margaretyagan

We finally got back to normal on Tuesday and by Wednesday, though I still wasn’t gettin any solid foods, I was definitely ready for them!  The thing is, I’ve been having some rough nights of sleep, where I wake up screaming in the middle of night, seemling for no reason.  I’m not wet and I’m not hungry; we’re thinking it might be gas.  Or that my sleep “schedule” isn’t a schedule at all and that some nights I’m just not tired.  So on Tuesday Nana started waking me up from my naps if they started to get too long.  I definitely don’t like that!

Anyway, after an hour-long nap at 7:00 am on Tuesday, Nana and I headed out to Wicker Park.  I celebrated our return to normalcy with a huge poop that necessitated an outfit change.  I was in a good mood the rest of the morning and even fell asleep at noon without any fuss whatsoever.  We went on a walk around 2 and then after a nap from 4 to 5, another walk around 6.

Oh, here are some pictures from my fifth month (July 11 through August 10):

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Wednesday was pretty uneventful, except that I didn’t take a nap in the afternoon and fussed for about an hour, which is really unlike me.  I had one, normal-sized poop, which seems like a good thing!

Well, today the only focus was on my recovery from the weekend.  I didn’t get to eat any solid foods (thankfully, not even prunes) and I got to rest a lot.  I started the day off with a three hour nap (!) from 7:00 to 10:00.  I chugged down a huge bottle of formula and after a bit of play, took another nap at noon.  I ended up wtih one big poop and three little poops today, so I think my body’s getting back to normal.

All in all, it was a much more low-key day than usual.  We didn’t go for a walk, I didn’t eat any solid foods, I slept a lot, and even my play time was subdued.  But Dad’s old basketball coach used to say “there’s only one way out of a valley,” and given the weekend I had, I knew today would be a lot better, and it was.

Today was a sad day, capping my worst weekend ever!  Dad wasted no time getting prunes into me as soon as I got up, and Mom couldn’t sleep in knowing that I was in so much discomfort.

Mom’s and Dad’s friends Chris and Cate came by the house in the afternoon.  They were both so nice and Chris was a total natural holding me in his huge hands.  Made me feel like a little baby again. 

After Mom & Dad ate dinner we went for a walk.  By the end of the day I had pooped so many times that my booty was so red and raw!  After every change I was swimming in Boudreaux’s Butt Paste (thankfully!). 

I woke up to a really gloomy and rainy morning.  Dad got up with me and hung out until Mom came downstairs.  My breakfast was the breakfast of champions: prunes!  Today’s an official Poop Watch (my first since June!).  I haven’t pooped since last weekend, when I first started eating rice cereal.

I was very uncomfortable all day, spending most of it pushing as hard as I can.  The highlight of the day was meeting a bunch of new friends, including Emma who is only three weeks older than me!  I was in a really bad mood, but Emma cheered me up by sharing her toys with me.

We got home, I had a bottle, and then Dad and I made our weekly trip to Dominick’s.  Mom was shocked that Dad was willing to risk an explosive poop at Dominick’s, but he doesn’t seem to worry about things like that.  Anyway, the trip was pretty uneventful and by the time I got back, I still hadn’t pooped.

Then the real fun started.  Dad gave me a suppository to help me poop.  Apparently he’s not very good at it, because that fell right out the next time he inspected my diaper.  So, in went another one.  As if that wasn’t fun enough, Dad stuffed me with prunes and even gave me a few ounces of prune juice in my bottle.

Finally I started pooping.  Not one seven-day avalanche (thankfully for Mom & Dad), but a series of mudslides, if you will.  I definitely needed a bath (which came with a bonus suppository) and then headed off to sleep.  

The big news today was my 6-month check-up.  I weighed in at 17 lb. 4 oz., which puts me at the 75th percentile.  I stretched out
 to 26.25 inches long (just over the 50th percentile).  My brain continues to overachieve, with a head circumference of 17.6 inches — just over the 90th percentile!

Always wanting to put on a little show, I totally wowed the doc by rolling around on the exam table, sitting up, and showing off my manual dexterity.  She was so impressed that she called me “Little Miss Motor Skills.”  Awesome! 

I got two more vaccinations today: my third prevnar shot and my first flu shot.  Mom asked a bunch of questions, as usual, and for once Dr. Freeman was patient and responsive.  That was nice.

It’s my birthday! I’m gonna party like it’s my birthday!  No birthday cake, but did eat cereal twice and played outside with Nana and Grandpa. 

Wednesday I got back to my normal schedule.  I started the day with a very early three hour nap and then ate a cube of cereal with my bottle.  For the first time ever I got to eat real food twice in one day, with another cube of cereal around 5:00.  I also spent a lot of tim with Nana outside on the stairs and in the yard.

Tuesday was pretty uneventful.  Nana skipped my morning cereal to get my stomach back in order.   I didn’t have any major spit-ups in the evening, so it was definitely a success.

Today Nana and Grandpa fed me a meal for the first time.  They really enjoyed seeing me eat real food and I could have eaten even more than they had ready for me.  I took a really long (3 hour!) nap and then was a great mood.  I had another huge spitup in the afternoon and Nana hypothesized that it was the powdered formula that was causing my problems, so they discontinued the powder and switched to liquid concentrate after that.

Another weekend morning with Dad, which means vigorous physical exercise and a trip to starbucks! I hung out with while Dad did some work, but eventually I got too fussy and Dad and I decided to take off. Instead of heading home, though, we went to Jewel to pick up a green pepper. (Weird, I know.) Then we went to K-Mart. Dad was pretty determined to come up with a way for Mom, Nana, and Grandpa to prepare a day’s worth of powdered formula each morning as easily as possible. This required a total of three trips in and out of K-Mart and another trip to Jewel before we headed home with four 1-qt clear bottles and a huge red funnel.

I ate (and I don’t mean drank!) breakfast (rice cereal, again) and this time Dad caught video footage of my meal. Al got back from his hot date and the four of us headed to Moonshine for lunch (some of you may recall that Moonshine was one of my very first outings back in March). We then headed to Oberweis for ice cream and then back home. Al held me and played with me before taking off.

The rest of Sunday was pretty low-key until my bedtime feeding. I had just drank about seven ounces of formula when I had a HUGE, GINORMOUS spit-up. Not only did get all the way through every layer of Dad’s clothing, but it made a huge stain on the couch. Of course, this made Mom quite worried, but I made up for that by sleeping almost all the way through the night.