Just a very quick update:
A couple of days ago, I spotted William's first tooth poking through!!! :-) Very exciting!
William loves to jump in his jumper, and if I ask whether he wants to get out (by stretching out my arms), he will indicate to me if he does by reaching up with his own arms.
William babbles and "talks" and laughs a lot. I love it!
He's been eating some solid foods for a couple of months, but still doesn't really seem to like them a whole lot. He generally likes the fruits & veggies (apart from peaches which he HATES), but does not so much like the cereal or meat. He still 'needs' the foods to be fairly runny (e.g. applesauce) or he starts gagging.
William can manipulate and grab his toys, and he enjoys playing with them, though his attention span for any one toy is fairly short. He likes his mirror; he talks and smiles when he sees himself in it, but I'm not sure if he recognizes yet that it's HIM. Right now William especially seems to like block-like toys and rubbery plastic toys he can chew on (his dinos, and little rubber ducky & frog).
William likes to be tickled and laughed at and blown on. He loves to be held up high in the air and then "fall" down. He likes to ride on Daddy's shoulders and pull Daddy's hair. He loves to pull hair and have our faces really close to his! He also likes to stand up and can support himself quite well on his feet (with us holding him, of course). Since the Thanksgiving weekend, he's been able to sit upright on his own without support, though we have to be behind him to catch him if he falls backwards (mostly when he's tired).
He absolutely loves to try to crawl...a very frustrating endeavour since he can't coordinate his movements yet. He can get on his hands & knees. He can get on his hands & feet (tiptoes), so it looks like he's trying to do push-ups. He can scoot his bum & legs forward, but the main impediment to his crawling right now is that he's not moving his hands forward while in the on-hands-and-knees-or-feet position. Soon he will learn that too and he'll be off!!!! He will be very excited to crawl! Already he scooches around on the floor and can twirl himself around and move especially backwards (sort of slithering).
Okay, gotta go and check on the little guy! :-)
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Monday, October 29, 2007
Wow, is there ever a ton that I didn't post about!! It's really hard to find time to get on the computer for more than a minute and write about how William is (and we are) doing!
Well, we guessed it would happen sooner or later. It happened today. No, I'm not pregnant again (phew!).... William rolled off the bed. I had just left the room for a moment (gone less than 2 minutes, to get some lunch) and suddenly, everything from the bedroom was still. I had a split-second sense of what happened, and then the crying began. Sure enough: I went in the bedroom and didn't see the little guy, he'd falled onto the floor.
Fortunately, he seems perfectly fine after a minute's worth of crying and being held by me. No bruises, bumps, or symptoms of any kind that I can see. I called the pediatrician and the nurse asked me some questions and said he was probably okay, but that I could bring him in if I wanted to. I phoned Darryl and looked up some on the internet, and it seems this is very very common (infants falling off beds), and they are almost always okay. We will just be keeping an eye on him over the next 24 hours, and if there's still nothing out of the ordinary, we'll be very thankful and make sure to watch him more carefully.
William only starting rolling fully over last week, during Grandma & Grampa's visit. Now he does it with confidence! He had already been able to roll from his back, over his left side, onto his tummy, but would then get supremely frustrated at not being able to do anything else! Now he will keep on rolling. He also scooches up and down the bed (i.e. forwards and backwards), using his legs and his face mostly. He is not so mobile yet on the harder surface of the floor in his bedroom.
Hopefully I will have some time soon again to post more about William and:
- teething
- 4 month checkup
- crankiness, fusiness, whining, no sleeping!
- solid foods
- our daily routine
I can't believe our little guy is almost 5 months old already!
Well, we guessed it would happen sooner or later. It happened today. No, I'm not pregnant again (phew!).... William rolled off the bed. I had just left the room for a moment (gone less than 2 minutes, to get some lunch) and suddenly, everything from the bedroom was still. I had a split-second sense of what happened, and then the crying began. Sure enough: I went in the bedroom and didn't see the little guy, he'd falled onto the floor.
