Baby Blog

When Byron got his first vaccinations when he was three months old he cried hysterically like he was in pain for about an hour and totally scared me.  Right when I was about to take him back to the doctor because I thought something might be seriously wrong he stopped crying.  Because of that time, which was traumatizing for me (and Ruben a little because I was calling him from work that whole hour asking him what I should do) Ruben takes the day off when Byron has to get a shot.  So we took Byron to the doctor on Tuesday for his well baby appointment.  He was supposed to get four vaccinations ( four different needles) as well as a finger poke to take blood.  Turns out they didn’t have three of the vaccinations so he only had to get his chicken pox shot.  The chicken pox shot is supposed to be the one that stings so we are glad that we got it out of the way and it was by itself.  Fortunatley  Byron was fussy and cranky when he got the shot so it wasn’t a huge deal.  It would have broken my heart if they had given him a shot when he was happy and laughing.   He got over the shot quickly especially with dad there to tell him jokes and distract him.

Byron received a clean bill of health and the doctor said Byron seemed “bright” and that we were doing a good job. Did  I mention I really like our new doctor?   And even though we haven’t been giving him his poly-vi-sol, he is not anemic.  He is getting a enough iron from table food.  What a relief for us!

He's obviously plotting something good!

We celebrated Byron’s first birthday on February 28, a saturday!!!  We started the day with pancakes!!  I decided that would be his first morning that he would eat pancakes with syrup.  He usually eats fruit and dry cereal for breakfast or eggs.  Nothing as delicious as pancakes.  I made them with butter and syrup and he of course loved them!!  Afterward he took a nap and then got ready for his party.  PARTY TIME!!! His party was a success, I think fun was had by all.  The only bad thing was I think he got  frustrated at his party because there were a lot of kids running arounds playing and having fun and he couldn’t walk and have fun with them.   He got his very own cake, white cake with chocolate icing.  It was his first taste of cake and he of course loved it.  He also loved all the new toys and books he got.  Even though he was completely exhausted when we got home we let him stay up and play with his new things.  We had so much fun, it was a sleepy baby we put away that night.  Most definitely the best thing about the party was having all the people who have supported Ruben and I during the first year of Byron’s life all in once place.  It was awesome!!

Byron's personal cake!

Here, have some cake!

Singing Happy Birthday!

So Byron is 10 months old and he is such a little angel.  Ever since Byron turned 6 months old and started to exhibit some personality Ruben and I have been saying, “ok, this is the best age, it can’t get better than this!”   Not so folks!  He is such a delight!  Here are some things Byron is enjoying at 10 months old.

He likes to walk assisted with our fingers in his hands.  He spends his time trying to manipulate us into letting him into our laps so he can then grab our fingers and hoist himself up so he can be walking.  This move means whoever is walking the babe has to walk hunched over.   It’s back breaking.  He loves it.  I mean LOVES it, he immediately starts laughing and walking really fast.  It’s the cutest but I try not to let him do it to often cause it hurts momma.

His walker.  He LOVES his walker.  A long time ago our doctor had advised against the babe using his walker.  He said it would delay his walking and when he did walk the babe would walk on his tip toes.   The tip toe thing is true.  If he has been in his walker and we take him out and then walk him with us he leans forward and does walk on his tip toes.  I’m not worried about it though, because it goes away after a little while. So this is what happens when I put him in his walker.  He immediately starts squealing and laughing.  He looks for the nearest dog and makes a mad dash for it.   He really goes for it, full speed.   He has also started using his walker as a bumper car, running full speed into things and then bumping them.  Hard.  It’s pretty hilarious, we’re trying to get it on video.

He likes us, his parents. He’s really affectionate with us.  If he’s been playing on the floor for a while or in his walker or anytime he’s has been away from Ruben or I when he’s back in our arms he gets so excited.  He laughs and smiles and hugs us.    Awww, I love being a mom!

Byron has just learned how to crawl.  I mean a full fledged, belly off the floor crawl.  He looks so cute doing it too! Now his favorite game to play is get a toy ( usually a plastic block) throw it, and then crawl after it and do it again.  He is playing fetch with himself.   Ruben and I thought he would skip crawling because he was doing a really effective army scoot, but no, he wants to go by the book.  He doesn’t want to do his hand eye cordination a disadvantage.  He’s so responsible.

We survived our first Christmas, 9hrs away from home no less!  We had a wonderful time hanging out with Ruben’s family in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the home of Byron’s grandparents. Our Christmas adventure began on Sat morning, we left with two dogs and baby in tow.  We were in good spirits even though we were worried that baby plus two dogs plus 9 hour road trip was a recipe for disaster.   We ended up chickening out at the last minute and decided to ditch one dog and leave cha cha with my mom.  And then we had an opportunity to leave Posey behind as well,  we left her with Ruben’s cousin who wasn’t going on our trip.  We were pretty relieved to not be travelling with dogs that way we could just worry 100% on the baby.   Byron was an angel in the car, he was so good which we really weren’t expecting.  We made it to New Mexico in about 9 hours which was the plan.

