Baby proofing FAIL

It's been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks now.  I feel like I never have time to settle down now unless the little guy is napping (which is now down to about 2 naps a day, 3 possibly if he wakes early).

LITTLE MAN CAN CRAWL.

Yup, it's frightening.

So daddy and I are scrambling with baby-proofing.  Our evidence-based search for baby gates was through the usual method - Amazon reviews.  When they arrived, everything seemed very straight forward.  Ha. TRAP.

So FYI, most baby gates are made for "standard" size wall openings, which is apparently up to 40 inches.  What we didn't know was that the bottom of our top step IS 40 inches, but the top part is NOT. This is because we have trim at the bottom of our walls by the carpet.  So without the trim, our stairwell opening is something like 41 inches apart.  Apparently, incompatible with many of the baby gates available on the market.

See the gap at the top? Yup. Fail. 

Lesson learned.  Measure EVERYTHING. Oh well, good thing Amazon has a good return policy.  NEXT.

8 Months Young!

8 Months today!

Height: 30 inches
Weight: 21 lbs

The memorables from month 7:

Week 1
--Pseudo crawling!  Rolling from side to side to shift weight and move forward. This also includes moving his legs too
--Sleeping through the night again, 10pm - 7am
--EXTREMELY sensitive to sounds (wakes up when the garage door opens)
--much more solid poop

Week 2
--proficient at pivoting while crawling (turning around and around)
--can "crawl" for very short distances, tends to like doing this on the rug better than any other surface
--got the "B" sound down
--attempting  to pull to standing on heavy objects (like activity cube)
--knows how to roll things (cars)
--flips objects top/bottom
--appears to do some chewing on solid food, but still spitting things out if he can't easily swallow

Week 3
--bringing knees up now, appears like he can do push ups, while army crawling
--more proficient at pulling to standing by himself (can actually tip over the activity cube)
--acute sense of separation anxiety developing - cries and cries when he wakes up and you're not there anymore
--learning to clap (can put hands together)
--pincher grasp developing - can tell he no longer uses just his fingers like an ape
--poop is now real solid
--eating 3 cubes of food twice daily

Week 4
--shakes his head on command
--sticks his butt way up there when he's trying to crawl, gets up on toes!
--pulls to standing with very minor assistance (turning his foot in the right direction)
--separation anxiety even more obvious now, especially when I'm around
--top front right incisor is cutting through
--weathered through Roseola and a fever of 104
--back to waking up once a night, around 4 AM
--seems to have developed some sort of emotional bond with his binky

Roseola

Is not fun.  Austin had roseola this week.

It's also known as 6th disease as it is the 6th "common" cause of rash in infants/children.  It's also known as the 3-day fever, because well, it's a 3-day fever.  We know 3 other kids who had it sometime between their 7th and 8th month.  I guess we're just par for the course.

And that's what it was.  3 days of fever, ranging from 99 up to 104.  I don't ever recall ever having a fever of 104 as an adult.  It must be pretty horrible.  The last time I had a fever of 101 I wanted to do nothing but snuggle on my couch for the entire day and sleep...and pop Tylenol every 4 hours on the dot.

The worse part was he would NOT take his Tylenol. No way. Nuh uh.  Well, not after the initial dose anyway.  Syringes were not helpful.  Droppers were not helpful.  fingers dipped in medicine? No.  Spoons? yeah right.  The kid knows the stuff is disgusting.  By the end of the night, his jaws were practically wired shut.  Clamped down so tight that you couldn't even give him a binky (that's when you know he means business!) Probably my fault for buying him generic APAP and not shelling out the big bucks for "real" Tylenol.

By  48 hours in, we had to see someone to make sure things were going OK.  I more or less knew that it was a virus of some sort (probably roseola, since it's so common), but the nagging mom gut feeling told me that it'd be important to make sure.  We saw the pediatrician who verified that his symptoms were consistent with some sort of virus.  Phew.  The best part of the visit?  She reminded me (the pharmacist) that they made rectal APAP suppositories for a reason.

HOW COULD I FORGET?

So I practically RAN to the store to get some.  Mind you, I went to 3 pharmacies before I could find these butt gems. At the last place I went to, they were out of the strength that AJ is suitable for, so I went ahead and bought the "baby" dose (intended for infants up to ~18 pounds) anyway.  Under-dosing him was still better than nothing.

Now you're looking at a momma who can (proudly) say she can successfully administer rectal suppositories.  Damn straight I'm proud!

