What can I tell you about my boy? He loves his bottle. He seems to believe that if we are not actively feeding him that he might waste away before our very eyes; something that that the roles on his thighs suggest is not likely. He also loves the bath. Apparently, splashing mommy is a wonderful game, as is “how much water can we get on the floor.” He’s skin is looking so much better. Most of his scabs are gone and luckily he never got many pox on his face so he’s looking very handsome these days. He will have some scaring on his back and neck but I’m hopeful that it’ll be minimal.

He never sleeps for more than 3 hours at a stretch (yawn) and Must. Eat. Upon. Waking. Even if he’s only been sleeping for 10 minutes and just ate before going to bed. I swear he has gained about 2 pounds in the last week…This is surely contributing to the chronic backache I now sport from hauling “Chubby” around all day.

After a rocky start, he has finally decided that his sisters are pretty cool. Cookie is especially good with. Yesterday she sat and played with him on the playroom floor for almost an hour (until he decided he’d waited long enough and need to eat, AGAIN). Princess is less enamored of her brother constant neediness and is retaliating by throwing monster fits the likes of which I haven’t seen since Cookie join our family 3 and ½ years ago. You’d think she’d be a little old for it but she is my drama queen…ummm drama princess? She never takes her frustrations out on the baby though; she saves that for her parents.

I started back to work on Monday and you’d think I was bringing a rock star with me. The women here at the office love cute babies and Smiley is about as cute as they come. He’s still in the stage where he is happy to go to anyone and I’m having a hard time convincing people not to take him when he holds his little arms out to be picked up. I really want him to learn that we are his primary caregivers and will meet all of his needs. I think he’s starting to get the idea because he’s starting to be a little more demanding than he was a first. When we first met him he was content to lay down for long periods of time with little or no interaction. Now he is definitely showing a preference for being up and about. He gets a lot of sling or backpack time as well as lots of floor play time with mom and the girls.

He had his first doctor’s appointment on Monday and got the all clear on the chicken pox front. He’s doing well on all of developmental milestones although our Ped feels that he needs a lot more tummy time to develop his upper body strength. He’s a good roller so getting him to stay on his tummy for any length of time is challenging. He prefers to be on his back when he’s awake and sleeps mostly on his side.

He has been wheezing really badly since we picked him up and the Dr had us start him on antibiotics last week to see if we could clear that up. When she saw him on Monday the chest congestion had not improved so we did a nublizer treatment and she sent us home with a little baby inhaler to try and open up his breathing passages. He also got his TB skin test done and we talked about blood tests and vaccinations.

His breathing hasn’t improved since then and we are now doing a second round of antibiotics. The Dr is worried that he may develop pneumonia or that it could be asthma. If it doesn’t clear up by next Monday we may be doing a chest x-ray to see what’s going on in there. Luckily for us, his TB test came back ok. He’d had the TB vaccine so he did have some reaction to the skin test but was still with in the test parameters so will not need any interventions. I have several vials at home to collect stool samples and haven’t really gotten on that yet…fun! Tomorrow we take Smiley to the lab to get his blood test done and I’m really not looking forward to that.

It’s been interesting adjusting to having a baby in the house again. Although it hasn’t been that long since Cookie was a baby, it’s funny all the things you forget about. Like how hard it is to get a shower, or eating dinner in shifts, or always having another person touching you. Three kids seems like a lot more that two when it comes to getting out the door in the morning or cycling through bath time. It also seems like a lot more when it’s time for cuddles and mom’s lap is already full.

I also forgot how amazing it feels to have a baby curl into you when they sleep on you shoulder and how amazing the big open mouth kisses are. I love gazing into his huge brown eyes as kissing his little fingers in the quite of the night as we have a midnight bottle. This mom gig is hard but ultimately the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I think this quote just sums it up.

In raising my children, I have lost my mind but found my soul. -Lisa T. Shepherd

posted at 9:53 AM  
Labels: Family