Ian Crawling

I have been delinquent in taking videos of Ian. I've tried really hard to take as many pictures of him as I did of his sister as I know that parents tend to take a lot more of their firstborn. I didn't make a big deal of Ian learning to clap like I did when Nadia mastered that skill. Actually, I should give him credit because with most things he's more than 3 months behind where his sister was, but when it comes to clapping, he did that earlier than her! I also wish I could change my answer to the waving question at the doctor's appointment yesterday as he's done it on command today a few times.

As I was wrapping Christmas gifts on Monday afternoon, I realized that I had only bought Ian one gift. It was a set of musical instruments so technically it was more than one thing. I also didn't realize how many things I had bought for Nadia. I ended up putting his name on one thing I bought with her in mind (a sit & spin) as it said for 18 months and up. I also put some gifts back in the closet to save for her birthday. I feel badly about the fact that Ian's birthday is 13 days before Christmas.

I can see that it's going to be really hard not to just divide his Christmas gifts in half and give him half on the 12th and the other half on the 25th. I have a feeling Nadia will get more gifts per year since her birthday is 1 day shy of 6 months away from Christmas. I didn't feel quite as badly after I reminded myself that I barely bought Nadia anything for her first two birthdays or first two Christmases. I definitely bought her far more stuff this Christmas because she enjoys so many different things - coloring books, Play-doh, VeggieTales, etc. Ian is too little to notice that he is only getting 2 gifts from his parents, but when he gets older I'll have to make sure the quantity is a bit more balanced.

I forgot to mention yesterday that when we were in the pediatrician's office waiting room the nurse called "Ian" and so I asked Nadia to get back in the stroller (she was enjoying the fish tank). The nurse then waved at another family. It turns out there were two Ians in the waiting room; the other one looked to be about the same age as mine. I panicked because I really didn't want us to pick a name that was too popular. I went home and looked up the Social Security data for 2009, and Ian was #73 in terms of popularity in 2009 (Nadia was #219 in 2008). Seventy-three doesn't sound really popular to me. Hopefully yesterday was a fluke!

P.S. Ian's snowsuit fits him perfectly. Thank you, Mom! Hopefully Nadia will get some snowpants for Christmas as her legs were cold and wet after our snow adventure this morning!

Too much milk?

Ian had his 12 month doctor appointment today. Wearing only a dry diaper he weighed in at exactly 21 lbs, which puts him at the 23rd percentile for weight. He was at the 35th percentile at his 9 month appointment. The nurse said his head circumference was 47.5 cm (81st percentile now compared to the 69th percentile at 9 months), and his length was 29.25 inches (33rd percentile now compared to 11th percentile at 9 months). When comparing his weight for his length, he's at the 53rd percentile. I was able to answer almost all the questions "yes" regarding his skills - he can pull himself up to a standing position, can cruise along furniture, can clap (he demonstrated his skill for the nurse on command), etc. The ones I said "no" to were standing briefly on his own, waving hi or bye, and understanding the meaning of the word "no." They gave a list of milestones they hope a baby will meet by 15 months (his next appointment). Three of them he can do already - drink from a cup, roll a ball, and stoop to recover a toy. The ones that he'll hopefully master in the next three months include: indicating desires without crying, walking well, and crawling up stairs.

I told the doctor about our feeding woes and the miscommunication between their office and the hospital regarding his feeding team referral (my guess is that the hospital goofed up not their office). I asked for a referral to Early Intervention. They said they will initiate that and that Ian automatically qualifies since he was premature. I hope that proves to be helpful. I am not sure if we'll keep the January 7th feeding team appointment because Blue Shield's contract with that hospital expires the end of December, and if it's not renewed the appointment would be rather expensive. The doctor said it's likely to be a long haul in getting Ian adjusted to eating different textures. I am not shocked by that since it's taken 6 months to get him to eat stage one baby food without gagging. I can't even picture Ian eating table food for many, many more months. He said to just gradually thicken up the food that I feed him.