Fortunately, he seems perfectly fine after a minute's worth of crying and being held by me. No bruises, bumps, or symptoms of any kind that I can see. I called the pediatrician and the nurse asked me some questions and said he was probably okay, but that I could bring him in if I wanted to. I phoned Darryl and looked up some on the internet, and it seems this is very very common (infants falling off beds), and they are almost always okay. We will just be keeping an eye on him over the next 24 hours, and if there's still nothing out of the ordinary, we'll be very thankful and make sure to watch him more carefully.
William only starting rolling fully over last week, during Grandma & Grampa's visit. Now he does it with confidence! He had already been able to roll from his back, over his left side, onto his tummy, but would then get supremely frustrated at not being able to do anything else! Now he will keep on rolling. He also scooches up and down the bed (i.e. forwards and backwards), using his legs and his face mostly. He is not so mobile yet on the harder surface of the floor in his bedroom.
Hopefully I will have some time soon again to post more about William and:
- teething
- 4 month checkup
- crankiness, fusiness, whining, no sleeping!
- solid foods
- our daily routine
I can't believe our little guy is almost 5 months old already!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
July 27 - July 29
We took William to North Alabama to see Mayme & Gramps and to meet his aunts, uncles, cousins and great-grandparents. On Saturday afternoon, Sandra hosted a meet-and-greet for William at their house. Present were: Mayme & Gramps, Aunt Susan & Uncle Tommy, Drew, Chris, Uncle Allen, Emma, Anna Grace, Ethan, Great-Aunt Rhonda & Great-Uncle James, Matt & Julie, Lucy, Silas (we hadn’t seen Matt & Julie for several years, not since Lucy was about 6 months old or so!), Mike & Carey, Matthew (who had grown so much over the last 2 months since we’d last seen him; what a happy baby, and such chubby little arms and legs!), Brad, Fred & Elaine, Mickey & Sally.
William was being, in general, a bit fussy and wanted mostly to sleep or eat. So not many people held him. I don’t know if they wanted to; not many people asked. But it was really nice to see everyone again, and for Darryl’s relatives to finally meet our cute little son. We were given some nice gifts for William: a monogrammed blanket and burp cloths from Brad; two books from Tommy & Susan, two large-sized Osh-Kosh outfits from Fred & Elaine; a Target gift card from Mickey & Sally (Sally had also brought a cake); a portable high chair/booster seat and a baptismal-type gown from Mike & Carey; frog toys and bath accessories from Matt & Julie; two long-sleeved, larger size outfits from Sandra & Jerry;….? Thanks to everyone for the gifts and moreso for the company!
Later that evening, we ordered pizza and had a low-key, belated birthday ‘celebration’ for Sandra. The kids watched a movie, Emma held William for a bit, several of the kids enjoyed stroking William’s head or touching his feet and hands, and William seemed especially taken with Anna Grace. Unfortunately, all the excitement seemed to have overstimulated William and Darryl had to take him into the bedroom, swaddle him up and rock him in the dimmed room.
On Sunday, we visited Mawmaw & Pawpaw Hadder with the added bonus that Uncle Dale was there. And then we visited Miss Della, who held William for a while. Darryl noticed that William’s tongue is more white than usual (it had been white towards the back for a while; I thought it was formula and that he had a ‘fuzzy’ tongue like I do), and white even towards the front. He asked Sandra about it and she thought it might be thrush, which made perfect sense to me once I heard that. I don’t know why I didn’t consider it and I felt badly for not having thought about it before. It also makes sense because near the end of our stay in Canada, I had these sort of raised lighter-coloured areas on my lips, more on the inside of my mouth. And I had some white spots on the inside of my mouth, and my right tonsil got swollen. So I think that either I gave the thrush to William or vice versa (Darryl & I often do a quick ‘clean’ of William’s pacifier by sticking it in our mouths). Fortunately we take William to the pediatrician on Thursday; thrush shouldn’t pose any problems for William, but I will do a search online later to see what I can find out.
Some things about William:
It seems like he might be getting more influence now from my toes… his second toe is starting to curve outwards and his fourth toe is starting to curve quite a bit inwards (like me!). Hopefully, though, the genetic influence of Darryl’s long, lovely toes will mitigate this and William’s toes will at least be nicer-looking than mine.