Anyway, fast forward 2 more days.  On Saturday night, I discovered that AJ had broke out in a big red rash.  Not an allergic looking one. He looks sort of like a teenager with a ton of acne.

And there you have it. Roseola.  It's a bitch.

De Quervain Syndrome

I knew it was gonna happen.  My mommy friends warned me.

Mommy thumb, or De Quervain's Tenosynovitis.  A condition where tendons of the wrist and thumb get inflammed and rub against the tunnel that encloses them.  Awesome. Now my left hand is in an unattractive brace most of the day.

How did it happen, so you ask?

Ummm... how about 8 months of lifting this 100% percentile (in both height and weight) chunkster?

Ahhh, who am I kidding?  My thumb was a goner the day this chunkster arrived.

Here's more info on how to fix your doom.
http://www.parents.com/baby/new-parent/motherhood/mommy-thumb-5-ways-to-ease-the-pain/?page=2

Solid Notes - 7 months

AJ's food reviews, month 7.
For month 6 reviews, see here: 6 month solid notes

Spoiler alert, they're all pretty darn positive.  My boy likes to eat.

This month, we focused on both adding new foods, thickening textures, and also mixing ingredients. We use organic foods if at all available.  For storage, I have been freezing the foods in ice cube trays and defrosting 2 cubes at each meal.  Note that freezing baby food changes the molecular structure of the foods, and can often lead to thinner than expected yields. My solution? Throw in some rice cereal and it's all good. He's been doing pretty good so far with thicker purees, but isn't quite ready for even squishy finger food yet.

-Banana: 4 stars.  This is a re-rating. It's super easy to eat.  Mash it up with a fork and viola, you have baby food.  This is technically a retrial.  AJ had this before around 6 months and didn't like it. He may have just gotten more familiar with the textures just now.  Either way, he approves now.  Why it doesn't deserve 5 stars: no good unless it's super ripe and he can't finish an entire banana by himself obviously.  I don't like ripe bananas.

-Avocado: 4 stars.  This was previously rated.  We tried whole pieces of avocado to see if he's ready for finger foods. Nope, not quite yet.

-Summer squash: 4 stars. (peeled, diced, steamed, pureed with a tiny bit of cooking liquid). No real complaints about it. If you kiddo likes the taste of zucchini, he will most likely like this stuff.

-Carrots (re-rating from last month). 5 stars.  OMG.  How oh how did we rate this a 2 last month?  The difference that one month makes is truly amazing. Carrots are a staple food now in our house.  If he doesn't like something at first, mix in some carrots and you bet he'll eat it.  I think it was just a consistency thing that he wasn't used to before.

-Peas (organic frozen peas steamed, pureed, thinned with a tiny bit of cooking liquid).  3 stars.  It's OK I guess.  He doesn't seem to mind it. There's not real good way to puree it down to a smooth puree so it gets real messy.  I find peas in his neck sometimes. Or between the ears of his Sophie giraffe toy.  Yuck.  Oh well, at least he likes it.

-Pear (organic bartlett pears peeled, diced, steamed, pureed with a little bit of cooking liquid.  He's also tried the organic stuff in a pouch).  5 stars.  These are sweeter than apples (or perhaps just less tart than some apples).  They cook down to a very nice consistency and doesn't take much effort to puree.  The stuff in the pouch is alright too, not too sweet either.

-Apple (organic red delicious apples peeled, diced, steamed, pureed with a little bit of cooking liquid.  I've also given him slices of apples (raw) to gnaw on).  4.5 stars.  Only because sometimes apples are kind of tart, and you can totally tell (baby's face scrunches up).  Otherwise no complaints. Note that they will not discolor after cooking/freezing immediately!

-Mango (organic mango in a pouch).  4 stars.  Pretty delicious.  I only give it 4 stars because in reality, picking out a mango, cutting it up, dicing it, cooking it, pureeing it...is sort of a bitch.  And those babies are pretty sour if you don't pick good ones. In a pouch though, I have very few complaints.

-Potato (both russet potatoes and organic fingerlings, steamed and mashed). 3 stars.  It just might not be time for this yet.  Note that Russett potatoes mash well, and fingerlings do not.  Either way, AJ appeared especially thirsty after eating this.  I don't blame him.  Potatoes are kind of icky without something to go with it.  Oh yeah, I ended up mushing in some pureed carrots to mix it up.

Next up:
-Green beans
-Oat
-Beets
-Plain yogurt
-Cauliflower
-and finally, yes, CHICKEN (tbd, around Christmas)