Eat-Sleep-Love | Maryland DC & Virginia Sleep Coach, Baby Planner, Maternity & Child Consultant

Maternity & Parenting Center

18 months

by

Wow – I cannot believe how the last 18 months have flown by – my little man is now 18 months old!! Each and every day, he amazes me. I do have to say, I was certain he’d be a big brother already…perhaps soon!

We have not weighed or measured Micah in a while – I’d guess he is around 22 lbs right now, and maybe 34-35 inches tall. He is wearing 18 months (or 12-18 months) clothing and a size 5W shoes. We are still having issues keeping his pants on his skinny tush – so far, we can only wear the shorts that have adjustable tabs in the waist. We have not set up his 18 month checkup yet – I assumed that Twoey would be here, and we’d just bring Micah in at the same time we brought Twoey in for one of her appointments, so we will not have his stats for a little while still.

As for milestones, his language skills are increasing each and every day. He is repeating more words, and he seems to be using more and more words to communicate. He is even stringing a few words together (like “sit down” and “get out”). He does seem to be confusing a few words lately – apparently, “more” and “all done” seem to be synonymous. He also seems to be calling lots of people “Mommy” lately – it seems to be his word when he wants comfort from any person. He is also so loving and sweet – I just love how he gives hugs and kisses all the time.

Physically, he is very strong and seems to be developing as he should. He climbs on and off furniture and loves to sit on grownup chairs. He loves to play catch and throw his basketball. He loves using all of his different toys, and he runs around the house. He keeps trying to walk down stairs (I don’t think he is *quite* ready for that yet, though). He seems to do pretty well with some of the smaller steps (like the one leading out of our house). He LOVES to be outside, and he does everything he can to spend as much time as possible outdoors.

Here is some video I took a few days before Nugget died – we had a “playdate” with one of my best friend’s dog, Bentley. Micah was showing off his reading/talking skills and loving on Bentley:

We are still having a big challenge with eating – he gets very stubborn and picky at meal time. It is a big guessing game – what he will eat, how he will eat it, etc. One minute he’ll eat something and the next minute he is throwing it. Sometimes all it takes is handing him a fork, or putting some dipping sauce down for him. Other times, we have to get entirely different food for him. Lately, he wants to do things himself with food – sandwiches need to be whole, he wants the whole banana and the whole piece of chicken. He likes to hold the bag of raisins and eat directly out of that (or the cereal box or the cracker box). Often, I try to insist that he eat from his tray, but sometimes, it is just easier to give in to him. Sometimes, he just wants to eat out of a bowl or a plate like a “big boy.” We never know if he’ll eat a ton or practically nothing!

His sleeping habits are improving…he has been napping better and sleeping later again, but we’ve had a few mornings when he wakes up extra early. I think it is still related to teething (and his new bug bites) that are bothering him. Unfortunately, he has been a bit challenging to put down most nights and for naps – he has been crying a bit more lately. Luckily, he usually doesn’t cry that long, but I wish he wouldn’t get so upset!

As I mentioned, Micah seems to be plagued with some bug bites this week. He had a spider bite on his arm about 1 month ago, but this was different. On Thursday night, I noticed a small red bump on his leg when we were getting him ready for bed. I didn’t think much about it – it was fairly small and I figured it was no big deal. I checked it out in the morning before he left for daycare, and told Elliot to ask the daycare to keep an eye on it. On Friday night when we were bathing him and getting him ready for bed, the small red bump had turned into this:



It was very blistery – tons of tiny little blisters. I started to wonder if it was poison ivy or a spider bite. It did not look infected and it did not seem to be bothering Micah, so I cleaned it off with hydrogen peroxide, put some caladryl on it, and kept it covered. We also gave him some benadryl to help with the swelling and itching. I also noticed a small red bump on the bridge of his nose. When we woke up on Saturday morning, the bite on his leg looked much better. The bump on the bridge of his nose was more swollen – according to Elliot, he looked a bit like a Klingon from Star Trek! I called the doctor to see if we should bring him in to the office. She said that as long as his eye was not irritated and while the mark on his leg was not looking infected, streaking, or expanding in size, we should just keep doing what we were doing. We kept the bite on his leg covered and cleaned, and we did not pay too much attention to the bite on his nose. Micah went to services with his Daddy in the morning, took a VERY short nap, then we all went to the pool to play. After pool time, we visited my parents for dinner – my mom hadn’t see Micah in almost 1 month! I think this is the longest stretch she’d ever gone. We had a good night, and left after a few hours.

Sunday morning when Micah woke up, his left eye was practically swollen shut! I couldn’t tell if the bite from his nose was causing the swelling or if it was a new bite, but it looked terrible. We debated taking him to the emergency room, but his eye looked clear and he did not seem to be in any discomfort. We took some benadryl cream and put it on his eye. Elliot took him out for a few hours, and my dad came by and picked me up. Elliot, Micah, me, Jeremy, Jen, Paige and Peyton all met up around lunch time at my parents’ house to visit my mom. She is doing better, but still so wiped out. Micah spent the afternoon trying to talk to his cousins and chasing them around the house. They were so cute playing together!! I was actually impressed at how well he was playing and interacting with them. He kept trying to communicate with them, too. At one point, the kids were VERY quiet – I got worried something was wrong. I found them in the other room, with Paige showing Micah how to play with this set of nesting dolls. It was so cute to see them together! Peyton asked me where Nugget was…that was a tough conversation for me. She did not understand and kept asking why Nugget was gone. Over the course of the day, Micah’s eye improved dramatically. I think the cream helped, and the extra dosage of Benadryl at naptime probably didn’t hurt either.

Tonight, after dinner, Micah, Elliot and I went on a long walk into Bethesda (and I decided to stop at Ben & Jerry’s). I think I discovered where Micah is getting all of his bites – on his nightly evening walk! We are going to have to start covering him in the organic bug spray we have. I was hoping to kick things up on the walk and get this labor on the road. Well, it worked – I am contracting like crazy and I barely made it home. I’m sure it will stall out again, but I’m getting pretty fed up! I’m starting to worry I’ll end up OVERDUE after all of this! My system is still a mess, and I’m feeling terrible. I’m not sure this baby is EVER going to come out!!

I think I mentioned before that with Nugget gone, our house has been a mess. We counted on her to do a lot of our vacuuming. Well, we invested in a lightweight vacuum we are now using on a regular basis to clean up after ourselves. The first day we used it, Micah fell in love – he came running over, took control of the vacuum, and went to work. So, there is a new housekeeper in town!

17 months

by

Today Micah is 17 months old!! I just cannot believe how time has been flying. I also cannot believe he is going to become a big brother in the next month, too! As always, Micah has been adorable. I love watching him learn and figure things out now, and I definitely think we are starting to see significant language development. He is not afraid to let us know what he wants!

His current favorite words seem to be “Hi” “Bye” “Basketball” and “Birdie.” He also loves to shake his head “No.” He seems to be stringing multiple words together sometimes, too. He usually calls me “Mommy” now and not just “Mama.” He loves sitting with me and reading stories, and he often points to pictures in the books and uses the right words to identify the pictures. He loves to read Good Night Moon at night before bed. He will say “Moo” when he sees the cows now! He can also point to the red balloon and the kittens, and he sometimes will say cow and kitty. One of his favorite books is called “Squishy Fish,” and on one of the last pages of the book, it says “But the best thing my squishy fishies do, Is give great big hugs and kisses, too.” Every time we get to that page, Micah gets a big smile on his face and he leans in close to give ME a hug and lifts his face to get kisses. I melt each and every time!

