Extra Extra

I spoke with Dr. Ally's nurse a little while ago and she wants us to keep going with the cereal. I forgot to mention in my previous post that one of the problems we were having was that Aiden never seemed satisfied with his meals until he was absolutely stuffed full (and then he had to vomit to let it out a bit). Dr. Ally thought the cereal might help him feel more satisfied without being stuffed to the gills and help with the spitting up.

He is feeling satisfied with 3 ounces now (where before he sometimes still wanted more after eating 4 ounces) so she thinks the cereal is serving at least part of its purpose. They want me to take him in on Tuesday to get weighed. If he's still gaining we will keep doing the cereal. If he's not gaining I guess we'll try something else. FYI...he's getting 1tsp of rice cereal per ounce of milk so gets about 3 tsp with every bottle.

So we will continue to have the laundry issue until he is able to stop spitting up (and I hope that is soon).

Mr. Spitty Wiggler

We've been adding cereal to Aiden's bottles trying to reduce the amount of vomit coming out of the young man's mouth. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be working so I have a call in to Dr. Ally's office to see what she suggests. The spitting up doesn't seem to be anything more than a laundry problem (he's gaining and such) but Dr. Ally still wants to see if we can fix it.

In other news, we've recently discovered that Aiden is pretty independent. I bought a nice mobile at Kid to Kid for $16.99 (retail price $40 or more) and it's a huge hit. This morning he spent 25 minutes in his crib just gazing and cooing while Adam and I worked on laundry, breakfast and such. He also really likes laying on a blanket on the floor and looking around. If he starts fussing we just move him a little (to give him a different view) and he's good for another 10 minutes.

Today we're going to meet Lorna (the babysitter whose son was in my class last year). We also have to run to the post office, write thank you notes and clean up around the house. Norma and Julie are arriving at 9:30pm but Aiden will already be in bed so they might not get to see him until tomorrow morning. We'll have to see how it goes.

Weight Chart

I found a place online where you can enter weight data and see it plotted on a chart just like the one Dr. Ally uses.

New Pics

I uploaded five new pictures to our album...just click on the slideshow.

Late Night Wardrobe Change

Aiden's been sleeping pretty well the last few nights. Sleeping five or six hour blocks is really great BUT the diapers aren't really up to the challenge. Aiden's already a pretty heavy wetter so when he's wearing the diaper two hours past his normal diaper change, we end up with a leak. We could just put another liner in the cloth diaper but we're already using a pretty bulky liner for his size so adding another would be kind of ridiculous.

Adam and I talked about it this morning and decided to use a disposable diaper tonight to see if we can avoid the late night wardrobe change. I hope I don't have to change his clothes at 3am again tonight!

2 Month Checkup

Our day started with the RTI meeting at school. After the meeting we came home to put the diapers in the dryer and feed Aiden and then left to see Dr. Ally. He is now 21 inches (3rd percentile), weighs 8lbs 12 oz (10th percentile) and has a head circumference of 37 cm (5th percentile). Just in case you don't remember percentiles (and I usually have to be reminded of what it means), being in the 10th percentile for weight means 90% of babies his age weigh more than him.

Dr. Ally said he still looks great. Yes, he's small for his age but he's on the curve so we don't have anything to worry about. In fact, he jumped ahead a little on the weight curve so that's good! He's been spitting up A LOT lately (probably 0.5-1 oz per feeding) and he doesn't seem to mind but Dr. Ally asked me to add a teaspoon or two of rice cereal to a few of his bottles and see if it helps. If we don't see an improvement with rice cereal, she wants us to call and discuss other ideas. I was a little hesitant to go the cereal route but I trust her. Plus, I did some research of my own just now and read that some people really see a big improvement adding rice cereal.

Now...for the shots. I gave Aiden a pep talk and reminded him that we're only giving him shots so he won't get sick later. I promised him a cool band aid or a sticker at the end of the session and we agreed to be calm about the shots. He didn't keep up his end of the deal though. There were three shots and he started a kind of whining cry a few seconds after getting stuck the first time. By the time all the shots were over, he was screaming.

He was inconsolable, refusing the pacifier and not responding to shushing BUT I had a really good idea to calm him down. I gave him his bottle for a few seconds and, once he was calm, switched him to the pacifier. (Just in case that method bothers you...don't worry because I've never done it before and I don't plan to use it on a regular basis but the screaming was earsplitting and I definitely couldn't drive home with him screaming like that). Once he had the pacifier he fell asleep and he's been sleeping nearly two hours which gave me the opportunity to get some shopping done.

His next appointment is May 2 at 11am. May 2 is a Friday so Adam will be taking him.

I guess that just about covers our day so far. Julie and Norma are visiting this weekend so I will probably have new pictures to post on Sunday.

We Slept Like Babies

Aiden's been eating a lot this week and not having a lot of yucky diapers so we think he's going through a growth spurt. I'm taking him for his shots tomorrow so I will have new height and weight stats (and head circumference for Aunt Shannon!).

Last night we fed Aiden and gave him a bath around 8:30. He loves baths but he HATES getting out of the tub and screams like a maniac as soon as we get him out. After his bath and a diaper change, we swaddled him and put him down around 9:30. He woke up just before 4 this morning. Yep, that means he slept about six hours straight! I credit the two blanket swaddling method. Last night I used the second blanket to wrap up his legs since he's always kicking like crazy.