4 Month Doctor Appointment

Today was William's 4 month doctor appointment. We had a long list of questions to ask the doctor. William now weighs 18 pounds 13 oz and is 27 inches tall - that is in the 97% for both height and weight. We're just glad it is proportionate! His head circumference is the lowest scoring in the 95% at 44.5 cm. I had been worried that it didn't seem like he was growing as fast as before. I know that kids are supposed to slow down after the first 6 months, but we aren't quite there yet. The doctor reassured us that William is growing wonderfully - the last few month he grew from the 80th percentile curve to the 95 percentile curve. This time, he stayed in the 90th percentile and just grew. I don't know if this makes a whole lot of sense, but it made perfect sense to me during the doctor appointment.

Other highlights:

- William is teething. Although the spot in his mouth I thought was a tooth is a oil gland (normal).

-We can now use bug spray on William and can use sunscreen in 2 more months!

-The doctor recommended we start William on solids beginning at 5 months. At 5.5 months, we can start introducing vegetables. Should be fun!

-Swimming in pools is okay!

-The doctor is pleased with how William is doing developmentally. Based on his rolling, sitting, scooting, reaching and social interactions, she put him at the level of a 7 month old baby. Not bad for 4 months + 4 days.


And then there were the shots. Poor baby had a total of 4 injections and one oral vaccine. I thought it went much better than last time - John did not agree. I think the difference is where we were sitting. William is currently sleeping it off. Hopefully, he'll sleep and get to feeling better for tomorrow.

That's all for now....

Memorial Day Weekend

We have had a nice memorial day weekend. We celebrated our patio's one year anniversary by...doing almost no work outside. We did put in some duct work in the basement and some other odds and ends around the house. We did some sleeping in and went to church on Sunday. The pastor had asked we all wear red (everyone, not just us). I had the brilliant idea to take a family pic of all of us - but then changed when I got home. Just forgot, I guess. Today, we are going to Lydia's house to visit and grill out. Should be fun! Here are some pictures from this weekend!

John and William on Pentecost Sunday


William snuggled in for a nap with his bear


Sleeping in with Daddy

Why we decided to put the swing away...please note he IS buckled in!


The directions say "for up to 25 pounds". I don't think we've hit that yet, but...it still needs to go away! And yes, he IS buckled in!


Lydia and William! Lydia is almost exactly a year older than William. Can you tell?


Daddies and Babies


Daddies and Babies, part 2

4 Month Old

William turned 4 months old today. We took some pictures and worked on the basement. This evening, we took a walk and watched a movie together. All in all it was good to be together. I'm currently still going through the 150+ photos I took today of William for the best few. I had some making up to do after falling down on the job earlier this week. I may even try my hand at editing a few. So, I'll ask for you patience. Check back later - I'll add them eventually.


So, here they are. Some of them are good, others are mediocre at best. Oh well... I have more pictures from this weekend to upload and talk about. Maybe tomorrow. It's late now. I am afraid if I write more, I'll make embarrassing grammar errors.

Mr Cooperative

Diaper Shots

Things that make my heart melt

I love being a mom and I very much appreciate the time I am able to spend with my delightful offspring. I was thinking about the long list of thing he has started doing in the past few weeks that really make my job worthwhile. I'm sharing them with you - but this post is more about me being able to remember these things in a few weeks when he grows and finds other ways to touch my heart. They aren't always big things - but add up to a whole lot of love. Here is a list of just a few things that make my heart melt. Or warm.

1. Lately, when I pick William up, he wraps his arms around my neck (quite possibly for dear life as we careen down the hall or out of the house). I have been referring to this action as "hugs". The only thing that melts me more is when he couples his "hugs" with a head snuggled down onto my shoulder.

2. When I go in his room in the morning after a refreshing 9 hour sleep (serious. No sarcasm. He truly sleeps for 9-10 hours.), William has the biggest grin and does a little leg and arm kicking movement I call a "jig". The grin and happy jig do me in every time. Even if he has a poopy diaper on. My heart is melted.

3. His fuzzy head. Now that there is a lot of hair(okay, just more hair) on his head, it comes in contact with my face when we snuggle. It feels wonderful.

4. Slobbery "kisses". Lately, when were are snuggling or playing kissey faces (a "game" in which I kiss his face), William will open his mouth and turn his head head toward my face. As he is drooling constantly, this action causes his very wet mouth to graze my cheek. More often than not, he turns his head back and forth quickly in excitement and leave a drool trail roughly 6 inches long. He thinks this is funny as he plants the wetest, sloppiest "kiss" onto my cheek with a giggle. Does he know he is giving kisses? I don't know, but I like to think so. At any rate, it is pretty hysterical (and slimy).