Speaking of kisses, Micah is a wonderful kisser. He loves to come over and give us hugs and kisses. He also loves to give his toys and his friends (and even some pictures in books) hugs and kisses. He can just be so sweet and cuddly sometimes.

He is starting to recognize his body parts, and he sometimes tries to sing along with different songs. He seems to understand what we are saying to him, too…unless, of course, we are saying “No.” He is expanding the television he likes – we now watch Sesame Street, Between the Lions, and Word World. I think these PBS shows are quite clever and educational, and Micah seems highly entertained by them. We watch 1 or 2 of the half hour shows or a 1 hour show most days.

He loves to point out the birds every time we are outside, and he climbs up onto the chair by the window to look outside and watch the birds and his basketball hoop. He has become a true pro at climbing on and off the couches and chairs. He loves to climb behind the back pillows on the couch and “hide” behind them.

I love watching Micah interact with the dog. He leans in to give her kisses and cuddle with her, and she often kisses him back. He is just so happy all the time.

He is still very skinny – I don’t think he has gained much weight, but I guess we’ll find out at his appointment next month. He does seem to be growing taller and stronger, though. We are mostly putting him in the 12-18 month size clothes now…but they are definitely big. He loves to climb on things and play on slides. He LOVES being outside, and I think he’d stay outside running around all day if I let him. I wish we had a bigger yard for him.

I think he is finally making some significant progress on his teeth. He definitely has 2 new teeth on the bottom, and I believe that 2 more teeth (I think the bicuspids) may have cut through the top gums as well. There are 4 other swollen bumps in his mouth (at least I think there are – he really doesn’t let me in to check it out). So, if my count is correct, he now has cut 10 teeth, with 4 more on the way. Based on his behavior the past few days (a little cranky, a little clingy, hitting his face a bit with his hand, and waking up crying from a nap after only 1 hour), I think we may have another tooth update in a few days. I think I mentioned that he has a small chip on his front left tooth – we still do not know how that happened, but it does not seem to bother him at all.

We are starting to have some behavior challenges. Micah seems to have developed some possessiveness about toys. He will sometimes scream loudly at other children when they get too close, and will occasionally pull a toy away from another child. He does not yet seem to understand the concept of “sharing.” We are working on that…I try to remove him from the situation if he is behaving badly, and I try to prevent him from keeping any toys he has stolen. Hopefully, this is a phase he’ll outgrow (or at least he’ll respond better to reprimand once his language skills improve).

So…happy 17 months, baby boy! I love you with all my heart, and each day you are with me, you bring so much joy to my life. I am amazed watching you grow and develop, and I cannot wait to see the person you become. I hope that your kindness continues to grow, and that your wonderful smile continues to bring happiness into this world. I hope that your offers to share your food and toys grow into a deeper generosity of spirit, and that you develop your talents…maybe music that you seem to love so much right now, or your love for animals, or whatever other secret skills and talents you have within you.

16 months

by

I can’t believe it…Micah is 16 months old today!! He is talking up a storm (although not all of it is intelligible), and he is just so active. Currently, his favorite word is “uh-oh.” I chuckle as I hear him toddling around the house saying “uh-oh” over and over again. He is getting pretty good about saying “hi” and “bye-bye” and waving. He says “baby” all the time now, too. He definitely is starting to repeat words, and he is finally in the pointing stage.

It looks like Micah is trying to cut another 4 teeth, and the poor guy has been miserable with sore gums and a runny nose (I think he also has allergies). I love how he comes over to give me kisses all the time, and he has been quite vocal about what he wants and doesn’t want. He is just so loving all the time – he loves to cuddle and kiss, and he loves to be tickled and chased. He hates having his nose wiped, too. He has become a HUGE thumb sucker – all day long, and he will even suck two thumbs at once if he can! I wish he wouldn’t suck his thumb as often, but what can I do?

He loves having me read him books, and he is just so curious all the time. He likes to point at things in books, and he is starting to identify animals. He is starting to use a spoon to feed himself, but generally requires a bath after any attempts.

Micah loves bath time – he continually places his face in the water and blows bubbles. He has fun splashing in the water and playing with his toys and dumping water over his face and hands. I am hoping to enroll him in a swim class this Spring – I hope he’ll love the pool and swimming.

Micah still adores Elmo – I’m constantly amazed how Elmo can end any temper tantrum. We are definitely entering the terrible twos – temper tantrums and frustration outbursts are getting more and more common. Micah gets very stubborn, and he does not like it when I tell him no or make him stop doing something he is enjoying.

Recently, Micah has taken possession of the rocking reclining chair in the living room. He firmly believes this is “his” chair. We are not allowed to put anything on it anymore (he throws any objects he sees on it right on the floor). He likes to climb up on the chair and sit (by himself) and rock. He also likes to try standing while Mommy yells at him to sit down. He will also yell and throw a tantrum if someone else sits in “his” chair. Micah does not know this yet, but we plan to move that chair to his bedroom after the remodel (since we will be moving the glider into Twoey’s room).

This week, Micah figured out how to open the front screen door – we will be keeping that locked from now on! He is starting to get out of his stroller more and walk when we are out in public. I have not yet taught him to listen or stay close, so this is not a fun development for me.

Micah weighs about 20 lbs right now. He is still wearing size 12 months clothing (the 12-18 month sizes are still a bit large on him). I’d guess he is around 34 inches tall – he won’t be measured again until June. He is mostly still wearing a size 3 diaper, but once we run out of this box, we’ll just put him in the size 4 diapers. I believe he is hitting all of his milestones on target. It is hard to imagine that it has already been 16 months. I’m excited each day to see him grow and learn. Happy 16 months, my little man!

Whirlwind, 15 month checkup, Twoey

by

What a crazy day we had today! Micah is not quite back on schedule yet since we changed to daylight savings time. Last night, he was exhausted but would not go to bed before 9:15. He was falling asleep, so we took him upstairs at 8 to give him a bath and put him to bed. When we put him in his crib, he started to wail. We gave him a while to calm down, but the poor thing worked himself up into a state of absolute hysteria. He just wanted more time to cuddle with Mommy. We ended up bringing him downstairs to cuddle and relax a bit. After another 40 minutes, Daddy was able to take him upstairs and put him to sleep. Not surprisingly, he slept until 9 am this morning.

Because Micah slept in, we were in a bit of a rush. We fed Micah a scrambled egg, cereal and a banana for breakfast. I quickly got him dressed and at 9:30, we raced off to class. Micah danced, played an instrument, and thoroughly enjoyed himself. By the end of class, he was clearly exhausted. We drove back home, and Micah immediately went down for his nap. I made a quick business conference call (it was insane here – the phone would not stop ringing, the cleaning lady showed up, the landscaper who was working on removing our broken trees/fallen fence damaged by the blizzards arrived to start working, and the architect showed up early for our meeting – I can multitask with the best, but this was a bit much!).

Our meeting with the architect was…frustrating. We were not pleased with some of the proposals, and any time we raised a concern, he kept telling us to “take a chill.” For me, that phrase was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. After a frustrating 2 hour meeting, we realized we were late for our doctor’s appointment with Micah. While trying to graciously throw out our architect, Elliot worked on waking Micah up from his nap while I quickly packed up a lunch for him. We raced off to our appointment and arrived about 10 or 15 minutes late…oops.

