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Maternity & Parenting Center

Six Months

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Micah turned six months old today!! Can you believe how the time is flying? Micah decided to sleep in until 9 in honor of his half birthday. We had a leisurely morning, and he did get to listen to a nice rendition of “Happy Half Birthday” from his Grammy and Goppy. We spent the afternoon lounging at the pool with Daddy. It was such a pleasant day – the weather was perfect, the sky was clear, and there was a nice breeze blowing. The pool was nice and warm, and Micah was all smiles.

While Mommy took some time to swim laps (FINALLY getting my act together and exercising again!!), Micah took a trip with Daddy to the store, and napped the entire time. We arrived home around 4:30 or so. We gave Micah a bath (this is the 2nd night we bathed Micah as he SAT in the bath tub!!) and I fed him some dinner (a little milk, some green beans, rice cereal and avocado). Daddy left for work, and Micah and I played for a few more hours before bedtime. Here are some pictures from Micah’s first time sitting in the bathtub (can you tell he likes to eat duck?):




This post seems like a good opportunity to review some of his recent milestones. Let’s start with food. Micah is eating really well – we have now tried peas, green beans, avocado, bananas, squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots. We added a second meal in the past few days because he was getting hungry in the evenings.

He is also sitting really well – still not reliable enough for me to walk away and leave him when he is sitting, but he is fairly sturdy – he can definitely chew on the hooves of his toy giraffe while he is sitting! He is still teething – those bottom two teeth are just dying to break through. After much waiting, he is rolling from back to front with some frequency – in his crib, on the floor, on the grass at a friend’s birthday bbq on Saturday, at playgroup, when he sees a toy he wants… I think he just likes to do things on his terms and in his own way. He is definitely passing objects from hand to hand, and he seems to be exploring the idea of crawling.

So, with that, happy half birthday, baby boy! I’d like to end with a few fun videos of Micah with his duck (press the triangle on the lower left corner to play!):

Brain Dump and a Hickey

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It has been an insane week – no time to post! I think I will do a “hodge-podge” post today and try and catch you up on everything, including my new hickey. Yes, I said hickey.

Last night, I looked in the mirror, and there was a big giant mark on my chin. For the life of me, I could not figure out how it got there. I tried washing my face (hey, I’ve been busy – I thought perhaps I had dirt on my face, or a trail of chocolate) but the mark did not budge. I thought it over, and I decided that Micah must have accidentally head-butted me, and I simply forgot about it. Except the spot was not sore in the least, so I still had my doubts. Today, I was sitting here with Leslie, our organizer, and holding Micah while he stood on my lap. He leaned over, and decided to latch on my chin and start sucking like crazy. I started to laugh because I remembered that he spent all night on Wednesday doing the same thing…and I’m certain I have identified the source of my chin hickey. Micah is teething, and he was so fussy on Wednesday, and it seemed to be the only thing that was soothing him. Like every good mother, I just let him gnaw away on my chin because I’d really had enough of the fussing. I think I’ll wear the hickey as a badge of honor – it should look great with my dress at the wedding on Saturday night.

Work has been crazy for me this week. I agreed to do an interview survey of 14 different AT projects enaged in the reutilization of assistive technology to look at their policies and procedures, help identify some best practices and make recommendations to improve their program. Each interview lasts 1 1/2 – 2 hours, and we have been trying to cram as many as possible in this week. On Monday, while Micah was in daycare, I did 3 interviews, another conference call, and tried to get some other work done. On Tuesday, our new babysitter, Christin, started work! My friend Niki recommended her – she is the daughter of one of Niki’s friends. Her mom babysits for a few children on a regular basis, so Christin has had tons of experience working with babies. She was great with Micah, and it freed me up to do a few more interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday. I cut my day a bit short on Wednesday because Micah was a fuss-budget, and I was afraid of scaring Christin – I need her to keep coming back all summer while she is home from college! Thursday, Micah went to Christin’s house – her mom wanted her home to help take care of the kids she was babysitting (Niki’s children go there on Thursdays, and another neighborhood child, so it was a big giant playgroup) and they offered to have Micah join the fun. It worked out well, as I had 2 more phone interviews, a GE tech came to replace the microwave that caught fire two weeks ago, and the cleaning crew was here. I hope I presented an air of calm on my interviews despite the surrounding chaos. I was hoping Christin would return again today, but no such luck – she had other plans. She should be back on Tuesday again next week. Elliot covered Micah today while I did an interview this morning. He left for a meeting around 11:30, and I managed to sneak in 2 other conference calls while Micah napped. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Micah and trying to finish a few things around the house.

