Aww, I put G down and after standing up and rocking and singing to him, I set him down in his crib like usual.  I then grabbed his milk and walked out. Usually he sits back up and watches me walk out.  For the past week I have been giving him milk in a sippy cup instead of nursing *sniff* (I’m still doing mornings but will be stopping in a few weeks, I think) so I just walk out still humming a tune and then close the door.

I’m afraid to make eye contact.

But tonight he sat up and as I was walking out, I noticed he grabbed one of his stuffed animals (I have two in there) and then crawled back over to the middle and laid down to snuggle with his lovey.  It was so cute!!!

All that pain and suffering and crying (on both our parts) to master sleeping at night (and naps) was just so worth it to see him lay down and get a good nights sleep.  He’s been sleeping through the night for about two weeks (reliably) now.  He did wake up two nights ago but *gasp* I did not nurse him.  I was very proud of myself.  Naps are fabulous too.  It’s wonderful. (Knock on wood.)

I’m battling potty training right now for Sam but that is another story. I just have to keep telling myself that the hard work,  pain and suffering is (again) going to be worth it.

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Still no teeth yet.  Will Griffin walk first, or will he get a tooth first? I was thinking that today.

Then he took some steps this evening… and again, and again, and again! He’s building some confidence in walking and he just giggles at himself when he does it. He went back and forth about 10 times tonight, a few steps each.  So exciting!

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We had Griffin’s one year check-up today and it happened that the hubby was able to come as he was off work which was fantastic.

Stats for G:
Birth: 7.6lbs, 20in
2 Month: 12.9lbs, 23 3/4in
4 Month: 15.10, 26 in
6 Month: 17.1, 27 1/2in
9 Month: 20.1, 29 in
1 Year: 21.14, 30 3/4

Stats from Sam to compare:
Birth: 7.1 lbs, 20 in
2 Month: 10.6, 22 1/4 in
4 Month: 13.6, 24 in
6 Month: 15.9, 25 1/2 in
9 Month: 18.4, 27 1/2 in
1 Year: 19.14 lbs , 29 3/4in

He asked first if he was sleeping through the night. Um, no.  I then asked him about naps and getting him to nap alone, what advice did he have for crying it out? We tried it (as I’ve talked on here before *sigh*) and he cried for two hours and at what point should I get him?  Doc asked, did he need a nap? Yes, I replied, he needs two naps currently.  Well, I should leave him until he takes a nap. So helpful. Really. I wasn’t expecting much but I thought I would try.

He only gained a pound and a half which moved him from the 50% to the 20% mark.  The Dr asked if I was nursing, which I am, and he immediately said, “Well that is why! You probably aren’t being as vigilant as you were when he was a baby and he’s not getting enough calories.”

Ouch! I explained that I am in the process of weaning and that he gets offered a sippy cup in the mornings and at all meals and we then proceeded to go over how many times I nurse vs how many ounces of full fat milk in the sippy cup.  Ack.  Plus he EATS a lot but Dr quickly shot that down saying, “Unless you are going to tell me that he is eating meats all day, the food you are giving him is filled with starches and isn’t helpful to his growth at all.”

Doesn’t he sound like he is full of sunshine and rainbows?

He did say that any cheese and yogurt - other dairy items - were very helpful and while G won’t eat cut up cheese, I do put some in his sandwich every day plus he eats a full thing of yogurt every night. He adores it.

I have a few friends who have slower growing children and worry about calories, I even had a friend whose daughter was ‘categorized’ (don’t you love that word? Horrible) as failure to thrive so I’ve always felt bad at the worry they would have to go through in making sure their child got the nutrients they needed.  I hate that feeling now.

You know what I hate more though? Is that I have two friends that used to go to him and have nothing but bad things to say about him. How he has such a bias on boys and girls.  One friend has children the same age as mine  - same sex too - and advised me to check Sam’s chart - because he (the Dr) did the same thing to her.  I JUST did now, well I checked my post that I made - I love how I chronicle my life on this thing… haha - But here is the post where she went from 50% weight to 25% at one year of age and I talk about how the Dr wasn’t worried at all. How he was saying my girl would be ‘trim’ and ’slim’ and would be so healthy.  Yet for my boy? I get reamed. I am leaving him and going to another doctor because I am sick of how he makes me feel.

