A Boo Boo for My Baby

So I was all set to spend the post-Jack's bedtime, pre-my bedtime period tonight writing a great blog entry about all the great things Jack has been up to.  His constant walking everywhere (now only using a hand to edge along the wall, not even needing furniture.  His expanding dietary experiments--Saturday we had blueberry banana pancakes and eggs as a whole family (!), Jack now eats, among other things, hummus, cottage cheese, and dried figs, and he can now feed himself bananas, mini bagels, and pears.

And his adorable new incarnations of the desire to take things out of containers.  

Yesterday he emptied every one of Ben's pairs of athletics socks 

from their basket on the floor of Ben's closet.  Today when we got our grocery order, Jack unloaded his own groceries!  He found the Ella's Kitchen packets (my one foray into premade

 baby food) in the sacks on the kitchen floor and proceeded to take them all out of the sack and line them up neatly!  Then he tried very, very hard to open the screw tops.  That's when I knew it was time for lunch.

Or all the fun play dates we've been having--lunch with Karem and Keira on Monday, going to the indoor playground at the National Army Museum (I know it sounds weird, but they have a totally gun-free soft play area for babies there, oddly enough) with our Abi and Leila playgroup on Tuesday.

But those blogging plans changed about 5:30 tonight when Jack split open the big toe on his right foot.  He's fine, just to let you know, lest I give all of you who haven't heard the story a heart attack.  I was making his dinner and Jack was playing in the kitchen on the floor beside me.  He really likes to stand up and play with things on the bottom two pantry shelves (the ones he can reach), so I try to keep lots of baby-friendly items there--lots of lids, a bag of marshmallows, some pop cans for him to roll around, a wooden spoon and light mixing bowls, etc.  But I hadn't noticed that there were also a few cans of soup on the second shelf.  While he was playing, one of the cans came crashing down on Jack's toe and really banged it up.  At the risk of being too graphic, it created a cut that went through his toenail and over the tip of his toe.  Not a wide cut, but probably about 1/2 an inch long, which looks massive on his tiny little foot!  

There was blood (probably not a lot, but it felt like it), and Jack was screaming, and I was terrified.  I called Ben, who couldn't hear anything except Jack wailing and me saying "Come home now!"  Then called 999 (the UK's 911).  The ambulance came right away (at home I wouldn't have even called one since I would have a car to take him to the ER myself, since it wasn't anywhere near life-threatening), but Stacy and Kaia fortuitously arrived before them, which really saved my sanity.  Jack has stopped crying and was just looking slightly sad after about 5 minutes, long before Stacy even arrived.  The medic was the largest man I think I've ever seen in my life, which was a bit surreal, but he was very gentle and said it wasn't anything to be that concerned about but that they could take us to the hospital if we wanted.  By then Ben had arrived home and we decided to go to the hospital just to have it looked at.  

By the time we got to the hospital, Jack was smiling and laughing and eating Cheerios.  While the doctor examined him, Jack was standing up, even putting weight on his injured foot.  No stitches necessary, just a little bit of tape and a bandage three times the size of his toe.  When we got home, he went straight to bed.  Throughout the entire ordeal he didn't even have any Tylenol!  What an amazingly resilient little boy we have.  I just wish my mommy guilt for letting him get hurt was as easily put aside...

A social baby

We joined two playgroups this week.  For the past 3 months I've been organizing playgroups for the KCWC, but we hadn't joined any of the groups yet since all of them are so far away.  Most of our friends (except Stacy and Kaia) live and both playgroups were held a 30 minute plus tube ride away.  I had hoped that I would feel more up to tackling that commute after Jack started sleeping through the night.  Guess we won't know that for a while.

At any rate, the babies seem nice enough, and I really like the other moms in both groups, which is the important part.  Until babies start having real interactive play (usually around 18 months) playgroups are for moms, not babies.  And I've been needing some adult interaction--the past three nights Ben has come home past 4 a.m.  One group is going to meet Tuesday afternoons and the other is Thursday mornings.  They have slightly different dynamics, as Tuesday's moms are slightly younger (though all still at least a few years older than me) and two moms in the Thursday group each have a toddler in addition to their baby.  But all of the women are amazingly worldwise and interesting.  One's from New Zealand, two are Brits married to Americans, one was born in Hong Kong, and the other two grew up within two hours' drive from me, bizarrely enough since we're 5,000 miles from home.

