Yes, that's right. With all the activity Wren has been doing lately I should have known he was more acrobatic than usual. While I was making dinner Wren was playing with a toy sitting in his fisher price swing. There was a thump, a cry and he was on the floor.
He had fallen right out of it and down onto the carpet. He cried a bit and squirmed on his tummy where I rescued him.
Now I don't know what to do. The belt is too low for him - around his groin - so if he lurched forward while wearing it he would be kind of hanging there. Perhaps that is the idea?
Friday, May 25, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
He Sits!
Last Friday Wren suggested that he might be able to sit by balancing on his bottom for a few seconds. He was on a slight incline by the pool so I didn't think much of it but today he delivered on the promise and sat up unsupported for a few seconds. It was long enough to take a picture, so here you have it.
I also put him in the boppy to protect against fallings and he could sit there pretty comfortably until he wanted to lean to reach a toy and then he fell over. He didn't like that.
I suspect he is sitting because I went to the physio yesterday. Josh would probably say its because I am coaxing him in my quest to score points on his evaluation form.
I also put him in the boppy to protect against fallings and he could sit there pretty comfortably until he wanted to lean to reach a toy and then he fell over. He didn't like that.
I suspect he is sitting because I went to the physio yesterday. Josh would probably say its because I am coaxing him in my quest to score points on his evaluation form.
Night Parenting
While I write this Wren is lying on the floor getting exercise time. He is blowing spit bubbles at the persian carpet and pressing up on his elbows. Next step is when he gets to push up on his hands. After briefing Joshua on the physiotherapy appointment he observed that I really enjoyed the evaluation because it gave me a framework of steps and stages and even SCORES by which I could engage Wren's behaviour. He claims to prefer the puzzle of the daily grunts and wriggles without context. I confess that he is partially right. I am very pleased to see development as a linear process rather than an impenetrable jungle of small gestures BUT I am not going to own the implied impatience with the present. I am very happy where Wren is now and think he is charming and very sweet and clever.
Today, the man at Subaru was also charming - probably because I paid him $600 for new tyres, alignment and service. He said "that looks like the Gerber baby, what a cute guy".
Oh WOW... Wren has just this minute rolled from back to front for the first time..... and wooo... over onto his back again. He didn't manage to get his left arm free complete ... oh... hang on... here he goes again and THE ARM IS FREE! Houston, the arm is free!
"Josh, can I now give him another POINT on the scale."
Yikes .... he is rolling over again onto his back. Its a regular workout over here.
Anyway, I was going to give a little summary of last night for those of you not bored out of your minds with our sleep travails [over onto his stomach AGAIN, arm tucked]. Last night was funny because we had issues with both Frost and Wren. Here it is:
8.30pm Frost to bed
8.35pm Frost complains that he is in the wrong room
8.40pm Frost complains he is not tired.
8.45pm Nurse Wren to bed.
8.50pm Frost pops in to explain he sometimes feels worried about scary thoughts and wants to sleep in our room. I explain the other room is closer to Daddy and he can hear us better [if Frost sleeps with us and Wren no-one gets much sleep some nights]
9pm Wren and Frost asleep.
10pm Frost has night terrors - he is alseep but speaking incoherently, crying and walking around flailing his arms. I sing a song to coax him back to bed. He remembers none of this the next day.
10.15pm Shannon to bed.
12.00 Wren wakes, nurses 2min.
2am Joshua to bed.
2.30am Wren wakes, nurses 12 mins
3.00am Wren nurses 2mins and again sometime before 4am
After 3am Frost comes in & I tell him to get into bed in our room and go to sleep.
5.30am Frost wakes up and sits up. Its light. He has wet his bed. I fumble over Josh to try and get the wet part off, fail, suggest he goes back to the other room. Tell him there are 2 more hours to sleep.
6.00am Wren has been disturbed and nurses again.
6.30 Shannon still awake but covers head with burp cloth and goes to sleep.
7.35 Shannon wakes. Joshua, Frost and Wren are asleep. Makes breakfast, turns on TV and pauses, makes lunch for Frost.
7.45 Frost wakes and gets ready for school.
8.00am Wren wakes and gets diaper changed and put in bed with some toys and Joshua.
