Pain and Sickness

My poor little boy has had a busy weekend so far. First, he fell and hit my knee and cut his upper lip. I almost cried when I saw the blood, it's the first time he has bled since he was born, other than scratches and shots, which aren't as bad. It made me feel helpless and like I had failed him. Fortunately it didn't bleed to long, and he liked the ice I put on it and sucked on it, so he hasn't swollen up at all.

Then, yesterday he got sick, for the first time, other than the occasional mild cold. It was terrible! We were going to go to a petting zoo, so we got up early and went to my mother-in-laws. We planned to get to the zoo when it opened at 9 to beat the heat, but we were all running late and we were still sitting at my mother-in-laws after 9. Mason was acting tired, which made sense because he had been up at 7:30, but he seemed ok. One of his aunties was holding him, until he pulled away and got insistent that I hold him. And almost as soon as I picked him up he threw up all over me.

At first, I thought that he had just spit up, although he hadn't done that in a long time, but then he did it again. We checked him for a fever and he didn't have one, so I figured it was just spit up again and we started off to the zoo. We were driving for less than 10 minutes when Mason started throwing up again, and got it all over himself. We pulled over, cleaned him up, and then took him to urgent care.

The doctor examined him, and told us that a virus is going around involving vomiting and diarrhea, and the only thing to do is wait it out and keep him from getting dehydrated. We took him straight home, and put him down for a nap. He vomited twice more, and got it all over himself, but he was so tired that I let him sleep before I cleaned him up. I felt bad, but he was completely exhausted. I gave him a bath when he woke up, and we started giving him a little pedialyte every hour or so.

He is much better now, he hasn't thrown up since last evening, and I gave him applesauce for breakfast this morning. He has diarrhea now, but I prefer that to vomiting, the diaper catches most of it.

There are two things I am thinking about from this experience. Mason went through this sickness so far very cheerfully. He was a bit crabby before his nap yesterday, but I think that was mostly because of exhaustion. Even then, he wasn't too bad. Both his outfits were soiled, and we hadn't had time to take him home and change him, so he was just in a diaper at the doctor's office, and they gave us a hospital robe for him to wear. He was so cute in it! He was toddling around the office, playing with the books and babbling at us. After his nap, he would play and come to me or Mike for comfort when he felt ill. After throwing up, he would fuss a bit, but he didn't cry much. He would fuss a bit every once in a while and then would be happy when I gave him something to drink. Later, he took another nap on Mike.

Mike and I were both surprised at how well he handled the whole thing, he was nowhere near as crabby as would be expected for him not feeling well. When he woke up this morning, he was crazy energetic and happy, like he was trying to make up for the playing he didn't manage yesterday. He wouldn't drink anything, and he was playing with his sippy cup, since the pedialyte was colored and made marks on the carpet. He managed to break the thing open and spill it all over the carpet.

The other thing is that I have been concerned ever since I had Mason about how I would handle it if he got sick. I don't like sickness and I was afraid I would have trouble dealing with the smell and yuckyness. But when Mason threw up on me, I didn't care about it that much, and when he got it all over himself, I grabbed him immediately, not caring if it got on me. I'm glad to know that I can handle it. I think it may be worse when he eats more variety, but even so, it makes me feel better.

Growing up

Mason is getting so big! He likes to read books!


And he is getting good at feeding himself and very independent. He gets fussy sometimes when I feed him things like yogurt and applesauce, he wants to feed himself.

Today he had beef and cheese and mixed veggies for lunch!

And he is getting very good at drinking on his own from a sippy cup.


My happy boy! He'll be 11 months old tomorrow!

Time with Daddy

On Saturday, Mommy went to a RS activity and left me alone with Daddy for 4 hours, the longest she's been gone since she quit her job. Daddy decided to take me on an adventure!


Daddy dressed me too 'cause Mommy woke up a little late and had to run off.