Micah was such a good boy at his 15 month checkup! The doctor was lovely (and he made sure to flirt with her). She kept telling us how sweet Micah is, and he showed off his walking and eating skills. She asked us about his language development and we discussed the kind of foods he eats (and doesn’t eat). She checked out his teeth (she admired his 6 teeth and told us it looks like there are another 2-6 on the way). We talked about the vaccinations and his sleep habits, and she told us Micah is doing very well. He weighed in at 20 lbs 9 ozs (3-5%) and he was 31 3/4 inches tall (50-75%). Micah got three vaccinations today – MMR, chicken pox and Hepatitis A. His first shot was in his left thigh – he looked a bit perturbed when the nurse stuck him, but he did not cry at all. When the nurse stuck him for the 2nd shot in his left arm, he again looked a bit surprised and maybe mildly annoyed, but he did not cry at all. The third and final shot was in his right arm. The nurse warned me that the shot would likely sting. She stuck him again, and once again, he seemed a bit irritated at her. When she actually started to push in the vaccine, he started to scream. He was MISERABLE, and I felt awful for him. It took us a bit to get him to calm back down again – actually, I bribed him with a carrot/apple crusher, and that seemed to soothe him.

We arrived back home just in time for the babysitter to arrive! Today, Micah’s babysitter from last summer, Christin, was home from college for Spring Break, and she agreed to come by to watch Micah while we went for an ultrasound. We also discussed re-hiring her for this summer, and she agreed! We are so excited that in May she will be working with us again on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and we may decide to add more days than that later). After catching up a bit, Elliot & I headed out for our ultrasound.

Today’s ultrasound was just a cervical length check. Last visit, my cervix measurements ranged from 3.3 – 3.7, with most of the measurements in the 3.5 or 3.6 range. Today, the measurements ranged from 3.0-3.3. In pregnancy, they like to see the cervix long and closed, and do not want to see the cervix drop below 3.0 cms. Once you fall below 3.0, you are in the “danger” zone. Naturally, when I saw that the measurement had dropped down to 3.0, I was a bit concerned. We met with the doctor to discuss the changes and my continued contractions. At this point, he is not ready to aggressively work to stop the contractions. He is hoping the shots will help a bit (although I’ve seen no evidence of that so far), but until my cervix falls below 3.0, he does not feel they are a cause for concern. My fibroids also grew a bit – he thinks the contractions and the size of the fibroids are related, and the fibroids may be why the shots do not seem to be reducing the contractions. For now, I am still not officially on bedrest, and he feels I am doing “great” for 26 weeks pregnant. He seems confident we will be able to keep Twoey in place long enough to finish baking…my concern is about how miserable things might get for me. I know…selfish. I just know that dealing with all those contractions and trips to labor and delivery and the medications and the bedrest was MISERABLE last time – it was a terrible 8 weeks. I’m dreading doing that all over again. I think the anticipation makes it worse – I know what to expect now. I really hope we can be more proactive and reduce the bedrest time. I wish I could say I left that appointment in good spirits…but I’m actually kind of dreading my next appointments and feel like bedrest is looming ahead. For now, I am going to try and enjoy what time I have left on my feet, and try to “take it easy” as much as I can.

After our appointment, we came back home. We found Micah and Christin playing outside and finishing up a walk. They had a wonderful time together! We came inside, said our goodbyes for now, and went back to playing. We fed Micah chicken nuggets for dinner. At first, he refused to even try it, but he eventually ate 2 of them and 1/2 a peanut butter sandwich. We decided it was a successful meal! Elliot headed off to a meeting, and Micah and I stayed behind to play before bedtime. He had been awake without a second nap since 1:00, so by 7:30 Micah was pretty cranky and grumpy. I picked him up and took him upstairs to change him into his pajamas. We cuddled for a bit, and right at 8:00, I put him to bed. For the second night in a row, Micah became hysterical – he did NOT like leaving the comfort of Mommy’s arms for that crib. He screamed for a while, and I eventually gave up and went and got him. He had a rough day – no sleep, vaccinations, etc. We came back downstairs and curled up on the couch together, Micah laying across me and sucking his thumb.

I had the television on with American Idol in the background. Micah LOVES American Idol. He was smiling at the songs, swaying back and forth to the music, and he even clapped a few times. When Casey came on, Micah sat right up and hopped off the couch. He reached into his basket and grabbed his kazoo and started to play along with Casey. He then started to mimic Casey’s guitar playing, and Micah did his own version of an “air guitar” – he strummed his belly! He was so cute dancing, playing the belly guitar and the kazoo, and clapping. Finally, at 9:15 I thought Micah was completely exhausted, so I took him upstairs and tried once again to put him to bed. I gave him a hug, told him night night and gently put him in the crib. I held his hand for a few minutes and kissed his forehead. I slowly pulled away and left. He fussed for a few minutes, but finally crashed for the night. I hope this grumpiness is just teething and that it will pass soon!

What a long day…I can’t believe it is only Tuesday.

I Saw Micah Kissing…

by

Sometimes, there are moments that I could just scoop Micah up into my arms and squeeze him tightly and kiss him forever because I cannot get over how adorable he is – the simplest things just make my heart swell. I just want to take those moments and bask in them forever, but it seems they have a way of passing in a heartbeat. We had one of those moments last night.

I was sitting on the couch with Elliot and Micah was busy playing. I got up to walk into the kitchen to grab something to eat, and all of the sudden, I heard this noise. It kind of sounded like kissing, but I thought it could have been sucking, too. I walked back to the living room, peeked around the corner, and there was Micah, his hands firmly grasping his Elmo doll and holding it nose-to-nose in front of his face, kissing Elmo squarely on his mouth. I just about died – it has to be one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen! I asked Micah if he was giving Elmo kisses, and he smiled at me before he resumed kissing and hugging Elmo. Micah spent the better part of the next 20 minutes kissing Elmo. It’s official…Micah is in love with Elmo, and I can’t say I heard Elmo complaining.

In other news, Micah is 15 months old today!! I can’t imagine where the time has gone. Micah is running now, not just walking. He climbs into everything (and is especially fond of standing in tupperware containers). I wish I could grab a picture of that, but he just doesn’t sit still long enough. He loves to play his kazoo, and he now has 6 teeth all broken through (and it looks like another 2-4 on the way). He recently discovered his long eyelashes – sometimes he just sits there and yanks on them. It makes me laugh – I can’t imagine that it doesn’t drive him nuts.

Micah has been getting picky about eating the last week or so – I’m not sure if it is a phase or because of the teething. Some days, we can barely get him to eat anything at all, and other days he’ll eat a ton of food. We’ve also noticed that he is refusing to eat several “reliable” favorites – like bananas. He will still eat the freeze dried bananas, so it may just be a texture/teething thing. He still loves oranges, peaches, apple sauce, strawberries and grapes. We have been working on expanding Micah’s food horizons – he now eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cream cheese and jelly, and cream cheese and olives. We’ve been trying to give him more lunch meats/deli slices, and he seems to love fish sticks. I have not been experimenting as much as I planned with chicken (he is kind of hit or miss about eating that). We did try giving him sweet and sour meatballs, and he seemed to like it, but he has been a little less willing to eat melted cheese sandwiches and pizza this week, but cheese sticks are at the top of the list. He also loves crackers – Wheat Thins, Cheez-Its, graham crackers, etc. We still haven’t tried the mashed potato croquettes or risotto cakes, but we have the ingredients ready to go.

Micah is just over 20 lbs now (still a tiny little thing) but I think he is quite tall (considering his weight) – perhaps 33 inches or more! We have our 15 month checkup on Tuesday, so I’ll have the official stats then. I think he will get his MMR vaccine at this visit, and perhaps chicken pox as well (we did not give him the chicken pox vaccine last time). I have read in some places that the chicken pox vaccine is not safe to give to anyone in a household with a pregnant woman – I need to verify that before we make our decision, but if it is safe for me, we will likely give him that vaccine as well. My little guy is still only in the 12 month (or 6-12 month) size. We have several outfits in the 6-9 month size I have not completely pulled from his closet, but those are definitely starting to get a little short in the sleeves. There are a few things he can “get away” with wearing in the 12-18 month (or 18 month) size, but they are still pretty big on him. I have purchased him all 12-18 month (or 18 month) sized clothing for the summer – I think that should be the right size.

