Robert Update

I've not done a very good job of keeping this blog updated with all of the changes that have been happening these last couple of months, so I'll do a quick update starting with Robert.

Eating-- I weaned Robert a couple of weeks before his birthday. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I was having frequent migraines during the process of weaning him. We were down to morning and night only and I had intended to do that for a while when someone mentioned the migraines might be so bad because I was weaning and my hormones were all out of whack. So I promptly cut the boy off. I had one more a few days later and have been fine since.

He's eating very well now finally. He loves beans, meat, green smoothies, and pasta. He doesn't care for eggs, rice, most bread and most veggies. He's also lactose intolerant like Clara was. His seems to be a little more severe though. He can't handle yogurt which Clara never had a problem with. He's drinking lactose free milk and has rice cheese on occasion. Thankfully he hasn't shown any signs of food allergies yet.

Sleeping-- If someone had told me that Robert would be an awesome sleeper very soon just three months ago, I would've laughed in their face. I'm happy to announce that Robert is indeed a wonderful sleeper now! It finally just clicked for him around his birthday. Bedtime is now one of my favorite times that I spend with him. I read a book while he enjoys a cup of milk. Then I brush his teeth, turn off the light and hold him while I sing a song to him. He holds his blanket and just cuddles up close, talking and smiling, and buries his head in his blanket the whole time. I put him in bed, cover him up and turn on his lullaby seahorse, tell him goodnight and walk out of his door with him smiling. Ahhhhhh. So much better than the routine we had going before.

This would be the second child that I nursed to sleep until a year old and yet they still figured out the sleeping on their own thing. So I tend to disagree when I hear people say that if you nurse your newborn to sleep, you'll have a two year old on your hands that can't soothe themselves to sleep. Like most things, I think it totally depends on the kid. He goes down at 7:30 and wakes around 7:00-7:30 and rarely wakes during the night. When he does, it's because his diaper has leaked (which is happening fairly frequently right now) or he's teething (in which case he gets some Tylenol and goes right back to sleep). I feel so much more rested now.

I transitioned him to one nap a day right around his birthday and that has made a huge difference too. He goes down around noon, or 5 hours after waking and will typically sleep 2-3 hours! No more of these 20 minute naps I endured for his first year. The only time he sleeps less than that is when he's sick.

Health-- I posted back in November when Robert got sick with a really bad ear infection on his birthday. He had a follow-up appointment, which doubled as his one year well check, on December 20th. His ears were clear. We left for Pecos a couple of days later and then the day after Christmas, he started coughing just a little. We started breathing treatments that day. He was getting worse and Chris was starting to feel bad also, so we decided to leave a day early and make the trip home in two days instead of one.

Monday was bad. Robert coughed and cried the entire drive to Kerrville where we stayed the night. He would fall asleep and then cough and wake up 5 minutes later. The poor guy was in a lot of pain. I called the doctor to try and get a prescription or a correct dosage for something OTC, but since pulling all of the cough and cold meds for kids under 2 a couple of years ago, they won't do that anymore. They said there was nothing they could do for us. Chris was feeling horrible all day too, so I drove with no one to talk to with Robert screaming and coughing.

We bought a humidifier in Kerrville and Robert and Chris both slept really well and woke feeling better. Robert slept a good portion of the drive home so we all had a much more pleasant day. Robert wasn't feeling too bad the rest of the week, so since it was a holiday week and his doctor was out of the office, I put off making an appointment until the next Tuesday. Yep, double ear infection and wheezing. Antibiotics, steroids and a twice a day daily asthma medicine.

We'll see how he does on the daily meds for a few months, but if he keeps having these ear infections we'll be looking at tubes soon. He finished his antibiotics last week and then started coughing a little on Sunday. The cough sounded very "asthma-like" in my opinion. Then Monday his nose was running and he was still coughing. I decided to skip ladies bible class yesterday because he was so snotty on Monday, but he ended up being fine. No runny nose, little to no coughing and has been that way today too. He does have congestion in his chest and could still very well take a turn and end up with an infection, but I'm really hoping that the daily medicine is working for him. He's supposed to go in for a follow-up appointment next week so we'll see what the doc says.

I guess that just about covers it for Robert.