Clouds

Ian has been nursing a lot lately. Now that he can ask for it, he does so all the time. He's often asking for food as well. I think we'll see if our little guy has an independent streak and give him more food that he can feed himself. He's been nursing for a longer time lately, something we haven't seen since he was 3 months old.

During one of our longer nursing sessions today, we sat outside in the lounger in the shade. It was a beautiful afternoon. Have you noticed how you can sometimes see the shape of the windows in his eyes? Today I watched the clouds float by in his eyes. It was beautiful. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but this one will have to do. At that point, he was tired, and I was hoping we could take an outside snuggle nap. That would have been perfect. But no. Someone has too much to do and too much to see. A 20 minute relaxing nurse and he's recharged and ready to go. I was willing to ignore my work for a little nap. But not Ian.

Calling in Sick

I don't call in sick very often, but I did yesterday. Yesterday, Ian was hit by a fever and you can tell he just hurt. Poor guy. We think it's the teething process, but we're not sure.

He got up in the morning and was a bit warm, then didn't eat much for breakfast and played for a little while, but was fussy. Then he went down for a nap. After his nap, he was pretty warm. He nursed, we changed a diaper. So, he was rested, full, clean diaper. He crawled over to me, stuck out his bottom lip, and crumpled in my lap, crying. I felt so bad for him. We gave him some acetaminophen and it took quite a while for the fever to come down. Maybe an hour or a bit more. For that time, he sat in my lap or in the sling and comfort-nursed. Finally, later in the afternoon he felt a bit better. He was able to hang out in the living room and play a bit and he didn't have to be held all of the time.

Last night, Ian got another dose of acetaminophen around 3am. He slept well until about 7, then I snuggled with him until he wanted to get up about 8:30 or so. He had a decent little diaper rash today, too. Probably from all of the snot he's ingested. Today was much better. He still had his moments and needed more comfort than normal, but he was markedly happier today.

We hope he's in great shape for the trip, or at least much better than yesterday!

Rain, Glorious Rain!

Rain today! There was some mass in it at some points during the day, but it really did a number on the remaining snow. Around dusk, these pics were taken.

You can see that the north-facing hills behind the house definitely have a ways to go, but we're really close. More precipitation overnight means probable snow, but that's ok. We have a neat new camping stove (pics soon!) so we're ready for whatever spring weather needs to be thrown our way. The first rain of the spring this year somehow feels like validation that spring really is imminent. You know, being late APRIL and all.

Unpleasant topics: the duct blockage seems to be mostly cleared up. I will continue to be careful with it however, and get lots of rest and fluids to make sure. And Ian had a rather painful poop today. Ouch. He cried and cried. I don't know if it's just that this is the most solid movement he's had, or if maybe something in our diet lately has caused both of us to get a bit stopped up. It seems as if he'll need to do it again in the morning. He wasn't willing to tonight. We'll go heavy on the fiber for a bit, and more water and nursing for Ian, and hopefully it'll all right itself. I'll email a question to the doc just in case.

This is what's required when it's sunny outside!

And his hair must be getting a bit longer, because it's so poofy!

Big City

Big trip to the big city today. The business meeting went great, and we made it there just after the doctor appointment for the blocked duct.

The doctor appointment went great as well. I am feeling a lot better and suspected that I was on the mend but wanted to see what he thought of all of it and what I could do to help it heal more quickly. He told me to get a different homeopathic medicine, especially since it was the second occurrence, and that should help it to not recur. He gave us a prescription for antibiotics, should they be necessary, as well. It seems as if there is not an "infection" right now, though, as there is no fever anymore. The pain is going down too. So I think we're on the mend.

John and Ian went to the park and had a great time while I was meeting with a new client. They had a fun time on the swings and slide and went for a walk around the park in the stroller. No pictures, of course. Ian was in a short-sleeved shirt and it was about 70 outside, so just a beautiful afternoon. We opted not to go shopping or anything, in favor of getting home and getting more rest.

We have to remember to add a few things to the diaper bag: A set of jammies, a night-time diaper (and all that entails at the time). If he can arrive home tired and ready for bed, it'll be a simple task to put him down. If he's not ready for bed, it's not so simple. He does not enjoy getting into night-time jammies and diaper when he's really tired or has just slept part of his night. We did well with bringing food for Ian, squash with blueberries, and some applesauce and cheerios and raisins. He ate well too!

