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Maternity & Parenting Center

Return of Reflux

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Yesterday morning, Micah woke up again at 5:00 am, screaming. It has been a rough few weeks – even when we do not have to go in and get him, he has been waking a few times a night coughing and crying. This morning, his voice was raspy and I could hear all the congestion in his nose and throat. I started to wonder if perhaps Micah was really sick…either fighting a low-grade sinus infection or an ear infection. So, we called the doctor and made an appointment to go get Micah checked out.

We saw one of the female doctors we like. She checked out Micah, and immediately pronounced that while he was congested, he was definitely not sick. Naturally, I felt like a crazy mother bringing my child in for absolutely no good reason. As we got to talking about what to do and possible causes, we circled back to the question of Micah’s reflux. She said that Micah was definitely teething, could have allergies (or congestion from teething), and that everything we were seeing *could* be related to that. BUT, she also said that the congestion and coughing could be a sign that Micah was still suffering from reflux. For some babies, the reflux can back into their noses and irritate the nasal passages, causing congestion and coughing. She suggested that we try putting Micah back on Zantac, at least at night, and see if it made a difference.

So, last night, just before bed, we gave Micah a dosage of Zantac. We knew that it can take a few weeks to fully kick in, so we certainly did not expect any immediate response. Much to our amazement, Micah slept through the night last night! No wakings, no crying, and even better…no snoring or coughing. It might be premature for us to proclaim victory after just one night, but I do think that we might just have identified the source of Micah’s crankiness and night wakings. I feel awful that it took us so long to figure it out, but I hope putting him back on Zantac will take care of his discomfort.

Still Here

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Well, I’m still here…hanging in there. I cannot believe little Miss Twoey has not made her arrival yet!! I’ve been having fairly regular contractions for the past several days, and they’ve been about 2 minutes apart for the last 24 hours or so. I’m having a fair amount of pain and discomfort, and frankly, I’m ready to get this show on the road! We are about as ready as we are going to get – house is clean and in order, the necessities are washed, the car seat is in the car, the hospital bag is packed, and we are probably about as on top of our work as we are going to get. I should probably do about another month worth of work before labor hits, but hey, I’ve actually accomplished more than I expected so far. Now…if we could just come up with a name for Twoey!

This week has been a little better. My mom seems to be regaining her strength, and I’m trying to move forward with everything in my life, too. Yesterday was a good day with Micah. He woke up at 3:15 am screaming again, but he was laying down the entire time, so I decided to see if he could put himself back to sleep. Luckily, he was only awake about 15 minutes and then slept until about 7:30 or so. Still not perfect, but it was progress! Of course, I felt like a horrible mom the entire time for not going in to comfort him, but he was just upset, not hysterical, and I had a feeling that going in to his room would just make it all worse and have him up all night. I just don’t want him to develop a 3:00 am wake up habit and think that is snuggle time with mommy and daddy.

I haven’t been spending as much time on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Micah since our babysitter, Christin, started a few weeks ago. It has been a great opportunity for me to get some things accomplished and take care of myself, but…I have been missing my Micah time! So, I decided to take the morning (perhaps one of my last with only 1 child) and spend some time with Micah. For our morning activity, I scheduled a haircut for Micah. We walked over there, got his hair cut, and then stopped off at a park to play. Christin helped with the chasing, but we had a fun time together! He gave me kisses, and he seemed fascinated by the other children. He saw one boy drinking water from a bottle, and he wanted one, too, so I gave him his milk. Then, the boy started to eat one of those sippy pouches of fruit. Luckily, I had one on hand, and Micah downed that, too. He then seemed ravenous, so I gave him a cheese stick. Unfortunately, he was still hungry and was searching through the bags for more food. I happened to remember that the restaurant across the street has a kids’ performer and lunch every Tuesday, so we popped across the street. We missed the performer, but we were able to join in for the lunch special. Micah ate pita and hummus and a few french fries (okay, the fries are not super healthy, but he did already eat cheese, fruit and veggies before this, and I gave him whole wheat pita and hummus).

