Breathing Treatments

We took Nate back to the doctor yesterday. After seeing the doctor on Monday he seemed to get a little worse on Tuesday and stayed consistently bad for the rest of the week. I called the nurse line Friday morning and they said it had been a long time for him not to be improving so we brought him in. Dr. K said that the virus he had when he had croup might make his colds worse for up to a year, causing him to be wheezy. The inhaler seemed to be helping with that but she suggested that we try breathing treatments to see if we can get a faster improvement, although she said he could continue coughing for up to two weeks. The only reason to bring him back in will be if he starts having labored breathing. She also gave us a large prescription so that we can use the nebulizer for future colds if he starts wheezing and we won't have to bring him in to the office. She also insisted that we clean out his nose three times a day, even if we have to do it a lot each time to get anything out. I hate doing it at all because Nate hates it so much but I'm following doctor's orders.

We had a whole situation with the prescription yesterday and this morning (not worth sharing the details) so we weren't able to start the breathing treatments until late this morning. We are supposed to do three per day but we were only able to do two today because of it. I have a picture of the kiddo with the mask on that I hope to post soon. One day, in a dream world when we are all healthy and don't have a ton of extra things on our plate, I hope to upload pictures and post them here. I also hope to update the blog over the summer and make it more interesting to look at.

I'm sure I mentioned it several times but Nate's bottom teeth are really starting to show! I would say it was about two weeks ago that I knew he was definitely getting teeth because I could see the outline through the gums, then at least a week ago they broke through. Now we can see at least one tooth getting ready to break through on the top. I'm sure this is contributing to his misery.

Today was a much better day than any in the last week. Nate was talking and smiling a ton (although he's a pretty smiley baby in general) and I could tell that he's feeling a lot better. He's still really congested and wheezy. He's also still more sleepy than usual. But I was glad to see his spirits up and hope he continues to show great improvements each day. I'm hoping he doesn't have to have breathing treatments at daycare for too long.

Speaking of him talking, he's experimenting with far more syllable sounds. The other day he and I were hanging out and Dan walked in; he swears he heard him say "Mama" but I'm certain he was just babbling. Today he was experimenting with his "b" and "d" sounds.

I think that Nate is going to be on his hands and knees pretty soon and crawling not long after that. He is also trying to pull himself up to the seated position quite often. I remember looking forward to this age, where he can sit and play with a toy but isn't mobile yet, and I'm loving it. I'm not quite ready for him to start moving but I know it'll be here before we know it!

Sick Again

Just when we decided that Nate was going to sleep in his crib all night no matter what, he gets a really bad cold. Saturday night he sounded a bit weazy but had no other cold symptoms. Sunday morning he started getting a bit of a cold and I brought him in to the doctor on Monday. His chest and ears were clear despite the wheezing so the doctor said to put him back on the inhaler three times a day. She said that the worst night would be anywhere from the third to the fifth night. I asked her if it was normal for a baby to be sick three times in a little less than three months and she asked if he was in daycare. Ugh! She said that they expect daycare kiddos to be sick ten times per year. Ten times?!

I'm hanging my hat on a study that I read when I went back to work. It said that kids get sick the same amount in their first five years of life whether or not they went to daycare, suggesting that daycare kids get sick more often when they start daycare and other kids get sick more often when they start school. I'm looking at this as a positive: while other kids will be getting sick when they start school, Nate will be there learning every day, strong immunity and all! One of my girlfriends from college just went back to work on Tuesday and her kiddo already has a cold. I empathized with her on her facebook post and told her about this study. Somebody else quickly commented that her little girl didn't get her first cold until she was 2 years old and misses school all of the time; she never went to daycare. I'm taking this as encouragement.

Nate doesn't appear to be getting any better. Since the third and the fifth night have past, I'm considering bringing him back to the doctor tomorrow. Dan is going to stay home with Nate because I've already missed too much work. I will call in the morning and see what the nurses say (or have Dan call).

I have been planning on meeting up with a few of my good Tesoro friends tomorrow for a birthday happy hour. I'm really having a hard time with convincing myself to go, despite Dan's urging. He wants me to have fun but I feel so guilty for not being home when Nate is sick, especially because he hasn't been taking the bottle as well since he's been sick. I'm going to try to get a coworker to cover the beginning of my fifth period so that I can come home and nurse (and spend time with him, which will ease my mind) during lunch. I'm really hoping that he wakes up a new "man" in the morning but I'm not expecting that to happen!

