Doctor Visit

Even though Philip's one year well-baby check up was over a month ago, I still wanted to update the blog on his stats at that time.

The 12-months stats:

• You have 8 teeth
• You weigh 19 pounds 8 ounces, (9%) and you are 29 1/2 inches long (37%)
• You crawl everywhere, coast on the furniture from time to time
• You sleep (for the most part) in your crib every night.  Typically you go to sleep between 7:30 and 8:00 and sleep until 5:00 am, at which point you wake up to be fed, and normally go back to sleep in mama's arms. 
• You say dada, mama, drive cars on the floor while making vrumm noises, and try to bark like a dog when you see a dog.  You laugh a lot, are more personable, let other people hold you (not just mama)
• You sister shares nicely with you and you want to be involved in EVERYTHING she is doing.  Most mornings, if you hear her you practically jump out of bed to crawl to her room.

You are a sweet boy and we are happy to have you as part of our family.

Two Months Old

ALREADY??

Wow, time flies! Philip is two months. We took him to the doctor Thursday morning for his check up and he is growing like a weed! He is 11 pounds 11 ounces (51%) and 23 & 1/2 inches (72%) long...which means that he has gained almost 4 pounds since birth and grown 3 inches!

Before Natalie was born, I asked Phil what type of personality she would have and he said "well, hope it is like mine, because I don't think I could handle two of you." Gotta love his honesty. And he was right, Natalie has a pretty easy going personality, just like her daddy. Which means she is pretty much up for anything, anytime. Stay up late? Okay, sleep in? Okay, No food while we travel? Okay...and we don't have to deal with tantrums (knock on wood). So easy...

Well, I think the opposite is true of Philip...He is totally MY son. He is developing a schedule and let's you know when you aren't doing what he wants when he wants it. If he is hungry - don't mess with him, when he is tired - don't mess with him. He wants to eat, take a bath and go to sleep by 8:30 or 9:00 pm...which is VERY difficult for us, because that is when we are putting Natalie down. He doesn't care, he wants us to accommodate him, which we are trying to do.

I was telling my mom about this schedule he is trying to put us on and how the doctor told us to be ready for tantrums. I said to my mom, "The doctor said that he will throw himself on the ground and freak out...seriously I think he is like me!" My mom said, "yes, sounds like it. When 10:30 rolled around I knew to feed you, otherwise you would scream. When you didn't get your way, you would throw tantrums...in fact there are still marks on the wall from you kicking it." I guess she is telling me what goes around, comes around??

Hope we can adjust our schedule to meet Philip's needs, or that he adjusts his to meet ours :)

love how high his pants are

The Plan

So, we have been on the "plan" for 7 days. One week and multiple doses of medicine later...

A N D...

We might be on to something here! So far, Philip seems do be doing much better. He is happier after he eats and fusses less at night, which is making all of us happier too. We have also discovered that he had/has trouble falling asleep on his own, but if I can rock him to sleep before he gets overtired, he is much more agreeable. In addition to all of this, he has started to smile, which makes all of the lack of sleep, rocking, bouncing, singing, etc. worth it.

For now, I'm not going to try the final step of the plan, dairy elimination; although, I did buy a bunch of soy milk at Costco only to find out that most kids with a dairy allergy also have a soy allergy too...oh well.

24 Month Check-Up

Birthday party photos are coming soon, and a full vacation recap too; but first let's chat about the fact that today we visited the doctor for a twenty-four-month check up. Wrap your head around that. I know yesterday I posted that I am now the mother of a two-year-old, but it really hit me at the doctor today.

While driving there, I looked back at Natalie and she just looks grown up or older, some how. Weird, because that doesn't happen to me on my birthdays :)

The doctor said she is in excellent health. Natalie knows her alphabet (and what words start with what letters, every time she sees an "N" she says "ME!", an "M" for mama, "P" for papa, and "G" for grandma, grandpa and godfather. She knows the numbers up to 10, sings all the time and has even started spelling more and more words. Grandma taught her how to spell hot - she says "h.o.t. hot" and Phil and I take credit for teaching her how to spell milk. We discovered this one morning when I said to Phil, "Glad she didn't need m.i.l.k last night" and she looked at me and said "Milk now please". She is very gracious, always saying please (peeze) when she wants something and when she gets it says "Thank you".