After we ran over that topic a few times, he then hit us with the fact that Griffin’s head circumference has jumped up to 95%.

Head
6 Months - 80%
9 Months - 90%
1 Year - 95%

Weight
6 Months - 50%
9 Months - 50%
1 Year - 20%

Height
6 Months - 85%
9 Months - 75%
1 Year - 75%

I don’t have what his head cir was at birth and three months but he showed us his chart and it was in the middle range for birth and three months, moved up at 6 months, moved up a lot at 9 months, and is off the ‘normal’ levels on the charts currently. Helpful growth charts can be found at this site.

He casually said that an ultrasound should be done when it gets that big.  He wasn’t very clear and a few minutes later he mentioned something definite about having an ultrasound done.  So I expressed my surprise and said, “Really? You are sending us to get an ultrasound?”.

He said, “Yes, it’s not an EMERGENCY - otherwise you would be doing it right now - but you should have it done at some point to check.  His fontanelle has not closed yet and an ultrasound is so easy to do at this point.  Having him jump up on the charts is a red flag that we should just have checked out.”

I glanced casually over to my level-headed husband and stared at him meaningfully.  He knows my feelings on this doctor and I was leaving the talking up to him.

“What are the problems associated with this type of thing? What are you looking for?” He says.

“It’s just a red flag, we just want to get it checked out.” As he tries to brush us off.

“Well, what are you looking for exactly then?”

Ruffles some papers on his lap and mutters, “Specifically Hydrocephalus.” and he looks up to catch our blank faces staring at him.  “Well, it is called hydrocephalus and there is no other way I can explain it to you in simpler terms. That is the medical name.”

Hubby tries again, not quite believing that all the whining, bitching, and moaning from his wife about this crazy unfeeling, no-bedside manner Doctor could possibly be THIS TRUE.  “What are the symptoms then?”

Doctor sighs, “The symptoms would be a large head, no wait, that would be the cause.  Other symptoms would be fussiness, vomiting, headaches, and things of that nature which he doesn’t seem to have.  Like I said, it’s not an emergency it’s just something you would want to get checked out for.”

Really, Doc? REALLY?  That is all the assurance you can give after recommending that you send our 12 month old infant to a hospital to have a procedure done to check for a disorder, that after some quick Googling, can potentially be fatal.  You couldn’t just say it was ‘water on the brain’ that they would be checking for? At least?

Don’t be alarmed by my ‘fatal’ talking.  I was being a bit dramatic.  Yes, it does say that it can be fatal but the research that I have read indicates that most cases that are monitored and treated early have wonderful chances of recovery.

I had to stop reading and Googling the term earlier though.  I don’t think I can read anything more about it until after the ultrasound.  Why worry myself? Yes, if it was me, I would be looking up everything.  When it’s my helpless infant son, I get a sick feeling in my tummy and feel like hyperventilating.  I spent the whole afternoon away from the computer and got all calmed down until I came back here and started reading the open page in my browser.

So I’m going to stop.  He’s going to be fine but I will feel so much better after we get the ultrasound done late next week.

I knew Griffin was going to be trouble when we went to the ER before his first birthday! That was not a good indication of future hospital visits! LOL - I am joking, kind of.

Anyway, we ended the visit talking about the three shots he would be getting.  He said all three were new shots that he hadn’t had before.  He looked like he was preparing for battle. Yes, I know all the talk about the MMR and I go back and forth but I got them done for Sam and I was okay with having them done for Griffin. I don’t want to get into all my beliefs about vaccinations and such but I decided to venture forth with, “Isn’t MMR the one that everyone is always worried about?”

Which was SUCH a mistake, let me tell you.  We got treated to a diatribe about how Jenny McCarthy was an idiot - well, she was probably intelligent but her ideas are idiotic (apparently) - and how there is NO link to… blah blah blah.  He went on for almost five minutes about CRAZY stuff. It was kind of funny actually.  He was talking about mobs of people get wrong information into their heads and will kill over it, he was talking about the plague, witch hunts, and all this crazy stuff.

I finally had to interrupt him because I didn’t know when he would stop! Then he sailed out letting us know the nurse would come in for the shots.  So that was that.  Griff did great at his shots, by the way.  Poor baby. He wasn’t fussy today either, we will see how tomorrow goes.

I am a bit sad that I forgot to ask him about Griffin’s teeth.

Specifically, WHERE are they? He is still a gummy baby!

