Elijah's 6 month well visit

Elijah is SO CLOSE to crawling.  I think in another week or two he will be mobile.  And that is insane.  We spent all Sunday afternoon babyproofing.  I just could not believe we are already here.  I distinctly remember when Elijah was born thinking that babyproofing was so far in the future.  But not anymore.  He can actually move around quite a bit.  He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks and does a little bunny hop, but he hasn't figured out that he has to move his hands forward.  He can pivot a lot, and get between sitting and crawling position.  He also goes from his knees to his toes back and forth.  It's so exciting to watch.  On Sunday we also packed up his swing for good.  We've still used it here and there up until last week, but Daniel finally decided that Elijah sleeps better in the crib.  It took up so much space in his bedroom that we were happy to finally get rid of it.  When I get pregnant again, we'll trade it in for a better one.  And we also traded out Elijah's 3-6 month clothes for his 6-9 month clothes.  He still fits into the 6 month size just fine, but he also fits the 9 month size and it's easier to put on clothes that are bigger rather than pulling and stretching clothes that are smaller.  And, to be honest, I'm excited to have some new clothes to put on him.  Each time we switch out his clothes to the next size I have mixed feelings.  I'm excited to try the new ones and see some cute new outfits, but I'm also sad because there are always a few pieces that I just love and I'm sad to put away.  In this wardrobe it's his multi-colored striped long-sleeved onesie from Old Navy (that we got from Goodwill) and his overalls from babyGap (that we got at Goodwill).  Also his organic cotton pajamas from Costco that look like an old man dress shirt with tie and glasses in the breast pocket.  Also his fleece PJ's.  I will miss a lot of his bitty clothes.  But his new wardrobe is much more appropriate for Spring!  And then Summer!  Oh I am so excited to say goodbye to winter.  Not as much as last year, but still. Excited!

Elijah's 6 month check-up was on Friday.  He's been fighting a really bad cough since last Sunday, so I considered taking him in sooner, but for many reasons (that may or may not include cost, and work obligations)  I decided to hold off until his already scheduled well visit to have the cough checked out by the doctor.  And lo and behold, Elijah had a DOUBLE ear infection!  That I didn't even know about or suspect!  Cue the Mom guilt.  I felt absolutely horrible, though Jeff (Elijah's doctor) told us not to.  It made perfect sense though.  On Thursday Elijah didn't finish a bottle for the first time ever at day care.  And it happened again on Friday.  When I picked him up to take him to the doctor he was due for another bottle, and even though I kept offering it, he didn't want it.  He would take two sucks and then spit it out.  Now it makes sense: the sucking hurt his ears!  His appetite has been down a bit for the past few days, but yesterday it seemed mostly back to normal.  So it seems the antibiotics are working.  Also at his appointment we learned that he is in the 45th percentile for everything.  That means he is still gaining weight like a champ.  Jeff was very happy to see that.  His development is right on.  He got all the normal immunizations, plus the flu shot.  Thank goodness Daniel let me go down and fill his antibiotics prescription so I didn't have to be in the room when he got the shots.  Daniel also took care of the blood draw. (The doctor ordered a metabolic screen to check his kidney function after I mentioned that Elijah wakes up really puffy every morning). After the news of the ear infection I was pretty emotionally drained.  I don't think I could have handled watching Elijah get stuck with needles over and over.  By the time we finished with all of that, it was pretty much Elijah's bedtime.  What an exhausting afternoon for all of us.  

Despite the ear infection Elijah has been sleeping great lately.  He goes to bed around 6:30 and sleeps all the way until 6:30 or 7am the next morning, with 1 wake up around 2 or 3am and sometimes 1 wakeup around 9:30pm.  He's surprisingly consistent.  I had a talk with his teachers last Thursday morning because his napping was horrible.  For about 3 weeks he has been getting 2 35-45 minute naps.  He should be getting about 3 hours of naps total and he is getting nowhere near that.  His head teacher, Miss Amber, had a lot of excuses for his poor napping.  "He's older and more interested in everything going on"  "not every kid needs that much sleep"  "he's not fussy and he doesn't seem overtired"  "he really does get plenty of sleep, for a day care kid"  etc.  but despite that, he has been having much better naps for the two days since our little talk.  So I guess it worked.  I don't buy any of those excuses anyways.  I was quite irritated that she was defensive.  It was hard for me to bring it up at all, and even harder to stay firm while she gave excuses.  At home, Elijah sleeps for 1.5-2 hr at a time during the day, so I know he needs to sleep.  Not to mention he is exhausted every day when I pick him up.  It's times like that I wish Daniel was part of the drop off/pick up routine.  I'm so bad at confrontation.  Daniel's philosophy is that they work for us- it's their job to take care of our kid in the way that we want.  But I understand that they have 8 infants to take care of, and they can't make them all be quiet just so Elijah can sleep.  And his teachers can't MAKE him sleep, as much as they wish they could.  I asked that they just try their hardest to get him as close to 2 hours of sleep as possible.  And it seems that they have figured out a way to do that.  On Thursday and Friday he got 2- 1 hr+ naps in.  So even if I wasn't happy with how our conversation went, the results are exactly what I wanted.  I can't complain.  Hopefully it keeps up!

This weekend Nicole came to visit us.  I am so happy she made the effort to fly out here.  I would love to go visit her, but it's just not practical with a baby.  I really want Elijah to know her (and all his family members), so it means so much to me that she came out here for the weekend.  It was a blast.  And surprisingly, she was incredibly helpful!  It was so nice to have another pair of hands around to do the dishes or help with dinner.  I just always love being with my sister.  She and Daniel are the two people in the world that I feel I can really be myself around 100% of the time.  She just loved seeing Eljiah do all his cute baby things.  She wanted desperately to see him crawl, but he just wasn't quite there yet.  She did, however, get to see him in a few of the outfits she sent us.  He looked pretty darn adorable.  

I'm still thinking about our next child almost daily.  I talk about it a lot, so that Daniel can start getting used to the idea.  He is nowhere near ready to have another one, and neither am I.  But I'm getting closer and closer.  I still long for that beautiful breastfeeding experience that I feel I got cheated out of.  And part of me is hoping that with 2 children under 5, I'll get to stay home with them because it will be too expensive to put them both in day care.  We'll see.  For now I am thoroughly enjoying my sweet Lijah Bear.  He is the joy of my life and I adore every second of watching him grow up.  He is a special little boy.