7 Month Update

Weight: somewhere between 19 and 20 pounds
Height: 26 1/4" (at his last appointment)
Head Circumference: 

Sorry for the Blog hiatus.  My page wouldn't load properly for some reason for over a month so I was unable to update.   ::Frowny face::


Eats: Ezra loves to eat.  He loves all the stage 2 mixes, (except peas, green beans, and peaches) and he even likes them warmed up a little in the microwave.  He eats 2 meals a day which is usually about 2 tablespoons of cereal and 4 oz of a fruit or veggie.  I don't quite have the stomach to try the meats yet.  We've given him little pieces of chicken and he seems to like that.

Also, those Gerber puffs seems to be his new BFF.  It is the cutest thing to watch him try and pick them up and get them to his mouth.  They'll keep him occupied for a good 10 minutes though.   Enough time to do lots of things in mommy world

Sleeps: Amazing.

He usually goes down around 7:30 - 8:30 and sleeps until 6:30.

He is having trouble napping during the day however.  I feel bad for my sister in law who seems to only get a good 10 minutes or so of sleeping from him during the day.  Not sure if there's too much to pay attention to or if it's just because he's not in the comfort of his own home.

Likes: Watching people.  He is the nosiest person I know.  He watches everyone and if he's almost sleeping and someone makes a peep, his head shoots up and he looks around to see where it came from.  This child definitely can hear.

Swimming.  We've started a swim "class" at the Boys and Girls club on Saturday mornings.  I call it a "class" because really what can you teach a 7 month old about swimming?  Instinctually, he kicks and splashes his hands all around the pool.  He LOVES it.  And he loves watching the other little kids and going after all the little floating toys.  We're excited to get him in the pool at home soon!

He also loves to eat watermelon in his mesh feeder.  The mesh feeder is a little bag that you stuff squishy food in so that he can gum it and eat it but not choke.  He goes to town with watermelon.  He is usually quite sticky at the end of it but it's cute to watch.

Dislikes: His car seat is still by far his least favorite place on the planet.  It's a battle ev.er.y.time he has to go in it.  He does this "bridge" thing where he arches his back and uses his feet and his head to stick his belly out.  It's cute (the first 26 times) but he is STRONG.  I often feel bad for poking him in the belly or physically bending him in half to get him in the seat.  You would think he would be used to it by now!

Milestones: He's got the army crawl down pat.  He can get from one side of the room to the other very quickly if there's something that he wants (i.e speck of inedible paper, dust bunny, dog toy, or anything else that should not go in his mouth).  I'm not sure he's every going to crawl with his belly off the floor but he is very quick already.  He also likes to stand his legs up and do the downward facing dog pose like he's just going to stand up and walk one day.  Again, he's so strong.

He gets himself sitting up and back down to the floor all by himself.  He will even catch himself if he's losing his balance.  There are still a few head smashes to the floor but we're getting there.


His pincher grasp is coming along.  Put a speck of something on the carpet and he'll go for it from across the room and use his little fingers to get it to his mouth.  Very quickly. He's also starting some finger foods.

Things I want to remember about this age:
All of your babbles.  You say the cutest things without saying anything at all!

How determined you are.  You will definitely go for whatever you want, I'm hoping this carries through to adulthood.

The way you look at things.  Like everything is new.  Your surprised face is the best.  I've never seen such big blue eyes.

Here are some 7 month photos for your viewing pleasure:

"What do you mean a bunny came in the house and left me this?"

What a handsome boy

A boy's best friends

Mom, put the darn camera away

Did you see that!!

The yoga pose

Hospitals are no fun

I'm sure most of you know that hospitals are no fun, but I didn't realize how much worse it is when your infant son is the patient.

In the last year we have had 6 hospitals stays.  YES 6!

1. My first birth, a kidney stone
2. Horrific car accident, I got an overnight stay Mike got a 2 day stay and 3 months out of work
3. Mike's work accident, 40 foot fall from scaffolding, started in ER ended up in Trauma
4. Birth of Ezra and recovery from c-section, 4 days
5. Incision infection, drained and re-packed - probably the grossest thing that's ever happened to me
6. Ezra's recent stint at the Children's hospital

Needless to say I'm a pro at getting to the hospital and the entire intake process.  But when it's your son and not you (or your husband) it's so much worse.

Ezra woke up Tuesday morning (or should I say in the middle of the night on Monday) having lots of trouble breathing and just being generally upset.  He was in and out of sleep with lots of crying and coughing in between.  He wouldn't eat and he had lots of boogers.

Around 4:30 we tried to feed him again but he only ate about 2 oz, and he was wheezing (by my definition) and breathing quickly and not seeming to get enough air.  After 3 different dialed numbers from the dr's office I finally talked to a nurse and she told me to head to the ER.

