15 Months 6 Days - Catch Up!

Wow! I've been a slacker! I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I last updated this blog!
SO...what's going on???

Walking: Christopher's walking great now. So well, in fact, that I'm moving him up to the 1-year-old Sunday School class at church this coming Sunday (March 25). He needs to be around walkers and not crawlers, so that'll be good for him. He has yet to actually start running (successfully), although, he's been walking faster and faster. I'm sure it won't be long. He's tried to run a few times only to fall on his face! LOL!

Teeth: He now has his molars and is working on his bottom canines. That'll make #13 and #14 when they come in. At the rate he's going, he'll have his 2 year molars by the time he's 18 months! He goes for a checkup with the dentist sometime in April. Hopefully, that will go smoothly.

Health: He can't seem to shake those darn ear infections. He got his first back in December and has either not gotten rid of it or now has his 3rd one. This time, it's his first double ear infection. The first time, he was given Amoxicillin, which we soon found out that he's allergic to. So, they switched him to Omnicef, which has HORRIBLE side effects! Poor thing got his first yeast rash. For the second EI, they once again gave him Omnicef. Since that hasn't worked, he's now on Suprax. I was warned to keep a close eye on him for a reaction since there's a 20-30% chance of one since he's reacted to the 'cillins. Well, he threw up in the middle of the night last night. I figured it was a reaction to the abx as he was acting and eating just fine. I called and spoke to a nurse who thought it was more likely a result of a coughing spell and not a reaction to the meds. I guess we'll find out for sure tonight since I gave him another dose this morning. If he gets sick again, it's the meds.

He was supposed to have his 15-month weight check tomorrow (Thursday, March 22), but since he's been sick, Tammy recommended that I cancel the weight check and schedule a "sick visit" for this past Monday (March 19). She said that if his weight was a problem, we'd reschedule the weight check for another time. They weigh him at each visit, including "sick visits" and this time, with clothes and a dry diaper, he was 20 lbs 14 oz. When he was there 3 weeks ago, he was 20 lbs 8 oz with clothes and a semi-wet diaper. Tammy said that she's satisfied with his weight and that it looks like he's just taking on his own curve. Considering his height, he doesn't need to be at the same weight as the average child. IMO, that would make him OVERweight instead. She's definitely going to be keeping a close eye on it at future visits, but we shouldn't have to worry about extra weight checks!

Other than dealing with ear infections and the side effects of the abx, he also had a stomach bug a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, he only had one day of vomiting. The diarrhea continued for a few days, but it wasn't really bad.

Eating: He's almost off the baby food now. I still give him a jar if we're going to be out and about or if Shad and I are eating something like chili or tacos that we don't want him to have. He got his first Happy Meal from McDonalds a couple of weeks ago. I got him the chicken nugget meal with apple juice...also a first. The only other time he's had juice was when he was constipated at about 5 or 6 months old. Of course, I really watered it down. He LOVED the juice box! Note to self: only give him a juice box when it can go in one of those plastic holders! He loved that part, too! I occasionally give him rice cereal mixed with fruit for breakfast. However, he's also eating regular oatmeal. As of right now, his favorite seems to be the fruit 'n cream variety...specifically strawberries 'n cream.

Nursing: I'm still nursing a couple of times per day. Primarily at bedtime and in the middle of the night. We experimented a couple of weeks ago and found that he CAN go to bed without nursing or taking breastmilk/formula, so that was a plus! We tried that when I wasn't home, so don't know how he'd do if I was home. I think it's going to be the middle of the night nursings that will be the hardest for him to give up. I was wanting to try and wean him soon, but am not going to attempt that while he's continuously sick. That would be just plain cruel! My "goal" is for him to be weaned within 6 months...that's by September. Surely that can happen!

Hair: He's still quite bald, but the hair in the back of his head is growing more now. He's actually getting enough that we're noticing CURLS every so often! It's SO cute! Of course, Shad wants to cut them off!!! I told him that he'd better NOT touch them! First of all, I think curls on babies/toddlers is cute. Second of all, it's taken HOW LONG for him to grow hair??? We're not cutting ANYTHING off for a while!!!

Talking: Still nothing more than Mama and Dada...and those don't happen very often. Hopefully, his language skills will take off in the next few months. HOWEVER, I've been teaching him a little bit of sign language. So far, he knows "please," "more" and "eat." I'm trying to teach him "thank you," "all done" and "milk."
In other Christopher news: I've signed him up for the preschool at church. He'll start this Fall and will be in the 1-year old class. The minimum age will be 18 months by then, but he'll be about 20/21 months. As of now, he's only 1 of 3 kids signed up! While he's in "school," I'll be working in the 2-year old class. We'll both be there on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-2. That'll be good for me to work and good for him to be around other kids in a structured church environment.

We turned his carseat around to forward-facing after his last visit for his ears. That's when he was officially over 20 lbs. I know it wasn't by much, but he's so much happier facing forward! We've now installed the portable DVD player that Richard (Granddaddy)gave us for Christmas. We've only had the chance to use it once. I let him watch VeggieTales, but he didn't really pay much attention to it until the trip home when it was dark. Then, he only watched it for a few minutes and fell asleep.

