Chasing Dominic

One word to describe how I feel lately - exhausted.  This whole chasing after Dominic thing really tires a mom out, but at least I can (sort of) pretend like I'm getting  a little bit of exercise now - I don't have time to really exercise any other way.  Falling down is a constant part of the day, and I keep trying to keep from babying him too much when he falls.  I try not to freak out too much and then keep telling him calmly, "You're okay.  You're okay."  He did get a couple of "battle scars" today from falling on our table.  A good reminder that we need to baby proof that table, especially those vicious corners which gave Dominic a scrape and bruise. 

Dominic continues to be "on the move," but has lost interest in crawling and insetad is currently concentrating more on cruising around our furniture.  "Cruising" means shuffling his feed along the coffee table or sofa as he moves his hands to still hold on.  Typically, a remote control is used as motivation to cruise.  Dominic is also mastering cruising from one piece of furniture to another and back again (which he repeats throughout the door).  He wants to walk!  No signs of standing independently yet, but I did have a dream that he walked in our kitchen a few nights ago.  I actually look forward to him walking because he's gotten so heavy that holding him has become very cumbersome, but something tells me that I will live to regret those words. 

And what adds to my exhaustion?  Dominic's lack of sleep!  We continue to struggle with naps and subsequent fussiness, which isn't any fun at all for either of us.  At bedtime, Dominic does great usually (apart from waking up at 7am a few mornings ago for the first time in months), but when I put Dominic in his crib for a nap he hates it and starts bawling half the time and just screeches and plays the other half of the time.   Brian came up with the idea of putting Dominic in his PJs or sleep-sack for naps as we do at night.  I had tried the PJs before to little or no avail, but the sleep-sack worked well for the 3 naps the first day I tried it and yesterday's naps as well.  Not only does it keep Dominic warm (which was Brian's intention when coming up with the idea), but it also confines him so he can't move around as much in his crib.  Therefore, it's more difficult for him to play.  I additionally rigged some additional shade around the window to keep Dominic's room at a little darker.  I don't know what has helped, but so far, so good!

Now that the seasons are changing, I'm having to adjust Dominic's wardrobe to the cooler (and at times wetter) weather.  I made an impulse-buy and got an adorable, little fireman rain jacket for Dominic a couple of weeks ago that he finally got to wear to breakfast with his Aunt Steph, Nonna, and Papa last weekend.  The rain jacket was a little big, but so cute!  He's also wearing longs sleeve shirts and onesies.  We received a bunch of 6 month long-sleeve shirts and onesies as shower gifts, but with it being so hot out, Dominic hadn't been able to wear them yet.  Even though they are a bit small on him at this point, I'm trying to get him to wear them while he can (we'd already stupidly taken the tags off of many of these).  I'm also having to do a lot of shopping for new clothes for Dominic, which hasn't been so great for the whole living-on-one-income adjustment for Brian and me now that I'm officially not being paid anymore apart from my minimal tutoring pay. 

On the food front, we ended up holding off on trying eggs this week and made an attempt at giving Dominic squash instead.  Dominic loves this vegetable, eating about 3 oz on his first try.  He's been eating much more at a time recently and when we put a spoon full of food in front of his face, Dominic actually now moves his mouth so the spoon goes in his mouth instead of just sitting there letting us put the food in his mouth.  In other words, he's a more "active eater."  This indicates that Dominic actually wants to eat.  Before he honestly didn't have too much interest in the food itself as much as liked the reactions that I would give him (or whoever was feeding him).  I tried to make every spoonful seem like the most exciting thing in the world, hoping Dominic would associate that wonderful reaction with the taste of the food.  Who knows if it worked/is working, but he hasn't had a food that he has truly detested...yet (knock on wood). 

Dominic took his first bath in the "big boy" bath tub this week.  Now that he can sit up so well, he doesn't need the baby tub anymore.  Kind of sad!  Now I need to find a place to store that baby tub.  He did a great job in the big tub, but it was a little harder for Brian (the one who typically gives Dominic his baths) to bathe him.  It was pretty funny though that Dominic kept trying to crawl in the tub.  Very cute. 

We hosted a playgroup for the first time today at our house.  It definitely motivates me to clean a little more thoroughly when I know people are coming over and with Dominic crawling around all over the house!  He accumulates some gross stuff on his hands and feet.  We're also hosting another playgroup next week.  This one was fun (Dominic fell asleep at one point during the playgroup), but started off with me calling the cops on the people across the street.  There were some sketchy yard guys who parked their unmarked truck in the vacant house for sale across from us and were working in the back yard, but Brian, who is the president of the neighborhood, said they're not supposed to be there as the board was still discussing who should be taking care of the yard at this point.  I think that was the first time I've called 911 (if you don't count the time I called them and hung up when I was little).  It turns out they worked for the City of Dunwoody and were working on the retention pond in the back...oops. With the crime increasing lately, you can't be too paranoid (at least that's what I'm telling myself). 



Complaint of the week...so as you may remember Dominic had terrible reflux, which has improved dramatically since he started taking prescription Prevacid at a month old.  He's been such a happy baby up until his recent sleep issues started.  Well, we just had to switch our insurance.  When Brian switched jobs, he joined Dominic and me on my United Healthcare Insurance plan until his insurance kicked in after a trial period of 3 months on the job.  Now that I am no longer employed and don't have benefits, we all 3 have moved onto Brian's Blue Cross Blue Shield.  Well, I went to fill Dominic's prescription for the first time on the new insurance, and the pharmacy said the insurance had to get "prior authorization" from the pediatrician.  We already had to get this for UHC when Dominic first began taking prevacid.  So, after making multiple trips to the pharmacy without getting the prior authorization or medicine, I finally paid full price for the prescription.  My plan was to return to the pharmacy once the prior authorization came through and get reimbursed then.  However, I received a call from the pediatrician's office several days later saying that the request to the insurance company was denied. So, I called the insurance company, who said they never received the prior authorization from the doctor.  After that I called the pharmacy and then the pediatrician's office.  Long story short, the doctor's office re-submitted the prior authorization form and it was finally approved!  Yay!!  Aren't insurance companies so fun to deal with? 

In the mean time, I started weaning Dominic off of the medicine just in case.  Typically, by around 6 months babies' systems mature enough where they no longer need medicine; however, they must be weaned from the medicine instead of just going cold turkey.  So, I'm giving Dominic a quarter of a pill a day (decreased from half a pill a day) and then will start giving him a quarter of a pill every other day in a few weeks. This transition has resulted in a lot of spit up, which we had been lucky enough not to see for several months (due to the medicine).  Now that he's crawling, the spit up literally ends up all over the house.  I find spots randomly throughout the downstairs of our house.  Luckily, Dominic seems to not be in any pain from this, which is good.  The spit up is supposed to end when he's around 12 months old.  Until then we'll just have to live with spit up throughout the house.


Off to chase the little guy some more! :)