The doctor said I'm giving him too much milk. He only wants Ian to have 15-20 oz a day of whole milk and the rest should be water. He thinks maybe if we cut back the calories Ian takes by bottle that he'll be more motivated to eat. I highly doubt it. I just think Ian will be a very hungry, cranky child, but I'm going to try to cut back his milk intake at least a little. Tomorrow I'm going to just keep track (baseline data). My guess is that he has about 45 ounces of milk a day (five 9 ounce bottles) plus I nurse him once. You can see why the thought of only giving him 15 ounces a day sounds frightening. Many days he eats only 1/2 a jar of baby food by spoon over the course of a day. Every once in a while he has a good day and will eat an entire jar in one day. I am concerned that he's going to start losing weight if I cut his caloric intake down that drastically. He already fell down on the curve some the past 3 months. A dietician is one of the members of the feeding team. I didn't have the heart to start cutting back his milk today since he got two shots this morning (Chickenpox vaccine and Prevnar). He did really well at the appointment.

More than Expected

I have noticed lately that I seem to underestimate how long projects will take. When we had the garbage disposal installed, I really didn't think the plumber would take a full day to complete that project, and I didn't expect it to be nearly as expensive as it was. When our home was inspected in early July 2008, the inspector said the faucet needed to be tightened. I didn't realize fixing it would involve tearing a hole in the wall in our bathroom to get access to the tub in the kids' bathroom. If I could go back in time, I would have asked the previous owner's to have that fixed as one of the conditions of our contract to buy the home. If we move in 2012, I hope I can remember this lesson. I've been trying for months to get a different plumber (since the first one we used was SO expensive) to come and install the new faucet. I had hoped he'd come before Thanksgiving as my parents have a really hard time operating it to take a shower when they spend the night at our place. He finally called last night and is supposed to come tomorrow. I'm also hoping he'll replace a leaky valve on our water heater in the basement.

Another example of my underestimating would be last week when I asked Paul to fix a picture frame that kept falling down in the bathroom. We were just hanging it on the edge of the frame. The little hook hadn't been afixed to the back of the frame. I thought it would be a 5 minute project, but Paul accidently dropped the frame, and the glass broke. It took at least 5 minutes to clean up the glass. I went to Walmart the next day and bought another frame on the way to gymnastics class. Then it turned out that the frame I bought had two hooks (not one in the center like the other frame did) so Paul had to put two new holes in the wall.

One last example would be the Christmas lights. We own MANY Christmas lights. I used to use white lights. Paul prefers colored lights so we have some of both. We also have used a variety of different kinds of lights outside - some that are like a netting that go over a large shrub, regular lights, icicle lights, etc. The last two years we didn't put up any lights outside our house due to life being too hectic with a new baby, having recently moved, etc. This year I wanted us to put up at least a few lights. I had hoped we'd put them up the weekend after Thanksgiving and then set the new goal as having them up before Ian's birthday party. When Paul went to put them up on Friday, he couldn't locate the proper extension cord. So he spent 30 minutes and about $10 running to the hardware store to buy some. Saturday morning he started hanging them and discovered we didn't have enough icicle lights to do the whole front of the house. My parents had previously offered to give us some icicle lights that they don't use any more; they could have brought them up on Saturday if we had known we needed more. Paul's brother picked some up for us and brought them to Ian's party. So thus far the project has now cost us $22 (I didn't think we'd need to spend a dime since we have seemingly 5 million Christmas lights stored in our basement), and it's not completed yet. To be honest, I think the lights look fine (they're only on the porch). I really wasn't trying to turn this into a time consuming or costly endeavor.

Maybe some day I'll get better at estimating how long a project will take. Maybe I should just multiply my estimate by 2 or 3 or some other number. One thing I probably underestimate is how much time I spend working on this blog - particularly picking which photos to post. I'll find out next week when I'm without my laptop exactly how much time I spend! Two things on my to do list that I want to tackle in the not so distant future include getting life insurance for Paul & I and getting our carpets shampooed (once Ian's reflux seems to be a thing of the past). One project I want to complete this week is mailing our Christmas cards. Can you tell by the pictures in this post that we took a LOT of pictures this weekend? I went a bit camera crazy between Ian's first birthday and special Christmas outfits. :-) It's a good thing I bought more photo storage for my blog!

 



Our tree is his best motivation to crawl. He loves the lights!



Happy 1st Birthday, Ian!

If Ian had been born in January (he was due 1-20-10), this Christmas would have been his first, but it's his second Christmas! I've been keenly aware of that as I've noticed all the decorations and ornaments I have on display right now which say "baby's first Christmas" that I received the last two years. I'd love to receive more some day in honor of a third child. We shall see if that's the Lord's will or not.

