Claire's [Not So] Happy Five-Month Birthday

Claire is five months old today! And it was a rough day, especially for the Gatewood kids. Prepare yourself for stories about vomit and baby poop...this is a blog about kids afterall.

Alex woke up at 6 AM asking for water. I gave him a sippy cup and went back to bed. At 7 AM he was awake again and Dave went in to get him up. Alex starts coughing and vomits three times. (And, yeah, I immediately checked to make sure his breathing wasn't labored since the last time he coughed-vomited he was in an ambulance a few hours later and was admitted to the PICU with pneumonia. We think he drank too much water too fast since he was mainly OK the rest of the day, common cold symptoms aside.)

Then there's poor Claire. We suspected she was constipated even though she had normal soft poops the last couple of days. (She had also been straining and turning red without producing anything, which is why we suspected there was a sinister piece of poop in there.) I confirmed [visually, if you know what I mean] her severe constipation after she struggled and struggled and couldn't go. After much blood and screaming, we called the doctor. (Why do these things always happen on a Sunday?) Luckily the on-call nurse was very quick to call back and, after finally convincing her that, yes, even though Claire did poop normally the last two days, she was in fact severly constipated today, she basically just confirmed that we were doing all we could and to keep trying. Oh, and just ignore the blood. Um, OK. Finally, after nearly two hours, (and me screaming at Dave from upstairs to him downstairs, "I don't know what to do! It's stuck! It's stuck! What do I do?!" over and over and then finally, "WHERE ARE YOU?" as he appears in the doorway with Alex) most of the poop was out. I knew she'd dislodged the remaining piece when she awoke mid-nap screaming.

After a bit of internet research, I found that an allergic reaction to the formula could cause her constipation and the best thing to do is to switch formulas since each manufacturer has a slightly different concoction. I guess we'll know in a couple of days whether it worked.

By the end of the day both Alex and Claire were feeling much better (proof of Claire's disposition below, and Alex is playing happily behind us in the tub).

Update on Claire

I just started this blog but already a lot of space has been devoted to Alex and Claire has barely been mentioned, so here’s an update on her…

The thing that most boggles my mind about her right now is that she’s FIVE months old tomorrow. I can’t believe it. Although Alex was a year (and then 2) before I knew it, I just can’t get over how much faster time is going by with Claire. It makes me sad that her babyhood is going to be gone in just a few months and I feel like I’ve barely had time to breathe, let alone sit back and enjoy/appreciate her as a tiny baby. Right before I left on maternity leave my brother – father of two kids close in age – said to prepare myself for life to be a blur; as much as I hate to admit it, he was right.

Claire has got to be one of the smiliest (OK, I know that’s not a word, but it should be) babies ever. Every time I enter the room, even after being gone for only a minute, I get a huge grin from her. And she loves to watch (and smile at) her brother. She smiles so much that the most reliable indicator of her fatigue and need for a nap is when the number of smiles begins to diminish. She doesn’t laugh much, though we’ve recently discovered that Gromit (our dog) or a mirror can elicit a chuckle.

She loves attention and interaction: being read to, sung to, talked to, bathed, diapered, dressed…basically if you have to talk to or touch her, she’s happy.

I see a high degree of determination in Claire. She learned to pick up her head and chest off the floor fairly early at about 10 weeks. She’s built up her back and stomach muscles from daily attempts at sitting up. She loves to stand whenever she can. But at other times, she’s perfectly content to just sit for a while and watch (especially nice when her parents have to attend to the needs of a sometimes very needy toddler).

Oh, but she’s not without her “faults.” When it comes to sleep, she could be a little more generous. I’d heard of newborns having day/night confusion, but I was shocked when it seemed like my newborn had it. That issue was short-lived, but she still likes to have play sessions at 3 AM about once a week. Maybe it’s her social/smiley personality that makes her lonely in the middle of the night and eager for some companionship, even if the attention comes from a terribly grumpy and baggy-eyed mama. Guess she’ll take whatever she can get. She’s not consistently a bad sleeper. Every third night or so she gives us a reprieve: we put her down for the night and don’t hear a peep until about 5 AM, when she takes a bottle and goes back to sleep until at least 7:00. But sometimes that’s even frustrating, the knowing that she has the ability to sleep well but doesn’t do it often enough.

All in all though Claire is a very good baby and we feel very lucky to have two healthy (relatively) and happy kids.

Comfort Items

Tonight I was reading Alex a book that had a picture of a crying baby in it. Usually he wants to give the baby a kiss to make her feel better, but tonight he said, "She needs her mommy." Awww! Isn't it cute the first thing he thinks of is "Mommy" when someone needs conforting. Then he continued, "She needs her daddy." Again, awwww! "Needs TV, needs Elmo." Wait a second. Are you kidding me? My little man may be a bit too Elmo-obsessed. And just now we heard him over the monitor muttering in his sleep, something about Elmo. Geez.

Alex's 2nd Birthday Party

Yesterday we held Alex's 2nd birthday party at Romp N Roll. He hosted the party with Preston, his cousin born eight days before him, and Camden, his cousin born eleven days after him. (We figured it was easier on the family to attend one, combined party than to attend three separate ones.) What a blast! Photos can be found here.

Video of us singing "Happy Birthday" to him:


We waited until it was almost time to leave for the party before explaining to him that he was going to his birthday party. We told him all the people who would be there, what we do, how much fun it was going to be, but all he wanted to know was, "Birthday cake?" My boy loves some birthday cake! (For some reason he's been randomly asking for birthday cake for the last couple of weeks, so he was especially excited for his request to actually be fulfilled yesterday.)

Romp N Roll is located in a strip mall (big surprise) and when we pulled in, poor Alex was confused and started screaming, "No shopping! No shopping! Birthday party!"

He had a blast and Claire was a dream, mostly just hanging out with me in the Ergo carrier.