As for talking – Micah has a number of words, and he is beginning to mimic us more often now. He regularly says hi, bye, mama, dada (or dad), nuh-nuh (for the dog), night night, ball and bubble. He signs more, all done and milk, and he will say (on occasion) Elmo, Big Bird, bang, uh oh, and a few other words. He seems to understand a lot of language – he’ll bring me things when I say “bring that to mommy,” and he will go pick up certain toys that I mention by name. He is starting to know his body parts, but he does not always respond (sometimes he prefers to smile at me with an expression that says “Mommy, you need to learn that I do not perform on command.” He knows to clap and to wave in response to those words, and he likes to play the “belly drum.” He does know where his head and nose are, and I think he understands the word hand, too. He is so curious about everything – he inspects and investigates everything, and he is always trying to climb onto or into anything he can.

So, in honor of Micah’s 15 months, here are some pictures:

Playing the Kazoo and clapping:


Stealing Daddy’s tie…






Fun with tupperware:

And some video for good measure:

Just a few photos from the last snow storm:





And a weekend visit and a trip to Kidville with Uncle Jeremy, Paige and Peyton:










14 months

by

On Valentine’s Day, Micah turned 14 months old. I’m amazed how the time is just flying by, but I think I say that every month. Over the past month, I think Micah really has become a “little man” – or at least a full-blown toddler. He walks everywhere now – he almost never crawls. He is fairly sturdy and I am constantly surprised by how much trouble he can get into. He has recently discovered the tupperware cabinet, and his new favorite pasttime is defying our “safety” knobs on the range and removing the range knobs below the child-proof safety casings. Every day, he seems to be learning something new.

To be honest, we did not do much that was exciting for either Micah’s birthday or Valentine’s Day. We were finally dug out from the latest round of snow on Thursday, and Friday morning we hit the road to travel to New Jersey to visit Elliot’s family and celebrate his brother Steven’s 50th birthday. Unfortunately, as is our norm, we left about an hour later than planned. Micah was really very good – he was well behaved and quickly fell asleep. Due to our poor planning, we had to stop for gas about 1 hour into our trip at Maryland House. Naturally, we woke Micah up while we were getting gas, so we decided to head in to the rest area a bit early and get some lunch. Micah was much less happy for the remaining part of the trip – he refused to fall asleep, and was clearly bored. He decided, once again, to spend his time sticking his fingers down his throat and making himself gag. After our last puking incident, I was afraid to let him continue. Of course, he quickly felt it was a game and he loved the attention. Elliot ended up moving into the back seat to keep Micah’s hands occupied. We were quite frustrated that he would not take a nap for the remainder of the trip, but we did manage to stop the gagging.

We arrived at Steven and Jodi’s house in the afternoon and had some time to play with everyone. Micah refused his afternoon nap, but he was actually very well-behaved. Our biggest scare of the day happened when his Aunt Jodi brought him upstairs to play. I’m still unclear as to who was supposed to be paying attention to him, but the end result was that Micah took a header down a flight of stairs. That was one of the WORST sounds I have ever heard – I heard the scream as they noticed he was falling and I heard the tumbling. I ran to meet him, and when I got there he was on his back at the foot of the stairs. I scooped him up and comforted him, checked for blood and injuries, and probably cursed a bit at Elliot. I noticed something white in his mouth. At first I thought he lost one of his few teeth, but I quickly realized there was no blood anywhere. I then realized he had a pill of some kind in his mouth. So, not only did they let my baby fall down the stairs, they let him eat some kind of pill, too. I was NOT happy about the situation. Thankfully, other than a bit of a bruise on his eye and a small bump on his forehead, he seemed just fine. I think his fall was cushioned a bit by the carpet, and luckily he bumped all the way down the stairs, so the final crash to the floor was sort of…lessened by the prior bumping, if that makes any sense. I gave Micah his sippy cup of milk and he cuddled nice and close to me for a bit. He immediately stopped crying and went back to his normal happy self. These kinds of injuries horrify me – I have nightmares and I always imagine tragic results to falls. I don’t know how many more of these kinds of falls my heart can handle!

We ordered Chinese food for dinner (turns out, Micah hates Chinese food – he threw most of it on the ground). Right around 7:30, Micah started to melt down, so we put him to bed a bit early. He fell asleep rather quickly, and unlike our last visit, Micah actually slept through the night until 7:30 in the morning. Elliot was wonderful and woke up with him, fed him breakfast and kept him entertained until I made it downstairs at 8:30. Micah had a great morning playing with his cousins, and he ended up going down for his nap right on time and slept for about 1 1/2 hours. I got him dressed and ready for the birthday party. We headed out around noon to meet everyone.

Micah was great at the restaurant. He smiled at everyone, he tried running around all over the place, and he sat in his high chair and ate a fair amount of food (especially bread). He was able to spend some time with his grandparents and cousins and even sat a bit with his other aunt and uncle. After a few hours he started to get bored and cranky. Around 3:15 or so, we hit meltdown again – it was definitely nap time. We left a bit early and drove him back home, and Micah took a great nap.

Because we were concerned about the weather report (and more snow), we decided to head back home Saturday night. Our ride home was rather quick and uneventful, and Micah transferred easily into his crib. Unfortunately, when we arrived home, we realized there had been an….avalanche. All of the snow from our roof slid down and completely filled in the path Elliot had previously dug out. We had to climb over mountains of snow over 2 feet high to get in the house, and poor Elliot had to spend another few hours shoveling us back out again the next morning.

Sunday was Micah’s actual 14 month birthday and Valentine’s Day. I don’t even think we left the house. Elliot did remember to get me a small box of chocolates and say “Happy Valentine’s Day” but I think we spent most of the day watching the Olympics, playing with Micah and napping. We did not even eat dinner together. Romantic, huh? And the worst part was I just didn’t care. Nor did I even think of a Valentine’s Day gift for him. I think I’m just exhausted after everything going on the past month or so.

As for milestones – Micah is walking, talking and interacting. He claps when he likes things (especially singing and music) and he will say words like “yay” and mimic us sometimes. He has four teeth already, and two more coming through on top (possibly more, but he really does not let us get too close to inspect). He loves to “sing” the Itsy Bitsy Spider (to be fair, he does the hand motions and expects someone else to do the singing). He is incredibly picky about food, but he is loving feeding himself with a fork. We have tried the spoon (well, if I try giving him yogurt, he steals the spoon) but he is not quite as adept at that yet. He understands the concept, but still tends to wear most of the food on his shirt and cannot resist sticking his hands into the bowl of food. Micah will play games – he takes a ball and will play catch, he chases the dog, he likes us to chase him, he plays music (like the kazoo and his toy piano) and he loves his toy computer. He has a truly stubborn streak – he will throw a fit if he cannot get his way now. He keeps trying to steal the dog’s food and he sticks his hands in her water bowl – disgusting! He gets really angry when I pull him away, and he is definitely inclined to throw temper tantrums when he doesn’t get what he wants. I think the terrible twos will start early with us!