8.15am Joshua wakes
8.20 We leave to drive carpool.
So, isnt' that fun? Today, as part of my sleep training preparedness plan I bought some darkening shades and drapes for our room. Yesterday, I bought Wren footed PJs so he can sleep in his crib alone - without the warmth of body or blanket. Poor wee sleep destroyer :) Ironically, although it was a bad night I got plenty of naps in there and feel okay. The trick is to go to bed early and nurse quickly so he doesn't really wake up and neither do I.
Today, the man at Subaru was also charming - probably because I paid him $600 for new tyres, alignment and service. He said "that looks like the Gerber baby, what a cute guy".
Oh WOW... Wren has just this minute rolled from back to front for the first time..... and wooo... over onto his back again. He didn't manage to get his left arm free complete ... oh... hang on... here he goes again and THE ARM IS FREE! Houston, the arm is free!
"Josh, can I now give him another POINT on the scale."
Yikes .... he is rolling over again onto his back. Its a regular workout over here.
Anyway, I was going to give a little summary of last night for those of you not bored out of your minds with our sleep travails [over onto his stomach AGAIN, arm tucked]. Last night was funny because we had issues with both Frost and Wren. Here it is:
8.30pm Frost to bed
8.35pm Frost complains that he is in the wrong room
8.40pm Frost complains he is not tired.
8.45pm Nurse Wren to bed.
8.50pm Frost pops in to explain he sometimes feels worried about scary thoughts and wants to sleep in our room. I explain the other room is closer to Daddy and he can hear us better [if Frost sleeps with us and Wren no-one gets much sleep some nights]
9pm Wren and Frost asleep.
10pm Frost has night terrors - he is alseep but speaking incoherently, crying and walking around flailing his arms. I sing a song to coax him back to bed. He remembers none of this the next day.
10.15pm Shannon to bed.
12.00 Wren wakes, nurses 2min.
2am Joshua to bed.
2.30am Wren wakes, nurses 12 mins
3.00am Wren nurses 2mins and again sometime before 4am
After 3am Frost comes in & I tell him to get into bed in our room and go to sleep.
5.30am Frost wakes up and sits up. Its light. He has wet his bed. I fumble over Josh to try and get the wet part off, fail, suggest he goes back to the other room. Tell him there are 2 more hours to sleep.
6.00am Wren has been disturbed and nurses again.
6.30 Shannon still awake but covers head with burp cloth and goes to sleep.
7.35 Shannon wakes. Joshua, Frost and Wren are asleep. Makes breakfast, turns on TV and pauses, makes lunch for Frost.
7.45 Frost wakes and gets ready for school.
8.00am Wren wakes and gets diaper changed and put in bed with some toys and Joshua.
8.15am Joshua wakes
8.20 We leave to drive carpool.
So, isnt' that fun? Today, as part of my sleep training preparedness plan I bought some darkening shades and drapes for our room. Yesterday, I bought Wren footed PJs so he can sleep in his crib alone - without the warmth of body or blanket. Poor wee sleep destroyer :) Ironically, although it was a bad night I got plenty of naps in there and feel okay. The trick is to go to bed early and nurse quickly so he doesn't really wake up and neither do I.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Physiotherapy Appointment
Wren had a physio evaluation at Children's today to see how his leg [edema, obstructed common ileac vein] is doing and whether we can help it at all.
The therapist put him down on the mat and watched while he moved on belly and back. She also placed toys around him and watched how he reached and moved towards them. When he wasn't able to make a motion she helped a bit and figured out what he could and could not do.
All the movements were charted on an evaluation form and for each "stage" he had reached on the ALBERTA INFANT MOTOR SCALE he was given a point. The points were added and then charted by age. Wren is at the 25th percentile for age. She said this is classified as low normal but not delayed. Delayed is below 25th percentile.
We have been given some exercises to help him use his left leg more and to strengthen his abdominal muscles and we will be evaluated at his 6 month checkup.
The therapist put him down on the mat and watched while he moved on belly and back. She also placed toys around him and watched how he reached and moved towards them. When he wasn't able to make a motion she helped a bit and figured out what he could and could not do.
All the movements were charted on an evaluation form and for each "stage" he had reached on the ALBERTA INFANT MOTOR SCALE he was given a point. The points were added and then charted by age. Wren is at the 25th percentile for age. She said this is classified as low normal but not delayed. Delayed is below 25th percentile.
We have been given some exercises to help him use his left leg more and to strengthen his abdominal muscles and we will be evaluated at his 6 month checkup.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Wren's first rocket party
This Sunday, we braved the rain and icy winds to head to Sammamish River Park for a rocket launching party with some friends from school. By noon there were about 5 families in the tent in the pre-launch phase constructing rockets. Wren was wearing his polarfleece hat, booties and car sweater and being carried in the ERgo which is now working properly in the front position at least.