On a less sociable note, I promise you I didn't put him up to it, but today Jack met a baby whose parents are Republicans from Kansas, and Jack attacked him.  I mean multiple times, he started trying to crawl all over the poor little boy!  Well, not exactly little--the baby is two months older than Jack and probably near twice Jack's weight.  But still.  I've seen him like that a few times with Kaia, but never any other time.  So my query is whether this demonstrates Jack's a) loyalty to Mizzou, b) loyalty to the Democratic party, or c) pain from getting his top two teeth (finally!). 

It has me slightly concerned that Jack will attack the other boy at his birthday party in two weeks, thus following not-so-proudly in his mommy's footsteps.  Apparently I left Zach Knight with a few bite marks at his birthday party in preschool.  In my defense, he cornered Justin Glover and me and said he was a Hungry, Hungry Hippo and that he was going to eat us.  I ate first.

On Wednesday I took Jack to the NHS clinic to be weighed.  The news was not fabulous but not dire.  He's still only 16.5 pounds, which puts him in the bottom 1% of babies.  Everyone again kept assuring me that this isn't cause for alarm, but they want me to bring him back in two weeks to be weighed again.  He doesn't look really skinny, just small-boned, and he certainly has plenty of energy.  It's just really disheartening news in a week when I had been so excited because I felt like he was eating a ton.  The Health Visitor (like an RN) said if he keeps gaining weight this slowly, I might have to start adding mashed avocado (one of his favorites anyway) or cream to his food to try to bulk him up.  But that's still a ways away.  As it is, Jack has found several new foods he really likes.  I know I'll get groans and gags from the peanut gallery for this one, but Jack is particularly fond of pureed pears mixed with chopped green beans and tofu chunks.  Tonight in an early effort to add some weight to his frame, I gave Jack a few bites of pizza.  He was nonplussed but ate it.

Jack's weird new habit last week was making a lisping sputtering raspberry that sounds vaguely like Stan's retainer-wearing older sister on South Park.  Not the most glamorous of acts.  This week's weird new habit is sleeping sideways--his lays head to toe along the top of his crib rather than laying the long way.  It actually looks kind of cozy...

Ups and downs

The day after I last posted, after another really rough night, Ben and I decided to take a hard line on the sleep problem.  We resolved not to pick Jack up during the night so that he would get used to falling asleep in his own bed.  We didn't leave him to cry alone but instead stayed by him each time he woke up and patted him on the back until he went back to sleep.  I had looked at the Andrea Grace website again and realized that we were doing everything else she suggests there, so I figured we should try a little of that on our own.  No sense in paying $350 just to hear that we should be doing that, and it's not as if there's some magic solution that would make him sleep well immediately.  The first day of this new system both of his naps were preceded by a 45 minute struggle involving almost nonstop crying.  The first night he woke up at 3:30 (among other times) and couldn't fall asleep again until 5:30.  The next day wasn't much better, and I was starting to get really discouraged.  And I had an aching back--several hours a day of bending over Jack's crib wasn't pleasant for either of us.

I wouldn't say Jack's sleep problems are cured, but his nights are generally much better than before.  His sleeping is still somewhat unpredictable, so I fortunately haven't come to expect a lot of uninterrupted sleep.  That, I have found, can lead to feeling even more sleep deprived.

A few nights have been fantastic.  One night he woke up only twice in 10 hours!  He went to sleep at 8, woke up at 11:30, and then slept until 6, giving Ben and me 6 1/2 hours of uninterrupted snoozing.  Fantastic.  After an hour of trying to get him to go back to bed after that, we decided he was up for the day.  But I'll take an early wakeup call over several midnight ones any night.

