I am sure there are plenty of you out there that know I do need daycare, but that isn’t want I am talking about. Today, BM had to take care of some work at the office, so I have been watching Gman. Usually, I only get to spend a couple hours a day with him, but today has been fun. He is learning to fly and dance and laugh and write blog entries (not that I do any of those things very well). None-the-less, we did squeeze in some photo time and I thought you would enjoy seeing him today.
Unlike many campaign commercials, my title is meant to be positive. Gman is finding it easier and easier to flip himself over to his stomach but has yet to make the transition back to his back. Today, I am working in the office and have the GCam tuned to the Sleepy Baby Channel. Below is a shot of the excitement coming through my computer for about an hour plus. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.
I think I mentioned a couple of posts ago, that Gman has become big stuff and has started to turn himself over. The bad part is that he can’t turn back over to his back yet. This extra frustration is what will ultimately make him figure out how to flop back on his back. But, when the frustration comes at 4:30a it isn’t so motivating to mom and dad. Apparently, sometime last night G flipped to his stomach and had his head propped up in an uncomfortable position on the bumpers in the crib. I guess he finally had enough about 4:30a and let us know with some whaling. We went in and flipped him onto his back and he has been quiet since. Hopefully, he won’t have a kink in his neck later this morning.
It is Saturday - thank goodness. Gman is thankful too. He gets a break from all the chores we keep him busy doing during the week.
Speaking of G, he is doing great. This morning he rolled all the way over for the first time (that we know of). He can now roll from his back to his stomach, but can’t make it back to his back. He is also blowing lots of bubbles and talking quite a bit. When he gets frustrated he makes some pretty aggressive grunting noises and when he is happy he makes pretty loud little screams.
Right now, G is a very happy little baby. In fact, when BM washes under his arms, Gman giggles up a storm (I am very ticklish but G’s mom is not). For the most part, G isn’t very ticklish and if I try to tickle him outside of the structure of the bath, he won’t laugh. But, put water on a washcloth and rub his armpits and he giggles. It is super cute.
Both BM and I are really trying to talk to G most of the time. We have read in several places that we should be explaining whatever it is we’re doing when he is around. It becomes silly fast when I am washing dishes or writing a blog entry, but you get the point and he really likes the conversations we have.
Here is a quick pick of G and I this morning. Have a good weekend everyone.
Gman’s newest trick is to grab his right leg with his right hand and pull his foot to his mouth. He loves to try and eat his toes. This is a screen capture from the web cam we have setup so we can see what he is up to during the day. Eventually, he falls asleep and leaves his sockless foot there for the everyone to see :)
It has been a couple weeks since I posted any photos of G. He is down for the night so I have gone through several “rolls” of shots taken over the past two weeks or so. They are in order from oldest to most recent so you can see the growth. He still hasn’t turned completely over yet on his own, but he is getting there. He also does a pretty good job of sitting in his bumbo style chair, but we have to be nearby to ensure he doesn’t tump over.
Just wanted to let everyone know that the kidney stone that sent BM and I rushing to the ER finally passed earlier this week. We know she has a second stone still in her kidney that could “attack” at any time. The passed stone has been sent off to the lab in hopes they can tell us what caused the stone to develop in the first place. Thank you all for your thoughts and kind words.
On another note, we weighed G this morning and he was up to 16.5lbs. Also, he has begun to giggle a very little bit. When we play with him he becomes very coy and a little shy which makes him so cute. Basically, he will start to smile real big or giggle a few giggles and then turn his head away from us to kind of hide his face. Then he will turn his head back real slow looking out of the corner of his eyes and start to giggle again.
He has still been sleeping great. He still does about 11 hours a night which puts him waking up about 7a each morning. That is just in time for me to feed him and then head to the office. During the day, he has three naps which usually give him an additional four to five hours of sleep a day. Oh, how nice it would be to be able to sleep sixteen hours :)
Speaking of sleeping, we have transitioned G away from the swaddle for his naps. He now sleeps clothed in the crib with nothing but a comfort blanket. He loves to chew that thing. At night, we put him down with the lower half of his body swaddled and the upper half free. Next week, we will try to let him sleep through the night without any swaddle at all. This is about the time our books and guides tell us he should begin sleeping without a swaddle as it allows him time alone in the crib to work on rolling over.
