11.5 Months Old!

This was originally written on Monday, March 30, 2009:

Yesterday we took Logan to the zoo for the very first time! Joe & I hadn't been in 4 years but decided to get a zoo pass and it was a blast! Logan seemed to really enjoy it.

Also yesterday (two weeks after Logan took his first steps by himself), he easily walked from one side of the room to the other as if he'd been walking his whole life, but only walks about half of the day.

We bought bacitracin ointment and put it on Logan's scar yesterday & today but it looks really bad so I called the ENT and we are meeting with his PA tomorrow. I hope it's nothing serious.

Meanwhile, Joe feels like his diverticulitis is back (you can read about his experience here), despite following all of the rules since December, so he has a doctor's appt. this afternoon. :(

In brighter news, Logan's finally mimicking! We thought it was odd that he loves giving high 5's but has never done anything else on command, unless you count only 25% of the time since 7 months old he waves when asked. (This is why baby sign language hasn't worked for us - I've written a couple of posts on this topic. The first was More of Son's 7th Month when I explained the concept and said I was going to do it and the other was Catch Up Time when Logan was 10 months old, reporting that it's not working for us. He's shown no interest whatsoever. I mentioned in the Catch Up Time post that often times boys have a harder time than girls).

Well, tonight we easily got him to do everything we were doing: high 5's, waving, putting his hands to his face, clapping, etc. My dogs were getting jealous, it was funny, they were doing their tricks too because I was so excited and praising Logan! Welcome to our amusing evening, lol. Seriously, though, it's sooooo amazing to see the light bulb suddenly turn on above Logan's head and to actually try to be on our level now!!!!

This was originally written on Sunday, April 5, 2009:

I just had to mention again that I love this age! Logan is actually understanding me now when I talk to him!

"Go get a toy!"
He leaves my side and gets a toy.

"Where is the light?"
He looks up at the ceiling and points to the light.

"Can you turn on the TV for me?"
He presses the correct button on the television.

"Are you hungry?"
He goes to the kitchen.

"Do you want to watch your movie?"
He turns around and sits so he's facing the TV.

"Where are the dogs?"
He finds Bella & Cosmo

"Do you want a bottle?"
He starts whining, haha!

"Can I have a kiss?"
He leans in.

"Give me five!"
He pats my hand.

Those are just a few of many! It seems like he comprehends so much of what I say to him now! It's the best! He's still not talking himself (or signing) but at least there's communication for the first time between his pointing for me to understand him and for him to recognize not just words (which he has the past couple of months) but actual sentences and requests!

He's also walking ALL OF THE TIME now! Three weeks after he took his first steps (which was three days before he turned 11 months old), he's walking all over our house and is not crawling at all anymore! So exciting :)

On the downside, we had an appt. on Tuesday to find out what's going on with Logan's scar. Unfortunately, our ENT that actually did the surgery was booked full and wasn't able to see him. So, we saw another guy in his practice as well as their PA. But they didn't really know what was wrong (isn't that reassuring). So we were given a prescription for an antibiotic because if there's an infection then that should help. Since I had bought the bacitracin ointment last Sunday, we kept applying that instead for a couple of days because it had said to give it a week and I hated to give Logan his third set of antibiotics in a year!

As I said in my post, My Son's CT Scan (and other stuff), a lot of doctors aren't prescribing antibiotics anymore to children under the age of 2 or 3 because they have proven that antibiotics actually make kids sicker in the long run because it weakens the immune system. Logan had his first dose at 8 months old when he had his first ear infection and then his second dose (I forgot to mention it here) after his surgery at 10 months to (ironically) prevent infection. He was only on the second antibiotics 4 of the 10 days because it was a different kind than in December and so Logan had diarrhea. I immediately called the ENT and he said it was okay to stop giving it (they also said our stopping it had nothing to do with this current situation since it happened over a month after the surgery) and if Logan had 8 diarrhea diapers in 24 hrs then to take him to our pediatrician's office. I remember thinking, no way is he going to have it 8 times in one day! Well he had 7. Fortunately, he never acted like it bothered him and never had an 8th so that was that.

But, I breastfed for 9 months and splitting up his vaccinations have both helped him to have an extra strong immune system, so when the bump on his neck just kept getting redder & bigger, we gave him the antibiotics on Thursday, as obviously there ARE appropriate times for giving babies antibiotics. The bump is still there, but it is changing. . .it doesn't look any better, but Joe thinks "change" in general is a good sign. I hope so; I hate that they don't even know for sure what is going on. We have an appt. scheduled with our actual ENT for April 14th (by then the antibiotics will be gone so if it doesn't help then we have to go down another path). I thought we were done with this whole thing. :( Our babysitter had even mentioned the bump when I picked him up on Tuesday, because she thought it looked so bad and then called to find out how his appt. went on Thursday. To be honest, I was doing really well with this "surprise" until just a couple of days ago. Since it started with a tiny pimple on March 20, I just had the "I'm sure it's nothing serious" attitude and felt pretty relaxed about it. Now I'm starting to worry and feel like I could cry any second. Maybe it's because my period is due this week. I just have to focus on the fact that Logan hasn't acted like it hurts or is uncomfortable in any way. Today his cheeks have been a little red, but he's on the same antibiotics he was on at 8 months old and didn't have any reaction then so hopefully he'll do fine on it the remaining 6 days.