Shad and Tami News: Shad left for New Orleans on Monday (March 19) and will return on Saturday (March 24). He's on a mission trip with our church and is helping to rebuild a house that was destroyed by Katrina. This is the 2nd time for him to go since Christopher's arrival. The first time was when he was 6 months old. It seemed so much easier that time! Probably because he wasn't mobile and wasn't sick so much.

I had my annual ob/gyn exam a couple of weeks ago. I've lost all the baby weight and am now 1 lb under my pre-pregnancy weight!!! Yay!!!

We got our tax return money back in February and were able to pay off my car!!! Another yay!!! We're now going to start saving up for a new (used) vehicle for Shad. His truck is on its last leg, so hopefully we'll have time! He's wanting to get a Ford SportTrac. It especially needs to be something that we can transport Christopher around in! And preferrably something that I can drive, too.

Well, it's time to head off to church, so I'd better end here. I'm hoping to update more often, especially to document all his illnesses/ear infections. His next scheduled doctor's appointments are in 3 weeks to check his ears and then his 18 month checkup on June 19.

13 Months 1 Week 2 Days - First Steps!

CHRISTOPHER'S WALKING!!! He took his first steps a week ago today (Wednesday, January 17) while in the nursery at church. He only took about 2 steps, but that was enough for me! Shad missed it since he wasn't at church with us (he'd normally be up in the sanctuary anyway). Not to worry, though...he got to see it on Thursday evening. Christopher still prefers to crawl, but each day, he gets a little better. We've been working with him a little each evening. He can now take about 6-8 steps before falling down. He's too funny...the last few evenings when trying to walk, he has to flap his arms like he's going to fly! He does it everytime he starts walking!

I'm sure it won't be too much longer before he's running around here keeping me busy! I've already had to start closing our bedroom, bathroom and his bedroom door to keep him out of trouble. He likes to go into his room and open his dresser drawers and pull out all the clothes. It's aggravating having to re-fold clothes and put them away all the time, but my main concern is that he keeps pinching his fingers in the drawers. With the exception of his bookshelf, most all of his toys are in the living room, so he doesn't need anything out of the other rooms. I've put a few books in his toy bin, so he can choose from those.

Christopher finally finished the antibiotics a couple of weeks ago! Also gone are the NASTY diapers and the yeast rash! YAY! It took a few extra days after stopping the antibiotics and using Nystatin to clear up the rash, but it's pretty much gone now. He woke up yesterday morning with another runny nose! I just hope it doesn't start the whole cycle over again!!!

A few more teeth have popped through. He now has a total of (at least) 10 teeth. I'm not sure if #11 and #12 have broken through yet, but they will soon. The most recent ones to come through were his molars.

He's eating more regular table foods nowadays. He still eats flavored rice cereal for breakfast, but always wants some of my cereal, too. He's at that age where he wants whatever we're eating. With the exception of a few meal items (spicy foods), we let him have anything he wants that's on our plates. I've switched him over to the Gerber Graduate meals, which are his primary meals for lunch and dinner. So far, I've found that he LOVES pasta and anything with cheese. He also really likes applesauce and pretty much anything in marinara sauce. A few weeks ago, for the Wednesday night meal at church, we started ordering Christopher his own plate. Two weeks ago, when we had barbeque chicken, he at the ENTIRE plate of food! It took him forever (Shad had to skip church), but he ate the whole chicken leg, all the white beans and all of the cornbread! He doesn't normally have that big of an appetite, so that took us by surprise. Tonight, we're having creamy chicken on rice. He had a similar meal yesterday for lunch and he didn't take to it too well. Hopefully, he'll like it better tonight.

Today, I started working in the church nursery on Wednesday mornings. It's for a Women's Bible Study. We only had 2 little girls about 3 years old and Christopher. There's supposed to be 4 kids plus Christopher. We typically don't provide childcare unless there are at least 4 kids, so hopefully, a few more will be there next week. Afterward, I spoke to the director of the weekday preschool program about working and entering Christopher this Fall. There's supposed to be a couple of job openings, so hopefully, it'll work out. I told Shad about it on IM and the first thing he said was that we can't afford it. He didn't even ask details first. With me working, we'll get a 50% discount, so it should only cost us $65/month instead of $130. I don't know how much I'll be making, but I'm sure I'll bring home more than $65/month! Christopher really needs this as much as I do. He needs to be around other kids his age. He'll be about 20 or 21 months when it starts. He would be in a different class that I'm in, so that'll be good for him, too. Registration starts in March, so I should learn more soon.

I thought I had a lead on a part-time babysitting job, but nothing's come from it yet. It was supposed to be for a little boy who's about 2 months younger than Christopher (his birthday is in February) and would be 2 days a week. I was told that they had someone for a little while longer, so I'm hoping that's why I haven't heard back from them. It would work out great for us to have someone Christoher's age and only 2 days a week!