After lunch, the three of us headed back home. We immediately put Micah down for his nap and I went back to getting some work done. I was having horrible contractions and struggling with nausea, so the afternoon was a bit rough for me. Normally, Micah sleeps about 2.5- 3 hours. Naturally, 50 minutes after we put him down for his nap, the screaming began! I had Christin go get him, and I could hear that he was in a horrible mood.

I came upstairs to help out for a bit…and he was just a mess. I took him and hugged him for a while, but he was still yelling. I am fairly certain this is teething pain, but this has been going on quite some time. I decided to give him some Tylenol, and then I administered the next best medication I know…Sesame Street. I usually hate to use tv as a soothing device, but sometimes….well, it works. I flipped on the tv, Micah put his thumb in his mouth and curled up on top of me. After a little while, I scooted away from Micah (and let Christin sneak in to cuddle with him). I decided to make him some popsicles (I did 2 yogurt/applesauce and 2 applesauce) because I thought perhaps the cold would help his gums. I then went back downstairs and went back to work. I told Christin she should take him outside after the show ended – either for a walk or to play “basketball.” I heard them go outside, and I could hear Micah screaming a bit. I checked on him – apparently, he wanted to sit and play in the bike trailer, and probably wanted to go for a ride. They stayed outside for about 30-40 minutes, and then Christin brought him in because it was so buggy outside. Micah was protesting loudly, but he brought his basketball inside. I came upstairs to play with them for a bit. I made a “basket” with my arms and showed Micah he could play that way. He actually giggled! Then I showed him how to bounce the ball, which is apparently hysterically funny. He spent the next 40 minutes throwing and bouncing the ball.

Christin left at 5:00, and Micah and I continued to play. He started to get grumpy again and he was banging on one of the cabinets, so I assumed that meant he was hungry. Lately, feeding him has been a challenge. I offered him a cracker and he threw it on the ground. I gave him a graham cracker, and he smashed that in his hands and screamed. I asked him if he wanted cheese, and he shook his head “NO.” I asked if he wanted strawberries – again, I got a no. I opened the cabinet again and Micah lunged for the bag of raisins. I tried to give him a few raisins, but he threw a fit because he wanted to hold the bag and take the raisins out himself. I decided it wasn’t worth the battle, so I let him have the bag of raisins. He sat on the floor happily munching on raisins for a while, but then started to get upset again. I offered him some cereal (we struggled over the box – he just wanted to dump cereal from the box on the floor), and then I decided that I would just feed him dinner because it was almost 6. I pulled out some turkey for him – and he was throwing it back at me before I even got it on his tray. I cleared that off and offered him some kidney beans…and again, those hit the floor. At this point, I got a bit frustrated. I put some fish sticks in to cook and I went in search of something for Micah to munch on while we waited. The cereal flew, crackers were smashed, and there was much yelling and screaming. I cut up a few strawberries, and Micah went to town on those.

A little after 6, Elliot walked through the door. Thankfully, he took over feeding our grumpy little bugger. He figured out that Micah did want the kidney beans – as long as he could eat them with a fork. Micah also ate a few fish sticks, followed up by a peach. In the end, he had a very good dinner. After dinner, Micah started to get cranky again, so Elliot took him on a walk. Christin returned around 7:30 (we had to go to a new student meeting at the preschool), and I warned her that Micah might be difficult at bedtime. Elliot returned with Micah and we took off for the preschool meeting. It went well – we met several other parents whose children will be in class with Micah next year (it turns out, I already know two of them), and we received copies of all the forms we need to fill out and submit in the next few months. When we got home, we learned that Micah went to bed immediately…and much to our amazement, he slept soundly until 8:15 this morning (and played quietly in bed until 8:30).

