poor worn out, sick, teething little man

November has been an exciting month in our household. Daniel was baptized on November 8 and then on the following Tuesday, the three of came down with colds AND as if that weren’t exciting enough, Daniel cut his first tooth during that same time!

Our colds came on very quickly. Mine was mostly in my head; J’s was mostly throat-related. Daniel’s was congestion. I have never seen so much snot in my entire life. The teething made everything worse, and I honestly think it bothered him more than the actual cold did. Tuesday night he was crying inconsolably and when I stuck my finger in his mouth, I was shocked to feel a tooth! Poor baby couldn’t sleep and baby Tylenol helped only a little bit. Wednesday morning the three of us were in the kitchen at 3am, and I decided right then that I was calling in sick. At that point I couldn’t have told you whether I was more exhausted or more sick.

Lo how the mighty have fallen. In the past I have rarely gotten sick, sick enough to need a sick day. I prided myself on what I was sure was a superior immune system LOL. It may still be, but the energy required to take care of a tiny boy has certainly breached it a bit! I’ll just chalk it up to one more thing that has changed since Daniel has joined us. Note to self: get more sleep and take some vitamins.

Our colds have passed, thankfully. J and I felt last week like we were getting them again, but so far, so good. Daniel’s congestion and prolific amounts of snot lasted for over a week. I took him to the doctor on Tuesday just to make sure he didn’t have anything more serious than a cold, and he doesn’t. My big boy now weighs 15lb, 13oz! We’ve all done a lot better since we set up a humidifier.

Thankfully, the worst of the teething appears to have passed for now as well. I hope he feels better. He still drools quite a bit, but he isn’t having the non-stop crying spells that he had two weeks ago. Hopefully subsequent teeth will come in a bit more calmly.

J, Grandma P and I all obtained the H1N1 vaccine since we are in one of the priority groups. J and I originally planned not to give the vaccine to D, but we are rethinking that now. It’s a bit of a moot point for now since he can’t get it until Dec. 2 at the earliest anyway. We’ll talk to his pediatrician at his 6-month appointment.

Fingers crossed we have no more brushes will colds this season. Nothing could be more enjoyable than torturing your baby with the nasal aspirator! And as I write this, I think I see another tooth about to come in. Here we go again!

Baptism

Daniel and the Monsignor

Daniel was baptized on Nov. 8 at St. Michael’s in Cary. We were grateful to have so much family as well as friends in attendance on that special day. J and I were a bit nervous because we never were able to have anyone explain to us exactly what would happen during the baptism, so a main goal of mine was to avoid making a fool of myself.

Daniel wore a gown his Mimi made him, and as she predicted, he looked like a little pope! He was perfect during the mass, never crying but looking around with interest, despite being trussed up like a turkey in his ornate gown!

After mass, we all went to Grandma P’s house for a wonderful party. She did a beautiful job, and we all had a good time.

The gown

5 Months Old!

I love being on my tummy!

Daniel turned 5 months old on Monday, Nov. 2. You may have noticed that I never gave a 4-month update. I thought about glibly explaining it due to being a slacker, but I’ve decided to cut myself some slack. Dear reader, I am tired. It is pretty exhausting working all day and then coming home, doing the nightly chores and taking care of an increasingly active baby boy. He wears us out! I have never dreamed of a 10pm bedtime (for me!) more than the last few months LOL.

Thankfully, Daniel is a very good, happy baby. At his 4-month appointment last month, he weighed 13lb, 14oz, so a hair under 14 pounds. I’m sure he has reached and is well over 14lb now! That car seat just gets heavier and heavier to lug in and out of the car. He must look a lot bigger than he is because everyone comments on how big he is, but he actually falls into the lower range of the growth charts. There are a lot of babies his age bigger than he is, which is frightening!

His preferred sleeping position.

As I mentioned earlier, he is VERY active. He prefers his tummy to his back now, and rolls over with ease. He scared us the first time we saw him sleeping on his tummy, but there is no stopping him now. And I must confess that it is quite cute seeing his heiney in the air while he sleeps. He is starting to move quite well over the surface of his play mat, and it amazes us how quickly he can completely change positions and directions. He really wants to crawl, and the grandmothers think it won’t be long until he does. Yesterday J and I watched with a fair amount of trepidation as he did a Caterpillar-like undulation on his tummy across the mat. Scary!!!!

We started transitioning him to formula a month ago. I won’t go into the details here, but there was some drama attached to the decision to do so, but J and I know it was the right decision. Other than a horrifying vomiting situation the first day on formula (which may have been a delayed reaction to his shots a few days before), the transition has been smooth. We have been using a mixture of breast milk and formula and are currently at a 80 (formula)/20 (breast milk) mix. We have enough breast milk for around 2 more weeks, so we’ll use that up and then Daniel will be 100% on formula. Let me say here that the formula calculation has been a bit challenging for me. Um, it’s fractions. I never claimed to be a mathematical genius but wow, it is a mental exercise to figure out how much formula he needs and the appropriate number of scoops/ounces of water. We’ve also been giving him rice cereal nightly before he goes to bed. Daniel amazed us by tolerating it. I won’t say he loves it, but he will eat it and eat more than the 2-3 spoonfulls that our pediatrician told us he might take. He seems to prefer it slightly thicker too (we were advised to start off with it rather soupy), so that’s nice.

Happy boy!

Oh, and Daniel is a chatty boy! He started making a “mmm” sound a few weeks ago and smacking his lips. He also makes a sort of b/z sound as well as a spitting sound. He also discovered his voice last week and howled (there is no better description) all evening. I was a bit concerned, wondering if it was normal. It was like we had a feral baby on our hands. He is also sticking his tongue out like crazy. He still likes to howl, but he has incorporated it into his sound repertoire, so it doesn’t feature as prominently. Every day seems to bring a new sound. It’s quite cute.

All of these changes have made us realize we need to start thinking about the next stage as far as baby gear. When we were preparing for his arrival, we decided to focus on what we needed for the first few months. Well, now we need to move ahead. We have started looking at high chairs and the next developmental toys (exersaucers, etc.). If you have any suggestions, please let us know!

Hmm. This tummy thing has possibilities.

I must confess that Daniel is still sleeping in our room. I honestly thought he’d be in his room by now, but honestly, we enjoy having him in our room. He mostly sleeps through the night but it is still inconsistent enough that it is preferable having him inches away instead of across the house. But we like him with us. I suspect that over the Christmas holidays we will work on transitioning to his room, but I will miss him 😦 I like hearing his little snorts and snuffles.

We are still having a ton of fun with him! We look forward to all the holidays coming up.