So teaching Jack to sleep again was the all-consuming project of week before last, and last week's project was nursing Ben back to health after he caught a horrible stomach flu.  I have never seen Ben sicker, and he said he wasn't sure he'd ever felt sicker.  He stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday.  Unfortunately it was the kind of staying home sick that involves only sleeping and trying not to puke, not the fun kind of staying home sick where you read books and watch movies all day.  Somehow Jack and I managed to escape the worst of it, but we all had early bedtimes for a few days.

We have had time for a few new fun tricks in the past two weeks, though.  Jack is really into taking things out of containers.  He plays with his shape sorter toy that Nonna and Pops got him for Christmas a lot, although he hates having the lid on because he hasn't figured out how to put the shapes through it yet.  But his favorite thing to move around is clothes.  Jack now helps me unload the washer and dryer, and he frequently empties the hamper in both our room and his.  The washer and dryer help is 

He hasn't shown any interest in putting things in, just taking them out.

Another toy Nonna and Pops got Jack for Christmas has been a particular favorite the past few weeks.  It's a set of half-spheres that stack up, nest into one another, and click together to form wobbly balls.  We have spent hours and hours hiding toys under different pieces, forming balls of different sizes with different objects inside them, and practicing putting objects into the pieces when 

they're upside down.

Last Friday, as I predicted in the last post, Jack stood up by himself for the first really long time.  Stacy and Kaia were over for a playdate (Stacy has Fridays off, so we have taken to spending most of the day together), and Jack was crawling through his highchair after Kaia, when he stopped, turned, and looked at us, then let go and stood.  Stacy and I looked at him, at each other, and back again several times, and Jack must have stood there for 15 or 20 seconds before wobbling and dropping down on his bottom.  Quite impressive.  Since then he hasn't done another long stand, but he does several short ones daily.

Jack also loves the walker we got him for Christmas.  If I didn't offer him other toys and occasionally hide the walker from view, he would spend all day every day practicing on it.  (By the way, if anyone knows all the words to "The Farmer in the Dell," could you please send them to me?  All I remember is the basic first verse, the farmer takes a wife, and the cheese stands alone.  Everything else is out the window.  Since I hear it a good 20-30 times a day, it would be nice to have a little more to sing... )

As you can see, he concentrates really hard (see open mouth), seems to enjoy it a lot, and has gotten pretty fast.  I know, I know, he'll be walking before we know it.  Actually I really do think he'll be walking on his own by mid to late February.  He's already cruising around the room with only one hand on furniture like it's no big deal.  It's lots of fun, but sometimes I long for the days when sitting in his swing was his favorite form of "active" entertainment.  That took a lot less energy.  

A tally sheet

The good: Jack is doing some amazing new tricks.  He claps when you say, "clap, clap, clap."  He apparently recognizes the sign language motion for milk because when I did it the other day, he immediately spat out his binkie and slow-mo staggered toward my chest with arms outstretched while giggling in anticipation.  Walk while holding on to furniture ("cruising" in child development parlance) is really easy for him now, and he's starting to take risks by reaching across larger and larger divides.  And we spent half of the day today following each other through all the rooms of our flat today on all fours, which was great fun for both of us.

The bad: Jack awoke from his morning nap with a blister-like sore on the top of his lip, and I'm not quite sure where it came from or how to deal with it.  Sometime this afternoon he must have bumped his head, because he has a painful-looking bruise near his left temple.  The unnerving thing is that even though he had a few small falls today (as always with this daredevil, learning to walk baby), I don't really know how he got the bruise, because I didn't think he fell near a corner and I don't know what else could have given him such a small but intense bruise.  Oh, and Jack also now know how to stand in his highchair, so he's no longer safe alone in it for long enough for me to even cross the room--I have to be right beside him at all times.

The ugly: Last night I saw every hour of the clock except 3.  Yep, that's at least 11 wakes.  Andrea Grace is on speed dial. 

We had all settled in for a long Christmas break

So, yes, it's been forever since I've posted, but since we saw a bunch of you who read this since I've last posted, I thought it might be okay.  That is until Pops asked today whether or not I still even had a blog.  Point taken.  So tonight will be a quick update on Christmas and then I'm off to bed.

