More shots

Nathaniel had another series of shots yesterday. He really takes them very well: He had four shots yesterday. First one, he looked on and wondered what was happening. No crying. Second one he looked worried and didn't seem to like it, but still no crying. Third one, he was concerned and cried a little. Fourth one, he wasn't too pleased and wailed for a few seconds afterwards, but he took his binky and calmed down pretty quickly.

Last night he seemed a little achy. He cried a little and didn't want to go to sleep. But Amanda held onto him while I read him some stories and let him pull my hair (it's just getting long enough that he can grab tight a pull hard ... time for me to get a haircut). This seemed to relax him quite a bit, and he started smiling happily after that.

The doctor yesterday also said he's 20 lbs. now. TWENTY! That's huge, you'd think, but it's actually 75th percentile, to go with his 97th percentile height and 50th percentile head size. That's quite a spread.

This means I'll have to get a larger car seat sometime soon ... a seat that will take more than 22 lbs but will face backwards, as seats should do for kids under 1 year old. Looks like I'm going to have to find that Baby Bargain Book again to see which seats are best. I'm thinking a 20-60 lb. seat that will take him most of the way to not needing a seat anymore (when he's in that 60-80 range, I don't imagine he'll still want to sit in the seat he had at 6 months old).

I'll post some pictures soon. He's growing every day -- fast.

Travel crib troubles, Opa and more

It's Friday morning. We got back from Pittsburgh on Thursday afternoon. And it looks like Nathaniel was just being cranky because everything was so different -- especially his sleeping arrangements.

In Pittsburgh, he'd been sleeping in the travel crib. It was big enough to fit him, but he pretty much came in contact with one of its mesh walls every time he rolled over. As a result, he'd wake up and wonder what the heck was going one. Result: Lots of crying, little sleeping.

We were unsure whether this was the return of an ear infection, teething, some other sickness or just irritability based on everything being out of whack.

Looks like it was the last of those. It's now 7:08 a.m., and Nathaniel is sleeping like a baby is supposed to sleep. He went to bed in his more spacious and comfortable crib about 8:30 p.m. My recollection is he woke up at around 2 a.m. briefly (Amanda gave him a binky and he was back out) and again at 6 a.m. (I gave him a binky and he was out again).

We're glad to see he's doing OK, although this makes overnight trips a real question for the near future. That will be something to figure out, I guess.

Pittsburgh was a good visit, other than Nathaniel's fussiness. We got to visit some pre-college friends as well as some college friends. Unfortunately, all the visits were abbreviated versions of what we usually have because we're on Nathaniel time. It was still great to see everyone. Nathaniel got to meet his screaming cousins along with uncles and aunts -- and visit again with his Oma (his grandmother on my side ... that name's origin is described long ago in this blog). And Oma watched over Nathaniel one day, allowing Amanda and I to have a nice lunch at a great little restaurant and wander around a part of Pittsburgh that's apparently gone through some reworking since I moved out (we went to Mallorca, continental Spanish cuisine, and wandered in the South Side ... I recommend both to anyone visiting Pittsburgh, as per those commercials from Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell).

On the downside, Wednesday was the second anniversary of my father's very unexpected death. It's sad Nathaniel will never get to meet him or know him. My father definitely loved his grandkids. He quite often was one of the main reasons they were screaming so much.
And he had this habit of just leading off most of the grandkids to a local park near the house in Pittsburgh. Only the park wasn't really that local (a 15 minute walk including hills can be tough on a young child) ... and the parents didn't often realize he'd whisked them off immediately, leading to a traditional eye roll and nervous wait for their return.
Then he'd sometimes do things like the one return with the kids carrying a cat. The cat obviously belonged to someone ... not to mention I'm very allergic. But my dad was quite pleased with the find because the grandkids were so happy about it.
I'm sorry Nathaniel won't get to be part of that kind of mayhem. But just like I see more of my dad in me as time goes on, I'm sure I'll see "Opa's" effects on Nathaniel eventually as well.