In other news, Logan has weaned himself from baby food! Even though I said that I hoped he would since he seems to wean himself from everything else at the appropriate times, I didn't expect it this week! It's just insane how there hasn't been anything in his life that we've had to help him wean from. But, as of Tuesday he's been refusing all food that he can't pick up and eat by himself. We won't be buying anymore, but we have a TON in the cabinet, so each day I've been sneaking him bites along with finger food so that we can finish it. So, he already switched to all of our meals with two weeks to spare before his 12 month birthday, eating everything we're eating!

He still seems dependent on bottles/formula but who knows what he'll be like by April 27th (even though his birthday is on the 18th we're going to wait an extra week because that's his 12-month check-up and also after the week he goes to Iowa). LOL, when I told Joe that we'll wait an extra week, before I'd finished my sentence, Joe was like, "Yeah, because he was premature." Um, no, that's not the reason, silly guy. (36 weeks+1 day is considered full-term.)

Not much else to report except that Cosmo had a vet appt. on Tuesday so I took him to that while Logan was at the babysitter's (Cosmo was due in December for his rabies vaccination but I hadn't gotten around to it until now)! Oh, and also nothing ended up being wrong with my car (when Joe got home from work he tried it out and it was perfectly fine, go figure.)

Joe took Logan to the babysitter's for the first time at 8 AM and he said that before he even left Logan started crying. :( I'm glad that happened for the first time with Joe and not me. Unfortunately, when I picked him up at noon that day he was asleep on Babysitter again (like his very first day, the previous Tuesday), only this time didn't even wake up while I talked to her for a good 15 minutes. She said that had been his hardest day, but it was actually a good sign that he'd cried before Joe left because he understood that was going to happen. Once they start to comprehend that "Daddy leaves," then they also comprehend that "Mommy comes back." I asked if some babies don't ever adjust? She said "No, they all do, it just could take as long as 8 weeks since he's only going part-time."

He did crawl a little and he did play a little, but needed her to hold him the majority of the time (see, my theory was right -- Logan is capable of wanting to be held all of the time, it's just that he has always felt naturally secure enough with me not to need it -- but there he's not secure yet. I hope she will soon see the happy, easy-going baby that he usually is)!

Don't worry, I'm not ready to throw in the towel. I know there's no avoiding this. Even if he'd been going to daycare since day one, all children go through a period when they don't want to be left somewhere. And, unlike if we'd waited until he was older, I think it's less traumatic on him now. I'm hoping that this will give him confidence for times in the future to know he is fine in this world without me, and then those future situations (whatever they may be) will be easier because of this. Babysitter said out of her own 7 kids, her oldest was the only one she never left with anyone and she honestly feels that he had a harder time in life because of it.

I really do think Logan will adjust soon, I don't know why this past week was harder for him than the first week -- I hope he's not getting into a habit of crying there (like, oh this is where I cried last week so I'm going to cry again today, etc). This week I'm going to take him and stay for a little while to see if that will help. Because, this weekend (aside from Joe & I going out to eat at The Summer Kitchen Cafe) we went over to Nick & Heather's house (she's who had her baby on March 25th so we got to meet little Eden!) and it was the first time in his entire life he'd ever acted scared or started to cry when we'd gone somewhere! I could tell it was because he thought we were going to leave him. :( But we stayed for a couple of hours and by the end Logan was crawling around, climbing on their furniture (Heather said she thought a newborn was exhausting until watching Logan, haha, isn't that the truth!), laughing at them and going up to them, and even playing with their Husky/German Shepherd mix dog!

Anyway, as I was leaving Babysitter's last Tuesday, the two year-old was also there (he's the one whose mom is a stay at home mom, too, but uses that time to workout). He's been going there since he was 6 weeks old so it's never phased him but when he saw me pick up Logan he said in the sweetest voice, "Where is MY mommy?" Babysitter said, "Your mommy will pick you up later." He said, "But I want my mommy NOW!" I thought, oh no, now I've opened a can of worms! I think he was used to all of the other kids being there until their parents got off work at the end of the day. I walked out the door at that point but it sounded like Babysitter was explaining everything to him.

