Fun Day in the Dells!

Today we decided we were tired of being held hostage by the heat so, after Miles woke up from his nap and ate some (high iron!) lunch, we packed up and headed to the Dells.  We stopped by the Original Ducks where Bill used to work and he talked to some of the people that he used to work with for a little while.  We also got to enjoy a complementary duck ride, which Miles seemed to enjoy and allowed Bill to do some reminiscing.  We were SO glad we ventured out today!  By the time we got to the Dells, it had clouded over a bit and the humidity had gone down a bit and it was pretty darn nice outside!

Family Pic - Miles is uninterested 

 Family pic - Bill is super interested, Miles is still uninterested

My boys.  :) 

Snugglebug

After the Duck tour, we went to a restaurant with a waterfront deck for supper and enjoyed some more of the beautiful weather.  I can't remember the name of the place to save my life, but Bill had chicken wing and I had a grilled chicken wrap and they were both really tasty.  After we were done eating, Miles and I posed for a picture:

Oh, just a quick public service announcement.  Wal-Mart pretty much sucks in general, but the Lake Delton Wal-Mart in the evening is a completely miserable experience.  Bill decided we had wandered into the armpit of society.  :)  Yikes.  I do NOT recommend going there if you can avoid it...

And finally, a video of Miles taking out some aggression on his toast.  Enjoy!  :)

Evidence. And 9 Month Appt. Update.

Well, I finally managed to get a video of Miles crawling!  It's not very far, but I was just impressed that he finally cooperated.  Every time I've tried to motivate him to crawl he hasn't been interested, and everytime he's decided to crawl on his own the camera has been out of reach. 

Miles crawling!!

This week has been pretty darn uneventful here, mostly due to the miserable heat.  We've spent a lot of time hibernating inside.

We did have Miles' 9 month doctor visit on Monday with our new doctor.  We just did not click with the first doctor we tried after Miles was born.  I fully admit that I am pretty "hippy" about a lot of things and the first doctor was very traditional and we just did not see eye to eye on several issues.  I think it is really important to have a doctor that is on the same page as we are because it ultimately leads to better care for Miles.  So, I had heard great things about our new doctor from several different sources and I was not disappointed!  She is a general practictioner, but also has training in Integrative Medicine and is a Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant (a rare find in a MD!).  We had a great visit, she really took the time to answer our questions, and personally called us back with follow-up information.  Bill and I both got a really good feeling and decided the switch was a smart move. 

When Miles started getting his teeth I had noticed that I thought his upper lip frenulum was a little short, but it was hard to tell because he still didn't have any teeth on top.  We decided to ask the doctor about it because we were wondering (if it was short) if it could cause speech problems eventually.  Well, she checked it out and said that yes, it was definitely tighter than normal and that speech problems weren't necessarily a risk, but dental issues later on could be.  So, we have been referred to a pediatric ENT and have a consult scheduled for Aug. 31 to determine if it will require surgery or not.

Just in case you're wondering, here is a picture of the upper lip frenulum:


We also discovered at Miles' appointment that he is pretty severely anemic.  The doctor said that his hemoglobin level was the lowest one she has ever encountered in a baby this age, so that's not so good.  We weren't entirely surprised because we knew that Miles was at pretty high risk for developing anemia because he was born early, had his cord clamped prematurely, and had borderline low birth weight.  Babies get the majority of their iron stores in the last trimester of pregnancy and Miles missed out on about half of that time.  In addition, when the cord is clamped immediately after delivery, the baby misses out on all that blood (sometimes up to 50%! of baby's blood volume) that was still being pumped from the placenta, including the red blood cells and oxygen that it was carrying.  Miles was also right on the borderline of the "low birth weight" cut-off that is considered a risk factor for developing anemia.  Anyway, long story short is that we have ordered an herbal iron supplement (one of the many reasons I love our new doc - she recommended an herbal supplement first!) and have begun feeding Miles all sorts of high iron/high Vitamin C (Vit. C helps the iron to be absorbed) meals.  Some favorites have been a fortified cereal/breastmilk/steamed apricot concoction, an egg yolk/breastmilk/spinach omelette and kale chips with some avocado and muskmelon on the side.

Wow, that got long!  If you made it this far, here's some more cute baby pictures:

Crawling!!