Luckily, Micah is simply adorable. He smiles and plays and he is saying more and more every day. Last night, I had to go out to a meeting at 7. I helped Elliot give Micah a bath before I left, and as I was leaving I said “bye bye” to Micah and he immediately responded and said “bye bye.” I waved and started to leave, and then Micah, totally unprompted, said “night night” to me! I melted AGAIN. He understood it was bedtime and wanted to say good night to me. I cannot tell you how much I wanted to stay as he shouted night night to me while I walked down the stairs and out the door.

I am amazed everyday at how much I love this little person. He has changed my world, and I barely remember life before the past 14 months. He brings so much joy to my life, and my heart swells more and more with love as every minute passes. I worry so much for him and about him, too. I can feel my heart flutter every time he shoots me one of those lopsided grins, and even when he is being stubborn and bad and cranky, I just feel like grinning because he is so adorable and sweet. I love watching him learn and grow, and I love to see the joy and happiness spread across his face every time he sees me…or the dog…or his Daddy…or his grandparents. I’m so proud of him when he insists on doing something himself (like feeding himself with a fork) and I am astounded at how much he has developed since that first day in the hospital 14 months ago.

It is hard to imagine that we are about to add one more bundle of joy to our lives. I worry about how that will affect Micah and hope we can make Twoey feel just as loved and give both of them all the time and attention they will each need and deserve. I am looking forward to the months ahead to see all that Micah continues to learn and do.

Twoey’s 20 week OB appointment and ultrasound

by

Yesterday was my 20 week OB appointment. Although they made us wait 1 1/2 hours to see the midwife, it was a rather uneventful appointment. We listened to (and recorded) Twoey’s heartbeat (it was in the 160s).
No weight gain yet, and my belly was measuring right on target. Everything is looking good so far. I did have a discussion with this midwife about getting a prescription for Reglan if I have issues with my milk supply after Twoey is born, and she was quite willing to help me out. We were supposed to get a prescription for an AFP tests (checks my blood for a protein that is an indicator of spina bifida) and my first trimester bloodwork (long story, but I still haven’t gotten that done). Because we were running so late, we grabbed our prescriptions and ran – only to find out that once AGAIN, the nurse forgot to give me the prescription for the AFP (it is actually supposed to be done between weeks 17 and 18, and no later than 20 weeks). I tried calling the office, but the nurse could not find the midwife’s notation about the AFP and was unwilling to fax me the script before talking to her. I was told I needed to get the test done yesterday or not take it at all, but, of course, they did not fax me the prescription. Now it is officially too late for me to have that test done.
Today we had our ultrasound – the full anatomy scan. Twoey was EXTREMELY uncooperative (perhaps I should not have eaten that cookie for breakfast…), so unfortunately the pictures we did get were awful. She spent much of the time turning away from the ultrasound and it took the tech about 30 minutes to get all the pictures of her heart. The doctor had to come back for a second look to see her aorta. They checked her brain, her kidneys, her bladder, her stomach, her heart and all of her limbs. She IS still a girl, and everything looks perfect. She is 12 ounces and measuring at 20 weeks and 2 days. Her spine was perfect, too, and when we asked about the AFP, the maternal fetal medicine specialist felt that the results of the ultrasound were clear, and the only other thing the AFP could indicate is an issue with the placenta. He said that if the test came back elevated, the “prescription” for that would be monthly ultrasounds, which I am getting anyway. In other words, the doctor felt it was no big deal that we could not get the AFP done, so I feel relieved about that. They also measured Frank and Fiona, who seem to be holding steady at 4 and 3 cms, respectively.
Profile – tushy up in the air:


Hands over head:

Hands crossed over face:



Skeleton face:

Finally, they did measure my cervical length. It dropped to 3.5 cms, which is still considered “safe” at this point in the pregnancy, however, it is unusual to lose about 1 cm of cervical length over the course of a month at only 20 weeks. After I had my initial bout of early labor with Micah at 28 weeks, my cervix shrunk from 4.6 down to 3.8 cms at 28 weeks, and they were concerned then. I think the biggest worry at this point is that I’m losing the “cushion” – if I develop contractions again, my cervix is already shrinking and it may be harder to stave off labor and keep me pregnant. I have to go back in 2 weeks for a cervical length check. If it continues to shrink, we may have to get a bit more aggressive with either medications or bedrest. As long as my cervix stays above 2.6 for now, they will keep me up and moving around, so for right now, everything is okay.

Last night, Micah used a fork for the first time!! We were at my parents’ house for another night of shiva, eating dinner. Micah was not particularly interested in the cheese or the bagels or the tuna fish, so I made him a veggie burger. He spotted my fork, and he made it quite clear he wanted it. I tried stabbing a piece of veggie burger with the fork and feeding it to him. He quickly stole the fork from me…and went about feeding himself with a fork! I was amazed that he could handle it so well – it never dawned on me to give it a try. He needed a bit of help getting the pieces onto the fork, but he ate the entire veggie burger that way. Once again, tonight at dinner, Micah wanted a fork. He ate two small turkey burgers with his fork – and this time, he was even able to stab the meat himself. Apparently, Micah loves to use a fork (something I find particularly humorous as his Uncle Jeremy STILL rarely uses a fork!

I am definitely due for a picture post – I have a ton of pictures and video of Micah to add to the blog – I’ll have to get to that this weekend while we are snowed in!

Expanding Horizons

by

The phrase “expanding horizons” has been at the forefront of my brain this week. Everyday, Micah is expanding his horizons – he is learning and exploring and growing and developing at an amazing rate.

On Monday, Micah, Elliot and I flew down to Orlando for my annual conference at the Caribe Royale – one full year after we took Micah on his first plane trip. This year was quite a different journey. We were lucky enough to take Micah’s car seat on the plane and put him in his own seat. He looked like such a big boy sitting in his car seat! We gave him some milk, cheese, crackers and applesauce, and Micah sat in his seat happily munching, clapping, laughing and chatting. During takeoff and our ascent, we ran into some fairly significant turbulence. At one point, the plane was thrown around quite a bit, and all I can say is how thankful I was that Micah was safely strapped into his car seat – I am certain he would have hit the roof of the plane during some of those bumps and drops had he not been securely seated.

For the entire trip, Micah was alert, awake, and quite active. Perhaps too active. In fact, he had a lot to say on the plane ride. He was practicing his high-pitched screech for all the passengers (one of his new tricks that drives my father insane – and probably all of those traveling on the plane with us). He felt the need to say “hi” and “bye” to the other passengers as well. After we happily ate and played a bit…Micah got antsy. After checking on the time, I realized that we were only 30 minutes into a 2 hour flight. Uh-oh!! Elliot took Micah for a quick walk up and down the aisle. When he returned, Micah was more interested in climbing on his car seat and smiling at the man sitting behind him than sitting in the car seat. We strapped him in over his objections, and then the fun began.

Micah was a bit cranky about being tied down and he was not afraid to express his displeasure. For the next 40 minutes or so, I was able to keep him quiet as long as I was singing to him. If I stopped singing for even a moment, the loud complaints started again. I then spent some time tickling and playing with Micah…which kept him happy, but laughing quite loudly and probably disturbing the passengers almost as much as his unhappy noises. We intermittently gave him his bottle of milk and plied him with food. While we were on the plane, Micah spotted Elliot’s cup of selzer water, and made it clear he wanted to drink from that cup. So, we let him try. While he did dribble a fair amount down his shirt, he was actually pretty adept at using the cup. Even funnier – he LOVED the selzer water! I thought he would hate the carbonation, but he could not drink enough of it. I think he easily drank 1/2-3/4 of a can all by himself. It was so funny to watch. Although the selzer water kept him occupied for the remaining part of the trip, he was clearly exhausted and ready for his nap. We finally made it to Orlando about 20 minutes late.