Enough blithering. I uploaded a bunch of pics from the phone.

As promised, Ian's "All Done" sign

We went to REI. Ian tried on a camp chair.

And a bike helmet.

He's playing "Peek A Boo"

And clapping for you!

Awesomesauce

We made applesauce today, and I don't think I can go back to store-bought. It was so good and really easy to do in the crock pot. We just used the corer/slicer and then peeled each slice. I used 10 Gala apples, and the recipe here, except without any of the sugars. We added the juice of one lemon, a bit of lemon peel, water (I ended up adding more water, to total a bit more than a cup. Started with about 1/2 c) and a cinnamon stick. I actually left out the salt as well (unintentionally, but I think it's fine without.) When "testing" to see if it was done, I gave Ian some and he got pretty upset when I ran out. I plan to freeze it in ice cube trays so it'll be easy to give him a taste of applesauce at meals. I am going to cook up a sweet potato tomorrow as well. He ate the last one up already. The crock pot works well for that as well.

The plugged duct is still there, and we're going on 48 hours with this. Not fun. If I can't get it unclogged soon, it may get infected . The last clog fixed itself fairly quickly. I'm still taking ibuprofen for the fever, although I haven't taken any in a while now and don't feel too bad, thermometer says 99.0. I suppose I should take one if I'm going to have any chance of sleep. Last night was brutal - the fever kept me up the majority of the night. I've been trying hot compresses, massage, hot showers, extra nursing, acrobatic nursing, and nothing has pulled that plug out of there! We'll give the doctor a call tomorrow.

Ian is getting really good at his new sign. Used primarily on the high chair and toilet, he twists his hands to say "all done!" If I ask him if he's all done, he'll do the sign, too. I think he'd like to do other signs, but hasn't gotten the knack of the hand movement yet. He signed "all done" with one hand right after his nap, and it turned out he wanted to nurse. We're working on emphasizing "potty," "more," and "milk" for our next signs. We use "hurt" when the occasion arises, as well. It's so exciting to be able to communicate with him.

Tonight, he was signing "all done" when we'd just started dinner. But, to reinforce the sign, I asked him if he was all done, and took him out of the high chair. We continued to eat while he used the high chair to steady him as he stood there and watched us. We try to just feed him in the high chair, so he didn't get more food while out of the high chair. After we'd eaten, I put him back in the high chair and gave him a spoonful of rice, which he ate, and then said "all done." I asked him if he really meant it because we have that great applesauce for dessert. I gave him one spoonful of applesauce, and he ate that, but then he signed "all done" again and when I offered more, he turned his head aside. So he was indeed all done! He does recognize words and signs as well - before dinner we caught today's poop in the toilet because he was quiet and pensive and I asked him if he needed to potty and used the sign, and he smiled. Fabulous! This is the closest I have to a picture of "all done." I'll get a better one shortly.

Wow, teething.

Teething is just off the hook the last few days! Snotty, low fever, phlegm-y cough. We'd thought it was a lower lateral incisor a bit ago, and there's a tad of a bump there, but none of the gums are really swollen right now. There's a bump at the first molar on the bottom, but we're just not sure what those teeth are trying to accomplish. These are the same symptoms he had a few weeks ago when he got those 4 top ones at the same time. Maybe the top ones are advancing more? We don't know. He's happy otherwise, though, and gets a bit irate only when he's not gotten enough naps, or is hungry, or isn't moving at high speed. Tall orders!

I think two things have turned a corner, however. The sleep - he's regularly sleeping at least one 4 hour-ish chunk each night. That is wonderful. We seem to have a few more hours in the day that we don't need to spend resting. And nursing. He's serious about it again. He's been distractiboy for over 4 months, but now he's spaced out nursing sessions (dropped a daytime feeding, I think, as well as a bazillion night-time feedings) and when he wants to nurse, he pays attention and gets the job done, instead of farting around. To some extent, of course - if the cat or dog or dad come into the room, all bets are off.  What has caused these changes? Maturity? Did he hear the doctor when he said that Ian was "probably getting more than he needs to eat?" (although he said he wouldn't change anything). Did Mommy hear that and doesn't offer nursing as often? Your guess is as good as mine. Either way, we like it.

Also, I think that the difficulties in putting him down at night are easing as well. Last night he was put down asleep, promptly woke up (as usual), and put himself back to sleep. Our next step will be putting him down more drowsy.

Ian says, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a water dish to raid."