Today has been rather uneventful – I had a rough night dealing with all the contractions, but apparently it was not enough to send me into full labor. I’m still contracting and uncomfortable, but no need to run to the hospital yet. Micah is at daycare and I have been focusing on getting some last-minute work done. I also ran out and met my mom and dad for lunch.

About 10 minutes ago, they called today from the crematorium…Nugget’s remains should be ready today. I just cried all over again. I am still missing that little stinker!! We went out and bought one of those little surface brooms – we have a lot of mess we need to start cleaning. I’m not ready to have that box of her ashes here…I guess I’ll just have to face that soon enough.

The times they are a-changin’….

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I know I always say this, but I’m constantly amazed by how much things change from week to week. It has been nearly 2 weeks since my last substantive post…and while not much has been going on, so much has changed. Funny how that is…I’ve had all these little nothings I’ve wanted to post, but nothing really interesting to write about, so I keep postponing the blog entries.

Overall, my last two weeks have been relatively uneventful…I’ve been cramming my work week into 3 full days plus afternoon nap time the other two days. I lost a lot of time while Micah was sick, and I do feel that I am quickly running out of time before Twoey arrives. We are desperately trying to wrap up the final plans for the renovation (I’ve been meaning to post a draft of the plans and talk about all that insanity) and file for our permits. Once again, we are already behind schedule and the budget keeps ballooning. We got a nasty bout of sticker shock at our last meeting, so we are now trying to figure out how to reduce the costs without scaling back the scope of the project.

Micah, however, is changing rapidly by the moment. His vocabulary seems to be increasing by leaps and bounds. He repeats words, says thank you, get down (to the dog), car, vroom, tree, doggy, milk and a few other things. He has been amazing us in other ways lately, too. After refusing to eat any pasta (or rice) for months and months…he started to eat spaghetti! They told us he ate 4 bowls at daycare, and we did not believe them. We took him out for dinner at a chili place, and we ordered a spaghetti chili for dinner that he scarfed down! This weekend, my nieces Paige and Peyton were in town and we served Macaroni and cheese for dinner…and Micah couldn’t gobble it down fast enough! So, apparently pasta is now an option again. I also made him rice to serve with dinner last night, and he ate that, too. I’m excited because it means we have more options for meals now, and it will be easier to stop for lunch and dinner in restaurants if we can serve him pasta. Here is a picture of Micah playing with Paige and Peyton at Bethesda’s Celebrate Mama event we took them to – they were dancing and playing while the Kidville Little Maestros performed:

Micah currently has a strawberry obsession. I think, if we let him, he’d eat strawberries until he exploded! We bought a huge flat of strawberries to make strawberry jam, and every time Micah saw it, he insisted on eating more strawberries. I think he ate several pounds of strawberries all on his own!

It was only a month ago that I posted about how Micah would walk to the gate and climb upstairs at bedtime when we asked him if he wanted to go upstairs and go night-night. Now, Micah’s response to that question (and almost everything else) is to shake his head no. Do you want to go night-night? No. Do you want to go sit in your chair and eat dinner? No. Do you want to play outside? No. I think no is his default response to everything now. Sometimes, I admit I ask questions just because it makes me laugh when he shakes his head no!

Micah has found a new obsession…shoes and hats. He loves to put our shoes on and try to walk around the house. Sometimes, he brings his own shoes over to us (while we are sitting inside) and insists that we put his shoes on his feet, too. I can’t tell you how often he walks around in pajamas and shoes, or a diaper and shoes. He also LOVES his Daddy’s bike helmet, and is constantly trying to wear that, too.




