My poor, little baby had his first big cold and fever last week. He hadn't been eating his solids or drinking breast milk very well for a day or two and then on Friday, he woke up being very fussy and repeatedly sneezing. That whole day he was miserable (and as a result so was I). Normally, I am incredibly germaphobic. If someone sneezes anywhere within 20 feet of me I am absolutely repulsed, but when Dominic sneezed and snotted all over me, I wasn't grossed out, just worried about my little guy. I only wanted to make him feel better. He had a 99.8 fever Friday and Saturday and then Saturday night it went up to 100.8 (his highest fever ever). That's not high enough to call the doctor, but it certainly scared me. Sunday, his fever came back down, but we could tell he still wasn't feeling better. And to make matters worse I, of course, caught his cold, which completely wore me out. Since I'm breastfeeding, I did not want to take cold medicine because it will affect my milk supply. Finally, I started feeling better last Thursday and seemed to be all better by the end of the weekend. Dominic seemed better by the end of the weekend, but almost 2 weeks later, he's still having some congestion. I'm just keeping my eye out for the dreaded ear infection!
Now he has a rash on his cheeks and chin. I think it’s from the combination of saliva, food, snot, and repeated wiping of those things. With his cold, I didn’t start a new food last week with him in order to prevent allergic reactions to be hidden or confused with his cold symptoms. So, it doesn’t look like the rash is food-related based on that. I’ve been putting Cedaphil and vasoline on it. It’s been going on about a week, but now that his snotting has ceased for the most part, I’m hoping it improves. Otherwise, we’ll be paying the doctor a visit in a day or two.
Dominic thankfully seems to be more on track with his naps (yay!!!). I'm not sure if the sleep sack or the darker room helped, and if it was the sleep sack is it because it's warmer or it confines him? Not sure, but I'm just glad things are looking better for his sleep. He's falling asleep more easily again, but his naps are typically no longer 2 hours and more like an hour or an hour and a half. Now I'm starting to concentrate on having Dominic completely drop his 7:00pm/evening nap. With the dropped nap, Dominic will go to bed closer to 9:00 instead of 10:00 at night. He’s been on track for the most part the last several days.
Dominic continues to be all over the place even while he was feeling sick. He also keeps injuring himself while cruising and pulling up. They seem to be decreasing in number especially now that Dominic has learned to "fall." He started plopping about a week ago and now can gracefully go from standing while holding on to furniture with one hand to sitting on the ground.
However, there are those falls that are bound to happen. Usually, I can tell whether it's a big fall or not. If it's a little fall, I continue to brush it off and say, "Uh oh. You're okay," to try to teach him not to have a big reaction. Now if it's a big fall, I do react as much as I try not to, but I can't help it. He usually cries and screams for a few minutes while I hold him, comfort him, and then try to distract him by singing or showing him one of his toys. I feel that the key to parenting often is distraction.
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| Yes, Dominic likes climbing and he likes the dishwasher = trouble. |
Dominic is also starting to show signs of standing independently. When he starts crouching to get down, Dominic ends up standing by himself briefly. It’s amazing to see him develop so quickly from a baby into a little boy.
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| He loves standing up. |
Another funny, new thing Dominic is doing is singing or making some kind of noise for minutes at a time. He likes it when Brian and I make the noise too. This is a fun, little game for him lately. It’s very cute. I joke that he’s trying out for American Idol.
Thanks to the cold, last week we didn't really give Dominic new solids. If he had an allergic reaction, I was worried we wouldn't know because of his cold symptoms. On Sunday night, we gave Dominic baby food chicken. The smell of it was absolutely disgusting, but Dominic seemed to like it okay. I may give him little pieces of chicken from now on because I seriously can't stand the smell of the chicken baby food. On Monday night we gave Dominic little bits of potato and he LOVED it. (to heck with the 4-day rule) Yesterday, I bought Dominic a couple of potatoes at the store to bake for him and give him parts of each night as part of his dinner.
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| Happily eating his pureed chicken (which smells like dog food) |
After missing library story time because I had to a doctor's appointment and then skipping Dominic's swim class last Tuesday in an effort to get him well with rest and avoid developing an ear infection, I decided to take Dominic to the MOMS Club event at Brook Run on Wednesday. There weren't many people there for the event, but Dominic got to try the swing again and then play on the jungle gym. Of course, I didn't realize until he was over playing on the jungle gym that the ages designated for that one were 2-3 year olds. Oh well, he seemed to have fun climbing and crawling all over the thing. Now that the weather has cooled down I hope to take Dominic up there more often. Brian and I took him again a few evenings ago, but it was way more crowded. I think I'm going to try taking him to the Village Mill pool playground today to see how that is. We've also ordered a swing for Dominic that Brian is going to hang from a tree in our backyard. I’m excited!
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| Dominic at Brook Run Park, climbing through a tunnel. |
Last week's cool weather has thrown me for a loop involving Dominic's clothes. He started wearing long sleeve shirt, and I had to break out some pants. The pants don't fit very well, being too loose in the waist and either too short or too long. I need to go shopping for some more pants along with more shirts and shoes. Shoes are surprisingly expensive considering they're so small and babies grow out of them so quickly. The biggest problem is that now mornings are cool and afternoons are hot. There has been a 40 degree difference between each day’s high and low temperatures lately (46 degrees to 86 degrees all in one day). I never know how to dress Dominic! I’m hoping the weather gets more consistent soon, but after living in
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| Brian putting Dominic's shoes on for the park - or trying to anyway. |
Post-pregnancy Recovering Update: yes, my body is STILL recovering/adjusting from pregnancy and child birth almost 8 months later. I finally reached my pre-pregnancy wait last week!!! That means I lost 40 pounds in about 7 ½ months. Also, 3 months after Dominic was born, I started suffering from some hair loss, which is supposed to be fairly common. The reason is that when you’re pregnant, you don’t shed hair like you normally would due to hormones. Then a few months after child birth when your hormones start regulating, you start shedding as you did before pregnancy plus all of the hair that you were supposed to have lost during pregnancy. That’s a lot of hair loss! Brian was probably pretty disgusted by the hair that accumulated all over our floor and in the shower. He didn’t complain too much. After about 3 months of that, the hair loss seemed to stop, but now I have little hairs at the front of my hairline that are growing back. They’re sticking up and look crazy, so I’m having to constantly wear headbands to conceal the crazy, little hairs. People probably think I’m headband obsessed, but the truth is at this point I’m so sick of headbands, but they’ve been a saving grace during this transitional hair growth period. So much people never tell you about post-pregnancy effects! When Dominic is a teenager, I’m not going to let him forget what all I have had to endure, but of course it was all worth it and I would do it again and again. After all, these last (almost) 8 months that I’ve shared with Dominic have been the best of my life!
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| My little man and me at the park. :) |
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