In Pittsurgh

After more than 6 1/2 months, Nathaniel finally got to meet his uncles, aunts and cousins on my side of the family. On my side, he has four uncles and an aunt, along with spouses that led to 12 cousins. On Amanda's side, he has one immediate aunt so far.

On Sunday, Nathaniel met three uncles and their wives/aunts along with seven cousins ranging in age from 18 months to 10 years or so. There was MUCH screaming as these cousins like to wrestle around and such. Nathaniel seemed interested in all of this, but he wasn't really ready to get too involved with the rough play. Overall, he seemed to like getting to see all these crazy people.

The most difficult part, however, has been the adjusted schedules.
Nathaniel spent about six hours in a car seat on Saturday, which made for some iffy sleeping Saturday night. Then, on Sunday, an uncle arrived during the key 12-2 naptime and we woke the little guy up to visit with that family. Then there was all the screaming from 5 to 8 p.m.

Nathaniel was absolutely exhausted, but he didn't fall asleep very well. Once he was out, though, he was out for a while.

But the altered schedule goes further than that ... he also is sleeping in a much smaller travel crib now, so he can't roll over as he like to do. The result is he gets upset and wakes up. Then there's the fact that feeding him solid food now is a two-person job since we couldn't fit the high chair into the car. This just doesn't work as well for Nathaniel ... he seems to think it's more play time.

Anyway, tonight we'll be meeting some old friends ... and hoping Nathaniel stays calm for a while.

Tomorrow will be a more relaxed day (we hope). Wednesday will be lunch with some other old friends. Then Thursday will be another six hours in the car seat.

Poor kiddo.

Fast mover

Nathaniel isn't crawling yet -- but, man, can he move! The little guy has definitely shown he knows how to make a decision to go somewhere and follow through on the decision. He sees something (usually some magazines or something) across the room, and he squirms, rolls and inches along until he gets to them, at which point he tries to shove them into his mouth.

What can I say? The kid likes paper, it seems. (Though they're mostly parenting magazines, so maybe he's just saying hi to some other babies). And if I close off access to the magazines, he ends up rolling himself up in our curtains. He likes trouble.

He also likes whatever toys day is playing with - like the remote control or the computer keyboard. He dives for those items with no regard to what that means to his health (or the health of my back).

I can't wait until he can crawl, but I'm afraid he'll be moving so fast we'll never keep up with him.

Ear infection, continued

About two weeks ago, Nathaniel was much fussier than usual.

On the positive side, Amanda and I have noticed that Nathaniel is always fussy for a reason (knock on wood). He doesn't just start fussing and kicking and screaming for no reason. So we took him to the doctor and found out he had an ear infection. We got some antibiotics and went through a 10-day regimen that seemed to work wonders.

Until Sunday night.
That's when Nathaniel woke up several times and was really unhappy. He kicked, punched, yelled and generally would not go back to sleep. It was a heck of a night for all of us. But at least we knew something had to be wrong (though, once again, we hoped it was teething and it was not).

A visit to the doctor showed that the ear infection was still there and it was worse. That's a little disturbing. We just went through 10 days of antibiotics, and all it did was keep the infection in check? What kind of weak antibiotics are they giving us?

Well, now we're on to a new regimen. Hopefully it will actually work this time. The poor guy doesn't need another few days of ear pain.

Laughing so much

The little guy seems so happy these days. He's finally out of the ear infection and the nagging cough, I guess. And he just seems so happy about it.

Yesterday, Amanda was holding him in her lap and I put my face down at his face level and just started making little sounds ... and he just started laughing and laughing. It was amazing stuff. He was just staring at me and laughing whenever I'd make an "ooo" sound. The day before, he was on his belly on the floor and I got down to his level and he seemed to love it. He laughed and just made happy noises.

Great stuff these days. Lots of fun.