Chiropractor and First Restaurant Visit!

We had a family chiropractor appointment night tonight. We hadn't gone since July! Since the last time we were there, the receptionist had had a baby and was OFF maternity leave, and her little girl is now 13 weeks old. Sad. We LOVE going to the chiropractor, but since a certain little someone doesn't like to be strapped into the car for a 2 hr round-trip car ride (yes...we drive an hour for our chiropractor. That's how much we truly love him), we put it off. And we put it off. Until tonight :)

It was sooo great to be back there. The car ride there wasn't too shabby. I sat in the backseat, as I often do these days when Kevin is driving, and played with Colin a little and pumped and fed him a bottle--while he was buckled up, of course. We got to the appointment, and Dr. S. adjusted us (ahhhh--so good) and then Colin. He felt a little tension in his neck by--guess what? His left ear. The ear that had been getting infected. He reminded us that we were doing it all backwards--maintenance, maintenance, maintenance keeps the ear infections and everything else away. Kevin and I made a commitment tonight to go to the chiro about once a month.

Dr. S. asked us if we were using baby signs, which I've wanted to do so badly, but when those feeding times arise, I always forget about them! He says he still uses them with his 8- and 5-year old sons for non-verbal communication situations.

After our awesome appointments, we went to Culvers (!) for dinner. We packed some sweet potatoes for Colin and ordered some delicious food for ourselves. We plopped little man in the high chair, and he gobbled down his food. He can eat an entire little container of 1st foods now without any problem. He was a polite patron and didn't make nearly as much of a mess of himself there as he does at home. I even did a little bit of baby signing ("more" and "all done").

On the ride home, he drank the rest of his bottle and fell asleep until we pulled into the garage. Now let's hope his adjustment holds for another month. After tonight's surprisingly pleasant experience, we feel comfortable enough to eat out again soon!

In honor of Dr. Ferber

Click: Sleep training from a baby's perspective

Our sleep training that we started on Monday has gone well. It started rough the first night, taking 2 hrs to get him to sleep, with reassuring him in measured time intervals. The next night was so much better, and continues to get better still.

Here is our new routine, which hopefully won't be disrupted until Thanksgiving when we'll be staying over night at Gma and Gpa J's (and maybe we can still keep it there, too).
7:30-7:45--Colin gets his last dose of milk for the night.
8:00 (no later!)--Bath time
8:10--Calendula cream applied, PJs on
8:20--Bedtime stories in the rocking chair
8:30--Mommy puts Colin in the crib, and Colin cries about it.
8:35-8:40ish--Daddy goes in. Colin rolls onto to his side and is ready to go to sleep.
Somewhere between 2 am-4 am some nights--wakes up on his belly. Parent rolls him to his back, sticks in the nukster, and he's back to sleep until 6:30 am.

Seriously. He won't resign himself to go to sleep until Kevin goes in there to say goodnight. We let him cry for 15 min the other night. Kev went in his room, and he was out. Tonight we pushed the crying back to just 5 min, then Kevin went in and he was out. Tomorrow night maybe we'll try putting him in his crib together and see if he doesn't cry at all. The dude is so particular!

6 month appointment and a vent

We had Colin's 6 month appointment today. Here's how he measures up:

Weight: 18 lbs, 3 oz puts him in the 75th percentile
Height: 27 7/8 inches puts him in the 90th percentile
Head circumference: 50th percentile
Technically, Colin outgrows his carseat when he reaches 29 inches, so according to growth charts, that's when he's about 7 months old. We're going to give the Britax a try this weekend and see how it goes.

The highlight of the appointment was when Dr. R asked, "What kind of formula are you using?" and I proudly said, "None!" I think it was at that point that Kevin realized how big of a feat it is to go 6 months without using formula. Dr. R. was quite impressed as well.

We talked about how he doesn't have an ear infection (daycare thought he did when I dropped him off this morning...they need to stop diagnosing my kid every day, thankyouverymuch). We talked about his possible oatmeal and sulfa allergies, veggies and fruits, and my thoughts of buying an otoscope (the ear looker-inner doctors use) from WallyWorld to check his ears if I need to (to prove daycare wrong OR to know I'm using my time and money wisely going to the doctor).

He checked out healthy and got his DTaP, Hep B, and rotavirus vaccinations, and we were good to go! Aside from an appointment to get his next batch of shots, his next appointment isn't until 9 months.

And now I'll revert back to the daycare bit...all in all I'm happy with the care there. BUT. Lordy are they tattle-talers. Granted, it's their job and I want to know if something isn't right. But just because something is different doesn't mean Colin is sick. Case in point: Up until a few days ago, Colin was drinking somewhere around 18-22 oz of milk at daycare. Yesterday he drank 14 oz, and today he only drank 9 oz. Yes...of course that is a drastic difference. Thank you for bringing it to my attention (as if I didn't notice). But no...he doesn't have an ear infection. He has a cold. He may be teething. Stop playing doctor and make me worry all day long about how much he's eating or that he might be sick again. Because that's what I did all day long today. Maybe they need an otoscope there so they can get off my case.

One last bit. We've done a little Ferberizing, as opposed to Fockerizing ;), this week, and I'm so happy to say that Colin is falling asleep on his own in his crib now after a little bit of crying/soothing. Every night the crying gets less and less. I thought it was kind of cute this morning when I went to peek at him, and he was sleeping on his belly in the corner of his crib facing the opposite way we lay him down.

Okay...I'm done. Bedtime!