Just an interjection - if you ever feel like you should take your baby to the ER, take them to the ER.  Dr's have an uncanny ability to make you question your panic (and sanity at times) but usually your instinct is much closer to correct.  I've had one dr tell me to bring the baby in quickly and when I got to the office they tell me that he's just fussy and I should take him for a walk.  Seriously.  Moral of the story, just trust your instinct and don't waste the time with the answering service and trying to explain why you are panicking.

Once we got to the ER, the intake nurse noticed his very heavy breathing and was quick to admit him into a room.  Once we got into the room they checked on him fairly quickly and said that he was in fact working really hard to breathe.  Again, trust your instincts, mom.

Then they put him through baby torture deep suction.  Which basically means they put a tube through his nose into his throat and tried to suck out whatever goop was in there.  His nose bled and he SCREAMED.  It was painful... for me.  I'm just thankful that I didn't have to help her hold him down.

After deep suction, they decided he was still struggling to breathe and tried albuterol.  He actually took to the mask pretty well.  We rocked and sang and he stayed pretty calm.  The albuterol didn't do much for his breathing but it turned him back into the wild man that I know.  He was all.over.the.place.  Rolling, grabbing things, jumping, laughing, trying to crawl, eating the sheets, throwing his toys.  I imagined he felt better, but his belly was really working fast at breathing.

They checked on him again and his breathing rate was an 80, which I guess its supposed to be around 30 or 40.  Yikes.  They all kept commenting about how happy he was and how healthy he looked.  He really loved all the people coming in to smile at him.  He is going to be such a flirt.

They decided to try another albuterol treatment to see if that would calm him down.  No go.  Now they had to decide if they should admit him or not.  I guess the difficulty in the decision was how happy he was - of course happiness is more important that efficient breathing. Right.

I convinced them since I was a nervous wreck that if they sent me home, I would probably turn around in the parking lot and just come back in.  I don't think I could handle having him at home when his breathing was double what it should be.

So we were admitted to the hospital for an overnight stay.  Ezra loved meeting all the nurses and doctors and was rolling around in his cage crib.  I made sure that we had plenty of toys and he seemed to be doing ok.  He was still not eating as much as usual, and was still breathing really quickly, but at least he wasn't struggling to breathe the way he was before.

The know-it-all resident also had to make me feel like a moron right after we were admitted.  I (without a medical degree) mistakingly called the stressed breathing sound that Ezra was making "wheezing."  Apparently, you can only hear wheezing with a stethoscope. Thank you for correcting me Dr, but what should I call the sound that everyone else on earth without a stethoscope calls wheezing?  It's like she knew what I was talking about but she had to correct me.  Annoying.  If I wasn't so worried about Ezra, I might've punched her.

Overnight was great for the baby, but terrible for mommy.  He slept with no complaint (until a 4:30 bottle) but 2 complaints that I have:
why on earth don't they have rocking chairs in a children's hospital?
and what's up with the chairbed? Could we get an air mattress or something?  My legs were legit hanging from the knees down off the end of it and the head part is lower than the butt part so I ended up with a headache.

Not to mention the know-it-all resident Dr scared the BEJEEZUS out of me at 7 in the morning to tell me that Ezra looked ok.  Great, why did you wake me up if he is sleeping and he looks ok????

Ezra loved his cage crib! He was definitely feeling better in the morning

Although his breathing was still fast, I felt comfortable heading home because he wasn't breathing so hard anymore.  His tests came back with a positive for rhino virus, (aka a cold).  Now they are concerned that he is more at risk for asthma.

We are supplied with a nebulizer, and not-so-high-tech snot sucker at home and antibiotics for a snot caused ear infection.  And my baby woke up this morning literally covered with boogers.  All over his face.  Crusty boogers.  It was gross, but I'm so happy he's home!

Spring Fever

Around this time of year, if you are a teacher, you notice students to start to get completely antsy. They can't stop running, yelling, moving, whatever. For some reason, the thought of warm air makes them so excited they can barely contain themselves.

Contributing to this here in Em&M land, is the end of the first round of state testing. It's like they think the game's over now and they don't have to play anymore. They don't quite understand that there is no "bonus round" in school.

As a teacher, Spring Fever time is torture. You can't get anything done. Your students promptly forget every important think you've drilled into their heads over the last 6 months. They look longingly out the window all day and they can't focus on anything.

This is also the time of year that my patience meter dwindles. All the nudgy behavior that I've been able to ignore (nose picking, interrupting, super long pointless story interjection, tapping pencils/markers/shoes, ripping erasers/small papers, etc, etc) crawls up my skin and makes me want to run for the Caribbean - umbrella drink included.

One student summed it up perfectly when I asked what on earth was keeping him from adding on that day.  He said, "You know, I think I'm just tired of school."

All I could think was, me too!