William’s eyelashes are getting long. When he was born, you couldn’t really see any eyelashes on his eyes, and he had his eyes tightly shut. Since then, his upper eyelashes have been growing out and are now getting quite long, and over the past 3 weeks or so I’ve noticed that he ‘sprouted’ lower eyelashes, which are now growing out as well. His eyebrows are also now more noticeable, and the hair on the top and sides of his head is getting longer and is very soft. The longer ‘baby hair’ on the back of his head still hasn’t really fallen out. Sometimes I think William’s hair and eyebrows look reddish, but it’s hard to know if that’s just a trick of the light.
When William gives us a really big smile, that’s the best thing in the world!!!!
Last week sometime, when I was changing William on the Pack & Play changing pad, he was looking at the mobile and it looked like he was trying to reach out for it with his right hand. He really likes that Winnie the Pooh mobile a lot. He hasn’t seemed to notice the farm mobile in his crib yet. Maybe the plastic animals are too small?
I think William is starting to learn that he can punch things with his hands. I had the twirly-whirly toy that Kate gave us on the Pack & Play, with the stuffed animals dangling from the changing pad, and he seemed to enjoy hitting them with his fists. He also enjoyed putting the cow stuffed animal in his mouth! William does well now spending “alert & awake” times in his Pack & Play, just looking at everything (mobile, blinds, twirly-whirly toy). I think the crib and all its toys and paraphernalia is maybe just a bit overstimulative at this point: he gets fussy if I have him in there for more than about 10 min.
Sometime just before going to Canada, we learned that William will have a spot at St. Bede’s Child Development Center daycare in Montgomery. This is the daycare we’d hoped to get William into because it is church-run, it’s in Montgomery (vs. Auburn, so more convenient when I get a different job and if we both work in Montgomery it’ll give us more leeway for choosing where to live if we wish to move), and it seems to be of a good quality. They also have webcams which will allow us (and curious grandparents!) to check in on William during the day. I was very excited to find out William will be going to St. Bede’s!
A cute thing about William closing his fingers into a fist: nowadays, when he does that, he doesn’t keep his thumb under his fingers; rather, his thumb is tucked only under his index finger and so rests above his middle finger. This is interesting because often when I close my own fingers into a fist, I have my thumb tucked under my index and middle fingers.
William has recently become a lot more expressive with his hands. He has not really seemed to just look at his hands, the way many babies do, but it seems he knows that he can control them, or at least he uses them to express himself. He will bring his hands (whether in fists or not) up to his mouth and face when he is hungry (often he’ll sort of jab his face or eyes in the process). He definitely tries to “hold” his bottle more now, or “hold up” your fingers while you’re holding his bottle. He will use his hands to try and get a pacifier or bottle away from his mouth. He’s starting to seem like he’s trying to reach for things, but it’s hard to know whether that is an accurate observation at this point. And when he’s resting, William will move his hands and flex his fingers, make little gestures with his hands and just shape his fingers into different configurations (e.g. “hang ten”). I noticed that when he is unsure of his surroundings, like when we were at Mayme & Gramps’ and there were tons of people around and tons of noises, he will keep his hands in fists (even while sleeping) instead of having his hands open.
We took William to North Alabama to see Mayme & Gramps and to meet his aunts, uncles, cousins and great-grandparents. On Saturday afternoon, Sandra hosted a meet-and-greet for William at their house. Present were: Mayme & Gramps, Aunt Susan & Uncle Tommy, Drew, Chris, Uncle Allen, Emma, Anna Grace, Ethan, Great-Aunt Rhonda & Great-Uncle James, Matt & Julie, Lucy, Silas (we hadn’t seen Matt & Julie for several years, not since Lucy was about 6 months old or so!), Mike & Carey, Matthew (who had grown so much over the last 2 months since we’d last seen him; what a happy baby, and such chubby little arms and legs!), Brad, Fred & Elaine, Mickey & Sally.
William was being, in general, a bit fussy and wanted mostly to sleep or eat. So not many people held him. I don’t know if they wanted to; not many people asked. But it was really nice to see everyone again, and for Darryl’s relatives to finally meet our cute little son. We were given some nice gifts for William: a monogrammed blanket and burp cloths from Brad; two books from Tommy & Susan, two large-sized Osh-Kosh outfits from Fred & Elaine; a Target gift card from Mickey & Sally (Sally had also brought a cake); a portable high chair/booster seat and a baptismal-type gown from Mike & Carey; frog toys and bath accessories from Matt & Julie; two long-sleeved, larger size outfits from Sandra & Jerry;….? Thanks to everyone for the gifts and moreso for the company!
