So much has changed since I last posted (in April--whoops!). Our little buddy turned ONE! He is a busy man. He's not walking yet but is gaining more confidence with standing independently and I have a feeling one day he's just going to take off!
Charlie's current favorite activities:
Emptying bookshelves, drawers, baskets (including those containing freshly folded laundry), and best of all - the dog's water bowl.
Throwing things off his high chair tray. He started this when he realized Shadow ate whatever he threw over the edge. Yesterday he started laughing when we went to pick things up. (This phase can end any time now). He even closes his eyes in anticipation of his cup hitting the floor.
Waiting by the sliding door and saying "gawg" repeatedly every time Shadow goes into the back yard. This is one of my favorites.
Eating. This has always been a strength and C rarely disappoints. His
favorite foods right now are yogurt, spaghetti and peanut butter and
jelly. He will some times refuse all food and then if you bring a bowl
over and tell him it's yogurt, he opens his mouth as wide as he can. He usually ends each bite with "mmmmmm"
Sharing. Toys, food, our phones. If he can hand it to you, he will. It's cute.
Books are probably his favorite thing to hand us. He almost always takes the book out of our hands once we finish reading it to him and then hands it back to us. We still love books.
We're gearing up for vacation! We're taking a week to go see the Redwoods and Crater Lake. Our dear friend Alana is meeting up with us for the Crater Lake adventure. We can't wait!
I’m struggling today.I made the decision last night to stop pumping for Charlie.I’ve been working towards this for several
weeks now but last night made the difficult decision to call it quits.When I was pregnant, I never imagined weaning
would be solely my decision.I expected
to have Charlie’s help and be able to follow his lead.Instead, it came down on me.And although I’m feeling a lot of guilt and sadness
today, I know that will pass and I will get to enjoy the extra time with my
family.
When Charlie was born, my dreams of nursing took a backseat
to his immediate health concerns.We
started “finger feeding” Charlie in the hospital but when Charlie was readmitted
for light therapy for jaundice, the pediatric hospitalist was against this
approach and said she would not discharge Charlie until he was either bottle
feeding or nursing, despite the fact that his weight was stable.Being overwhelmed at the moment, we gave Charlie
a bottle of fortified breast milk so we could take him home.Despite working with several different lactation
consultants over the course of the next 8 weeks, it just wasn’t working.I was devastated but wanted to do the next
best thing and make sure Charlie continued to drink my milk, even if not in the
way I dreamed of feeding him.And here
we are, 9 and a half months later. I’ve
pumped in airports and on airplanes, in moving cars and parking lots.I’ve washed more bottles than I can to count
and spent hours measuring, storing and freezing milk.And I’d do it again. My happy, thriving baby still has 450 six
ounce bags of milk in the deep freeze – it should be enough to see him to his
first birthday.
Resources on exclusively pumping are lacking and lactation
consultants don’t always seem to know what to tell moms.I wanted to post here so that others would
know that it is possible to exclusively breastfeed your baby even if he never
latches.Here are some of the helpful
tidbits:
These Medela Pump and Save bags are nice because
you can pump directly into them and save yourself from a little bottle washing
BUT they don’t freeze flatly so if you’re pumping a lot and plan to freeze a
lot, don’t use these.I love the Target
Up and Up brand bags.
I could go on and on about the logistical things but what I’ve
learned most from this experience is that we need to do what is best for our
children, ourselves and our situations and not judge the choices others make
for their families.We’re all doing the
best we can within our circumstances and we need to forgive ourselves when
things aren’t the way we imagined they would be.
So this week, Charlie learned how to whine. It was the cutest thing I'd
seen all week until I realized he wasn't stopping. If I put him in his
high chair for breakfast/lunch/dinner and he doesn't have food in his
mouth in 3 seconds or less? WHINE. If he wants a toy that is just
slightly out of reach? WHINE. I put him on the changing table to
change his diaper? WHINE. I leave the room (gasp) without him? WHINE.
I'm trying to make a big deal about every time he's not whining (which
is not that often) so hopefully he gets the clue that whining is not
cool. I know it's just his way of communicating so I'm trying to say
things like, "Oh, you're hungry, aren't you? You want to eat. I'm
making your food right now" And then he continues to whine...but I'm
hoping MAYBE it will help in the long run. :)
Despite the
whining, he's the cutest thing ever. He's really into smiling so big
that his eyes squint. He lights up when Andy gets home from work and
always gives him a big smile. Charlie can officially roll BOTH ways!