For the stats:

• Weight - 24.0 pounds (16th percentile)
• Height - 34.0 inches (56th percentile)
• 2 booster shots and a nose mist for the flu - she hated all of them!

Overall, she is healthy and happy!

One week ago today

One week ago today, I was working on cleaning the house and getting prepped for the Bridal Shower I was hosting on Saturday. My mom had taken Natalie and our nanny to the park for lunch and play time, while I had the house cleaned and starting cooking. By 4:00 pm my mom was back with Natalie. I took a sleeping Natalie from my mom and noticed that she was on fire. She woke up very soon after we made it into the house, so we took her clothes off and tried to cool her off.

My mom went home and Natalie went back to sleep. By the time we woke her up, around 6:00, she had a fever a little above 104. This is high for our normally healthy baby, which naturally freaked us out. We called the pediatrician on call, who said to give her Motrin, she was probably fighting an infection and if she wasn't better by tomorrow to bring her in. By Saturday she seemed to still have a fever, but was doing a little better. But by Saturday afternoon (once the pediatrician's office was closed) she wasn't better, she was worse. So Saturday night I left the shower early and we drove to the after-hours children's care center.

The doctor examined Natalie and told us that she had tonsillitis, a virus, which didn't require medicine. She told us to keep giving Natalie Motrin and Tylenol every three to four hours, that the virus will last for exactly 72 hours. So we only had a few more days left. By Monday at 4:00 Natalie would be better. Or so we thought.

She slept all night, but awoke on Sunday morning with a raging fever, which we quickly treated with another dose of Motrin. A few hours later we were back with a dose of Tylenol and continued with that throughout the day, so medicine and a lot of holding and cuddling were going to be the cure for her. Or so we thought.

Monday, I had to leave on yet another business trip to Minnesota. When I left, Natalie was still asleep in our bed, after getting up around 5:00 for her first dose of Motrin. By the time she woke up, her fever was at a scorching 105 degrees. Phil gave her more Tylenol, which seemed to get the temperature down. He stayed home all day with her and although her fever would go up and down, we thought we only needed to get to 4:00 and she would be better. Or so we thought.

Monday night, she threw up the Tylenol he gave her and was still hot. Not a pleasant night, so Tuesday morning he took her to the pediatrician. The doctor took one look and said that she didn't have tonsillitis, but that she had some sort of infection. He figured it was a bladder infection, but couldn't be sure without tests. The first test was a catheter to get a clean urine sample - not an easy procedure. Basically two people hold Natalie down while to doctor inserts the catheter. Scary and painful!

Results weren't concrete, so Phil had to take her to another location in the hospital for a blood draw. Back to the office for a shot of antibiotic, then home to wait. I was sitting in Minnesota, panic stricken, waiting for Phil to hear from the doctor.

Natalie seemed to start getting better after the antibiotic so I stayed in Minnesota, then Wednesday morning she took another turn for the worse. I tried to get home, but Delta was less than helpful...I mean, where was the offer to charter a private plane? My daughter was sick! Luckily Phil has been able to spend every day that I was gone, at home with Natalie.

Today she seems better and except for a fever almost every day or night she is getting through it. I guess the first non-well baby visit for us came with a bang!

We have to take her in for a follow up ultrasound and catheter so they can check to make sure everything is working right and no damage was done to her kidneys, so wish us luck with that.

It has been so long

But work has been incredibly busy!

I'm busy with projects and end up working most nights (boo). I'm also gearing up for another round of travel. Over the next 3 weeks I'll travel to Minnesota (again), Tennessee, France and Great Britain. It is going to be a whirlwind. Plus, I'm going to toss in a Memorial Day weekend and U2 concert for good measure.