We've got Cheryl's laptop on a trial basis for now. When we first got it, it ran like crap, so we installed Windows XP (it came with Windows 98). That worked like a charm and it's doing much better now! Shad set up the wireless network pretty quickly, so that's been nice to have. He just figured out how to network the printer and is working on figuring out security to set up networking with our desktop. The laptop is nothing fancy...not much space on it at all. So, it'll be nice to be networked to the desktop to have access to pictures and other files.

Well, off to get ready for church now...and to deal with a WHINING child!

12 Months 3 Weeks 3 Days

Wow! What a time we've had over the last couple of weeks! Let me back-track to around Christmas. Christopher got a cold around that time. Well, he'd had the cold for at least a week when I decided to get him into the doctor's since the cough sounded pretty bad. I mainly just wanted to make sure it was still a cold and nothing worse. That was on December 29. Dr. Adams was out that day and Dr. Lowe was on-call. She said that the cough was probably just from drainage and nothing else, but she did find that he had an ear infection. His first one! She prescribed Amoxicillin and a cough syrup. I filled the Amoxicillin right away, but the pharmacy was out of the cough medicine and wouldn't get anymore in until Jan. 2. They offered to call other pharmacies to get me some, but I told them that we could wait. If he still needed it by the time it came in, then I'd get it. I started giving Christopher the Amoxicillin on Friday, December 29.

On Tuesday, January 2, he woke up with a rash on his chest, stomach and back. On Wednesday, it spread to his face. My first thought was that it was due to the laundry detergent I was using. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that I'd gradually been switching him from his to ours over the last couple of months, and his first load in ours alone was a couple of weeks ago. Therefore, I don't think that's the reason.

My next thought was that it was a reaction to the Amoxicillin, so I called the pediatrician's office and spoke to a nurse. She recommended that I stop the Amoxicillin for 24 hours and give him Benadryl instead. Sure enough, on Thursday morning when he woke up, the rash was almost completely gone! Therefore, Christopher's allergic to the -cillins (Amoxicillin, Penicillin, etc.). Dr. Adams called in a new prescription for Omnicef.

Unfortunately, mine and Christopher's medical insurance ended on December 31 (Shad's family coverage was going up WAY too much!). I'm in the process of getting a new policy for just the two of us, but it hasn't come through yet. The Omnicef without insurance is $91!! WITH insurance, it's $50!!! Therefore, I'm going to mention something to Dr. Adams and see when/if Christopher gets another ear infection if there isn't a different antibiotic that will be cheaper. Perhaps a generic on Wal-Mart's generic list so it's only $4 or $9!

The same day we picked up the Omnicef, we were able to get the cough syrup, too. So, Christopher's been on both since Thursday, January 4. He still has to take the antibiotic for 10 days, even though he was already on the Amoxicillin for 4 days.

On Friday evening as I was getting Christopher ready for bed, I noticed that he had a HORRIBLE rash on his bottom! I first thought it was just a bad diaper rash, but someone suggested that it might be a yeast rash instead. After looking into it online and seeing a picture, I'm pretty sure that's it. Shad went and bought some Clotrimazole (Lotrimin) on Sunday. I haven't noticed any difference yet, but hopefully we'll see something by tomorrow.

After all this mess with antibiotics, I'm ready to throw them out the window!!! When/if he gets another ear infection, I am NOT rushing to drugs! Heck, we didn't even know he had one to begin with...and we STILL haven't seen any signs of it since we found out!

My Tendonitis has returned. It's been about 11 months since it bothered me last. I'm surprised I've gone this long! Since we're without insurance, though, I'm going to have to wait to see the doctor for it. I've been wearing the brace they gave me the last time and taking Ibuprofen. However, the Ibuprofen has been messing with my stomach, so I'm now only taking it at night. I should probably just take Aleve instead, but I need to check and see if it's okay to take while Christopher's still breastfeeding.

Yep, at almost 13 months old, he's still nursing! I didn't plan to go this long, but it's kinda hard to wean! We've gotten into a nice routine, plus it's something that will calm him down when he gets fussy. I've tried giving him a sippy of milk, but it isn't the same. He's not nursing a lot...about 3 times during the day and once or twice overnight. So, there's no telling how long we'll keep going now. I was always one of those who said that my child would be weaned at 12 months old! HA! My, how things change!

Now that I'm not working at Zale's anymore, I've got a couple of job leads. One is for sure...I'll be working Wednesday mornings in the church nursery for the Women's Bible Study that starts on Jan. 24. The other possibility is caring for a little boy who'll be 1 in February here at home. It would be 2 days a week, which is what I'm looking for. That way, I can still have time during the week to do what I want/need to do. I've cared for the boy in the church nursery before, so know who he (and his grandmother) is. I've given the grandmother my name and phone number...and she was asking Beth at church about me. Hopefully, something will come about! Please keep me in your prayers/wish me luck!

Well, the BCS Championship game (Ohio St. vs Florida) is on right now and I'm wanting to get back to it. Last I saw, Florida was winning by quite a bit. Not that we're Gator fans, but we're rooting for the SEC, so we're hoping Florida wins.