Later that evening, we ordered pizza and had a low-key, belated birthday ‘celebration’ for Sandra. The kids watched a movie, Emma held William for a bit, several of the kids enjoyed stroking William’s head or touching his feet and hands, and William seemed especially taken with Anna Grace. Unfortunately, all the excitement seemed to have overstimulated William and Darryl had to take him into the bedroom, swaddle him up and rock him in the dimmed room.
On Sunday, we visited Mawmaw & Pawpaw Hadder with the added bonus that Uncle Dale was there. And then we visited Miss Della, who held William for a while. Darryl noticed that William’s tongue is more white than usual (it had been white towards the back for a while; I thought it was formula and that he had a ‘fuzzy’ tongue like I do), and white even towards the front. He asked Sandra about it and she thought it might be thrush, which made perfect sense to me once I heard that. I don’t know why I didn’t consider it and I felt badly for not having thought about it before. It also makes sense because near the end of our stay in Canada, I had these sort of raised lighter-coloured areas on my lips, more on the inside of my mouth. And I had some white spots on the inside of my mouth, and my right tonsil got swollen. So I think that either I gave the thrush to William or vice versa (Darryl & I often do a quick ‘clean’ of William’s pacifier by sticking it in our mouths). Fortunately we take William to the pediatrician on Thursday; thrush shouldn’t pose any problems for William, but I will do a search online later to see what I can find out.
Some things about William:
It seems like he might be getting more influence now from my toes… his second toe is starting to curve outwards and his fourth toe is starting to curve quite a bit inwards (like me!). Hopefully, though, the genetic influence of Darryl’s long, lovely toes will mitigate this and William’s toes will at least be nicer-looking than mine.
William’s eyelashes are getting long. When he was born, you couldn’t really see any eyelashes on his eyes, and he had his eyes tightly shut. Since then, his upper eyelashes have been growing out and are now getting quite long, and over the past 3 weeks or so I’ve noticed that he ‘sprouted’ lower eyelashes, which are now growing out as well. His eyebrows are also now more noticeable, and the hair on the top and sides of his head is getting longer and is very soft. The longer ‘baby hair’ on the back of his head still hasn’t really fallen out. Sometimes I think William’s hair and eyebrows look reddish, but it’s hard to know if that’s just a trick of the light.
When William gives us a really big smile, that’s the best thing in the world!!!!
Last week sometime, when I was changing William on the Pack & Play changing pad, he was looking at the mobile and it looked like he was trying to reach out for it with his right hand. He really likes that Winnie the Pooh mobile a lot. He hasn’t seemed to notice the farm mobile in his crib yet. Maybe the plastic animals are too small?
I think William is starting to learn that he can punch things with his hands. I had the twirly-whirly toy that Kate gave us on the Pack & Play, with the stuffed animals dangling from the changing pad, and he seemed to enjoy hitting them with his fists. He also enjoyed putting the cow stuffed animal in his mouth! William does well now spending “alert & awake” times in his Pack & Play, just looking at everything (mobile, blinds, twirly-whirly toy). I think the crib and all its toys and paraphernalia is maybe just a bit overstimulative at this point: he gets fussy if I have him in there for more than about 10 min.
Sometime just before going to Canada, we learned that William will have a spot at St. Bede’s Child Development Center daycare in Montgomery. This is the daycare we’d hoped to get William into because it is church-run, it’s in Montgomery (vs. Auburn, so more convenient when I get a different job and if we both work in Montgomery it’ll give us more leeway for choosing where to live if we wish to move), and it seems to be of a good quality. They also have webcams which will allow us (and curious grandparents!) to check in on William during the day. I was very excited to find out William will be going to St. Bede’s!
A cute thing about William closing his fingers into a fist: nowadays, when he does that, he doesn’t keep his thumb under his fingers; rather, his thumb is tucked only under his index finger and so rests above his middle finger. This is interesting because often when I close my own fingers into a fist, I have my thumb tucked under my index and middle fingers.