We moved quickly off the plane and over to the car rental place. Naturally, things did not go exactly as planned. The bank of elevators was broken and would not let us off on the first floor to get to the car rental. Elliot took the escalator up to check in, then I had to go back and sign the paperwork when he returned, and then we had to traipse all over the airport trying to find an alternate path via elevator back to the first floor so that we could get over to the garage and pick up our vehicle. After that ordeal, both Elliot and I were tired and frustrated and Micah was exhausted and desperate for his afternoon nap.

Our next challenge – installing the car seat. After doing a lot of calculation and consideration, we decided to buy a new but inexpensive car seat last week, specifically for traveling. We selected the Graco ComfortSport because it was inexpensive (normally $100, marked down to $80 because they were trying to deplete their stock of this color, and on a special sale for 20% off – so all told, the car seat cost us $65). This car seat is fairly easy to install, relatively lightweight, and comes with the EPS side-impact protection foam. We felt that it was a perfect seat that balanced safety against cost. We had researched renting a car seat, and we learned that the car seats cost about $15-$25 per day (so a 6 day rental would have cost us $90-$150). Additionally, many of the car seats offered by rental companies are not the best quality. With that information, we figured that this trip alone would cover the expense of the car seat.

Anyway, the day we bought the car seat, they showed us how to install it. I had asked Elliot to practice installing the seat before we left, just in case it presented any problems. I bet you see where I am heading with this. Yes, you guessed it – Elliot did NOT practice installing the car seat, and did not know how to properly install it when we arrived in Orlando. He would not read the directions and he would not listen to me as I explained to him what needed to be done. I was SOOO frustrated with him! We initially tried installing via the seatbelt method (as we had been shown) but Elliot did not understand how to make it tighter so the seat would not move, and I just did not have the strength to do it myself. After that, we switched to the “latch” method of installation. After watching Elliot struggle with the installation, I pointed out the obvious flaw in his installation method. Once he gave in and listened to me, we were able to hook the seat in fairly quickly and tighten it up…just over 1 hour after we first started the process. Poor, Micah – he was tired and cranky and just wanted to nap!!

We got in the car and headed to the hotel. Micah fell asleep immediately and napped during the ride home, while we checked in, and while Elliot unloaded the car. This year, we decided to stay in one of the “villas” as opposed to the regular rooms. The villas are quite nice – they come with 2 full bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a living room/dining room area, a kitchen and a screened in balcony. Having the kitchen is so much easier for feeding Micah meals, and the layout really does give him a fair amount of room to walk and play.

Our first night, we decided to head out to dinner. We intended to go to Olive Garden – quick, inexpensive, and we know Micah loves the food. Instead, we decided to stop at Golden Corral. I think Micah fell in love with that restaurant. I find it amusing, as Golden Corral is not exactly known for its high-quality atmosphere. Regardless, Micah loved the music playing – he danced and clapped along. The diversity of food options also worked for him – whatever he did not like, he threw on the floor, but there were 300 other options to try!

We did make a few new discoveries at the Golden Corral. First, Micah learned that he likes olives (much to my surprise – I guess he takes after mommy and not daddy) and hard boiled egg whites. We gave him beans and fruit (he was particularly fond of the canned pears and peaches, and he even ate craisins, papaya and melon (and he NEVER likes melon!)). He ate a few strawberries, grapes and pineapple as well. Unfortunately, he would not eat the macaroni and cheese or the meat and chicken, but he did eat a bit of potato. I did not have much luck getting him to eat broccoli.

For a few weeks now, Micah has been obsessed with ice cubes. He will crawl over to the freezer whenever it is open (we have a french-door refrigerator with a bottom drawer freezer) and he reaches in and grabs ice cubes from the icemaker. He loves to sit and play with them, suck on them, and generally make a big mess whenever he can. When he sees ice cubes in Elliot’s glass, he often will fuss and cry until Elliot gives him one. At the Golden Corral, Micah’s experience drinking from a cup on the plane and his ice cube obsession converged into a new experience! He saw mommy drinking water through a straw from a glass with ice, and he wanted it, too. I presented him with the straw and told him to suck, and much to my amazement, he was able to drink the water! He went to town drinking water from the straw. Naturally, Micah spotted ice cubes in the glass, so he also had to dip his hands into the glass while he was drinking and fish out the ice cubes for playing. I swear, his hands were so red and cold that I think he might have gotten frostbite! He played with that cup of water, drinking, splashing, and enjoying the straw, for over half an hour. We did have one minor crisis – Micah dropped the straw and became hysterical. Luckily, the waitress quickly brought us a new straw and order was restored. I felt terrible about the huge mess we left on the floor for the staff – I hope the nice big tip we left makes up for that!

We stopped at the grocery store on the way back to the villa to pick up some food for breakfast and lunch. Micah went to bed fairly easily, and slept well. On Tuesday, I woke up bright and early to attend my first all-day meeting. Elliot played “manny” all day and the two of them had a great time. At lunch time, Elliot and Micah came to visit me. Micah showed off for all of my colleagues, walking all over the place, flirting with the ladies, and generally looking adorable. We fed him lunch and then I went back to my meeting. We had dinner plans to meet up with some of my work colleagues for dinner at 6:30. Once again, Micah was charming and quite well behaved (albeit loud). We opted to eat dinner in the “fancy” restaurant (I do not think they are used to children there). Service was incredibly slow – we were seated at 7 but saw no food until after 8:00 pm. We loaded Micah up on bread, but he really did not get much of anything nutritional for dinner. By the time the food arrived, he was disinterested in the options and sick of sitting in the high chair – he felt it was time to walk. Elliot was only able to eat half of his meal before he had to excuse himself and take Micah back for bedtime.

Today was the all-day pre-conference I was co-teaching. It was an 8 hour day, and I was the lead for 4 hours. My day got off to a rough start – I had set the alarm for 6:00 am, but the first thing I heard this morning was Micah wailing…at 7:45 am! My pre-conference began at 8:00, so it was a crazy mad and disorganized dash out the door and off to my meeting. I was quite out of breath when I got there. Running while pregnant (and without breakfast or medications in me) was a BAD idea. Once I caught my breath, the pre-conference went quite well. I returned to the villa around 5:00 pm, only to find that Micah fell asleep for his afternoon nap at 4:15. Elliot and Micah spent time at the pool today and apparently had a wonderful time. Micah slept until after 7:00. We eventually woke him up, and the 3 of us ate dinner together at the dining room table – a real family dinner! Because he napped so late, it was almost 9:30 before he fell asleep tonight. He is currently sleeping soundly in the pack and play in the second bedroom. Micah also discovered his stroller tonight. This is our new MacLaren Volo (the lightweight umbrella stroller). We are loving it – GREAT for travel. Micah thinks it is a toy – he loves to climb in and out of it and push it all around. He has been trying to climb on chairs and couches and coffee tables everywhere, too. We have quite a climber on our hands!

Tomorrow I have two more presentations and a series of meetings. It will likely be another crazy day. We are trying to figure out our plans for tomorrow night, and if I can keep my schedule clear on Friday, we are hoping to do something fun with Micah during the day. I have a friend coming up for a visit on Friday afternoon, then on Saturday I have one more presentation before our flight out at 2:45. Let’s hope Micah falls asleep on the plane ride back!

It is hard to believe that another year has passed. I love to watch him now, exactly one year later, and see how much he has changed since our last journey down here. What a year this has been, with so many opportunities to expand his horizons! Over the past few weeks, we have been learning so much about Micah as he explores new things. He LOVES Clementines – he gobbles those little oranges up as fast as he can shove them in his mouth. He makes me laugh – if he sees us peeling one, he comes running right over to grab a section. No need to offer it up – he will snap it right out of our hands! If allowed, I think he would eat 2 or 3 Clementines on his own at any one sitting.

