Solids. The next step. Yep, its time! Starting cereal TONIGHT! I kept putting it off and putting it off...but he's almost 6 mos and I know its time to just go for it. I know a lot of people start at 4 mos, but being my little early baby, our pediatrician recommended starting somewhere between 5-6 mos instead.
As an aside, I always hesitate to call him an actual "preemie" b/c though he was technically "pre-term" (late pre-term I believe is the exact term for him), I always feel like to call my boy a preemie would seem like I was somehow minimizing what people with actual preemies who spend time in the NICU and everything go through. You know? Does that even make sense? And my mom told me once that she thought technically they had to be under 5 lbs to be classified a preemie anyway. Anyone know? B/c a lot of times I feel like just saying he was "early" or "little" doesn't really explain things, but I don't want to over-dramatize by calling him a "preemie" if he technically isn't. I mean, he was born at 35 wks, 3 days...they did send us up to Columbus b/c it was so early, they had a NICU team on hand for him, and I wasn't allowed to hold him until they evaluated him and got his body temp regulated-he just didn't actually need to go to the NICU. And he was only 5 lbs 14 oz...which I know isn't super tiny...but small enough that he was swimming even in newborn clothes. And the doctors and nurses in the hospital did always take extra care to point out the differences between him and a full-term baby, and you definitely could see a difference in behavior between him and full-term babies. I'm sure that our nursing "challenges" were due to him being so early, and he's still on par size wise with his "adjusted age" rather than his actual age. I'm constantly telling people who comment that he's "so little", that he was early. And people are always guessing that he's about a month younger than he actually is. But at the same time, developmentally he's pretty close to on track. I mean, the kid rolled over at 7 wks, and now he will lay on his belly and kick his legs and move his arms like he just wants to move forward so badly! I always say he's just been in a hurry from the beginning :) The kid's going to keep us on our toes, I know that much for sure. And really, even though he was 5 wks early, beyond being smaller than most babies his age, we really haven't had any complications (well, jaundice, but it wasn't that bad really) and he was with us the whole time in the hospital and got to go home when we did. So who knows what he really should be considered. In the long run, it really doesn't matter, just something I think about from time to time-usually when someone asks me about his size.
Anyway, that little thought aside...I'm excited to see Riley's reaction to the cereal tonight. He'll probably just spit it out right away, but who knows. I'm going to try to make a lot of his food (not the cereal though). I found a website that goes over the basics of it and my sister in law made a lot of her boys' baby foods and it seems SO easy! Just bake/steam and puree! But, before we can get to all the fun stuff-veggies, fruits, etc. we have to do that first step of cereal. So we'll see how it all goes tonight! Pictures will be taken for sure!! Heck, last night we just put the high chair together and had him sit in it and play with toys while we ate dinner (which, by the way, he LOVED) and I had to take a picture of that :) Yep, first time parent...right here, in case you couldn't tell. I'm pretty sure the pictures of Riley will soon be taking over the house. You should see my office at work...10 pictures of him. Yep. Hmm...that even sounds a bit ridiculous to me when I type it "out loud". Eh. Oh well-they're only young once, right?! :)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Quick (or not so quick) Updates
Last you all heard from us, we were headed on another roadtrip! Well, that weekend actually went really well! The trip up to our friends was great. It took probably 3 hrs or so and Riley was an angel! We spent two nights with Kelly's college buddies and their families and had a great time! I love that 7 years after graduation we can all still take the time to get together every year and it feels like no time has passed at all when we are together. Its great that all of the wives of the guys just sort of click right together too, even though some of the girls are "new" (new as in they didn't go to school with us) and all our kids are around the same age and have a great time playing. In a few more weeks we'll get to meet up with everyone again as one of the last few single guys in the group is getting married! Which of course means another roadtrip up to NW Ohio (just a little north of you I think Jess?? We'll be in Defiance). After the "reunion", the drive up to my parents was great, went to my youngest nephew's baptism, played pass the baby around, then drove home and actually the drive home, while not easy, wasn't half bad. Is that because its now been 3 wks and I've forgotten most of it? Probably :) haha! Actually I will say this much, having 2 adults in the car makes all the difference in the world. Riley was pretty tired of the carseat (can't blame him) but having someone in the back to play baby entertainer helps a lot.
In other news...farming is going. Crops don't look half bad (oh geez, I hope I didn't just jinx us!), hay is another story b/c it just.keeps.raining. The cooler weather was great but its good that it warmed up to normal summer temps b/c we were afraid it might negatively effect the crops if it stayed so cool. I mean, it was getting down to the 50s at night! 50s! In August! What?!