William has recently become a lot more expressive with his hands. He has not really seemed to just look at his hands, the way many babies do, but it seems he knows that he can control them, or at least he uses them to express himself. He will bring his hands (whether in fists or not) up to his mouth and face when he is hungry (often he’ll sort of jab his face or eyes in the process). He definitely tries to “hold” his bottle more now, or “hold up” your fingers while you’re holding his bottle. He will use his hands to try and get a pacifier or bottle away from his mouth. He’s starting to seem like he’s trying to reach for things, but it’s hard to know whether that is an accurate observation at this point. And when he’s resting, William will move his hands and flex his fingers, make little gestures with his hands and just shape his fingers into different configurations (e.g. “hang ten”). I noticed that when he is unsure of his surroundings, like when we were at Mayme & Gramps’ and there were tons of people around and tons of noises, he will keep his hands in fists (even while sleeping) instead of having his hands open.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
July 18 - July 24
We spent a really nice week in Canada! William is now officially an international traveler! In brief, here’s an account of our visit:
Thursday morning, Debra & Trevor came over and met our little man. Katherine came over in the evening, and Uncle Dave held William for all of about 5 minutes after work!
Friday, Mom drove us to Pap’s work so that the proud Grampa could show off his grandson to his work colleagues. All the women were definitely fawning over William and everyone thought he was a very good-looking baby.
In the evening, my friends came over to meet my son! Yemisi had driven from Ottawa, and Evelyn picked up Rie after work. Yemisi and Rie gave us some bath products (how nice to get shower gifts for the parents too!), and Evelyn gave us a cute Winnie the Pooh outfit set for about 6 months of age, as well as a gorgeous scrapbook she’s made for William, to which we need only add photos. It was obvious that she put a lot of time and thought into it and, like everything Evelyn does, it is so neat and looks absolutely great! Thanks to all of you! It was really nice to see everyone again, though we didn’t have nearly enough time to visit.
Saturday, we drove to London to attend Steve & Marie’s wedding. We got to see not only Steve & Marie, but most of the other relatives too: Uncle Owen, Tante Helga, Jon & Renee (whom I had never met before), Karl, Katie, Peter, Uncle Peter, Tante Hilde, Eric (best man), Sara (bridesmaid), Uncle Nick, Tante Dorothy, Scott & Jen (Jen makes pregnancy look good J), and Reimers. It was a nice wedding, and William was a bit hit! In fact, Darryl & I didn’t really get him for much of the evening as he was being held much by his proud grandparents and other relatives. It was maybe a bit overstimulative for William, though….
Sunday, we drove home from London (Mom had taken care of William during the night while Darryl & I each slept on a separate queen-sized bed….luxurious!) and spent a bit of time with Dave & Katherine.
Monday, Kate came over and got to meet our little guy!
Tuesday, we went over to Tante Helga’s for lunch and Jon and Katie joined us. It was nice to get to spend some time there. Afterwards, we visited Oma & Opa, where Tante Marichen stopped in for a while too. I’m really glad Oma & Opa got to meet William, and Oma held William for a time. That visit, too, was far too short, because it was time to head off to the airport and go home.
I wondered how William would do on the plane. Both times he slept for much of the time, feeding sometimes. I think he probably did so well in part because he was held in our arms. I thought the air pressure difference, ascending or descending, would bother him and so I tried to make sure to have a pacifier or bottle in his mouth at those times. But William didn’t seem to be phased; at least, he didn’t give us any indication that he was bothered at all.
So: it was a great trip though the time passed by too quickly! We hope to go up again at Christmas. That’ll be the next time Pap sees William and by then he’ll be about 6 months old and who knows what all he’ll be doing or how big he’ll be!
William’s weight: 10 lbs, 8 oz! What a chubster! He is definitely filling out and he has a moon-face and quite thick little thighs. He definitely has little rolls of fat and folds of skin that we have to be sure to clean.