5. Ahhs. The little ahh's William makes when he is sleeping. Ahhh...they are wonderful

6. Pats on the face. When William is eating, he is more still than usual. That doesn't mean he isn't moving. His top arm is in constant motion, whirling away. He grabs at whatever he can reach -recently, my face. He whirls and pats and occasionally stops eating to give me a smile with a goo. Precious. Entirely.


Now for the moments that just make me ...warm

1. The enormous spit up this morning that went down the front of my shirt left my heart literally warm.

2. When other bodily fluids end up on me...use your imagination. Even if they aren't symbolically placed by my heart.

3. Now that William is rolling over from front to back, he is constantly practicing. In the bath tub, on the changing table, in his car seat as I am buckling him in. Not exactly a warm heart. More like a stopped heart.



I could go on and on....but I want to put an end to this post so I can start a fresh one

Update

Things are better today. Only one of us spits up occasionally as usual. John is back at work. The two of us at home are laying low trying to catch up and rest. I think we'll make it. This time. Still no pictures of our cutie pie.

There is no throwing sand in my sandbox! (Long, boring, and no pictures - skip if you like)

Yes, it has been a few days. A few exciting and terrifying days. On Monday night, William had a concerning diaper. I will spare you the details, but it required a call to the real doctor's office hotline. Usually, I call MY mother first with concerns, but I knew she was at a conference out of state and wouldn't answer the phone. (PS. I was right - I called her after the doctor called back and she didn't answer). While waiting for an answer from the doctor, I was made to listen to a list of instructions. The most important one repeated at least twice: "If this is an emergency that cannot wait 15-20 minutes for a return phone call from our staff, please hang up and call 911. Immediately." Before placing the call, I would not have deemed our situation "911" type emergency as I could hear William splashing and cooing in the tub at John from the bathroom. However, I truly didn't think I could wait for 15-20 minutes for a return phone call. I briefly contemplated calling 911 or scooping my precious boy up in his hooded bath towel and high tailing it to the emergency room. Luckily the doctor called us back after only 7 minutes. The doctor agreed it wasn't an emergency situation. She gave me a list of things to look for that could turn the whole evening into an emergency situation. She instructed me to call back to the office tomorrow after he had a poop to check in with the nurse for further instructions.

It would be an understatement to say that I was stressed. I put William to bed as normally as I could under the circumstances - all while wondering how I was going to watch for the other trouble signals if I was going to go to bed myself. I resisted the urge to google words like "perforated bowels", "blocked intestines" and "ulcers in babies". I went to bed and sort of slept that night. I am proud that I continued to resist searching the bowels (tee hee) of the internet for (mis)information. I preferred to bury my head up to my chin in a sandbox of my own making and wait for the baby to poop. And wait and wait. Luckily, William produced two beautiful, yellow specimens in quick succession for me to analyze and determine that everything looked okay at 1pm. I made the call to the doctors office. The polite message informed me they are closed daily from 12-1:30pm daily for lunch. Nice. I finally got through to them and they assured me that disaster had been averted. I called John to tell him to come home after work because I was exhausted. There was no way I was making it to the Y after all the time I had spent worrying.

William then became an angel and went down for a nap. I slept also, because I was entirely exhausted by the "what ifs" and "maybes" on top of constantly monitoring the baby.

That evening, while playing, William managed to knock himself on his noggin. As I was totally exhausted (still), panic set in. A little thing like this does not usually send me racing - but tonight it did. I call dr mom (no answer) and contemplated the on call dr again. William settled down quickly and dr mom called me back. It was a lifesaver. Together we determined it was not an emergency and didn't even require ice. I put William to bed with a little less worry than the previous night.

Then today. William woke up at about 7:30 with his usual tricks - he rolled over and was quite unhappy when he found himself on his stomach. I went in to roll him back over and couldn't believe how hot the house was (77 degrees) and how incredibly thirsty I was. I rolled him back over to scoop him up and he went back to sleep. I laid on his floor and dripped sweat. Still thirsty. William woke up for good about 10 minutes later by again, rolling over and then protesting - loudly. I got up to pick him up and saw the room close in. William was not amused by the stars I tried to show him or the blackness. He defiantly didn't care about the sweat dripping or my extreme thirst. Somehow, we got the diaper changed and a TALL glass of water from the fridge before feeding him. Somewhere after (it gets blurry), I ate breakfast quick and drank 2 more TALL glasses of water. I also got freezing cold. Cold enough to locate my fleece pajamas and wear them in our now 80 degree house. It felt great. I remember thinking "if I still feel this bad at 9:30, I'm calling John to come and help me". The idea of lifting William again to change him, roll him over again, or put him in the crib was terrifying. I was exhausted and nauseous. And hot and cold....repeat. At 9:15, I found myself on the bathroom floor revisiting my breakfast. I found this to be cause enough to call my beloved husband at work and request his presence. He came. Quickly. William was napping and I was moaning on William's bedroom floor. We had a quick conference on the floor and determined:

1. I was sick
2. I should seek medical advise about feeding the baby while vomiting
3. Consider getting medical advise in person about my condition
4. I should take a nap and hand the baby responsibilities to my husband.

