Liam's 1 Year Check Up

 Liam received a great report from his 1 year check up last week!  Here are the latest stats:

Height: 30.5 inches (75th percentile!)
Weight: 22.5 lbs (50th percentile)
Head circumference: 47 cm (70th percentile)

So, he's tall, average weight, and has a slightly larger than average head :)  (must be because he has a lot of brain to store)  He was right on track with everything, the doctor was pleased to hear how well he eats, and that he's crawling normally at this point.  He agreed that we could try to wean Liam off of the reflux meds at this point, and suggested that we initially stop giving him one dose and see how that goes for 10 days or so.  If all is well, then we can drop that one, too.  So we started right away!  He didn't have his evening dose for 3 days, and he was fine. Then yesterday, we forgot about giving him his medication until almost 11am.  At that point, it wasn't bothering him, so we figured we'd give it a shot to see what happened.  good news...nothing happened!  No crying, no more spit up than usual, nothing!  YAY!  I'm not getting my hopes up just yet, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  You know your kid has been on medication for a long time when the pharmacist at Target knows you and your child by name.  (sorry, Katie...we'll still keep in touch!)

We also decided to cut back on his bottles last week, and even though he was pretty angry the first day according to his teachers, he was totally fine with it by the next day.  By the end of the week, he was skipping his morning bottle and content to have a snack at that time instead.  He was still taking his 3pm bottle, so they're going to cut that out this week.  I'm still nursing him in the morning and at bedtime, so we'll see where that takes us next week once he's transitioned totally out of his daytime feedings. 

Funny daycare story; Liam wasn't at school the day of his birthday, but the next day, I sent in some mini muffins for him to share with his friends during afternoon snack to celebrate.  The teachers made him a birthday crown, sang to him, then passed out the snacks at the tiny table where all of the kids sit.  Liam ate his muffin in .02 seconds, and started looking for more. There were extras, and they figured it was his birthday, so why not?  He ate muffin #2 in record time.  After that, he committed a major party foul and had to actually be removed from his own birthday celebration...he started swiping the muffins from all of his friends who were still eating (because apparently, not every baby hoovers their food right off of the table!)  Oops.  

Cue "Pomp & Circumstance"!

My baby just graduated!!

I probably don't need to tell you that the transition was harder on mama than it was on Liam.  I may, or may not have cried when I proudly hung his diploma up on the fridge.

We loved the teachers in Infant 1 but knew he was ready to move in.  He was the oldest baby in the room by more than a month, so the teachers said he was starting to get bored.  (they typically don't move them to the next room until they crawl, which he's not yet, so that's why he was still in the younger room)  But we're also hoping that maybe seeing all of the other mobile babies will motivate him to get moving! 

He'll be 10 months old on Saturday, and I just packed up a lot of his 6-9 month clothes last weekend.  He's still loving food, though he's starting to reject purees, so we've moved on to a lot of finger foods (which I have to say I'm very grateful for-I was really getting tired of making purees and having to spoon feed him everything).  So far he's had: chicken, all kinds of diced veggies, blueberries, bananas, crackers with hummus, cheerios, waffles, pancakes, tacos, and pasta.  He will occasionally do the sign for "more" but most of the time, he's just too impatient and finds that banging the tray and yelling is a much more effective way of communicating :) 

Alright now STOP-Banana time! 

There's a hummus among us.

We had a brief glimmer of hope that his reflux was starting to go away, but then the whole mess started up all over again in the past week.  I gave it a few days, thinking it was a fluke, but unfortunately, that's not the case.  After talking to the pediatrician's office, they advised that I increase his meds again so he went from 2.5 ml of zantac twice/day to 3 ml twice/day.  The nurse could probably tell that I sounded discouraged on the phone and assured me that even though we have to increase it now, it's still a good sign that he probably is getting better with it since he had been on that previous dose for a good 3 months now, whereas before, we were increasing his dose every 4 weeks or so.  Baby steps, I suppose! 

It's hard to believe that he'll be a year old in just 2 months!  The obsessive planner in me started to gather ideas for his birthday party months ago...pinterest certainly helps to feed my addiction to gathering up ideas!

9 month update

I know it's such a cliche, but time is going by unbelievably quickly....it's insane that Liam is over 9 months old!  Here are the stats from his check up last week:

Weight: 19 lbs, 12 oz (36th percentile)
Height: 29 inches (76th percentile!)
Head circumference:46 cm (can't remember the percentile, 60th, I think?)