Today I accepted a friend request on facebook and checked out that person's photos, like I always do when I accept a new friend. She had an album with about 20 pictures from when her daughter was born until when she looked like she was about 5-6 years old. I looked at the pictures, all on one page, and got choked up. I saw this little girl, whom I don't know, grow up on a single page on facebook and I thought about how quickly Nate is going to grow up right before my eyes. I want to cherish every moment as much as I can!

I found out on Tuesday that I'm not going to be able to reduce my schedule for second semester. It's a long story but basically there's a scheduling conflict. I was told that this might happen a couple weeks ago so I had the opportunity to get used to the idea and wasn't incredibly disappointed. It's probably good because we haven't gotten any offers on the house and I'm not certain how much of a pay cut we can afford while still living here. But it makes me even more determined to find a place that we can afford for me to work part time when we do sell this place. I'd love to go down to teaching three classes in the Fall but I'll be happy with teaching four (instead of the standard five).

Speaking of selling the house, there has been a young lady interested in the house since before Christmas. Her Mom lives on 20th St and is helping her with the purchase of a house. They both love our house and have seen everything else in their price range; they don't like anythinge else. We had two Open Houses two weekends ago and they came back both days. Our agent is in communication with them often and the Mom says that the daughter is very deliberate in every decision she makes, so she's not surprised that she's taking a while to make us an offer. Also, the step Dad (who has no money going into the deal) is telling her that we are overpriced. But she wants something in this downtown area so everything here is going to be overpriced! We are actually priced very well for this area. Other than that, our agent hasn't gotten a vibe from the Mom or the daughter that they think the pric is too high or that they are waiting for us to drop our price. I'm staying optimistic and hoping that we won't have to drop our price too much again before we can sell! As much as I can't imagine packing up and moving (for sentimental reasons and because I don't know where we'll find the time), I really want to be in a larger house!!!

A Confident Mama, No More

I used to feel pretty confident about everything that we were doing as parents but now I'm beginning to feel like we are doing everything wrong when it comes to sleep. Shortly after he turned three months old, we transitioned Nate from the Pack N Play in our bedroom to the crib in his room. It was a pretty smooth transition and he began to stretch out his sleep at night until he was sleeping 12 hours right around his four month birthday (right when I went back to work, which I greatly appreciated!). He continued to be a champion sleeper and even let me put him down awake several times, to drift off to sleep on his own. We did nothing special to make any of this happen; Nate did it on his own. I figured babies are on their own timetable and will do things when they are ready.

Then he got sick. And then he got croup. And then he started teething. Up until about a week and a half ago, the poor kid wasn't feeling well for one reason or another for all but about seven days out of the last six weeks. He was waking up like a newborn much of this time and because his room is not so close and up some steep stairs, we would often bring him into bed with us in the middle of the night. (Dan and I were also sick, me twice and Dan once, during this time period, which also contributed to our desire to make things as easy as possible.)

Now we are working on getting him to sleep all night in his crib and hoping for longer sleep stretches. Two of the last three nights he's slept five hours in his crib, I fed him, put him back down, he woke after about 30 min, Dan rocked him and put him back down, then he slept another five hours. After eating the second time he continued to wake up every 30 minutes or less. The first of the two nights we brought him into bed but last night Dan stayed upstairs with him and they slept on the bed up there together. We figured having him in his own room was better than bringing him into ours if he wasn't going to get good rest in his crib.

Once we having him sleeping the entire night in his crib, I'm hoping that the same progression will happen as before, when we first moved him into his crib: he stretched his sleep out and then started to be able to put himself to sleep. Right now, if he doesn't fall asleep eating then we rock him to sleep. Last night he had to be dead asleep for me to be able to put him down in his crib.

We are considering what we will do if things don't work themselves out on their own. A friend from my Moms Group just recently had to have her one year old cry it out in intervals because she has been waking up about eight times per night every night for her entire life. She made it a lot longer than I would have in that situation, that's for sure! As difficult as I know it will be, we may have to resort to CIO if Nate doesn't start being able to put himself to sleep soon. I keep coming up with excuses not to do it just yet though, like "We are going to be moving sometime soon and that's going to ruin any good habits that we've established, so we might as well wait until after we move." Who knows when that's going to be?