I think I am going to start ToothWatch 2009.

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I know, it’s been awhile.  And if you don’t have much time, I would just skip this post! :-)  You may be a little bored…Today has been a long day. The past week, maybe three, have been long as well.  I’m starting with tonight and working backwards though.

There was a large bang.  Both children started to cry.  What in the world happened?

We put the kids to bed around 8pm. It was a great night as we spent the whole time after dinner outside in the backyard for the first time in months. We were setting up G’s sand and water table that he got for his birthday from Grandma JJ and Grandpa John and Sam was playing on her slide that I washed off this morning.  We were having a good time.  When we went up to bed, I did my usual routine with G and hubby did his usual thing with Sam.

G wasn’t asleep when I put him down.  Half the time he is, other times he is not.  He waited a few minutes and started to cry. The difference is that in the past week he finally started to roll over (yes, now. Don’t judge! He did it three times at the age appropriate time MONTHS ago and then never did it again…) so he can stand at his crib and cry to us. He hasn’t really figured out how to sit down and then lie back down to go to sleep. Maybe someday… He was crying on and off and finally stopped completely, we thought, after 25 min or so.  It was more like whining actually. He has the nighttime routine down pretty good, so I wasn’t sure what his deal was but since we are really battling it out during the naptime I didn’t want to go in and investigate.

So all is quiet and I’m in my office and hubby is watching the Laker game.  Thus, the big bang happens. It sounds right above me which is G’s room.  I walk out and hubby is already up and starting for the stairs and I hear G crying.  I really thought he fell out of his crib.  It was THAT loud.  When we open the door, he is sitting in his crib still crying but nothing is out.  We smell quite a bad odor though and it is very obvious why he did not go immediately to sleep earlier. Whew.  So I calm him down, change his diaper, and go to the bathroom to give him Tylenol.  The nurse, just today, said that his teething could quite possibly be affecting his sleep (as in NOT sleeping, at night) and his gums were throbbing.  So I figured, why not.

Except I hear through our wall that Sam is crying lightly.  Which I thought was weird. She must have heard G up and was upset?  As I walk out to take G to his room, I notice that hubby has not heard it and let him know. He’s pretty much on Sam duty, seeing as their love affair does not allow much room for Mommy soothing. haha I’m slightly kidding but it’s super cute how in love they are, Momma is never good enough when Papa is around!

He goes in, I go in with G, blah blah blah.  When I come out, hubby is downstairs again and he stops the TV for the wrapup of the big bang.

Apparently, Sam was putting Piggy (her lovey) up in the corner of her bed and while leaning back down to go to sleep (???) she banged her head on the wall.  Which is just CRAZY.  This bang we heard was a 20-lbs-child-falling-out-of-his-crib worthy bang.  Loud enough to scare both of us downstairs, wake up (or just startle, I guess) Griffin over the sound of his loud ocean sound machine, and probably even the dogs were scared.  It takes us five minutes to figure out SHE is the one crying though.

Kinda strange.

The whole going to bed thing with Griffin though? That is totally sucking.  I have to say, having a second child seems soooo much easier than the first. It’s times like these though where it hits you that it’s not all that easy.  It’s pretty darn hard and frustating, LOL.  Half of the stuff seems to come naturally to you and then when things get ‘hard’, it just seems to frustrating, like, why am I doing this all over again? I did this with Sam, did I not learn my lesson?

Lesson being that getting a baby to fall asleep by themselves is one of the BEST THINGS EVER.  Which, sadly, G doesn’t really do.  Except, kind of at night. Which is nice but now I need to extend that over to naps and it’s just totally sucking.  Completely sucking.

I swaddled the boy during naps until almost a month ago.  The reason being that I would nurse him to sleep and when I put him in his crib he would ’startle’ and wake himself back up again which was not good for me. As I had to nurse him back to sleep.  The nights, the nights were good.  A long time ago I started putting him down when he was drowsy and walking out and saying goodnight.  He still wakes up once at night though which, yes, I need to solve NOW rather than wait (like we did with Sam) until she was almost two years old to cure that crap.