Our most eventful night as far as baby drama was our first night.  Grandparents Dominguez bought us our first pac n play for the baby to sleep in during our stay.  We got settled in our room and did Byron’s nighttime routine to put him to bed.  Yeah right!!! I guess there was too much excitement going on, he did not sleep a wink that night.  He had gotten sick with a runny nose and some congestion so finally at 5am Ruben and I decided to drive  to Walmart to buy some Zyrtec, our doctor had recommended it to clear up congestion and also to help the baby sleep.  I was all about drowsiness as a side effect that night.  The baby fell asleep in the car during our trip to walmart so we stayed parked in front of Ruben’s parents house for about an hour.  When he woke up we gave him the Zyrtec and waited for it to do its magic.  Yeah, it didn’t.  Grandparents Dominguez relieved us at 7am and Ruben and I slept for 2 blissful hours.  Byron meanwhile charmed his grandparents, they played all morning like old friends.

Overall Byron’s first Christmas was awesome.  We had a wonderful time visiting with all of Ruben’s family.  The best part was that the three of us: Me, Ruben, and Byron got to hang out the whole time.  So fun, our vacation was awesome!

It seems like I’m always writing about Byron being sick or keeping me up all night.  That is just a teeny tiny fraction of what Byron is like.  Byron is sooooo much fun!  He is the sweetest little baby and he likes to laugh and have a good time with me.  He is learning things every single day and it is truly amazing watching his personality unfold.  He has what we call these “silly moods” where every thing me or Ruben does is really funny to him.  Those moods are becoming more frequent, I think that is just his personality, he is such a clown.  We have so much fun all day together.

At our last doctors app the dr told us to lay off all the toys we bought him (like his jumpers and walkers) that it would interfere with his learning how to walk.  Boo! But we obliged so we have been hanging out on the floor a lot playing with toys and trying to learn how to crawl.  I put all his toys in a basket and then let him take them out and play.  Here are some pics…

*** PS.  No Byron is still not sleeping through the night but he’s not waking up at 3am and then not going back to sleep either.  He wakes up about twice a night still but he goes right back to sleep when he’s done eating like a good baby.   I can handle getting up a couple times during the night, how can you resist this guy?

Byron wakes up max twice a night.  I consider it a bad night if he wakes up two times.   A good night is waking up at 5am and then again at 7-7:30.   Thursday Byron redefined bad night.  He got to bed a little later than usual.  Ruben and I had been making a huge effort to have the baby in bed by 8pm.  Bath and bed.  On Thursday he didn’t go to bed until 9pm.

The first time he woke up was at 11:30.  I chalked it up to irresponsible parenting, he was protesting his late bed time.  But he did go back to sleep.  Well he woke up again at 1am!!  Not good.  I did our drill, get out of bed, nurse him, put him back to sleep.  The boy was wide awake.  Usually when I put him back in his crib he goes right back to sleep, maybe with a little protest but he does fall asleep.  So it’s 1am, baby is wide awake.  I rock, I sing, I nurse some more, before I know it an hour has gone by.  Really not good.  It’s not our thing to let the baby “cry it out”.  For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s where your baby cries himself to sleep.  The idea is that the baby learns how to self sooth and can put himself to sleep if he wakes up in the middle of the night.  It’s effective if you’re consistent, not that I would know because it’s also super sad.  Ruben and I both agree that for us “crying it out” is not an option.  The alternative you ask?  Staying up with your baby and coaxing him back to sleep however you can.   So there we were folks, awake with our little baby.  We tried everything to help Byron go back to sleep.  EVERYTHING!!  He was not having it.   To make a long story short Byron was awake and didn’t go back to sleep until 6am.  And then to add insult to injury he woke up at 7:30, we don’t usually wake up until 8am.  We were so tired and poor Ruben had to go to work.   Not our best night.

Ruben and I both thought Byron was probably teething but to be cautious I made him a dr’s appointment.  I have a little cold and we wanted to make sure he wasn’t sick or getting sick especially on a friday.  So I scheduled a sick visit.   Well our little Byron is the picture of health with the exception of a slightly runny nose, prob from crying the night before.  The doctor told me he was not sick and he wasn’t teething.  The dr said that Byron had probably had a bad dream and didn’t want to go back to sleep because he was scared.  WHAT?!?!?!  I was pretty skeptical in the dr office I didn’t even try to hide it.  I asked him to repeat himself ( I was sleep deprived I thought I had misheard him) and then I asked if he was serious.  He explained that Byron hadn’t necessarily had a scary dream but that it could have been an action dream and when he woke up not where he was in his sleep, but in his crib, he got scared and didn’t want to go back to sleep, so he kept himself awake.  He then told me to get some over the counter Zyrtec and give Byron 1/2 tsp.  This would clear up Byron’s stuffy nose and make him drowsy.

So…I left the doc’s office with permission to drug my sweet baby to sleep and the need to get a second opinion.   I didn’t do it, either of them.  I tried to wrap my head around the idea that maybe Byron really did have a bad dream.  We are relieved that Byron wasn’t sick.   I’m not sure why Byron decided to stay up all night.  I think it has something to do with us interrupting his routine.  Shame on us!!   That night I was really excited to give Byron some zyrtec.  I checked out the side effects online and it didn’t involve risk of split personality or heart attack.   But Rube said no.  Actually, he said hell no woman, are you crazy!   He objects to giving your infant drugs just to put him to sleep, doctor’s permission or not.  Party pooper!