Looking back at Jake's stats from this same check up, Liam has pretty much caught up with his big brother...Jake was 20 lbs even, and the exact same height.

Can you tell who is who? (rocking the same outfit!)

Liam's appointment went well; the best news is, his reflux seems to be improving (finally!) and the doctor said that we would most likely be able to discuss weaning off the meds at his 12 month appointment, if not before then.  We're so excited that he might finally get some relief.  His ear infection from the week before was halfway cleared up, one was fine, the other ear was still infected.  We just finished up the antibiotic on Tuesday and his sleep is getting better, so we're hoping it's totally gone now.

He had a few patches of eczema at his last appointment, and at that time, they told us to just try some aquaphor after his bath, which seemed to help most of the time until a week ago or so, when all of a sudden, it spread all over the place (his belly, back, neck elbows, knees, ankles) and looked so much worse than before.  We've now moved onto hydrocorisone cream twice/day and that does seem to be helping for now.

He's still an enthusiastic eater; we've gone through pretty much all of the purees at this point and there are none that he's rejected thus far (and he loves yogurt).  We started puffs and mum-mums a few weeks ago, he's a big fan of both.  Just this week we started giving him some diced up peas and carrots with dinner; he was a bit hesitant at first, I think they frustrated him since they were harder to pick up, but he's getting the hang of it.  I need to be better about giving him some table foods along with purees now that he's mastering the pincher grasp. 

He babbles like crazy, and we've heard both mama and dada, which always makes me smile whether it's actually directed at me or not. He's been more interested in books (instead of just being interested in chewing on them) and he especially loves the touch and feel ones that we have.  He really likes the activity table, or anything that lets him stand, really.

He's still not crawling yet; the doctor was a bit concerned about this, mainly because he seems to have no interest in moving in any way (he has only rolled a few times, doesn't scoot or anything like that, he's quite content to just sit and take everything in).  We don't need to worry about it just yet, he wants to give it a month and see if he makes any progress by then before making any decisions. He's also "graduating" from the Infant 1 room at daycare and moving up to the next room, so I'm thinking maybe he'll be inspired once he moves over there, watching all of the other kids move around. 

Happy 9 months, sweet Liam...it's so much fun watching your little personality develop!

6 month report

We had Liam's 6 month well visit earlier this week, and everything looked great.  Here are his stats (at 6.5 months, technically):

16 lbs, 14 oz (25th percentile)
27.5 inches tall (75th percentile)
44.5 cm head circumference (50th percentile)

I looked back at Jake's stats from his 6 month appointment, and he was 17 lbs, 10 oz and 27 inches tall.  So Liam is a bit lighter, but 1/2 inch taller.

Overall, he's been very consistent in his growth and they were pleased with his development and all of that good stuff.  We discussed his reflux, which much to my dismay, has not improved.  I was really hopeful that we would be weaning OFF the meds by this point, not increasing them.  But he's still on 2.3 mL of zantac, twice per day.  We discussed the possibility of needing to see a GI specialist at Children's, but the dr. didn't feel it was totally necessary at this time, since Liam is gaining weight appropriately for his age, and the zantac is working when it's the correct dose.  He said it would be something that he would consider down the road, if we max out on the zantac dose or he were to start losing weight.  But for right now, he just doesn't feel that it would be necessary to send him there to have procedures done that probably won't tell us too much aside from just verifying that yes, he does indeed have reflux.  He said that while "most" babies start to outgrow it by 6 months, there are some who don't outgrow it until closer to 12 months; I guess we just fall into the latter category. 

On a lighter note, he has started to sit up completely unassisted!  I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that he started doing the whole "tripod" sitting with his hands in front of him....then it was just like one day out of the blue last week, I put him down on the floor, he lifted his hands, sat straight up and hasn't looked back since.  I was proud of course, but also sad in some ways since it's just one more milestone that he's reaching that means he's becoming less and less of a baby all the time.  At least he's not mobile...YET! 

Now that he is spending more time in an upright position, Jake has been excited to play with him a bit more, which is really cute.  He'll bring him a bunch of toys, line them up in front of him and start talking to him about what the toys do, he'll show him how to play with them, and reminds Liam that many of the toys were his when he was a baby :)  Here they are playing with one of Liam's Christmas gifts (thanks, Martini Family!)