At 12 months old Ian usually goes to bed around 7:15pm and gets up around 6:15am. Sometimes he wakes up once during the night, but we just let him cry, and he usually doesn't cry very long. PTL! His first nap starts around 8:30am, and his second nap usually starts around 12:30pm. Many days both of his naps are 20-30 minutes long, but a couple of days a week he has one nap that's 60-80 minutes long. It alternates whether it's the first or the second nap that's the long one. I have been putting him to bed awake most of the time lately, and he usually cries for 5-15 minutes before he falls asleep. I'm hoping in time he'll go to sleep without crying like Nadia has for a long time.

He can drink from a sippy cup, but he still prefers a bottle, and since he only has 2 bottom teeth thus far, I've decided to give him a few more weeks before I push the transition to the bottle. His bottles now contain whole milk plus some other baby food (from a jar or baby cereal). He can eat fruits and veggies by spoon, but anything else causes him to immediately throw up. I was proud of him today that he consumed an entire jar of apple delight in one sitting! He usually stays in the same outfit all day these days, but he still douses the carpet a few times a week. I'm still holding off on getting the carpets shampooed.

He loves to stand, cruise, play with balls or wheels, and be held. He splashes VERY vigorously the moment he's put in the bathtub. He knows how to crawl but doesn't do it very much. He loves to jump but isn't interested in climbing. One perk of his delay in climbing is that I've enjoyed a few month reprieve from the gates to keep him away from the stairs. He's more interested in the Christmas tree than Nadia is. He loves music and unfortunately likes to look at the tv when his sister is watching VeggieTales. I try to distract him as I certainly think he's too young to watch tv. Nadia has always loved hugs and kisses, but I actually think Ian is even more of a snuggler than Nadia. He grabs on for dear life when he gives me a hug! Ian doesn't do anything half-heartedly; he attacks life with great gusto! His favorite books are those which have fuzzy things on the pages that he can touch.

A Year in Pictures



December 12, 2009 - 4:40pm

1 Month Old - 1/12/10

1 Month Old - 1/12/10



2 Months Old - 3/3/10



3 Months Old - 4/8/10



4 Months Old on Mother's Day





5 Months Old - 6/1/10

 



6 Months Old - 7/3/10

7 Months Old - 8/7/10

8 Months Old - 9/3/10

9 Months Old - 10/1/10

10 Months Old - 10/31/10

11 Months Old - 12/7/10

One Year Old - 12/12/10

First Birthday Party!

Today was a very special day as we celebrated Ian's first birthday (one day early). It meant a lot to me that 7 of our family members came up to our house today to celebrate his first year of life. I have done a lot of reminiscing the past few days. His first birthday card came in the mail on Thursday (thank you, Donna!). I almost cried. I felt so touched when I read it. It's a card I'll definitely be saving for years to come. I'm so very thankful for our sweet little boy!

My parents arrived at about 11am and played with and fed the kids before we put them down for their afternoon naps.While Nadia was napping we ate some lasagna, garlic bread, and green beans. Paul's parents and Grandmother arrived around 2pm. Nadia helped Ian open his presents. At first it seemed that Ian's favorite item was a red bow that Ian's Great Gram had attached to the outside of his gift. He held on to that bow for dear life for quite a long time and would sob if anyone dared to try and take it out of his hand.

My parents gave Ian a snowsuit (size 12 months). On Tuesday I took him out in the size 18 month one that Nadia used last year. This one fit MUCH better and had mittens, a hat, and boots attached. He'll make good use of it! Paul's parents gave him lots of size 12 month clothing, which he really was needing as the 9 month pants are more like capris on him these days. Great Gram gave Ian 3 peekaboo books, and his cousin (Shawn) gave him 3 little cars. Aunt Yvonne (who really planned ahead and gave us all our birthday and Christmas gifts through 2012 before she went back to Turkey in July) gave Ian some mega blocks (which will be useful as Nadia has been using her mega blocks to build towers every day lately) and a Little People dump truck, which Ian really enjoyed playing with today.