I am amazed by how much Micah is growing and developing. Over the past two days, he really seems to have mastered sitting. He is getting fairly steady and able to balance himself and play with toys while he is sitting. He continues to steadfastly refuse belly time or rolling from his back to belly, but it is obvious to me he is CAPABLE of rolling from back to belly. He loves to play with his toys, and we just figured out how to lower the jumperoo so that he can use that as well. He loves to be busy – he cannot sit still for too long! I’ve also noticed that he is starting to reduce his naps – he is only napping maybe 2x each day for 30 minutes or so lately. The past two days, he also slept until 9:00 am! I’m not certain if that is a good idea – I think he should wake up by 8 or 8:30, so I may have to nip this new habit in the bud.

Our food update – since Micah tried peas, he has also tasted avocado, green beans and squash. Tomorrow is day three of squash, and then we will move on to sweet potatoes. He loves eating. Last night, I was holding him while I went to get my own dinner, and he tried to grab the squash out of the fridge – it was clear he wanted more food. I made myself a bowl of cottage cheese, and he kept trying to eat it! He opened wide every time I had a spoonful that I brought towards my mouth, and started to cry when I would not share. I gave him a little extra squash to make him happy. Today, when he finished his squash and cereal, he was still hungry and kept grabbing at the spoon until I gave him more. Tomorrow we are going to try to increase to 3 tbs cereal and 3 tbs squash!

This weekend is going to be crazy busy. Tomorrow morning, we have the Komen Race for the Cure in the morning, and my cousin Jodi’s wedding at night. On Sunday, we have plans to take Micah to the Mets game with Ken, Erica and their son Micah. The Micahs will be seeing their first baseball game together! My niece Peyton is also here until Thursday and staying with my parents, so we’d like to squeeze in a visit, too.

I’ll update again after the weekend.

Sitting and Playing

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Can you believe it?? Micah is big enough to be sitting on his own AND playing with toys at the same time!! I’m amazed each and every day how much he is growing. He loves to sit and chat, too. He has the most wonderful laugh and smile, and I just love listening to him. I think Micah laughs might be the most beautiful sound in the world. Here – listen for yourself! (Don’t forget to push the triangle on the bottom left to play the video!)

Micah sitting and playing:

Micah talking (we think he speaks Wookie):

Micah laughing (the first one is a voice recording and I just added some photos of Micah to make it a video):

He sits . . . and do pigs fly?

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Let’s start with the good news! I can’t believe it . . . Micah can hold a sit! Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that Micah can sit when he is propped up against something. Every few days, I try sitting him up and moving my hands away for a few seconds to see if he can actually stay put on his own. Over the course of the past two weeks, I noticed that he was able to hold still for longer and longer before flopping over. Then, yesterday, I let go . . . and he stayed . . . and stayed! I called to Elliot, and we were so proud of our little guy. He is definitely able to hold a sit . . . he only flops over if he leans back or tries moving his arms around, but it is a solid start at sitting. Here are a few pictures – sorry they are blurry!



And for good measure, here are my two babies napping together.


Now, on to my more serious question . . . do pigs fly? What I am really asking is whether it is safe to fly right now with the swine flu circulating. I know the government (with the exception of Joe Biden) is saying that it is safe to fly right now, but can you blame me for worrying about bringing a 4 month old on a business trip? I am not so much worried for me – if I catch the flu, I’ll be okay. They keep saying the only reason not to fly right now is if you are exhibiting symptoms, but my concern is, can I really trust most of the idiots out there? Today, a plane was diverted because a woman decided it would be smart to fly while she had the flu. How many people did she infect? And are those people on the flight contagious during the incubation period? They really do not know yet. Which leads me to my next point – what if there are asymptomatic infected people who are contagious on the plane – how easily transmissible is it? Right now, it does not appear that the current strain circulating in the US is that virulent . . . but they just do not know. So . . . I am worried, and I wish I knew the right thing to do. Should we drive instead of flying? It is a 10 hour trip, so that won’t exactly be easy with a newborn. We would probably try to drive at night so as not to disrupt Micah’s schedule. What do you think . . . do pigs (in the form of swine flu) fly, or should we?