We’ve finally had some success getting Micah to switch to a sippy cup. He still prefers his bottle for comfort first thing in the morning and at bedtime (and if he is extremely tired or not feeling well), but I suspect we will be able to break him of that over the next few weeks. I still love how he snores when he sleeps, and how he can be actively playing with toys and he just needs to run over to me for a moment to give me a hug, snuggle his head down and suck his thumb for a moment before he returns to playing. I love watching him interact with his toys as he learns to use them more everyday. He loves to take all the different toys and stuff them inside other toys. We have a gumball machine, and we are constantly finding weebles, a polar bear and blocks stuffed in the top in addition to the gumballs that belong in there. The same goes for his choo-choo train that is meant to “spit” colored “ping-pong” balls – he prefers to stuff the caboose with blocks, legos and puzzle pieces. He makes me laugh as he waddles all over the house carrying his toys…or a dish towel…or puzzle pieces. I love his obsession with the phone and how he always pulls his socks off. I also love how Elmo is the center of his world – Sesame Street puts him in a stupor, but the moment he sees Elmo (and in particular, the Elmo’s World segment on Sesame Street), he begins clapping and smiling.

I guess I am feeling a bit nostalgic about Micah growing up. At the same time, I am so excited to continue watching him grow and learn. There will be so many more opportunities for him to continue to expand his horizons, and I hope I will continue to experience all of them.

On another note, my grandmother is still hanging in there. She is no longer really eating much of anything, and she is rarely awake and communicating anymore. Everyone is amazed that she has managed to hold on this long – unfortunately, I wish I knew if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I am glad that she has held on this long for me. I just hope she can be at peace and comfortable.

The good and the bad

by

I’m so sorry I’ve been quiet again. You see…I just didn’t know how to write this post. I’ve decided to just write it all out – the good and the bad. I keep spinning around in circles, wondering if I should lead with the good, then tell the bad, or perhaps I should get the bad things out first and end on a high note. For lack of a concrete decision, I guess I’m going to ramble a bit, and perhaps just share the events as they unfolded.

Back around June 29 last year, I started to write a post entitled “Bad things happen in threes.” I do not know how many people have heard this saying, but it always seems to ring true. When I started the post, Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Ed McMahon had just died. Shortly thereafter, Billy Mays died, and I was wondering what “bad” things were coming next. I do not remember what the remaining 2 things were…and I guess I just did not feel the need to talk about Farah, Michael, Ed or Billy.

But, back to the present. Last Saturday, we went to a first birthday party for Micah’s friend Owen. We met them in our breastfeeding support group – hard to imagine that a year has already passed and our boys are growing up. We had a great time playing and eating pizza. Micah showed off his walking skills, too. The following day, we had another birthday party for our friend Janice’s son, Andy, at a Gymboree. Micah was so funny, trying to walk around and play with the “big” kids. He had fun on the slide, he loved the singing and the parachute, and he was all over the place. He even sat at the table in a “real” chair (okay, a child-sized chair) and ate off a plate (well, he occasionally tried to dump the food on the floor). I intended to come home and blog about our fun party experiences, but I got a bit distracted by “Bad Things.”

Bad Thing #1: I guess the “bad things” started when I learned that my friend lost one of her precious twins – her son, Will – at 25 weeks pregnant. Like everyone else hearing this news, I was stunned. How could such an awful thing happen? I have been stunned that something so awful can happen. I do not even know how I could possibly comfort her during this time…but my heart aches for her. I have been thinking of her and her other precious twin Abby, and hoping that she remains strong and continues to grow and thrive. Even worse than how awful I feel for my friend – the selfish panic has a way of hitting home with me right now – at only 18 weeks pregnant. Yes, I said it – hearing of such a tragic loss became a selfish moment for me, too. I feel awful even saying that, but it has been sitting right there in the back of my head since I learned of this tragedy. I guess hearing that something so awful has happened to someone I care very much about is terrifying – it really made me think about how it could hit that close to home for me, too.

Bad Thing #2: Haiti. Need I say more? I just sit here, appalled every day that there is such devastation in Haiti. As you all know, Elliot works in emergency response, and he has spent much of his time since the earthquake planning logistics and getting equipment and supplies down to Haiti for Red Cross. He has helped several teams get off the ground (which involves several 4 am trips to the airport and countless hours of phone calls negotiating with airlines and TSA). I have to say, I do not understand why it is taking so long to truly provide the relief they need in Haiti. I am angry that so many have died during the earthquake, but I’m even angrier that perhaps tens of thousands are dying because they are buried beneath rubble and rescue teams have not gotten to them in time. What a terrible way to die – alive, trapped under rubble, waiting to die of starvation or dehydration. I’m shocked that survivors are starving to death because there is no food or water for them. I’m disgusted that doctors are choosing to amputate limbs to avoid infection because there are not enough antibiotics or sufficiently equipped ORs to provide better alternatives. I heard that at ONE facility alone, they are performing more than 70 amputations a day. I hurt knowing that despite all of the will in this world to help, send supplies, send rescue teams – we do not seem capable of fixing this with sufficient speed to save everyone.

A GOOD INTERLUDE…I’ve been fixating on the bad things, but somewhere in this week, I wanted to post about how much Micah has been growing and changing. He is truly walking now – he is on his feet more than he is crawling. His language skills are growing – he makes a sign for phone, he claps, he understands when I tell him to bring me something or throw me a ball, and he has started saying the word “ball.” I have some amazing video of him toddling all over the house! I’ll have to post some more video in a few days when I can focus on all of the good things.

BAD THING #3: Perhaps it was foreshadowing of things to come the following day, but we had a terrifying experience last Tuesday night. Micah was sitting on the couch with me, and as he always does, he crawled to the end of the couch by the arm. I was talking on the phone to my mother, and I had my hand resting on his feet. I thought I would feel him if he tried to push off to take a header off the couch, and that I would be able to pull him back or stop him. Yes, you can see where I am going with this. It all happened in an instant – so fast, and yet it was like watching a movie in slow motion. Somehow, without pushing off with his feet, Micah started to fall over the arm of the couch. I started to yell and dove after him, throwing the phone somewhere on the floor. I got to the arm of the couch and felt his legs brush through my hands as I missed grabbing him. I watched my sweet little baby boy land on his face on the floor…and then while his face was still down, I watched the rest of his body flip over, bending his neck almost 180 degrees before he landed flat on his back and his face popped up off the ground.

I know I stopped breathing for a second as I stood over his body. From the way his neck bent, for a moment I was certain he was either dead or paralyzed. I was afraid to grab him and move him – terrified that would make the injury worse. For a second, Micah did not move or make a sound. That was the longest moment I have ever endured. I have to say, the relief washed over me when he started screaming and moving – my first thought was that he was alive and not paralyzed. Since he was already moving wildly, I decided to gently pick him up and hold him. I quickly realized he could move all of his limbs and turn his head. He had a bad scrape on his nose and a bit of a red mark on his forehead. We immediately called the doctor to figure out if we should go to the emergency room. Micah quickly showed us that he was able to walk and was behaving normally. When the doctor called back, she assessed the situation and told us that it was unlikely he needed to go to the emergency room and be put through xrays. We kept him up another couple of hours before putting him to bed, and I checked on him throughout the night, terrified something bad would happen to him overnight. The next morning, Wednesday, Micah appeared no worse for the wear. He had a big red triangle on his nose – the kind kids get with a skinned knee. He looked a lot like Raggedy Andy!! But, much to my surprise, he did not even seem sore. I hated letting him out of my sight for a moment, but he insisted on running all over the place.

