oh baby! averyland

15 months old

March 17th, 2008

Today Avery had his 15 month old checkup. He’s still scraping the bottom percentiles on size. Doing great on milestones:walking, spoon/fork holding, words.

The stats:

weight: 18lbs 6 oz
height 30.5 inches
head circumference 45 cm

Words (not all completely clear yet):

Hello
Bye
Uh-oh
Duck
Bath
Mama
Dada
Baba
That

Avery is walking now. He started the beginning of last week and now he is a pro. It’s almost like he only planned on doing it once he could do it really well because now he’s squatting down to pick up things and drinking and walking at the same time. It’s amazing he only learned this skill last week. I’ve been owing everyone a video of his newly-perfected skills. Here’s an old one from last week. I’ll try to get a new one of his mastery of the walking soon. Our apologies on the video quality. We’re not taking these on a digital video camera, and we’re experimenting with video players.

1 year old (again) + first steps?

February 4th, 2008

Today would have been Avery’s due date, one year ago, so he’s now one-year adjusted age. Other than still being a small fry, he seems to be on track. Lately he’s been doing a lot of standing up on his own, even doing his little dance or squatting down from a standing position. I’m not sure what counts as official first steps, but tonight he took a step or two away from the chair he was holding onto. We didn’t catch photographic evidence, but it seems as though he’ll be walking sometime soon.

Our other major issue these days is the eating. Ave is still a small guy and seems to have no intention of fattening up a bit. For a few days he’ll eat barely anything, then the next few days he’ll eat nonstop. We’ve seen a dietician a few times since our last checkup, and she said we were doing a good job with getting high calorie, nutrient rich foods. That was totally a waste of time. She didn’t have any suggestions we weren’t already doing. It’s not that he’s not gaining, he just continues to scrap the bottom percentiles of his adjusted age (1 year old). He’s in the 18lb range right now; some 6 month olds are 18+lbs. I’ve read a few articles that say that small for gestational age/very low birth weight (<1500g) babeies (Avery was 1372g at birth) either a) never catch up, or b) catch up much later in life (8-14yrs). The question is, do we accept this, or do we press for more answers? Either way, we’re eagerly anticipating our next checkup weigh-in.

The end of nursing

January 26th, 2008

So, I signed up for a conference in March which means I’ll be gone for 4 days, sans kiddo this time. He’s down to mostly only nursing at bedtime and at night and we’re currently working on the nursing when he comes home from daycare. It’s not really nutritive anymore, and the nutritionist suggested that the after daycare/pre-dinner nursing might be interfering with his dinner appetite. But he really likes to nurse. It amazing given all the problems and frustrations I had with breastfeeding, that now he is so attached to it. But alas, we’re weaning entirely now. I have mixed feelings about the whole endeavor. I originally hoped to wait until he was ready to self-wean, hoping that ready would be between 12-18 months. He seems to have zero interest in letting go though and now that he has opinions about things but no words to express them. Generally, he makes his wishes to nurse known by crawling all over me and head butting my chest while alternately trying to bite my shirt saying mmMmmamMamAAaa. So he is pretty adamant about not giving it up. I just don’t want to just pull the rug out from under him when I’m gone for a few days (I’m sure he’ll be unhappy enough). So next we’ll work on the nighttime feeding, and those will be a hard ones to get rid of, especially since we co-sleep. While I’m very ready to let go of being sort of leashed to him because of it, It’s very bittersweet for me. Being able to breastfeed took such an investment and its a special and unique kind of bonding that I will miss as he grows into an independent little person.

New Skillz

January 17th, 2008

Did I mention he finally says mama? It’s more of a maaamaamaamaamaamaa whenever I leave the room, he wants out of his highchair, or is grumpy, tired or otherwise unhappy. Speaking of high chair, he recently learned how to stand up in it (despite the 3 pronged safety belt). Once he’s done or bored, he spends the rest of his effort trying to brute force his way out of the highchair.

12-month check-up

December 19th, 2007

Monday we took Ave in to the doctor for his 12 month check up.

The stats:

16lb 8.5oz
28.75 inches
44cm head circumference
crawling, cruising, bending and squating to pick things up
bangs anything together
says “uh oh” and “dada”, no “mama”.. just whines for me

We discussed his lack of gaining much weight, since he only gained ~1.5lbs in the last 3 months. The weight issue is exacerbated by his unending energy and newfound mobility. In general, he should have been starting to catch up on weight some by now, not just continually hug the bottom percentiles for his adjusted age of ~10months. They checked his iron levels in case of anemia (perfect). Also checked lead levels, just in case (no results yet). Suggested trying to get him to drink pediasure (30cal/oz vs. cows milk @17cal/oz), especially since hes coming to an age when kids often dip in weight because they’re too distractable to eat. Amazingly enough, he’s still breastfeeding, thought more for comfort than calories. We’ve also been referred to a nutritionist to find the most efficient ways to get high calories in low volumes into him. I’ve got to call the insurance to sort out the nutritionist and setup an appointment. Developmentally, he’s right on track. He just may be a small guy for a while.

First Birthday

December 15th, 2007

Avery is now a year old! Hello, toddler. Its amazing to think how much he has changed from the little 3lb guy NICU baby to a nonstop, giggly, demanding toddler.

For his birthday, we didn’t do too much. I toyed around with the idea of having a big party, but I just didn’t have the time, money, or energy for that. I wanted to do something along the lines of picnic/park, but since it was 40 degrees and raining that wasn’t going to fly. He had fun playing inside with all his new toys. I made him a cake, Aunt Lisa came over, and we went to Elmos for a quick dinner.

A few videos of the occasion.

Teething is a b*tch.

December 7th, 2007

As we speak….er, write.. Avery’s little mouth is pushing 3, yes 3, new teeth into the party that is his mouth. And he’s not too happy about it. Top that off with a nasty little post-traveling cold, and some separation anxiety and let the fun begin! He doesn’t want to eat, or have his nose wiped again, or be in a room without the mommy. And, now that he’s a full fledged crawler, he can follow me. Yeah sure, he says dada all the time and not a drop of mama, but who does he want to climb all over and boob dive at? Mommy. And that’s even despite the fact that I make him wear the warm hat with the chin strap so he can’t pull it off immediately. Tonight was really bad. We did the ora-gel and tylenol and it got a little better. Mommy is tired, on so many levels. Something tells me toddlerhood is going to be rough-going.

Oh. And here’s a picture of his head. There was a downpour while we were in Florida which Avery found absolutely awe-inspiring, particularly since we’re in a pretty bad drought, so there’s been none of that here. And it’s cold now.