You know those people who are always talking about how they are so busy and then you ask them what they are up to and they can only come up with one or two projects/visits/trips/etc. that they are working on? I have these people in my life too; well, they can all stop complaining :)

Also, we went in for Natalie's 18-month check up. She is healthy as a horse (knock on wood) and lucky us, we have only ever been to the doctor for well baby check ups! (knock on wood-again). She weighed in at a light 21.8 pounds (yea! we passed the 20 pound mark)! She is growing into a little girl. She is so busy, very strong willed and has a very happy attitude.

Last weekend we traveled to the cabin for a quick one-nighter. Natalie had a blast. She loved exploring, being outside, and being with family.

I'll post photos soon...

12 months have come and gone...

This is a long overdue post…but better late than never.

A few weeks ago we went to the doctor for Natalie’s 12-month check up. We found out that she is healthy and growing (but not too fast). She is still a string bean, a touch over 29 inches (40 something% on the growth chart) and 17 pounds 12 ounces (4% on the chart). For those tracking her growth, she has grown two inches since her last appointment (9 month), but has only gained a little more than a pound…which means we are now free to pump her full of calories. The doctor instructed us to put butter on everything and put cream in her whole milk, seriously.

Basically the doctor said that because Natalie isn’t totally interested in eating (she just wants to walk all over and see what she shouldn’t touch) that we should try and make each bite as highly caloric as possible. So add the fat we have. The only problem is the extra fat hasn’t sparked Natalie to eat it all up. I’m not worried any more, I’ve thought it over and she is very happy and healthy (I mean, hello, she hasn’t ever been sick – knock on wood). We will keep offering and if she won’t accept we will just keep offering.

The other instruction given to us by the doctor was concerning sleep and eating at night. Because Natalie normally nurses to sleep, the doctor said this means she doesn’t know how to fall asleep on her own so we need to “teach” (train) her how to do this, which she suggested we do by letting her cry-it-out. (I feel bad just typing those words…) She said that if Natalie knew how to put herself to sleep that if she woke up in the middle of the night she would just put herself back to sleep without us. So, we figured that 1. Natalie already falls asleep on her own for naps, so doing it at bedtime wouldn’t be that hard and 2. If she cried, it wouldn’t be that bad…well we were wrong, on both accounts.

When Natalie was born we decided that we didn’t want to be the cry it out parents unless we had to, we figured (at the suggestion of my mother) that comforting her and going to her when she cried would help to build a happy, healthy and secure child (I mean it worked for me). So far, we have been on this path – and other than a few nights of almost crying it out, we hadn’t done it. So the Tuesday before Thanksgiving we decided to see if Phil could put Natalie down without letting her cry. It didn’t work, it was horrible, she cried and cried and so we decided that we would change the bedtime routine a little, but stick with me nursing her to sleep.

Our new bedtime routine involves Phil giving Natalie her bath and getting her totally ready for sleep without me. Then, he passes her to me, kisses her goodnight; I feed her and put her down. Because the doctor suggested that we stop letting Natalie eat at night, we also decided that if she woke up in the night that Phil would be the one to get up with her and see if he can put her down. If he couldn’t then we would cave and I would feed her and she would either sleep with us or go back in her crib for the rest of the night. So far, this is working. She has been waking up more than normal lately, but not needing to eat.

The other part of this story involves weaning. It was always my plan to nurse Natalie until she was 1 and then wean her over the holidays (and by wean I mean, let her wean naturally with a gently little nudge). Well, the whole feeding to bed might extend the nursing for a while, who knows. I’m along for the ride and hope that it isn’t a ride that goes on longer than expected. I’m hoping that my mom is right when she says that it will just happen and it will be quicker than expected and not to really worry about it. Easier said than done, but I guess she has been here and done this before (three times).

So, there, that is my update on Natalie. Now that I have all that updating done I’ll be able to update you on the new outfits Natalie has, our holiday plans (which might involve a trip to somewhere sunny), painting projects, holiday decorating, and anything extra that is going on in our lives. For now, I'll leave you with the below. We are teaching Natalie Bulgarian, in this video she is being asked "where are your shoes"...she is brilliant

This is going to be a long post

Natalie had her first visit to Tracy Aviary, which she loved! She particularly liked the "weird" looking birds - the vulchers were most interesting to her. After the aviary she spent some time at the park. She was able to sit by the pond and watch the ducks. Natalie loves watching birds and it isn't surprising to me that she would like the vulchers best.