I had gotten Ian two presents. He squealed with delight when he saw the Grover hand puppet. He squealed MANY times over this. I was really touched that I got him a gift he really liked. It's tough to compete with random things like a red bow, lol. Both kids enjoyed playing with the workbench I got him. I bought two of them. I'm giving the other one to QJ (our great nephew) for Christmas. I am sure not every gift I buy Ian will be a "winner," but I definitely hit the mark for his first birthday.

After the gifts we moved on to the birthday cake. Aunt Millie made a small cake (see above) for Ian to play with and a mandarin orange cake for the rest of us to eat (yummy!). She also sent some vanilla cupcakes, and Nadia and I had made cookies last night. When Nadia turned one, she devoured her cake and frosting. She shoveled it into her mouth. Ian played with the frosting with his right hand. He still had the red bow in his left hand. I put a little frosting on his lips; he cried. However later on he licked it with his lips and decided it was yummy.

He did eat a tiny bit of frosting but then he went back to just playing with it, and then he just wanted out of his highchair. There was a little frosting on his face (only because I first put some there), some on his hands, and some on the highchair tray. It was much easier to clean him up. Paul was probably relieved as he (and my brother) think this ritual is barbaric, lol. He did eat a little bit of sweet potatoes (stage one baby food) by spoon today. I gave him a jar of vegetable stew in his bottles of whole milk today. We shall see what the pediatrician says on Tuesday. I was told on Sunday by a PT at church that he can receive services in our home through Early Intervention (through the public school system). I'm going to look into that this week. I put a tiny piece of a Gerber puff in his cheek a couple of days ago, and he promptly threw up the sweet potatoes I had just fed him by spoon. He's making very slow progress. I know some day he'll be eating steak, but since it's taken 6 months to get him to eat stage 1 baby food (and that still requires significant efforts to distract him so he doesn't realize he's eating), it feels like it might be another year before he's eating any table food. I hope it doesn't take that long, but that's what it feels like to me. I just hope at his 2nd birthday he's eating cake.

My parents left around 3:30, and Uncle Al and Shawn arrived a little after 4pm. I served the same meal again around 5pm. I ate with my parents at noon, and Paul ate with his at 5pm. No one ate the meal twice, lol. One pan of lasagna would have been enough for today (I always seem to make too much food when we're having company), but now we have leftovers to enjoy. It will get eaten! We have lots of cake and cupcakes left over. I'm planning on sharing some with the neighbors (who babysit the kids) tomorrow. We'll enjoy eating some of it again tomorrow as well.

As I've been reminiscing I've thought a lot about December 12, 2009. Here are some of the things that stand out the most in my memory from that day. First, I remember that when my water broke at 3:15am I questioned myself as to whether or not my water had broke. The reason I found this funny (just a few moments after it happened) was when my water broke on June 23, 2008 I had NO doubts as to what just happened. You'd think if I was going to have doubts it would have been the first not the second time. I think it was because I had only been asleep for a few minutes the first time. I was more disoriented at 3:15am. The good news was that it meant I got a few more hours of sleep before giving birth whereas I got less than one hour of sleep the night before Nadia was born.

I also recall that I was assigned th exact same triage bed. There are at least two triage rooms and two beds in each room. I spent some time in triage three times, and every time it was the same bed. I wish they had given me the same room after I left triage because I had a private room in 2008. They didn't give me a private room because they thought I'd be there for 5 days before my c-section. The advantage to them not believing me that I was in labor was they let me eat (at least whatever I could have on a diabetic diet). I thought it was ironic that they were so attentive to checking my vitals (blood pressure, temp, etc.) and yet ignored my requests to be checked for progress with labor. I could tell as the day progressed that Ian's head was all the way down. The contractions were so strong that I even pushed once. I finally convinced a doctor to check me, and sure enough Ian was at station 0 (or as she said - his head is right there). I was 5cm dilated. They still didn't seem to get the picture that I was in serious labor. I asked them to check again 15 minutes later, and I was already 8cm dilated. I wish the dilation had gone that quickly when I was in labor with Nadia!

I thought the perk of going the scheduled c-section route was that I wouldn't have to go be in labor for hours on end. I have to admit I really, really wanted to try VBAC when I found out I was already 8cm dilated, but Paul still wanted to go the c-section route. Looking back (considering that the c-section was botched and could have been fatal), I really wish I had tried VBAC. It was so ironic to me that I had been in the hospital for a little over 12 hours and yet the preparations for the c-section were done as quickly as possible.