He has been doing a good job on his rolling over. He can’t turn himself completely over and once over he cannot turn himself back. But, when on his back, he can bring his knees to his chest and then twist his body such that he ends up on his side. He usually does this when he is on the play mat and wants to see the other baby living in the mirror. He loves to look at that other baby and will play just as coy with him as he does with us.
This past Tuesday morning, I received a frantic call from BM in tears telling me to come home from the office. She told me Grayson was OK but did not stay on the line long enough to tell me what was actually going on. I rushed home and found her doubled over on the floor. Gman, thank goodness, was down for a nap so BM didn’t have to tend to him while dealing with her pain.
She told me she had severe abdominal pain and could hardly move. Just as I was getting BM loaded in the car, Gmom arrived to spend her normal day with G. I told her briefly what was going on and then I rushed BM to the hospital. They moved her through triage very fast and got her a room in the back. They jacked in an IV and pumped in some pain meds. Within three minutes of the pain medicine going in, BM was able to stay still and communicate what had happened.
She described it as a light-switch that turned on the pain instantly in such a way that it felt like someone had jabbed a skewer into her abdomen just above her left hip. The doctor, who was a super guy, very quickly diagnosed this as a kidney stone. He latter would tell us that he can pretty much diagnose a kidney stone from across the room. Who knew?
They kept her for several hours while the various medicines took effect. After a CT scan, the doctor confirmed his diagnosis and gave us the good and bad news. “The good news is that you have a stone that is very near passing into your bladder. The bad news is that you have another stone in your kidney that could come out anytime. Could be tomorrow or it could be next year.”
The doctor told us that meat was the likely culprit but BM and I hardly eat meat. After we were home and could spend some time on the internet, we found there are other known possible causes. These include vegetables that are high in oxalate such as okra, beets, and spinach - all of which we eat more than the average bear. Another possible cause of these world ending rocks is bladder infection. Well, we know BM had a bladder infection that lasted a couple of weeks in the midst of giving birth to G, so we are guessing that is the likely culprit. Neither of us wants to give up our veggies, but to avoid the kind of pain BM had, I guess I would eat a car if I had to.
The stone hasn’t passed yet. It has moved into a spot that obviously is less constrictive as BM knows it is there, but it is just a slight annoyance rather than being so painful as before. After the stone passes, we will take it to the lab where they can tell us if this was a stone caused by infection or by calcium oxalate.
Because of the medicine the the ER gave BM, we stopped giving G any new breast milk for about 36 hours. Fortunately, we had a small store of breast milk that kept us from having to change G’s diet too much.
Right now, we are in a holding pattern. Grayson is back in his regular diet and we know the stone too shall pass - hopefully soon and without pain.
In the end, the ER doctor told us that a kidney stone is the second most painful thing he sees in the ER. The first is some kind of brain seizure that feels like lighting is going off inside the patient’s head. Glad we didn’t have to deal with that symptom.
G is growing fast. BM weighed him this morning and G is moving into the heavy weight division. He is 16lbs. He is really showing more of his personality we think. He is all smiles when it comes time to play - especially as we roll him over and back from his stomach to his belly. He is growing more alert and now turns his head pretty fast to follow action or look at something that grabs his attention.
With all that has gone on in the last week, I haven’t had a chance to post any of the photos we took last week. Thought you would enjoy them.
My brother and I are back from our quick trip to Florida to attend our grandmother’s funeral. Of course it was sad, but being able to see family and friends that we haven’t seen in many many years was wonderful. I know my grandmother would have loved having everyone together in one spot for a day or two.
A few people emailed to ask about G and BM. They both stayed in town because BM and I felt that it probably wasn’t wise for us to expose G to that much stimulation right now while we have his routine working so well. Not to mention the travel time would likely have been doubled had we taken him with us. There will be plenty of time for him to meet those folks in the future.
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