The more I've gotten to know her, I like her even more!!!! I feel like I've found a "neighbor friend" forever! I'm so glad that she worked out. I almost can't believe how it almost didn't -- it makes me wonder if any of those other on our "top ten" list had said they had openings maybe I would have wrongly chosen one of the others, but God knew that this one was who would be best for Logan.

On Thursday, I had an appt. with my counselor but haven't made any future appts. so hopefully I can stop going regularly again without having another nervous breakdown. When I picked Logan up that day, he was in the middle of lunch, it was so cute. He was sitting in a booster seat with a bib on, feeding himself pork & green beans. He smiled huge when he saw me and he showed me his food like, "Look at what I'm doing, Mom!"

Babysitter told me to take a seat so I stayed for a half an hour and got to know the other kids (the 4 year old who is at pre-school in the mornings was there along with the almost-4 year old and 9 month old brothers). Logan seemed so comfortable and relaxed.  I said, "He looks like he's doing real well!" But Babysitter said it was still rough. That day he'd wanted to be held, but then when she did he would push away like to get down. He'd cried before Joe left again and had a hard time when she had to change the other baby's diaper (thankfully that baby, Joshua, doesn't seem to care at all, he's been going there since 6 wks old so he's laid back, doing his own things and playing with his brother).

Joshua's brother, Matthew (the almost 4 year old), said to me, "Logan cries." LOL. Babysitter informed him that he used to do the same thing. :p I guess he was 18 months old on his first day, so his adjustment was pretty dramatic, but now he acts like it's his second home. I could tell how happy he was there and how much he liked Babysitter and playing with the other 4-year-old, Henry. Henry asked Babysitter when he started coming. She said, "You were one." He said, "Did you like me?" She said, "I loved you." He said, "I was cute." Then Matthew said, "Logan is just soooo cute!" I thought that was funny to hear from 4-year-olds.

I was surprised at how articulate they were. I guess I don't know 3/4-year-olds very well because they seemed like 6-year-olds to me! They just seemed to know everything about everything, talking about all of the contestants on American Idol, they know all of Babysitter's kids names and their ages, etc. They refer to me as "Logan's mom" which is new and cute! "Hey Logan's Mom, look," etc.

When Logan was done eating I put him in his carseat and he fell right asleep! On Tuesday when I'd picked him up he'd spent the whole car ride home laughing and didn't take his nap until two hours later! See, that's why I'm still positive about the whole babysitter idea. Logan has just been in the best mood ever for me the remainder of Tuesdays and Thursdays and even on Wednesdays and Fridays. He just doesn't seem to need as much from me, because it's like he's getting the extra/different stimulation that he needs during those mornings. He just seems even happier and even more content than ever before. This, combined with my two breaks are putting me in a better mood than ever and giving me more energy so that I can then give him more and be my best self/best mom. So let's hope this coming week is the best so far and all the weeks after, so that we can continue this until he's in school!

Anyway, Nick & Heather's little girl was so tiny & precious when we went over there last weekend. . .she slept in my arms the whole time we were there. Joe held her, too, and we both remarked about how she was so still we'd forget we were holding her as we talked, haha! It was like we just had a doll! I can hardly remember Logan like that :( It's amazing how as much as I was "in the moment" and took a zillion pictures and videos -- it still seems foggy!

They are doing well, except Heather has mastitis so she was in pain. :( She had to stop breastfeeding when Eden was 4 days old.  The other night she began feeling dizzy/light-headed and started sweating and developed a high fever so she called her doctor and they said to go to the ER.

I know there are women out there that breastfeeding is easy for, but that doesn't seem to be the majority. It was hard for me, and now both of my most recent friends to have babies had to stop even though they were just as adamant about doing it as I'd been. Both of them researched a ton while pregnant in order to do it, and both of them worked with lactation consultants and did everything to continue. The majority I talk to DO find it difficult, even those who continue through a year, so it is amazing to me that this is what is natural! Animals have no problem whatsoever (nor with birth) but humans appear to be a completely different story. It's actually very fascinating.

Anyway, my next friend (Melissa) to have a baby is due this Wednesday but she isn't dilated yet. So she is expecting to go late, but I told her anything can happen! Heather said she was only 2 cm when she went into labor (she'd been asleep for an hour, feeling fine, and then woke up with hard contractions less than 5 min apart so they went to the hospital). She wanted to progress naturally so she didn't have pitocin but she had opiods from 11 pm until 7 am, then got an epidural, and was fully dilated at 12:30. A half an hour later Eden came out! It was fun to hear her birth story. I swear I could just talk for hours with everyone I meet about their birth stories, lol. I've mentioned here before that's what I look forward to most about having another baby, isn't that awful?! But it's just so exciting! My last friend (Brooke) is due in exactly two weeks and is 2 cm dilated.

P.S. We finally got our very first laptop today! (We still have our desktop so it will be nice to have two computers)