This was the most painful part of the experience for me. I kept asking them to stop what they were trying to do (shave me, put in the catheter, etc.) because it was torturous to have them doing stuff down there in the midst of an intense contraction. The problem was that the contractions were coming so close together that it proved impossible for them to work around them. I was wishing for an epidural, but I knew the spinal would be coming as soon as I was in the OR. I was very grateful that I didn't need to be under general anesthesia like I was for Nadia's delivery. It was wonderful to have Paul standing beside me the whole time.

After Nadia was born both Paul and his parents got to hold her while I was in the OR and recovery. This time we  both got to see him, but only the medical staff held him as he was whisked to the NICU within a few moments of his birth. Neither of us held him on December 12, but we were able to visit him in the NICU a couple of hours later. I remember asking repeatedly if he was alright right after he was born, mainly because of the concerns by OB kept having about Ian having Down's syndrome. It was a relief to know he was fine.

I had a better experience this second time with getting a pump. I repeatedly asked first to try to nurse Nadia (she wasn't admitted to the NICU until about 14 hours after she was born) or for a pump, and it took 24 hours for them to get me a pump (and they never brought her to me during the night). This time I didn't have to ask so many times for the pump, and although we had troubles with his weight once we got home, my milk production was MUCH better in the hospital the second time around than the first.

Although Ian's birth didn't go as I hoped (since I really wanted him to avoid the NICU and also wanted to be able to use more sick leave during the spring semester so I wouldn't have to go back to work quite so soon), the bottom line is all that matters. I gave birth to a healthy baby boy (aside from respiratory distress syndrome and hypospadias). When I hold him in my arms (particularly when he's sleeping), my heart swells with such love that I feel it might burst. Thank you, Lord, for giving us this precious, sweet little boy. I look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with him in the years to come.

P.S. I should have given the camera to someone today. I took over 80 pictures, but I'm not in any of them since I was taking all the pictures. Tomorrow I'll be sure to get Paul to take some pictures of Mommy and her birthday boy! He's going to be wearing a darling Christmas suit that Grandma and PopPop gave him today. 

Preparing for a Party!

My baby will turn one year old tomorrow. It felt bittersweet when Nadia turned one, and it feels even more bittersweet this time because at her party I was pregnant and knew she wasn't going to be my last baby. It's so exciting to see little ones learn new skills, but it's also sad to realize that certain special stages are a thing of the past. Since Ian isn't anywhere near as mobile as Nadia was at 1 year old, he still qualifies as a baby (whereas Nadia was truly in the toddler stage by 11 months old).

She said that what she was making was hot. What a cute little oven mitt!

Yesterday I made two pans of lasagna in preparation for Ian's party today. I also took the kids to the grocery store to buy some vegetables and garlic bread. A couple of weeks ago I had purchased a tablecloth, plates, and cups at a dollar store (spent $3.18 total). I know some spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars on their child's first birthday party, but including the two gifts we bought him as well as the meal, we spent about $60, and I expect we'll have leftover lasagna and garlic bread. My parents, Paul's parents, Paul's brother, sister-in-law, grandmother, and nephew are coming to celebrate Ian's special day! Including Ian (who won't eat any of the food) there will be 12 family members here today!

Aunt Millie is bringing the cake. I have the number one candle that I bought in June 2009 for Nadia's 1st birthday party. I requested a mandarin orange cake because yesterday was my dad's 67th birthday, and he loves mandarin oranges. Ian was born the same month as both of his grandfathers as my dad's birthday is December 10th, and Paul's dad's birthday is December 20th. Last night Nadia helped me make some cookies for Ian's party. I used a recipe from the Preschooler's Busy Book. The recipe was titled "The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies." Well the cookies are fine, but I definitely don't consider them to be the best. The recipe called for some oats, and I found out (after eating one) that although I like oatmeal cookies, I prefer my chocolate chip cookies not to have oats in them. Live and learn! In the future I'll just stick with the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips.

I'm very grateful for our sweet little boy, and I'm very grateful that 8 family members are coming to celebrate with us (my parents will be spending 7 hours in the car today driving to and from our house). It should be a very special day!!!