life with a new baby
All About Nathan
His first word!
Apr 27th
Nathan said his first word! Well, his first articulate word, that is. He says “more” only it comes out “MA!” He’s also been saying Mama, Mom, Dad, Dada, Dadday (which is really cute because he invariably drools a waterfall all over himself when he says that one). So his first word was “cat!” He said it about three or four times in a row, and I haven’t been able to get him to repeat it since. Whenever I prompt him to say “cat!” again, he looks at me like I’m some interesting specimen to take into consideration but nothing more.
In other news, he also stood ALL BY HIMSELF for about 20 seconds! He usually holds onto something with one hand to keep his balance. But this time, this time he was a good eight inches away from the furniture, and he was so completely engrossed with examining one of his toys that he wasn’t paying any attention to the fact that he was doing a total Act of Independence.
It won’t be long before his footsteps are pitter-pattering all over the house.
Because You Can Only Crawl So Far…
Apr 16th
Well, Nathan is getting better and better at learning to walk… he is learning that he walking broadens the scope of Things He Can Get Into, and now his walking is looking less and less that that of a drunken alien’s saunter and more of the walk of a little boy, for the most part. Although he is still my baby, and always will be, even when he’s 50 with graying hair and distinguished wrinkles. He’s getting really adept at walking behind his walking toys and while holding onto furniture, and he loves when I hold his hands and walk behind him. Right now, he uses his walking toy to walk to various pieces of furniture where he will then let go of his toy and start slapping the furniture with his open palms. It’s really funny when I haven’t dusted in a while… you can see Little Nathan Handprints left behind, silently claiming their territory.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkmLd5lGEkc
The Grossest of All The Gross Grossnesses
Apr 15th
Poop.
It’s a daily occurrence. I cannot escape it; I have learned to just hold my breath and deal with it. But now, I have something to tell you that’s even funnier than Nathan’s Pooping Episodes.
Can you believe it? Something that’s funnier than poop exploding from the back of a diaper?
So this story starts off with, you guessed it, poop. But it doesn’t end there.
I was changing Nathan’s diaper. A poop diaper. That had exploded with poop shooting of the back of his diaper and all over his back and his clothes. So I removed his soiled clothes and was holding his ankles with my left hand and cleaning up his mess with my right. It was CAKED all over his back, so I had to lift his legs high into the air in order to get his back clean.
Nathan was crying his poor little head off. I am apparently raising a baby cow because his poop sometimes has this pervasive manure-like smell, and the worse his poop smells, the more he seems to cry and protest when I change his diaper.
I don’t blame him. I don’t like smelling it, either.
So Nathan was crying up a storm while I was holding his legs and cleaning his back, when all of a sudden, he made this sound like a surprised yelp followed by a short gurgle. I put his legs down and noticed the poor little guy had smeared his tears all over his face and chest.
Wait a minute.
That wasn’t tears glistening on his face and chest. Or puddled around his head.
IT WAS PEE. Huge puddles of Nathan Pee were everywhere. He was pretty much SWIMMING IN IT… it was all over his face, his torso, and arms. And his head was resting in a puddle. And remember how I said that I was in the process of cleaning Nathan up when this happened? WELL, I WASN’T DONE. So there was some pee that had run down onto his back, making the remaining poop this viscous, brown funk that smeared everywhere… and it was quite possibly the Grossest of All the Gross Grossnesses.
Don’t scoff at a pee-poop mixture. If you have yet to deal with this, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE IN FOR.
With a heavy sigh, because ya know, this kind of stuff always seems to happen, I cleaned up the entire mess and had Nathan dry and happy in a few minutes, and he seemed to forget about the whole ordeal in a matter of seconds.
But I will never forget. No, I will never forget the day that my son peed on his own face.
Uniquely Nathan
Mar 31st
Nathan had his one-year check up last week! (Yeah, like a month or so late because I had initially made the appointment for the day before his one-year birthday, but when we got to the office, they told us insurance wouldn’t cover it unless it was on his one-year birthday or later. Not even a SINGLE day earlier. Go figure.)
And, of course, I have been fretting for nothing. My kid’s perfectly normal! He’s normal! Ok, not that I ever thought he was ABnormal by any means, but I couldn’t help but worry that he didn’t start crawling until he was 11 months old.
And I’ve also been stressing about his refusal to eat any “regular food.” The little guy very vocally prefers his food pureed still, thankyouverymuch. I was so proud when I finally coaxed him into eating a cracker. I have since tricked him into eating (and LOVING) graham crackers and even animal crackers. But he’ll only eat the animal cracker if I take a bite first and tell him how unbelievably mouth-watering it is. He will not eat, or even attempt to eat, anything else.
Yet.
The boy doesn’t understand that Mommy will always be more stubborn than him.
Always.
So I have faith that eventually, I will coax and cajole him into eating more regular foods as opposed to baby foods. This kid can be mentally exhausting sometimes because it can be, at times, challenging to stay one step ahead of him.
Ok, so back to the doctor’s appointment, he’s totally fine. The doctor assured me that all babies develop at their own rate. She said that while some babies may crawl when they’re 6 months old, it is also perfectly normal for them to start crawling when Nathan did. And take walking, for instance. Some babies can start walking at 9 months whereas others start at 15 months (which is the average) but it could be as late as 18 months. All of that is normal.
And the whole food thing is normal, too. He’s been used to eating pureed foods, and some kids take a while before they’re willing to accept more textures and tastes. He won’t be eating his pureed foods forever!
Nathan has also gained weight beautifully, as you can tell in his pictures. We had so many issues with weight gain in the beginning that I almost gave up breastfeeding, but I am so glad that I didn’t. (I mostly have my husband to thank for his unconditional love and support through those hard times.) Now, Nathan is 13 months old and nursing wonderfully. He has never been sick. He has never had any ear infections. He is happy, healthy, and a bit of a chub-a-lub. We plan to wean whenever he is ready, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization.
So I’ve felt like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
I know, I know. I worry way too much. But I’m really working on trying to accept things the way they are and not worry so much about that which I cannot control. Nathan is healthy and happy, and that’s what counts. He is unique… he is Nathan.
Recent Comments
Aww thanks, Tina, it was good to see you too! I wish I could have talked to you more... I ...
I'm sorry you all had a rough go yesterday, but it was good to see you both :) I have ...
Thank you, I appreciate that. It's so cool to hear people say that we look alike... I've been told there ...
Awww... what really nice photos! You two look so alike, especially with the way you smile.