On April 24, Elliot and I went to our friends Laurie and Jeff’s wedding. Actually, I set them up at our wedding! The wedding was just beautiful – I only wish I felt more up to dancing. I kept trying to get out there and enjoy myself, but the contractions would get a bit strong and make me nervous. Nevertheless, the wedding was beautiful and we had an amazing time. Luckily, Micah was able to spend the night with his Grammy and Grampy while we were at the wedding. They had tons of fun together, and Micah did really well sleeping at their house. They ate pancakes for breakfast, and we picked Micah up right around lunch time. We decided to run over to Heather’s house to visit her new puppy – only 9 weeks old! He is a cav-chon (a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Bichon mix). He was so cute and sweet – only 2.5 lbs! He was bouncing all over, and Micah was IN LOVE with him. He had no fear – he loved the dog jumping in his face and kissing him, and didn’t even worry about the little nipping.

Micah seems to have 2 new teeth…one on the bottom left, next to his bottom 2 teeth, and one on the top left…I think it is the bicuspid. He has at least another 4-6 teeth trying to break through. This has made for a few rough nights – teething definitely causes Micah to wake up and fuss. Friday night he was up from 1:15 until 4:00 am, but he has been better since then. Unfortunately, he woke up on Saturday morning with two spider bites – one on his cheek, and one on his arm. It looks like a spider walked across while he was sucking his thumb and bit him twice. It is kind of nasty and bubbled up, but so far, it appears infection-free. We have been wiping them down with hydrogen peroxide at night and dabbing them with neosporin. We’ve also given him benadryl at night to help with the itching and swelling, and it seems to be working.

We are having some issues with Micah and aggression lately. The good news is we had a playgroup here on Sunday with a whole bunch of women I met through the breastfeeding support group I attended after Micah was born, and it seems we are all struggling with the same issue. Micah has a tendency to get territorial around toys – he will scream loudly if others get too close and he thinks they will take them away, and he has even been known to push to protect his toys. We try our best to reprimand him and teach him to share, but I just don’t feel like he is learning yet. He usually does not walk over and steal something from other children…normally, he’ll watch and wait and grab it when they drop it or turn their backs. But, I do get embarassed when he yells at other children in class. Here is our little playgroup:

Micah has also become obsessed with climbing on the chairs and looking out the window. He can easily get himself on and off the couches and chairs in the living room, but we still worry that he likes to stand and jump on them (and does not listen when we tell him to sit). He loves to bounce on the chairs and bury himself in the pillows – I just wish he would develop safety awareness!

As the weather has gotten warmer, I’ve slowly been bringing out Micah’s summer clothes. I purchased everything for the summer in size 12-18 months, but the clothing is pretty large on him. Actually, in terms of length, the size isn’t bad, but he is just so skinny that all the bottoms fall off of him! We did recently discover that many of his shorts have tabs in the pants that allow us to cinch them in – this has been our saving grace!

Last week, I had another appointment with my midwife and the maternal fetal medicine specialist. I have to say, I’m feeling far more uncomfortable this pregnancy than I did with Micah. I just feel…stuffed all the time now, and Twoey is definitely sitting on my bladder these days. My belly was measuring perfectly – exactly 32 weeks – and her heart rate has been great. She is head down and starting to engage, so we are definitely on the right track. Twoey measured 32 weeks in size, and estimated her weight at 4 lbs 2 ounces (I found that shocking – that is 1/2 lb larger than Micah was at the same time!!). I think, however, their estimates may be off – her head has already dropped a bit, so the fluid levels were a lower around her head which can affect their measurements. They also seemed to think her head was measuring larger than the rest of her body, so it was most likely a bit inaccurate. Her arms/legs/belly were all measuring a week or two small…which seems a bit more normal to me (since I was a small baby and Micah was so small). I guess we’ll see what the next growth ultrasound says! My cervix seems to be holding steady…shocking, but true. The contractions are still there, but we seem to be keeping them under control. I lost 2 lbs since my 30 week appointments, so still no weight gain of any kind. Now that I’m planning for Twoey’s early arrival…I’ll probably end up 42 weeks pregnant and needing to be induced. I’m definitely feeling anxious about things…I have no idea when we are moving, and whether we will be here or in the condo when she is born. Because we do not have a final room together, my need to nest is being thwarted…I have nothing to get organized! So, instead I seem to be obsessing about furniture and paint colors for the finished house.