The same week Natalie visited the aviary, she went to Hogle Zoo. She was very interested in the animals and the giraffe was one of her favorites. In fact after seeing the giraffe in real life, she saw a stuffed animal in a gift shop and with her cat like reflexes, had it in the stroller, in essence forcing her nanny to buy it for her.

How could you say no to that face?

Sunday afternoon, my mom, Natalie and I travelled up to Stein Eriksen lodge for Brunch. It was very nice and I ate TOO much! Even though Natalie hadn't had more than a 20 minute nap, she cooperated and had a great time crawling all over the lobby of the lodge.

She was exhausted by the end of brunch and fell asleep before we got to the car, and stayed asleep while I belted her in!

We have been having wonderfully cool weather, which means I don't burst into flames while playing with Natalie in the back yard. She doesn't really like to crawl on the grass, but she likes to pick at it - and hold the grass in her hands.

Last Friday we took Natalie in for her 9 month (gasp!) check up! She had to get one shot while we were there, but she didn't even cry! The nurse said that she hasn't ever had a baby not cry when she gave them a shot. She is such a trooper!

We were very surprised when Natalie was put on the scale. Our little string bean is still a string bean! She weighs in at 16 pounds 4 ounces (11%) and 27.5 inches long (50%). For her length she should weigh 2 more pounds! I guess it is a good thing, because it makes carrying her around a lot easier.

Even though she is a string bean, she is meeting and exceeding her developmental goals. The doctor said, "You sure do make it easy on me". The best thing is that Natalie hasn't ever been sick. (knock on wood) Hopefully we can keep her healthy for a while longer. It seems a lot easier to deal with a sick baby, who can say, "Mom, my belly hurts" rather than just cry.

She is starting to walk more and more while holding on to things. On Saturday afternoon I was folding laundry and she grabbed the laundry basket, stood up, and started to push it around the room. It won't be long before she is taking those first steps and I'll be chasing her even more! Who needs exercise? I have a baby to chase after.

4 months - 3 shots

Today was Natalie’s 4 month doctor’s visit. She is growing like a weed, 13 pounds 2 ounces and 25 inches long. The doctor said she is doing so well, she should be in a textbook! The doctor is happy we started giving Natalie rice cereal and said to start giving her fruits and veggies.
Natalie is able to hold her head up, she tries to sit up out of her bouncy chair, and has started rolling over on a pretty regular basis. It is amazing to watch her change every day.

Phil might have to take a business trip to Indonesia in late April or early May, because of this our pediatrician decided to give Natalie an extra shot. That way if Phil brings anything home (other than presents) Natalie will be better protected. Poor Natalie had to have three shots today (ouch!) and a dropper of vaccine, which again she tried to spit out.

After her shots she ate a little bit and then promptly fell asleep. She slept the entire ride home, slept on the bed for about an hour, ate again and fell right back to sleep. Next time I want to schedule the shots close to bed time!Natalie will be taking her first airplane ride on Monday! I’ll update with photos when we are home.

Poli-ouch!

Natalie had her 3 month check up on Friday – I can hardly believe she is already 3 months old! She received her Polio shot and took it like a champ – only cried for a split second.
She weighed in at 11 pounds 9 ounces and is almost 25 inches long! She is a little string bean. She is long enough for her six month clothes but not big enough to fill them out. Case in point, her new jeans and corduroy pants are long enough, but they almost fall off if you pick her up! Now I’ll be searching for baby belts to buy.
I still come home from work every day to a grumpy girl because she isn’t taking a bottle. We picked up a few new bottles and nipples over the weekend and the sitter just sent me a text to let me know that Natalie (although not happy about it) actually took six swallows from one bottle – with a bunch of prodding…but it happened! I think we are on the right track; soon we will have to take the bottle away.