I called the doctor and found that stomach viruses can be given from mother to baby through milk. I shouldn't nurse for at least 24 hours after the onset of the illness. They felt no real reason to see me in person ( I didn't want to see me either). I took a nap. Several times. John and William hung out together and played. I was reassured by the happy noises coming from the living room. Diapers were changed, baby was loved on. I was exhausted. My husband is amazing and wonderful. No complaining ( to me anyway) and he didn't even heat food up in the house to prevent smells. I love him!

It remains unknown whether this is a virus or just worry induced sickness. John plans on going to work tomorrow, but is prepared to leave again if need be. I know this update is long and not very interesting. Most important, it contains no pictures of the cutie pie. I apologize. I'll try harder tomorrow. Maybe.

goodnight,

the heidts

I guess we shoulda picked brown carpet...

Today was an exciting day from our carpet's point of view. Many fluids were spilled/deposited upon it like never before. William was throughly enjoying his time in the jumperoo when I decided it had been a while since I changed his diaper (less than 3 hours though). I pulled him out and took him to the changing table where I noticed his feet were all fuzzy and hairy. So gross. I then prepared a rant for John about his responsibilities for vacuuming our house. I was getting really worked up about his shirking of duties when I noticed the yellow lines running down William's legs. I had already wiped off William's disgusting feet and moved on to his legs. I didn't see any leaky spots in the diaper and was trying to figure out how he got so dirty. I got everything cleaned up and put him down on his blanket to play in the living room when he launched a spit up onto the carpet. As I went into the kitchen to get cleaning supplies, I noticed three large brown spots under the jumperoo. Walking back into the living room, Mango began retching onto the carpet. Argh! So, I spent a better part of the day cleaning our carpet and apologizing to John in my head as well as wishing we had investing in a nice brown of yellow carpet the color of baby poo.

It hasn't been a slow day here at our house though! William woke up crying (unusual) and when I went to investigate, he was on his tummy in his crib! Since this morning, I have had to go in and flip him back over 2 other times from him stomach. I think he forgot he knows how to get off of his stomach. In fact, I can hear him in there grunting and wiggling right now. I'll have to check on him again in a few minutes. We spent lots of other time practicing our rolling today as well as standing and sitting up in the highchair. On top of that, we're getting closer to breaking through with that first tooth. We were so busy, I didn't even have time to take any pictures today (*gasp*).

This evening, we had some worrisome diaper issues, so we'll be keeping a close eye on him for the next 24 hours. We'll need to lay low tomorrow and just hang out together!

Standing up with balance help from Daddy


Standing up with help (daddy is still there)


Tonight, Mango thought it would be neat to see what bath time is all about first hand. Turns out it is yummy! (as he licks his lips)

Sunday

We've had a nice weekend. The weather has been beautiful and we have enjoyed being together both inside and out. William has been doing some sitting in his high chair and yesterday we tried feeding him formula from a spoon just for fun. We probably won't start feeding him solids for awhile yet, but it was fun to see the faces he made while he was eating. This morning we all slept in and then went to church together. After pancakes for lunch, we tried for a nap - didn't happen. William is really struggling with the whole nap thing. Sometimes we nap, sometimes we don't. Today we didn't. After a long nap attempt, we packed up and went to a "New Member Dessert" meeting for the church we are looking at joining. Funny thing, William is already a member. Here are some more pictures from this weekend...

The crazy cardinal that hangs out on our deck and tries to fly into the windows

William figuring out the high chair thing...

Garage Sale Saturday

We got up this morning and went out to some garage sales. We have decided I will be taking a leave of absence from teaching next year - requires some changes on our part :) Here is what we are looking for:

*Duplos*WoodenPuzzles*BabyOutsideSwing*BackpackCarrier*Legoes* Sandbox*LittleTykesWorkbench*Little TykesRed/YellowCar*KitchenSet*LawnMower*EtchASketch*LiteBrite*DumpTruck*MemoryGame* Walking/PoppingToy*BoyClothesSize18M+*WoodenBlocks*LincolnLogs*SpeakNSay*
DiscoveryToysMarbleShoot*OtherToysinGoodCondition

I'm sure there are a few other things we are looking for, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. I know there are some other hard core salers out there - keep me in mind! Have a great weekend!

