Overwhelming

If there's one word to describe a baby's first Christmas, that would be it: Overwhelming ... for Nathaniel, that is. He doesn't even begin to understand all that's going on around him, but he can see the tree and the family that's around and all these bright presents ... and the result is a lack of sleep and extra excitement.

On Christmas morning, everyone wanted to see Nathaniel opening presents, which of course he didn't understand. Eventually, as new toys surrounded him, Nathaniel was unsure whether to seek comfort in his mother's arms or play with the toys. He essentially went in circles, over to Mom for a few minutes, back to the toys for a few, back to Mom, etc.

In the end, though, he really seemed to enjoy the whole thing. I guess next year is when it really turns into a production, though.

Happy new year to all!

Surprise! Back to the hospital

This was not a restful weekend.

As I noted last week, Nathaniel was not feeling well on Wednesday ... another ear infection.

On Thursday, his fever went higher. On Friday morning, it went even higher: 104 degrees. Then, even though his fever was down to 101, he threw up his breakfast -- so I decided I needed to visit the doctor again.

The doctor, noting Nathaniel's early-life problems, suggested we get an X-ray to take a closer look at his chest. They wanted to make sure he didn't have pneumonia. The doctor suggested we go back down to Delaware, where Nathaniel had his surgery, because they were most familiar with his case and would be able to handle any issues.

So, I took him on down to Delaware. And his x-ray was just fine.

But ...

the oxygen in his blood was a little low. This is the number doctors were most concerned with after he was born. Before surgery, the number was in the 70s. After surgery, it spiked into the low 90s. And they wouldn't let us go home until it sat in the upper 90s regularly.

But now it was back down into the low 90s, and doctors were worried. Which scared the hell out of Amanda and me. Nathaniel was admitted to the hospital.

The thing is, they didn't actually do anything to him/for him. He had oxygen tubes in his nose for a while, but he ripped them out mid-evening Friday and they didn't bother to put them back in. Instead, they just watched the numbers, as did we. Then, about 6 p.m. Saturday, they told us we could go.

That was it.

After Nathaniel was pretty much housed in a cage for most of 24 hours (we could take him out, but it was still a cage) and after Amanda and I were scared, exhausted and bored out of our minds, they said to go home.

So now we're trying to get Nathaniel into a normal schedule in the days before Christmas. And we haven't had the slightest chance to get the house in order or get a Christmas tree or put up lights outside. And we're exhausted. And Nathaniel's exhausted -- but happy to be home, so he's having trouble falling asleep.

Like I said, this was not a restful weekend.

(sorry for delay) ANOTHER ear infection

Nathaniel's home from day care today with his fifth confirmed ear infection. I could swear there were more, but maybe it just feels like more when your baby has a fever and obviously isn't feeling well.

At least he's not screaming like he had been with previous infections -- the doctor even mentioned he expected more tears based on the pressure in his ears and the way the eardrums were "tented outward."

I guess he's getting used to the pain.

But we got this one early (he barely had a fever -- the daycare people noticed he wasn't acting like himself and told me about it when I picked him up yesterday afternoon).

I get the feeling he might be getting tubes for his ears. Poor guy.

Also ... sorry for the delay in posting. Our blog host has gone through some changes recently, and there have been a number of problems associated with it.

Standing on his own

He's doing it much more often now. Amanda and I were playing with Nathaniel on the living room floor yesterday when Nathaniel took his hands off my leg and clapped a few times (bending his knees, even) before placing his hands back on my leg. Later in the evening, he did about the same without Amanda and me watching as closely.

It's becoming normal to him.

It's not long now ...

Standing on his own

He's doing it much more often now. Amanda and I were playing with Nathaniel on the living room floor yesterday when Nathaniel took his hands off my leg and clapped a few times (bending his knees, even) before placing his hands back on my leg. Later in the evening, he did about the same without Amanda and me watching as closely.

It's becoming normal to him.

It's not long now ...

Almost walking

Nathaniel is briefly, ever so briefly, getting very short distances without holding on to anything. I was astonished Saturday to see him standing and hold the coffee table then let go of the table, turn and grab onto something else without falling.

Amanda has seen him moving forward in a walking and falling at the same time kinda way where he gets 2-3 pseudo steps before he is in position to crawl.

He's already too fast with the crawling, this is going to be tough.

Mouthful of teeth

It looks like Nathaniel is getting about four teeth at once right now, maybe more. As a result, he's drooling like mad and quite cranky. He's still a pleasant little guy, but he's not real happy -- especially when he wakes up in pain.

I hope this ends soon.