More pictures

If you want to see more of Colin's fabulous 6 month pictures, go to:
Johanna's website
Click on proofing
Enter password: colin

Happy half birthday!

Dear Colin,

It's here. Your half birthday. Already. So awesome, yet so sad at the same time. You're no longer that little bundle of skinny baby who was content sleeping the day away.
In fact, it's hard for us to get you to sleep. We have started to let you cry a little before you go to sleep now. It is no fun, but it's a life lesson you need to learn. Mommy would love so much to rock you to sleep every night until she knows you're down for the count, but your friends would make fun of you at sleepovers 8 years from now if I kept doing that. You're sad about it, but you're a big boy and you're beginning to understand. You need to start sleeping through the night again so Daddy wants to give you a little brother or sister some day.

These days, you're a bundle of boy. Instead of lying on the floor, you'd rather sit up and play with your toys...
...or sit in the box the toys go in.
You are certainly on the move all the time! You like to stand up and do lunges. You don't like to be in one place for very long, which means Mommy and Daddy carry you around a lot. Daddy is excited for you to be able to move around on your own. Mommy can wait a little while longer. Since you hate being on your tummy long enough to figure out that you can learn to scoot or crawl, we think you might be one of those straight-to-walking types of kids. You've loved to stand since you were just a little guy! We'll see what happens. You might surprise us!

Tonight we went to the grocery store and you sat in the shopping cart for the first time, instead of lying in your infant seat. You did a fabulous job! This means that we *think* we're ready to move onto the big boy cowmooflage car seat. You just don't like being in that baby seat anymore, and you're getting pretty heavy to carry around in it anyway.

We're pretty sure you're teething right now. You love munching on your teething rings, and sometimes we feel some little bumps on your lower gums. You're going to look very cute with those pearly whites!

You're still eating rice cereal about twice a day. It's thicker now, and you continue to be a master of the spoon. We've tried little tastes of squash and sweet potato, but not enough to call it a meal. We think you might be allergic to oatmeal cereal, because your eczema seems to get worse the day after you eat it. You have your 6 month appointment in a few days, and we'll ask your doctor what she thinks. We'll also ask about starting your puree foods, just to make sure we're starting with the right ones.

You have the best smile and the best laugh. The word "boo" is sure to get at least one good giggle out of you!

Love you forever, little man!
Mommy

6 month pictures!

Click here: love 'em! to go to Johanna's website to see the sneak peek of Colin's 6 month photo shoot on Saturday. There's even a cute picture of Rocket. Johanna has given me a challenge, and if you know me, you know I love a challenge! If we get 15 comments on her blog post, we get a complimentary 8x10, so comment away, my friends and dear family! :) Don't be afraid.

And no post is complete without a health update. Today Colin stayed home from daycare and developed a spotty rash all over his body. Concerned it was an allergic reaction to his medication, we took him to the doctor (again...), and it is indeed caused by the antibiotic he's on. The doctor said his ear infection is gone, and to stop taking the medicine. Let's hope the ear infection doesn't come back after only 2 days of being on antibiotics, mmmkay? Seriously. When will he be well again?

Just when we thought it was over...

The yeasty diaper rash is gone thanks to some Lotrimin! That stuff works wonders on yeast. Colin is back in his (hopefully yeast-free after a wash with some Grapefruit Seed Extract) cloth diapers as of this morning. Our battle with a mean bout of eczema is almost over too. Colin was eating oatmeal cereal at daycare 2 weeks ago, and slowly his eczema got worse and worse until Sunday when it looked like he had a sunburn on his back. I told daycare to feed him rice cereal this week instead, and we lubed him up with some California Baby cream, and he's almost as good as new. So I'm not sure what caused the eczema...could have been oatmeal. We'll try it again slowly in a week or so and see if it comes back. If it does, we could be dealing with a possible food allergy.

Daycare called me at work yesterday morning at about 8:20, saying that Colin had a temp of 100.7 and had to be picked up. Kevin and his mom picked him up. Grandma F. stayed with him all day and monitored his temp. It never got that high at home. Grrrrr I thought. He got sent home for a teething temp.

This morning, Johanna came for Colin's 6 month photo shoot, which went outstandingly well. He was surprisingly quite cooperative despite no morning nap, and Johanna says she got some great shots, which we're all looking forward to seeing soon! After she left, we decided to play it safe and go get little man checked out so that we can tell daycare that his temp is due to teething, not anything else. And on the "off chance" it was something more than teething, we didn't want to end up in the ER at 3 am like we were a month ago.

God love Joe, our favorite physician assistant who was working the urgent care shift today. He walked in the room, and I told him, "I feel like we're always here." Because seriously, that's what it feels like. Aside from his well child checks at 2 weeks, 2 months, and 4 months, and two additional vaccine-only appointments (because we split his shots), we've been in the clinic 3 other times. And, for the record, 2 of the 3 times ended up warranting some doctor help. Anyway...Joe just smiled and got down to business. 3 minutes later, he decided that Colin still has his ear infection and prescribed some numbing ear drops (hallelujah!) and a different antibiotic. Let's hope this one doesn't bring the yeasties back out.

I thought breastfeeding was supposed to keep the ear infections at bay. And the eczema too. Colin sure is his parents' child. Ear infections = us, sensitive skin = Kev, allergies = me.

And one final thought. Colin's not a sick baby complainer. He just goes about his day as scheduled despite having a fever. He's very much like my brother, who, after getting his wisdom teeth pulled out one morning ate pizza for lunch. I guess I'm grateful, but I'd also like some other indication that he's not feeling well.