We went to the creek near our house, and then to the park. Daddy took lots of pictures of me in the grass.
Some of them caught me doing some pretty interesting things.
I promise, I was clapping. I haven't figured out praying yet.

Daddy also made me practice my walking. I walked all the way between these two trees!


Daddy helped some. I am the champion of the world!

Daycare

Today is the first day of my daycare. I have an 11 year old boy coming now. He's highly functioning autistic, and I'm not sure how long I'll be watching him, his mom is working to get him more independent, and he may be staying at home with his step brother soon. But for now, I have some income, and I have ads in craigslist to get more kids to watch.

Weeks 3 and 4

I was busy last Monday and missed a post, and then I was busy busy busy! And a little lazy lazy lazy too.

Saturday, the 28st of May, our ward had a temple trip to Winter Quarters temple, and we went. We got Tiffany, my sister-in-law, to come with us to help us with Mason-man, since Mike was concerned about him getting lost in the crowd of children waiting for their parents. A couple days before that, I had left Mason with Mike while I went to the store with my friend Tara (YAY Tara!) and he screamed like a banshee when I left, so we decided to be tricky when we left him. We left one at a time, and got him occupied, so in the end he didn't even notice we had left. It helped that he had been in the car with Tiffany all day, so he was used to her and happy. He didn't seem to notice we were gone, and when we got back he didn't notice me right away. When he did, it was like he was saying, "Oh where have you been?" and he wanted me to hold him but he wasn't urgent about it. That was a bit of a disaster though, because since I hadn't nursed him for more than 10 hours, I think I got a breast infection, and I spent the next day nursing him a lot to get it cleared out. Driving home for all that time with chills isn't fun, Mike ended up driving more than he would have liked.

He is still clingy though, especially places he is unfamiliar with, or unoccupied. I can leave him when we are at home, or at my in-laws' place, because he is used to us being there, but even then, he is a bit clingy. I kinda like it, it's nice to be needed.

The other day, Mike and I were folding laundry on the bed, and Mason was playing on the bed. When we were done, Mike put the basket on Mason's head, and here's what happened:


It was funny, the thing isn't that heavy, but he was acting trapped. He wasn't too concerned about it at first either. So cute!

And he is getting very good at walking. The other day, he was walking back and forth between me and Mike at my aunt's house without much prompting, and he did it for 20 minutes tonight, and started walking around the living room too. He seemed to really get the spirit of it tonight, and was so excited that he could do it. I wish I had had a third person to take a video of it. Crazy little boy! He is so smart and so strong!

And so sweet! He likes to climb on me and cuddle.

Our main focus the last little bit has been trying to get him to sleep better. When I was working, I was always so tired at nights, that I couldn't deal with it, so when he woke, I would just nurse him. Well, a few nights ago, he was being contrary, and I lost it. I put him in the crib and left him to cry it out, because I was exhausted. So I am enforcing night weaning. We have a sippy cup of water for when he wakes up screaming, but the rest of the time, we leave him to fuss himself back to sleep. It's already made a difference, he only woke up twice last night, once for a drink, and the other time after he had been sleeping for 8 hours, so I figured he was hungry, and after that point I'm ok to nurse him. Plus, he's gone from going to sleep at 11:30 or so, which he was doing the first couple of weeks I was home, to going to sleep around 8:30. Which makes for a happy mommy!

Oh, and our air conditioning finally got fixed! We turned it on the first Monday I was home, and it didn't work. It wasn't too bad a problem at first, it was cool enough that we could leave the windows open all day and bring down the temperature, but I am very glad it finally got fixed, the temperature was in the 90's this week and Mason did not do well last summer when it was really hot.

I have been having trouble sleeping now though which is very annoying. I have been having what may be restless leg syndrome, which I've never really had before, except when I was several months pregnant. I had one episode in college. I am trying some tricks to alleviate the problem, like not reading in bed. Which one of them is not staying up too late, so I should probably stop writing this, and go to bed. Goodnight all!