A month ago the swaddle stopped working though.  I would set him gently down in his crib, asleep from being nursed, and his eyes would fly back open.  Which was just terrible.  The swaddle, I might add, is why I think he never learned to roll over. He never had the chance to roll around in his crib.  At night, he was drowsy and content to chill out on his back to sleep and when he cried, I would go in and get him.  Last month, when it stopped working, I would just sit in a chair and read a bit.  Plus, we all got sick. We were sick for a good three weeks and honestly, sitting in a chair and reading sleeping was really nice.  Except then it wasn’t nice. Then it was just really annoying because I had all these thing I needed wanted to do and sitting with the baby was not getting ANY of them done.  Having him wake up at night at random times was also not great for my ‘me’ time at night because I had to get to bed. To get some sleep. Before being woken up at 1130 1230 230 430.

Last week we started sleep camp.  On Monday, I put him in his crib for his second nap and he cried for 40 min and passed out.  Success! We were doing something on Tuesday and we drove home and he passed out in the car and I actually transfered him from the car seat to his crib. Which I had never been able to do before. Wednesday he cried for 25 minutes and went to sleep.  I was feeling good! I have no clue what happened on Thursday or Friday but the weekend was bad as we came home Sat from the zoo and BOTH kids were asleep in the car. Transfering them did not work and G cried and cried in his crib and then I felt bad and got him after an hour at which point he didn’t even sleep on me. Ugh.

Sunday.. Sunday was bad.  I thought, well, usually he will take a super short nap in the car in the mornings (we are usually out and about) and then sleep longer in the afternoon. So I will skip the morning nap and do a middle of the day one.  I put him down at 11:30, Sam came home 10 minutes after that (hear dogs barking and scaring the crap out of G - still crying), and then he cried and cried and cried as my Mom came to pick Sam up at 12:15 and he finally stopped around 1pm.

But I wondered… He was standing in his crib but he doesn’t really know what to DO when he sits down.  I had to know.  I wish I didn’t look.  It was bad.

Yes, his little hand clutching the pad while his head is just collapsed in front of him by his knees.  He walked himself out of his pants so his legs are bare.  He is breathing though (obviously, but as all mothers know, we have to make sure…).  So I hemmed, and I hawwed, and I freaked out… I went in there to kind of move him to his side so he wouldn’t have any problems breathing and he woke up.

So I ducked.

I sat on his floor for maybe five minutes but it become apparent he was not going back to bed. Plus the door was open and he knew that.  So I stood up very quickly and laid him down and walked back out.  Which was just a mistake.  He kept crying.  I couldn’t take it.  It had been almost two hours? And he saw me? He couldn’t lie back down… ugh.  So I ‘rescued’ him.  What did I teach him? Oh yes, that Momma will just let him cry in his crappy crib for hours! Yay!

That night was horrible.  He was paying me back.  Or, just frightened out of his mind that he was in his awful crib.  He was up every two hours.

Monday I was just a mess. What am I doing?? He needs to go to sleep. I do believe that cry it out works but it’s still awful. I did it at night (or at least the going to sleep part) MONTHS ago knowing this. It was better done young, it didn’t take as long!  But the nap thing… I guess I just believed that he would grow out of it? That we would figure out an easy way to transition?  Transitions are HARD.  Transitions are NOT EASY.  What was I thinking?

Monday I had the bright idea (actually it wasn’t mine, it was Krysta’s) to swaddle him back up so that he couldn’t stand up.  It sounded like a great idea. So I did that and laid him down with his one arm out.  Now that he can flip though… he flipped. He looked like a trapped little caterpillar that I had ducked taped up and smoothering himself against the mattress.  He looked trapped and couldn’t move.  Yes, he could kind of move and could breathe and all that… but it just was to much for me.  So I got him out and he slept on me.

Today I just accepted it.  Maybe I’ll work on his night waking first.

The nurse that I talked to is just a firm believer of cry it out.  I can go in every 15 min but if he is dry, fed, and safe in his crib then I just need to let him cry.  Blah.

It’s just so hard because we are often on Sam’s schedule, not G’s.  Sam’s schedule was sacred when she was young. Yes, we had problems. Yes, I had freakouts. I was going back and reading them tonight.  I was fixing her naps at 9 and 10 months! (Can I add, OMG, she was saying words at 10 months? G hasn’t said anything… not to compare them or anything… ha!) But with Griffin I don’t have the abilitiy to stay at home and work doing two naps (which he really needs two still) because of the things Sam is doing.

I dunno.  Just ramblings from a crazy Momma today.  At some point it will work itself out.

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