This afternoon, we drove to Atlanta and took a 2-hour flight to Buffalo, after which Mom picked us up and drove us to Mississauga! William did very well on the plane: he mostly slept (in our arms) and didn’t fuss or cry. I thought the air pressure would bother him and I tried to make sure he had a pacifier or bottle on the ascent and descent; it didn’t seem to phase him at all.
This afternoon, we drove to Atlanta and took a 2-hour flight to Buffalo, after which Mom picked us up and drove us to Mississauga! William did very well on the plane: he mostly slept (in our arms) and didn’t fuss or cry. I thought the air pressure would bother him and I tried to make sure he had a pacifier or bottle on the ascent and descent; it didn’t seem to phase him at all.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
After a really hard and awful decision, I decided to put Calico & Tiger to sleep today. Calico had lost so much weight over the last few weeks (though I had been so busy with William, I hardly paid her much attention at all) and was having liquid diarrhea all over the house. I thought it was just her, but it turned out Tiger was having liquid diarrhea too, and it was clearly painful for him to have a movement. Both of the cats had trouble lying down (it took them a while and it looked painful/uncomfortable), and neither was eating very well, especially Calico. It was so sad. I gave them deli meats and treats and tried to talk to them, to apologize for having ignored them over the past number of months and to tell them that I love them. I took Tiger outside, to give him a chance to have a nice experience, and he walked around the front yard from one side to the other, and chased a mormon cricket. Seeing him outside like that, and seeing that his weight was pretty good and his coat was shiny and soft, it made it even sadder to say goodbye because he seemed so okay and normal. I decided not to take Calico outside because she was so fragile, really, I didn’t think she would particularly want to go. I put them in the carrier and Darryl went with them to the vet. Afterwards, we buried their little bodies with the red blankets that were their cat beds and some toys by the side of our house. I can’t believe how much I miss them, and I feel awful because I had been neglecting them pretty much ever since I’d gotten pregnant, and especially in the last few months.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Well, the new formula seems to be making his poops more dryish and green. I guess this is a product of the Bifidus cultures it contains. His poops are also stinky now!
Today William came with me to my 6-week obstetrician appointment. Everything checked out okay and I saw that Dr. Alverson had received William’s birth announcement. Everyone thought William was very cute. He did get fussy towards the end, though, since he was very hungry. I fed him in the car (an hour-long process!!) and changed him, and got to Auburn just in time to get some insurance paperwork filled out before they closed for lunch. Essentially, I would like to get my AU insurance terminated so I can add myself onto Darryl’s insurance. William has already been added, and it would cost us no more to have me added as well.
After getting back home, we were going to attempt a walk in the new Infantino baby carrier, but after getting the little man in there, he started showing how hungry he was and so that was the end of that!
William is interested in his pack & play mobile. He has been for about a week and a half. He also seems to be interested in seeing himself in the mirror. And today he was looking at the F-P Rainforest Soother crib attachment with music and lights. I like to give him some playtime every day, during his awake & alert periods. This might be to put him in the vibrating seat and/or take him for a walk and/or put him in his crib with his toys. He really enjoys playtime, but it only lasts for about 10 min. or so before William gets overstimulated (presumably) and fussy (often hungry).
Today William came with me to my 6-week obstetrician appointment. Everything checked out okay and I saw that Dr. Alverson had received William’s birth announcement. Everyone thought William was very cute. He did get fussy towards the end, though, since he was very hungry. I fed him in the car (an hour-long process!!) and changed him, and got to Auburn just in time to get some insurance paperwork filled out before they closed for lunch. Essentially, I would like to get my AU insurance terminated so I can add myself onto Darryl’s insurance. William has already been added, and it would cost us no more to have me added as well.
After getting back home, we were going to attempt a walk in the new Infantino baby carrier, but after getting the little man in there, he started showing how hungry he was and so that was the end of that!
William is interested in his pack & play mobile. He has been for about a week and a half. He also seems to be interested in seeing himself in the mirror. And today he was looking at the F-P Rainforest Soother crib attachment with music and lights. I like to give him some playtime every day, during his awake & alert periods. This might be to put him in the vibrating seat and/or take him for a walk and/or put him in his crib with his toys. He really enjoys playtime, but it only lasts for about 10 min. or so before William gets overstimulated (presumably) and fussy (often hungry).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)