Week two SAHM report

Yesterday at church, they announced the birth of a little girl, the third in a family we know. They said she was 8 pounds 15 ounces and 21 inches, which is bigger than Mason was. Five minutes later, the family showed up with the baby. I was startled, to say the least, since she just had a baby on Tuesday, but I guess it gets easier over time.

Anyway, she was sitting right behind us holding her little girl. Mason was fascinated by her. And I couldn't get over how small she was! The thing is, she was bigger than Mason was at birth, but I didn't remember him being that small! So crazy!

He has been a happy boy with mommy the last few days, though he has been getting more and more clingy. We were at my sister-in-laws house for a birthday party the other day, and he had two instances when he got a little freaked out by all the people. And Sunday he got nervous when Grandma was holding him and a lady he didn't know started talking to him, so he got insistent that mommy needed to hold him.

I am trying to find ways to keep myself busy during the day, Mason doesn't need me all the time, he is content to play, occasionally coming over for a hug, and playing more. I am working on getting him on a regular schedule of eating and sleeping, and I plan on putting in reading time and maybe walk time as well, he likes going outside. But that still leaves some time open, even with cleaning and laundry, etc. I have a small apartment and there are only three of us, so there isn't much cleaning to do. I am thinking of getting a sewing machine and learning to make cloths. Maybe I'll try writing too, although that is harder. Mason likes the laptop, and he often tries to grab the screen while I am on the computer, which could damage it. So I can only do things on the computer when he is sleeping or really absorbed in his game.

The local library has a summer reading program which includes a version for listeners. The goal is to read 72 books for him, and you can get three free books for him if you do. I signed him up for it today and have started a log, the summer reading program lets you keep track online. It gives me an incentive to read to him, which is surprisingly difficult, apart from the fact that he likes to grab the pages and eat the book.

Here is the obligatory photo, which I know I omitted last week:
Mason didn't like the grass that day, it was tough on his skin. Besides, Mommy is fun!

Week one SAHM report

So this is the first day of my second week home with my baby, and so far it's been pretty good. Mason took his first steps on my last day of work, fortunately to me, so I didn't miss it. He's been doing pretty well with that, standing on his own, walking from person to person. He enjoys it!

Monday, my first day off, I got sick. Good timing right? Mike and I reorganized the living room that day and I did bunches of laundry, which is good, because the rest of the week I didn't have the energy for much of anything. We also discovered our A/C is out, because we turned it on for the first time, and it only got hotter. Our landlord is taking care of it, but fortunately it cooled down the rest of the week. Like down to 50 yesterday.

I made a trip to the library, went shopping on Friday, and spent most of the week watching cartoons, since I was sick. I'm feeling much better now, and have laundry to catch up on, as well as some organizing I wanted to get done.

Mason is doing well, I've seen some changes in him already. He has been a lot less anxious, he still follows me around, but doesn't cry when I'm in the bathroom, etc. This morning though, something funny happened. I had nursed him around 5 and moved him back to the crib ,and when he woke up at 7, he freaked, making the weirdest screaming noise. I really think he thought I had left, and was unhappy about it.

Also, he's getting a bit more clingy. Yesterday we went to my in-laws, and something happened. Mason's grandpa got down on the floor to play with him, and Mason started screaming, like he was afraid. He finally calmed down enough to let others hold him and play with him, but I'm not sure what caused that reaction. My mother-in-law has the theory that he is still a bit anxious that I might leave him, especially when we are at other people's houses. I hope he relaxes soon.

I like the new set up of our living room, we moved the crib into our bedroom so we could open up the living room and make more space for Mason to play. He enjoys it. He's eating more on his own too. We made garlic bread on Saturday and gave him a piece of the Italian bread that didn't have lots of garlic and butter on it and he snarfed it down.

Mike says I seem happier and more relaxed as well. I've actually had more trouble sleeping now, probably partially because I don't go to bed early anymore. Got to go play with my happy little boy now!