Today was a BIG day for Miles!  He has been trying soooo hard to crawl for about the last 2-3 weeks, getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth, usually ending by smashing his face into the floor.  Well, today he finally did it!  Wouldn't it be sweet to say that he was motivated to crawl by wanting to get to his momma?  Why, yes, yes it would be sweet to say that, but Momma is chopped liver when Greta is around.  Yup, Miles took off crawling today trying desperately to get to stupid Greta.  Greta's not actually all that stupid, though, as she was long gone by the time the poor little guy got to where he was going.  He repeated his new trick a couple of more times throughout the day, but hasn't decided to upgrade to using crawling as his primary mode of transportation just yet...

(Yes, I'm working on getting a video.  I'm a sucky mom and I couldn't find the camera battery charger and the battery was dead.  So.  No video.  BUT, I found it!  So, video tomorrow, hopefully.)

In other Miles news, he is working on two more teeth, a top and a bottom.  Also, he does not appear to care for green beans so much, but he is a BIG fan of shortcake and fresh whipped cream.  He was not a very happy camper when I cut him off after he inhaled half of a shortcake and a tablespoon of whipped cream in record time.  Finally, we will be going to his 9 month check-up tomorrow.  I'm interested to see how much he's grown!

My dad and Grandpa Al came down today to finish up a few jobs around here, build some shelves in the basement, and take a bunch of tools home.  We now have trim around our kitchen peninsula and in our master bathroom, and the basement shelves look awesome (and all my school bins have already found a nice home on them...)! 

Today was also a big day for me.  I successfully cooked my first whole chicken.  Yes, I know, sad that it took me 'til 29 years of age to cook a whole chicken, but there you have it.  I made beer can chicken, roasted vegetables, zucchini chips, some of my newly canned green beans, and homemade strawberry shortcake for lunch today since we had visitors.  All three of them told me it was good, so I guess I can call it successful.  :)

9 Months!

Gosh, it's been a long time since I've updated the blog!

Miles,

Today you are 9 months old.  I am in denial that you will be 1 YEAR old in just 3 months! 

You are so much fun now!  You have such a happy personality and love to smile at (almost) everyone you meet.  You only get upset when you are hungry or overtired, and I guess I can't blame you for that because I do, too!

You are really eating food with more purpose now.  You love bananas, cottage cheese, yogurt, toast with cream cheese, asparagus, pears, noodles, and just about anything else we give you.  Oh, except raspberries - you're not such a fan of those. 

You are trying SO hard to crawl.  You get up on all fours and rock back and forth, but you can't quite figure out how to get your hands moving so you usually end up going head-first into the floor.  As soon as you work out what to do with those hands, though, we are in trouble!  :)

You have figured out how to sit yourself back up after you've been laying on the floor, which is really helpful to us.  Since you learned how to sit up, we spent a lot of time sitting you back up after you tipped over reaching too far for a toy (or power cords or our shoes or some other treasure that is SO much more interesting than one of your actual toys...).

You've started to really look to us to gauge what your reaction should be to things.  A few days ago, Daddy was doing something really silly looking and you looked up at me, then after you saw that I was laughing, you decided you could laugh, too.  You often will bury your head in our shoulders when someone new talks to you, then peek up at them, then me before burying your head again.

You have two more teeth!  Well, ok, more like one and a half.  Your left top front tooth and the one just to the left of it are almost all the way through.  Now it really is dangerous to stick a finger in your mouth!  I must say that we have become believers in your baltic amber necklace.  After 5 teeth, we have not had to give you any sort of pain reliever and have not noticed any significant mood changes or other disruptions to your routine.  So, I tend to believe it must be doing some good... :)

You will have your 9 month check-up next week, but if I had to guess, I would say that you haven't gained a ton of weight (maybe 2ish pounds) since your 6 month check-up, but I think you've been busy stretching up.  It seems like we've been retiring more and more clothes because they no longer fit length-wise.  We'll see...

Sleeping at night is still definitely NOT your strong point, but you do redeem yourself by taking great naps during the day.  I guess if I had to choose one or the other, I wouldn't change it because I am able to get a lot done while you're napping!  But, that doesn't mean I wouldn't take BOTH - that would be juuuuust fine with us!

You love water - shower, baby pool, bath, big pool, boating.  Doesn't matter.  You are a big fan of it all!

You are growing so fast - I feel like you learn something new every single day.  Sometimes I wish I could push the pause button and keep you this little for just a little while longer.  It does make it a bit easier because it seems like the next thing you do is always just as cute and fun and exciting as whatever I was being nostalgic over, though. 

Waking up to your sleepy, stretchy snuggles is the favorite part of my day.  You make us both so happy and we are so lucky to get to be your Momma and Daddy.  Happy 9 months, Bubbaroo.  We love you!