I guess my final update is about names for Twoey…no, we do not plan on sharing her name before she is born. Not that it matters…the only name we really have so far is Twoey! We are VERY stuck on names this time. Ironically, we just came up with a name we like for a boy…and we’re having a girl. We did this the last time, too. We just can’t seem to find that “perfect” name that resonates with us. I have a feeling this baby may be Twoey for the rest of her life!

Spoke too soon….

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After Micah’s fussiness last night, I hastily declared Micah “asleep for the night” at 9:15. Apparently, I spoke too soon. Elliot and I were catching up on the DVR, reviewing the architectural plans and discussing child care challenges last night. Right around 2:30, I started to get a bit sleepy. I turned to Elliot and said “I think I’m going to call it a night after we finish watching this show.” About 3 minutes later, we heard this LOUD wailing over the monitor – yup, Micah woke up screaming. We gave him a minute to see if he would roll over and fall back to sleep, but no such luck. Elliot went upstairs and spent about 20 minutes cuddling with Micah and trying to coax him back to sleep. We tried a little more Tylenol, but Micah just needed to come downstairs and cuddle with his Mommy.

We sat with him for a while longer, and around 3:15 we tried to put him back in the crib so we could go to sleep. No such luck! Micah started screaming his head off again, so we brought him back out of the crib and into bed with us. For another hour, that boy was going! He did not want to nap or cuddle, he wanted to play. Poor Elliot – I could barely stay awake, and someone needed to make sure Micah did not dive off of the bed. Around 4:15, Elliot tried to put him in the crib one last time. Micah definitely cried and fussed, but he eventually fell asleep (I think, perhaps, after I dozed off). He slept until 10:00 this morning. All I can say is…I’m glad the grumpy baby had daycare today! I hope tonight gets easier. I’m sure the poor little guy didn’t feel well from the vaccinations…and his erupting teeth.

Whirlwind, 15 month checkup, Twoey

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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…

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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:










Thar She Blows!

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Micah has added a new trick to his repertoire this week! Naturally, there is a story that I must tell before I explain Micah’s newest trick. We cook meals for Micah, and 2-3 times each day, we feed him something hot/warm. This morning I made french toast. I quickly whipped it up, flipped it onto a plate, slathered it with some yogurt and applesauce, and brought it over to the table where Micah was anxiously awaiting the opportunity to start shoving food in his mouth. If I was a more patient person, I would finish cooking the food and set it aside to cool for a bit before I covered it with yogurt and applesauce and tried to serve it to my son. Or, perhaps I should be better organized and start making breakfast 10-15 minutes earlier so that Micah is not jumping around and anxious for his food while it is piping hot.

Regardless, I sat down across from my son with the piping hot french toast, a knife and a fork. As is my habit, I sliced the first row of toast into a 1/4 – 1/2 inch strip and cut it into bite-sized pieces. I then picked up the first piece to test the temperature against my lip, and I quickly determined it was probably too warm for Micah (even if it won’t burn him, Micah does not like his food too warm – he’ll just spit it out if the temperature is off). So I started to blow a bit on the toast to cool it off. I tested it again and handed the french toast piece to Micah. He smiled, looked at me, carefully brought the piece of toast to his mouth….and started to blow on it!! He has been doing this at every meal lately (and with almost every bite of food). He likes to mimic mommy blowing on his food! I think he first did this a few days ago, and it just makes me laugh every single time. Of course, if it really was hot, he would burn himself since he usually grabs it with his hands and puts it straight to his lips and blows on the food while it touches his mouth. But, hey, he is learning, right?

Micah appears to have 6 teeth now – I believe he has now cut two more teeth on the top on either side of his front teeth. I think he may be getting ready to cut some additional teeth, but he really makes it impossible to check his gums too closely. If I try putting my finger in his mouth, he usually draws blood. I get the best look when I hang him upside down and he laughs, but there is only so long I can keep him upside down and laughing while I inspect!