Anyway, Nate has been sitting like a champ for a while now and, although he doesn't using rolling as a mode of transportation just yet, he can roll from front to back and vice versa. He also taught himself to clap. The last day of my Winter Break, out of nowhere, he started clapping while he was on the floor playing with his toys. I was sitting on the couch and started clapping back, which cracked him up, then he would clap again. We continued taking turns for a little while. He also bounces to music when it's on and likes making music with his rattles. My Mom said they had a little band going one day last week, Nate on the rattle and her using things from around the house as other instruments. And we have some teeth coming through! I can see the tops of his two center teeth on the bottom. He isn't in pain anymore and has been in a great mood for the last four to five days. (Although his mood during the day was never really bad; it was the night wakings that were the difficult part of this first round of teething for us.)

Right now we are all on the couch watching football. Dan brought the newspaper over for Nate to play with and he is having a great time waving it around. I can already see his hands and feet becoming black with the ink and he has a little spot on his nose, too. It's almost time for his late morning veggies. He has been eating a ton lately!

My Best Winter Break Ever

I have had a great break and am very sad to be going back to work tomorrow. There were a couple of days that I wished I had some form of stimulation besides a 6.5 month old baby but by far, I had the best winter break I've ever had. I feel like Nate has changed so much in the last two weeks and that his daycare provider isn't going to recognize him. I'm not talking about him changing physically (although I swear he gets bigger and bigger every time I turn my head). I'm talking about him doing so much more and needing different things than he did two weeks ago.

He is sitting up like a pro now. It is rare that he tips over; usually only when he's sitting on something unsteady or when he's tired. We have also stopped using the car seat in the stroller; he's using the stroller like a big boy and he loves it! It's a lot easier to go for a run with him in the stroller now without the extra weight of the car seat. And he still prefers drinking out of a big boy glass instead of a sippy cup. He really enjoys water after his meals but sometimes he just takes water into his mouth and then plays with it, spitting it out or letting it dribble down his chin. I know I shouldn't but I can't help myself - I laugh every time.

Speaking of meals, we've had our ups and downs. The poor kid went through the ringer for over a month with the cold, croup, bad cold, ear infection, and then wheezing. He was well for a few days before I had to take him in to get his 6 month shots, which we had postponed until he was feeling better, but of course those made him feel icky for a few days. Poor kiddo!

And speaking of his 6 month shots, I always lean down and shush into his ear when he gets his shots and therefore can't see what's going on. Last week when I was leaning down I saw his face cringe a little and I thought the nurse had used the alcohol wipe but when I looked up, he already had a band aid on. He had gotten a shot without making a peep! The nurse said the second and third ones would burn a little. He made a slight whimper with the second one and a little louder with the third but he didn't cry at all. There were several nurses at the desk right outside of the room we were in and they all said how impressed they were with him. My little trooper!

I think that he is teething. His drool volume has increased and he's chewing on things more feverishly than normal. He's also changed his preference to chewing on hard things over soft. In addition, he often likes to chew on my nose. He will now grab my head and go right for it. I'm sure part of his interest in my nose is to have something to chew on but I also crack up every time he does it so I'm sure that's motivating. I froze some banana pieces and some apple slices and have given them to him in his little mesh chewy thing. I can tell that they give him some relief. I also froze pieces of bagels but he has no interest in those yet.

On New Years Eve we took Nate for his first bike ride in his iBert seat with my Mom and Dan. He fell asleep pretty quickly but while he was awake he enjoyed himself. Then I took the whole gang to the pizza place that I frequent with my New Moms Group in Costa Mesa. The waitress offered to bring Saltines for Nate and I had never thought of giving them to him but they were a hit. I bought him a box of unsalted tops Saltines to have at home. They have contributed to making meal times a bit messier than they used to be. Also, Nate likes to hold his own spoon sometimes and try to feed himself; those are the really messy days!

Lately Nate will be sitting or laying playing with a toy or amusing himself in some other way and all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, he starts laughing. I've started to think that he sees ghosts and they do funny things to make him laugh! That's the running joke I have with him and Dan now. Today he was putting his hands together like he was clapping so I started clapping and he cracked up. Then we took turns clapping, me encouraging him while he clapped and him laughing while I did. It was pretty cool!

I keep notes on my iPhone so that I remember things to write about. One of the notes is "B, g, w." I remember typing it and thinking that I would definitely remember what it means when I got around to blogging. I must have been half asleep when I did that. If I ever remember, I'll write about it!