A few hours later on Wednesday morning, I got another call, while we were meeting with an architect to discuss possible renovations to our house. Round 2, Bad Thing #1: My grandmother fell and was being rushed to the hospital. My mother told me that the fall did not sound like a big deal, and they were merely sending her to the hospital as a precaution. When my mother got to the hospital, however, she called again – apparently, they suspected that my grandmother had fractured her skull, and her temporal artery burst. After they stitched her up and took xrays, they confirmed the fractured skull. She then had a CT scan, which identified 3 major bleeds in her brain, including one major bleed in her brain stem. They briefly discussed surgery, but my grandmother is 97 years old and she suffers from dementia. Surgery is traumatic – if she survived it at all, it would definitively cause a loss of function. Because of the dementia and her age, she is not a candidate for physical therapy to recover that loss of function. So, any surgery (if she survived) would likely have made things worse. Add to that, my grandmother was taking a medicine called Plavix, which is a blood thinner. Because of the Plavix, she has a difficult time clotting (making surgery dangerous and the bleeds unlikely to stop on their own). While we stopped giving her the Plavix, it takes about 10 days to fully leave the system. Ultimately, the doctor suggested we not operate and transfer her to hospice care. They seemed to think she only had a few days to live, at most.

This was devastating news. While my grandmother is 97 and suffers from dementia, and while we’ve realized she could die at any time for quite a while now, we just never envisioned this scenario. Elliot and I spent most of the day at the hospital with my family during all of this. After a number of hours, we got my grandmother’s transfer to a nursing home for hospice care approved. When the ambulance arrived, my mother drove ahead so that she would be there waiting for my grandmother when she arrived at the nursing home. As we prepared her for transport, she became increasingly agitated. She managed to pull the bandage off of her head (which was there to try and control some of the bleeding). She started yelling at the EMTs and she was very upset. At the last minute, I decided to ride in the ambulance with her, to help keep her calm. My grandmother often does not recognize me, but yet, she seems to respond to me. Perhaps it is because I call her Grammy so she knows I am family, or perhaps somewhere buried in her mind I am still familiar to her. Either way, I thought she needed me with her, so I hopped in the ambulance.

Unfortunately, I did not think about my terrible morning sickness, or how it is exacerbated by motion. Nor did I think about the fact it was rush hour and we were traveling 10 miles away. It was a VERY long trip – but I only threw up one time. I felt awful for the EMT – you should have seen the look on his face when I calmly asked him if he had a container I could use for vomiting. We arrived at the nursing home, and both my grandmother and I settled down. It was amazing how alert she was, and she appeared not to feel any pain!

The next day, Thursday, was Micah’s 13 month birthday! Elliot was up and out at 4:00 am again to help get a team and supplies out to Haiti, so I was on my own that morning. I should have posted something joyous here to mark the event – but I was finding it hard to celebrate with such sadness surrounding us. Thursday was not a good day for my grandmother. She just slept all day, and barely responded to anything. We were getting mixed signals all day from the hospice providers – one minute they said she was doing well and this was likely just a reaction to the prior day, the next minute they felt her bleed was getting worse and were not sure she was capable of swallowing food and water, the next minute the doctor was telling us she was in a coma and we should pull all food and water. At 9:30 pm, my mother and I made a run out to see my grandmother again. We thought it might be the end. We got there … and my grandmother woke up and chatted with us. We were angry at the doctor for his misinformation, but it was a good visit, and once again, I am so thankful that I had the time to talk with her and tell her that I love her.

On Friday, while my mom visited my grandmother in the morning, she was quite alert and responsive. My mother insisted they do a swallow test to determine what she was capable of eating, and she passed. I went out to visit later in the day. We insisted that they give her food and drink to keep her comfortable for as long as she can take it. Saturday, my grandmother seemed to be holding steady. Sunday was another good day, although I was unable to visit her.

We had a very busy day on Sunday. Micah had a bad night and ended up sleeping until almost 10:00. As a result, he missed his morning nap, and was like the energizer bunny! I decided that it was not appropriate to take him to the nursing home – he is too restless and wants to get into everything, and I just did not think it was a good idea to have him fussing or crawling on the floor while I was trying to sit with my grandmother. In the afternoon, my mom came over for a few hours to spend time with Micah. Elliot and I took advantage of the time and went house hunting. I’ve mentioned before that we only have 2 bedrooms in our current house – so we have a space issue when Twoey arrives. We are torn between putting on an addition and moving, and we just cannot make a decision. I’ll save that discussion for another post. Anyway, we looked at houses for a few hours and realized that we still do not know what to do. We got home around 4:00, just in time for Elliot’s brother Steven and niece Melissa to arrive. She is a college student, and headed off to South Africa for a semester abroad! She was leaving from Dulles, so they drove down for the flight out on Monday afternoon. It was a nice, but brief, visit.

(NOTE – Round 2, Bad Thing #2 – Another earthquake hits Guatemala and El Salvador). On Monday, much to everyone’s shock, my grandmother was stabilizing. The doctors kept telling us that they could not believe she was breathing and not in a coma with the extent of her brain bleed. And yet…there she was, chatting. She was definitely sleepy and her dementia was still an issue, but she was quite responsive to us – more chatty than she has been in a while. They got her up and bathed her, and they even put her in a wheelchair for a bit. We had a long discussion on Monday about finances – insurance coverage, Medicare, hospice services, etc. Unfortunately, because the doctors were certain she would not survive more than a few days, we did not keep her in the hospital for 3 days, so she is not eligible for some of the Medicare benefits (which makes a few things a bit sticky for us). We are trying to work around this glitch, but we hope to be able to keep my grandmother where she is for as long as she is with us.

After I got home from visiting my grandmother, we took Melissa to the airport. We got her to the airport in plenty of time (despite the fact we were pulled over on the way out for an expired tag – long story, but the tag is actually NOT expired, but we cannot get the new sticker to put on my license plate). Ironically, we ran into our friend, Bill, at the airport. Elliot & I actually met at Bill’s Superbowl Party in 2005. We offered Bill a ride home. Steven left as soon as we got back home. Micah was being cranky and refused to nap – it was a LONG day.

Today, however, was not as good a day for my grandmother. She is back to being very sleepy. She responds to my mother (I was not able to go visit today), but she has not been responding to any of the nurses or caretakers. She has been choking more during meals, which is dangerous for her, so we have had to pull back on what she is eating. It remains to be seen if she is just exhausted because she overdid it yesterday, or if this is the beginning of the decline we have been expecting. I am planning to go see her again tomorrow.

Another selfish moment … I have a huge conference for work next week. All week – Monday through Saturday. This is the most important event for me all year, and if I miss it, I would lose my job. I’m terrified that something will change (or, to be blunt, that my grandmother will die) while I am away at my conference. How am I supposed to choose between being there to support my mother during a terrible time and my job? I hope I do not have to find out.

So…that is the good and the bad. Once again, I’m left asking – what is Bad Thing #3? I wish there did not have to be anything else to complete this chain. I hate that bad things seem to come in threes. And I hate that there is so much sadness tainting all the good right now.

Walking Part II

by

After taking 3 or 4 steps a few times on Tuesday, Micah continued the trend on Wednesday, and even started to add steps. By Thursday, he had walked across the living room! He is still crawling more than walking, but we definitely have a walker on our hands. I finally got a video, but he would only walk for the video if I taunted him with my ipod.