Today and tomorrow are busy work days for me – I’m off to meetings downtown (I have a client in town) and again all day tomorrow. I wish it wasn’t such a hassle to get to my meetings!

Horrible Night

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I have to say, I shouldn’t complain when we have a horrible night, because it really does happen so rarely. Micah has been a great sleeper from the beginning. However, the past few weeks have been rough – sick, teething, ear infections – let’s just say it has absolutely disrupted Micah’s sleep. Once again, Micah started fussing and crying in his sleep shortly after we put him to bed. Around 1:00 am, he started crying out loudly and standing up in his crib. We had to go in and get him, and he was just inconsolable. He cried, and he seemed to be having pain. We gave him some bottle and motrin, and then we put on Sesame Street. After about 1 hour, we finally coaxed him back to sleep. He cried on and off the rest of the night, and finally was wide awake again at 7:00 am. I wish I knew what to do for the poor little guy! I don’t know how my parents did this in a time when they couldn’t tape Sesame Street and play it when necessary!

Guess what?

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Micah FINALLY has teeth! Yes, teeth – not just one tooth, but TEETH! After much cranking, moaning and crying (and being awake from 3:00 on this morning), Micah now has two little teeth poking through his lower gums. We started to see them pushing up the gums late last week, but yesterday afternoon, the first little tooth broke through, quickly followed by number two today. It is possible there are 2-4 more right behind this, although I hope we at least get a little break for a bit! As far as I’m concerned, teething is not so much fun. Can you imagine – my little baby has TEETH?

Near miss with a pig and teething

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We got that dreaded call today from Micah’s daycare…”your son is running a high fever and you need to come get him.” There are kids with swine flu all over the place in that daycare – the most recent was a kid in his classroom last week. I thought we were beyond the incubation period, but naturally the first thing I thought was “great, swine flu, and I’ll be getting sick, too.”

So, I picked Micah up from daycare, and went up to the pediatrician. I kept thinking “just our luck!” since our pediatrician got in the thimerosal free (and squalene free) h1n1 vaccine and we had an appointment set up for Micah to get vaccinated on Saturday. A small part of me, I must admit, did think “well, that will settle my agony – no need for a needle once I get the flu!”

We made it up to the appointment, and Micah’s temperature was at 101.8. The doctor checked him out, and did a nasal swab to test for flu. He checked Micah’s ears (currently all clear) and I asked if this could be a sinus infection because I had been wondering if he had one again since his last cold had been lingering for several weeks. The doctor said it was possible, and he would also send out a nasal swab to check for a sinus infection. While we waited for the results of the flu swab, I mentioned to the doctor (the one who always laughs at me for thinking Micah is teething) that I was convinced Micah was teething again. He smiled at me, and I said “Look, one of these times I have to be right, don’t I?” He laughed at me, checked Micah’s gums, looked at me very somberly, and said “well, I have to say…he is definitely teething! I can see two teeth getting ready to break through on the bottom.” Finally!! My toothless wonder may not be toothless much longer. I also mentioned Micah’s horrible diaper rash that cropped up this week while I was out of town. After a quick check, he confirmed that Micah has a yeast infection, so we have to apply lotrimin 2x/day until it is gone.

After waiting 15 minutes, much to my surprise and amazement – Micah’s flu swab came back negative! Instead of writing a prescription for Tamiflu, he sent us home and told us to try and keep his fever down. If his fever is not gone by Friday, we should bring him back in to re-check his ears and his throat. We should also have the results of the nasal culture back by Friday, too, so he may require antibiotics at that time. Unfortunately, if he is not better by Friday, we’ll have to cancel his vaccination appointment – he has to be fever free for at least 24 hours before they will vaccinate him. So, hopefully we can keep us all swine flu free.