We also gave him a sippy cup the other night after dinner, mostly just to see what he'd do with it.  I filled it with water and handed it to him, and after examining it for a moment, brought it up to his mouth.  At first I was impressed, thinking he was drinking it, then I realized he was using the spout as a teether :)  Hey, whatever keeps him occupied!

He's still loving his food...since I last wrote about it, we've introduced green beans, avocado, sweet potatoes and apricot.  This is what happens nearly every single night at dinner when his food is all gone and he sees me put the dish in the sink:

THIS IS SO NOT FAIR!

Happy 1/2 year!

It's hard to believe that Liam has gone from this...

to this....

in just 6 months.

I shouldn't be surprised at how quickly the time goes since this is my second time around, but it never ceases to amaze me.  He's really starting to develop such a little personality; he's such a happy little guy and his giggles are contagious.  

He doesn't sit up unassisted yet, but if you kind of put him in place using his little arm as a kickstand, he can prop himself up for a few seconds.  I sense that his love affair with the bouncy seat is coming to an end, as his interest in it lasts for only a few seconds at this point.  He is much more of a fan of sitting upright these days, so he's really been enjoying the exersaucer, jumperoo and bumbo.

We don't go for his check up until the first week of December (somehow we fell behind on these visits), but my at home estimate using our scale the other day put him at around 16 lbs.

He's still struggling with the reflux, despite the fact that we started him on solids a month ago.  Unfortunately, the quantity of the spit up remains the same, the consistency of the spit up is the only difference.  It also started bothering him again last week, he was doing his usual symptoms of needing to increase the dose (which is why I weighed him at home) so I called the office late last week, he had definitely outgrown the previous dose.  We increased it right away, hopefully we'll see some results soon. 

So even though the food isn't helping his reflux, he looooooooves it.  His little feet start kicking a million miles a minute and we can't ever spoon it in fast enough!  So far, he's had carrots, peas, squash, applesauce, bananas, pears and peaches.

Happy 6 months, my little man!

Sir Spits-a-lot

Liam has a lot of nicknames, L-I-AM (his rapper nickname), bugga (I'm not sure why, I started calling him this as a shortened version of snugglebug), but perhaps the most accurate nickname we use is "Sir Spits-a-lot".  Poor thing...his clothes just stand no chance.  We use bibs all of the time (which drives me crazy, half of the time the bib covers up something cute on his shirt, but it's easier to change bibs 49 times a day than it is to change his whole outfit).  but sometimes, even the bib can't provide enough protection and the outfit is ruined.

Fortunately, his reflux is a bit better as of this week.  He had been on 1.6 mL of zantac for awhile now (probably almost 2 months), and it was working well, but then he started having many of the same symptoms as before...crying when trying to nurse, crying and fussing right before spitting up, arching his back, etc....  An estimated weight check at home showed that he was about 13.5 lbs, which bumped him up to the next dose at 2mL.  He's been on that dose for about 6 days now and is showing improvement.  The volume of spit up is still unbelievable (seriously, sometimes it sounds and looks like a someone just threw a bucket of water all over my floor), but he seems to not be bothered by it as much now, so that's all we can ask for.  The doctor seemed confident before that once he starts solids, we would see an improvement in the reflux and hopefully be able to start weaning off the meds soon after that.  He goes in next week for his 4 month check up and I'm assuming they will tell us it's ok to start solids, so we'll see if he seems ready and if we feel comfortable.  But if it helps, I'm all about it!!

Here is a shot of what his shirts inevitably end up looking like after being on for a short period of time, this was over the weekend, I was trying to get some nice, smiley shots of him while he was playing on his playmat...before I could snap a single smiley pic, this is what happened!!

I'm sorry, he has a WHAT??

An umbilical hernia?? My poor kid! Turns out, it's one of those things that sounds much worse than it actually is. Description of the condition, per Mayo Clinic:

An umbilical hernia creates a soft swelling or bulge near the navel (umbilicus). The bulge may range from less than 1/2 inch to about 2 inches (about 1 to 5 centimeters) in diameter.

If your baby has an umbilical hernia, you may notice the bulge only when he or she cries, coughs or strains. The bulge may disappear when your baby is calm or lies on his or her back.