We're so grateful! For a week or so he was rolling onto his tummy at
night and waking up unhappy because he felt stuck so now that he's able
to get comfortable on his own, we're all happier. This also means he's
much more tolerant of spending time on his tummy which is good for his
range of motion that we have been working on in physical therapy. He is
really working on lifting up that big ol' noggin of his higher and
higher when he's on his tummy and I think he'll be moving soon. I put
him down the other day so I could get dinner started and I went back to
check on him and he'd rotated himself and moved at least a foot...I'm
not exactly sure how he did it but I'm thinking he just rolled over a
couple of times in a row. He likes going anywhere he can ride in a
shopping cart. He's been smiling at the store clerks and old ladies.
And he likes paper. Shopping lists seem to be his favorite. He's also
starting to make more sounds. His favorite this week is HA. He's
sleeping through the night most of the time, usually 10-11 hours. When
he is up at night, I'm reminded how quickly I adapted to him sleeping
through the night! I love when he sleeps through the night because he
seems to feel better when he wakes up (and we do, too) but I don't mind
the quiet time to snuggle with him either.
Wearing his shirt on his head!
Our physical
therapy appointments are becoming less frequent and have been told that
Charlie doesn't need any more sessions unless we feel it would be
beneficial. His head shape has really improved and we're confident he
will not need any more intervention. His neck is still a little tight
but as he's moving more on his own, that continues to get better, as
well. Since torticollis and reflux are related, we're hopeful that the
strengthening of his neck will also help with his reflux. We are on our
second attempt to wean Charlie off of his medication. We first tried a
month ago and realized within a few days that he still needed the
medication.
We're still waiting for teeth but Charlie has two on
the bottom that seem to be ready to poke through...but we've thought
that for months now! He's continuing to eat well. This boy likes his food.
His favorites are sweet potatoes and peaches. He loves yogurt, too.
He's eating peaches as quickly as I can get them pureed! I've taken to
baking an oven full of sweet potatoes at a time. I'm a little worried
about feeding him as a teenager if this appetite keeps up. :) He's a
bit of a texture snob and doesn't want much to do with anything that
isn't perfectly smooth. He's starting to try some finger foods but
hasn't quite mastered the hand/mouth coordination but he's getting
closer. I love seeing him try new things. We've tried every sippy cup I
could find but today I offered him a regular cup and he couldn't get
enough. It was a little messy (ok, a lot) but he kept wanting
more...and of course wanted to do it all by himself. Here's a video of him trying out a rice cracker.
Charlie LOVES books. My little reader.
Charlie
(And Andy and I) loved having Grandpa and Grandma Rink visit a few weeks ago and Grandpa and Grandma
Albrecht arrive on Tuesday. We're planning on visiting Iowa for
Charlie's 1st Birthday in July. 1st Birthday. Wow. My little boy is
growing up so quickly!
We started off 2013 with a half birthday! YAY CHARLIE! He is growing like crazy and becoming more interested in the world around him every day. He had his 6 month check up today and weighed 20 pounds and 9 ounces and was 27 and a half inches long. Big boy! His check up went really well and all looks great. Charlie is continuing to go to physical therapy twice a week. He favored his left side for quite a while and that caused a flat spot on the back of his head. We are working on improving his range of motion and his head is rounding out a little. Hopefully hair will cover any "imperfections" -- of course I think he's perfect! :)
Charlie loves to sit and is really balancing well. His new thing is standing. With our help, he can get himself on his feet and he always grins -- he's so proud of himself! The doctor thinks he sees some evidence that teeth are coming soon. Charlie has been drooling for months now and has been gnawing on his hands lately. He also likes to snuggle and be rocked and "talk" to us while he plays with our faces. It's so cute. While we were in Iowa over Thanksgiving, Grandma Kathi figured out that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer has a calming effect on Charlie. It still does and it has to be Rudolph...other songs some times work but none as well as that damn reindeer. So, you'll hear that song coming from our house about 30 times a day.
Right around Christmas, we offered Charlie some solid food. He was not too impressed at first but after spoon feeding him milk for a few days, he had a new interest in the solid food and can't get enough of it now! So far he's tried applesauce, pears, bananas and butternut squash. I roasted a squash up this weekend and threw it in the food processor. It made so much! All 3 of us had some and then I divided the leftovers into ice cube trays and now we have a bag full of squash in the freezer for Charlie. Shadow is fond of Charlie's new eating habits and has claimed the space right next to C's chair for herself. Luckily there isn't anything to drop yet but every once in a while, Charlie will reach over to touch her and Shadow is ready to clean off his little fingers!