Kelly is fighting an infection on his hand...thanks to Henry. Henry, being a typical farmdog, loves to find nasty things to roll in. Lovely. Well, a couple weeks ago he found something particularly stinky to roll around in, and being that he is also a house dog, we couldn't exactly just let him be. So Kelly gave him a bath in the backyard. Background: Henry hates baths. Despises them. As in, flips out when you try to bring him near the water spicket. (spicket? pump? faucet? what do you call the water thing, comes out of the ground, has a handle...anyone?? good description on my part, huh?) Anyway, as he was flipping out, he scratched Kelly's hand pretty badly. Well, of course Kelly just washes the dog anyway (the dog who has rolled in God only knows what nastiness remember) before going inside and washing his hand well. And, surprise, a couple of days later, his hand swells up and he can barely move it, and his entire body is achey. Hmm...not a good thing. So, the smart person would do what? Anyone? Yes, go to the doctor! Not my tough guy husband. Nope. Doctors are the enemy you know. Instead he goes to his dad (his defense? "Dad is a doctor." Um, he's an animal doctor honey, its different.) and gets oh yeah, livestock antibiotics. Nice. Which actually did help. However he apparently didn't take them long enough and now the infection is back, he finally did go to a "people doctor", is on new antibiotics (which are not working quite as quickly but are helping) and hopefully this will clear things up. He had a follow up this morning, so we'll see. Oh yeah, its always something fun, right?
Riley is spending the week with grandma, and next week my mom will be down to stay with him, as our daycare provider had her baby boy on Friday. Today was supposed to be spent with Aunt Courtney while Grandma went up to pick up our 10 month old niece who is spending the weekend at their house. But Courtney, who is about 27 wks pg, went to the hospital last night with high blood pressure and while she is now home and her BP is down, she's supposed to "take it easy and not do anything stressful", which obviously rules out babysitting a 5 1/2 month old who doesn't like to nap :) So he's hanging out with grandpa today and we're saying extra prayers that Courtney's BP stays down and her little guy can keep cooking!!! Very scary stuff.
This weekend we're off to another college friends get together. This one is for my college roommates, and is a lot closer to home (1 1/2 hrs or so away). Should be a fun time!!
In other news...farming is going. Crops don't look half bad (oh geez, I hope I didn't just jinx us!), hay is another story b/c it just.keeps.raining. The cooler weather was great but its good that it warmed up to normal summer temps b/c we were afraid it might negatively effect the crops if it stayed so cool. I mean, it was getting down to the 50s at night! 50s! In August! What?!
Kelly is fighting an infection on his hand...thanks to Henry. Henry, being a typical farmdog, loves to find nasty things to roll in. Lovely. Well, a couple weeks ago he found something particularly stinky to roll around in, and being that he is also a house dog, we couldn't exactly just let him be. So Kelly gave him a bath in the backyard. Background: Henry hates baths. Despises them. As in, flips out when you try to bring him near the water spicket. (spicket? pump? faucet? what do you call the water thing, comes out of the ground, has a handle...anyone?? good description on my part, huh?) Anyway, as he was flipping out, he scratched Kelly's hand pretty badly. Well, of course Kelly just washes the dog anyway (the dog who has rolled in God only knows what nastiness remember) before going inside and washing his hand well. And, surprise, a couple of days later, his hand swells up and he can barely move it, and his entire body is achey. Hmm...not a good thing. So, the smart person would do what? Anyone? Yes, go to the doctor! Not my tough guy husband. Nope. Doctors are the enemy you know. Instead he goes to his dad (his defense? "Dad is a doctor." Um, he's an animal doctor honey, its different.) and gets oh yeah, livestock antibiotics. Nice. Which actually did help. However he apparently didn't take them long enough and now the infection is back, he finally did go to a "people doctor", is on new antibiotics (which are not working quite as quickly but are helping) and hopefully this will clear things up. He had a follow up this morning, so we'll see. Oh yeah, its always something fun, right?
Riley is spending the week with grandma, and next week my mom will be down to stay with him, as our daycare provider had her baby boy on Friday. Today was supposed to be spent with Aunt Courtney while Grandma went up to pick up our 10 month old niece who is spending the weekend at their house. But Courtney, who is about 27 wks pg, went to the hospital last night with high blood pressure and while she is now home and her BP is down, she's supposed to "take it easy and not do anything stressful", which obviously rules out babysitting a 5 1/2 month old who doesn't like to nap :) So he's hanging out with grandpa today and we're saying extra prayers that Courtney's BP stays down and her little guy can keep cooking!!! Very scary stuff.
This weekend we're off to another college friends get together. This one is for my college roommates, and is a lot closer to home (1 1/2 hrs or so away). Should be a fun time!!
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