Umbilical hernias in children are usually painless. Umbilical hernias that appear during adulthood may cause abdominal discomfort.
So, not really anything to be alarmed about, but kind of scary to see! Take a look:



The dr said it will go away by itself, usually by a year. Phew! While we were there, they adjusted his dose of medicine for his acid reflux, which is good, because I was starting to think that it wasn't the right dose anymore. The spit up has been slightly less fountain like, but is still coming out of his nose often and still causing him discomfort. Hopefully this new dose will do the trick. At 7 weeks, 2 days, he weighed 9 lbs, 15 oz. That's 1 lb, 5 oz more than when he was there 2 weeks ago, yay! I'm so happy that he's pretty much moved out of all of his newborn clothes & into the 0-3 month stuff; I had a lot more 0-3 month stuff than newborn size, and it was all so cute, I couldn't wait to have him wear it!

As I type this, he's being my assistant by hanging out on his play mat next to me on the floor. He's kicking his legs, grabbing at the toys & cooing up a storm :)

Just one of those days

Here is the timeline of the series of unfortunate events that made up my day yesterday:

7am: Liam wakes up, I pick him up out of his pack & play, he spits up all over himself and me. We both get new outfits.

7:30am: Liam finishes nursing, I go to burp him, he fountains spit up out of his nose and mouth. Outfit #2 for both of us. Clean up spots on recliner. Brian pours my coffee, I ask him to put it on the counter, I'll drink it once I'm cleaned up.

7:45am: Changing him on his changing table, he turns his head & spits up. Fortunately, he doesn't have any clothes on, so I don't have to bother with that. Pick him up, Brian changes the changing pad cover, resume diaper & outfit change. Change successful, carry him into my room to put him down in the pack & play so that I can wash my face; spits up all over the floor in our bedroom. Brian mops up the floor, I feel a splitting headache coming on.

8:00am: put my coffee in the microwave, but forget about it

8:15am: holding Liam on my lap while reading books to Jake; his first diaper blow out occurs at this time. It's on my arm, pants, up his back. Outfit #3 for both of us.

8:30am: everyone is in new clothes, realize I still haven't had any coffee. Must fix this problem, head back downstairs. On the way back down, Liam spits up. AGAIN. My outfit was spared, his did not have the same luck. stomp back up the stairs & change him. Outfit #4 of the day for him. He has been up for an hour and a half. Wonder if I will ever get to drink my coffee again....

8:45am: put Liam in bouncy and pray that he is content in there so that I can drink my coffee, heat it up again. No luck, he looks like he's being tortured in that seat. Pull him out of it, bounce him around the house for a few minutes until he gets the drunk baby look on his face, while rubbing my throbbing head.

9:00am: attempt seat again-success this time! ahhh....coffee, FINALLY!!

9:15am: dig around medicine cabinet for tylenol

9:30am: he wakes up & wants to eat again. Say a prayer that the vicious cycle of this morning doesn't repeat itself...

Fortunately, the day got better after that. But that first 2.5 hours?? Exhausting!! we had a play date at 10am, the adult interaction was much needed after that morning. After Jake's nap, we headed to the library so that he could pick out some books for the week. I needed to get out of the house for a bit!! Later that evening, Brian gave Liam a bath and Liam proceeded to pee all over him. Twice. Heehee...at least it wasn't me that time! :)

1 month check up

Technically, he's 5 weeks old, but Liam had his 1 month check up yesterday; he was 8 lbs, 10 oz and 21 inches long! So he's 1/2 inch taller than he was when he was born and 2 lbs, 2 oz bigger than he was 3 weeks ago. I can definitely stop worrying about whether or not he's gaining enough weight!

I did have some concerns going into the appointment; to sum up, he's been spitting up mass amounts after nursing (sometimes during, then immediately after, then pretty much randomly until the next feeding). And when I say spitting up, I mean a ton and often fountain-like/somewhat projectile. On top of that, he would be content for a bit, then get super fussy, spit up, and be content again after spitting up. It was heartbreaking to see, he just seemed miserable during those times. The doctor said it was most likely acid reflux and put him on zantac, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will bring him some relief. Aside from that, he checked out perfectly and we go back next month for the first round of shots (fun, fun!)

He still sleeps most of the time, but is starting to be a bit more alert during random times of the day. His eyes have changed to be more of a darker blue/slate color, we're really curious to see what color they actually end up being. He checked out his swing for the first time this morning; he seemed to be a bigger fan of the bouncy seat.