While we were out there I was thinking that second kids sure have a different experience. In this weather Frost was bundled at home or doing Gymboree or baby music. Here's Wren out in the slicing rain watching (and listening and smelling) us letting off explosives to shoot little cardboard tubes 500ft in the air.
The rockets were really cool. Frost's first attempt misfired due to a wiring problem and his face crumpled and he had a hard time not bursting into tears. I think he thought it was all over. One component change later and he was smashing on the button to send the switch to the battery to turn the solid fuel into a gas really fast and cause a big wooshing smoky explosion. Wren jolted in my arms. Everyone was shouting 10-9-8-7-..... blastoff. As soon as the rocket was sighted as a tiny black dot the kids all set off running across the field (many yellow raincoats) to retrieve the rocket sailing down on its little parachute.
My hands were like ice.
We were refreshed with sun chips and juice (although hot chocolate and soup would have been more restorative with this weather) and managed 3 launches of our rocket before succumbing to the elements and Jack in a Box.
Wren slept well in the car on the way home and we are hoping for better sleep than last night when we were woken by a catfight in the kitchen at 11.30pm. All one needs huh?
While we were out there I was thinking that second kids sure have a different experience. In this weather Frost was bundled at home or doing Gymboree or baby music. Here's Wren out in the slicing rain watching (and listening and smelling) us letting off explosives to shoot little cardboard tubes 500ft in the air.
The rockets were really cool. Frost's first attempt misfired due to a wiring problem and his face crumpled and he had a hard time not bursting into tears. I think he thought it was all over. One component change later and he was smashing on the button to send the switch to the battery to turn the solid fuel into a gas really fast and cause a big wooshing smoky explosion. Wren jolted in my arms. Everyone was shouting 10-9-8-7-..... blastoff. As soon as the rocket was sighted as a tiny black dot the kids all set off running across the field (many yellow raincoats) to retrieve the rocket sailing down on its little parachute.
My hands were like ice.
We were refreshed with sun chips and juice (although hot chocolate and soup would have been more restorative with this weather) and managed 3 launches of our rocket before succumbing to the elements and Jack in a Box.
Wren slept well in the car on the way home and we are hoping for better sleep than last night when we were woken by a catfight in the kitchen at 11.30pm. All one needs huh?
Sunday, May 20, 2007
The Sleepeasy solution?
You know you are in over your head when you start taking parenting advice from the checkout dudes at Trader Joes. For those not in the area, Trader Joes is generally staffed by vegetarian college students with goatees. As I did the shopping this morning with Wren in tow, Russel and I got talking about the baby's elder brother and by a circuitous path, to how Frost has taken to calling me "you big idiot" in times of stress.
Russel's advice was "to thwammer him".
I am not going to follow this advice but it was interesting. In North Seattle we don't have the "hit or not hit" conversation, at least not among parents. Not parents are freer to have their own views without being suspected of abuse. I have never heard some advocate hitting a kid in years.
I also learned that Russel chews his fingernails but has to trim his thumnail, ate Fish when he visited Hawaii recently and thinks that parents should not value their influence on kids too highly because you want them to be "independent fully functioning adults".
Ho hum.
Wren is still not sleeping well but I have a book - the Sleepeasy solution - which I am going to read and implement in a week or so. Frost has gone to bed happy with thoughts of a little Star Wars lego set which arrived in the mail today. He didn't know we had ordered it for him and is full of the kind of joy that makes buying things for kids so rewarding.
Russel's advice was "to thwammer him".
I am not going to follow this advice but it was interesting. In North Seattle we don't have the "hit or not hit" conversation, at least not among parents. Not parents are freer to have their own views without being suspected of abuse. I have never heard some advocate hitting a kid in years.
I also learned that Russel chews his fingernails but has to trim his thumnail, ate Fish when he visited Hawaii recently and thinks that parents should not value their influence on kids too highly because you want them to be "independent fully functioning adults".
Ho hum.
Wren is still not sleeping well but I have a book - the Sleepeasy solution - which I am going to read and implement in a week or so. Frost has gone to bed happy with thoughts of a little Star Wars lego set which arrived in the mail today. He didn't know we had ordered it for him and is full of the kind of joy that makes buying things for kids so rewarding.
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