I guess he doesn't mind taking it if he is in charge....

William's new (used) high chair

Babies Continued

Okay, the blogger wasn't letting me put the rest of the pictures in - I think maybe I hit their limit of cuteness in one post. So, we'll start the next one...bring on the babies!

Siblings! McKenzie and Nathan


The second half of our babies! Katelyn (#8), Maya(#7), Clayton (#6) and Charlie (#5)


Lean on me! Katelyn and Maya (babies #8 and #7) snuggle together


Babies #3, #4, #8, #7: Reagan, William, Katelyn, Maya



Reagan & William


Baby #6 Clayton with his Daddy


Reagan and William try to share a pacifier - their mommies taught them well!

Babies Everywhere!

Proudly Presenting: The Babies of the 8th Grade Floor June 2006-June 2007

Today we met up with all of the 8th grade teachers to get the picture of all the babies together. It was so fun to see everyone and it was total baby chaos. In addition to all 8 babies that were born in a years time, there were 5 older siblings running around. William had a VERY good time watching everyone and looking at the other babies. He happily showed off his sitting up and standing skills to the other kids. They were quite impressed. William was happy and smiley most of the time. He especially enjoyed playing with Reagan - a baby girl born 2 months before him. They both enjoyed looking and grabbing for each other - and Reagan's pacifier!

8th Grade teachers hanging out


Teachers and babies

Visiting and holding babies


Judy knows how to throw a party!

Matthew: baby #2


Beautiful baby #7: Maya

Sweet baby #7: Maya


Getting the baby picture set up wasn't easy! Tears were shed... Here are babies #1, 2, and 3 (Connor, Matthew, and Reagan)

8th Grade babies (L to R) Connor, Matthew, Reagan, William, Katelyn, Maya, Clayton, and Charlie

Mamas and babies on couch: Stevenia & Connor, Amy & Reagan, Kelly & William, Sherry & Charlie
Mamas/papas behind couch: Amy & Matthew, Sara & Maya, Kim & Katelyn, Michael & Clayton

Does this count as kissing? Babies #3 and #4 sure do like looking at each other (and grabbing and sucking....)

Little White Speck...

There is a little white speck on the front lower gum in William's mouth. Is it a tooth? Hard to say, but we hope so. He was on the crabby side of things and not napping hardly at all. Crabby and drooly babies are not the funnest thing ever. I have spent all day trying to keep his hands free of debris that accumulates there in seconds of being wiped off. He is spending all his time chomping on his fingers (or whatever he can get in there). When they leave his mouth all wet with drool for even a moment, they become covered with gunk. Hair, dust, cat hair, carpet fuzz, dirt, crumbs, and other various little pieces of stuff. On top of that, he is not interested in playing, singing, or most of the other activities we usually do to entertain him. It was a long day... Tomorrow I may try to get a picture of our little speck - but don't count on it. It was hard enough to find a way between his finger to put my finger in his mouth to feel around for the tooth.

Are you sure it is nap time? I thought if he was on his tummy, he might get a little more worn out and put his head down. Then, I would flip him over. He sure looks tired!

I am still working toward my goal of the Y 3 times this week. I got to go today - much like yesterday with meeting John there and then stopping by the ChildWatch area to scope it out again. Still not ready. Maybe next week. Although if this teething stuff keeps up.... just kidding.

William ate his first solid today while I wasn't looking. Paper....mmmm....

Where do you start eating a coupon?


The middle, I guess!

Mmmmmm...am I a bad mommy because I didn't stop him right away? I went to get the camera instead...


Mean mommy took away the paper...

We also took one of William new summery outfits out for a test drive. Thank you to (related somehow) Craig and Judy! We did have to up the size to a 12 Month size - which you can see are not that big on him. At least not as big as I thought they would be. The outfits are super cute - I especially like this orange one with a map to the beach on the front. While we were taking the pictures of the cute orange outfit, William was so wiggly in his chair as he tried to eat his fingers. I tried to buckle him in and...the straps don't fit around him anymore. BOO! I had to go and put it away because I know I will get lazy tomorrow and stick him in it for just a minute. Then, something terrible would happen. Good bye bouncy seat (AKA pooping chair).

Thank you Craig and Judy! I look so cute! Can you believe I needed the 12 Month version? And good bye bouncy seat....