The night I last posted, Jack woke up about 

10 times in the first 4 hours of "sleep," so I brought him into bed with me.  He slept wonderfully the rest of the night, but I barely got a wink, and I was convinced that he would never be able to readjust to sleeping alone the next night.  That particular week it may have been just separation anxiety--he's at about the right age for that to happen, and he has had more than a few episodes of "only Mommy will do" in the past month.  But Jack surprised me with about a week of really amazing sleep starting the next night.  Then we disrupted his sleeping patte

rn again by traveling across six time zones, and he hasn't slept well since.

Christmas in both Houston and Warrensburg was wonderful.  Ben and I went out for a date while in Houston, and he gave me a gorgeous Christmas gift--a pair of diamond earrings that are fairly hefty, to say the least--which I haven't taken off since.  On Christmas day Jack saw several of his second cousins as about 30 of the Angelette/Ragland clan gathered at Grammy and Granddad's.  

In Missouri, we made a brief visit to Richmond and then headed back to Warrensburg where we pretended Christmas was on the 27th, which allowed us to go through our Christmas Eve ritual of opening new pajamas and to wake up all together on "Christmas" morning to open stockings and other presents.  

Jack is still the only grandchild on both sides, but our families are still noticeably growing as our siblings pair up and bring people home with them for Christmas.  Aunt Rachel and Chad are now engaged, which kind of adds a new level of meaning to having Chad around, even though he's been a fixture in our family for about five years.  We spent a little time talking wedding plans and Rachel tried her wedding dress on for the first time while we were there.  Tyler has been dating his girlfriend Rachael (yeah, she and my sister Rachel had a fun time messing with people by always sitting next to each other and constantly prompting the "which one?" question, but it's much easier in writing) for two years now, but this Christmas she was there the entire time we were, which was fantastic.  Plus she undeniably gets the award for best Christmas gift given this year.  She gave Tyler the game Rock Band, which Ben and I played with the two of them for at least six hours straight one day.  The first picture is of Ben singing along to it while holding Jack.  The other two pictures are from today, mostly because I haven't sorted through Christmas pictures yet, but also because Jack was wearing an adorable outfit that he got from Melanie and Ankur for Christmas and because he made impressively quick work of completely tearing apart a magazine this evening.  If only he had had as much enthusiasm for unwrapping presents. 

Unfortunately we missed out on seeing Uncle Stephen's new girlfriend Kelly who arrived in Houston just a few hours after we left.  But she sent along a great CD of funky nursery rhymes for Jack, and based on the stories

 Stephen told, I think I'm really going to like her.  

I also had some interesting hair high jinks over Christmas.  Unwisely, in retrospect, I scheduled an appointment for highlights at an Aveda salon in Houston that I found online and had no recommendation for.  Never again.  I said subtle beige highlights and a few lowlights; I ended up with fat gold chunks and no lowlights.  Although I've never done that before, I went back and asked for someone else to redo it.  I came out with tons of little platinum streaks added on to the gold chunks and still no noticeable lowlights.  We're talking seriously blonde here, and I'm not exactly a blonde.  Ben was convinced that if I did anything else to my hair, it would all fall out, and actually I was a little concerned myself, especially given that I'm already operating on less than my normal hair volume.  (One of the things no one ever tells you is that about 4 months after giving birth, hormone drops start causing most women to start losing massive amounts of hair.  As in clog the drain several times amounts of hair.  I was no exception and am now sporting a huge amount of 1 inch long baby hairs and significantly less volume in the rest of my hair.)  So I suffered through all our Christmas pictures without doing anything else to fix my bad dye job, but when we got back to London I just couldn't take it anymore.  An 8 GBP (Great British Pound) bottle of semi-permanent L'Oreal and I'm now sans stripes and with a color a few shades darker than natural and only slightly off what I wanted.  Much better.  And so far my hair hasn't all fallen out yet.  Now if only I could fix all those Christmas pictures.

Preview of the week to come: I'm pretty sure Jack will be standing on his own for significant chunks of time by the end of the week, as today alone he did several 3-4 second stands.  We'll be trying out a few new foods including more meat and a little dairy as I'm starting to worry that Jack might not be getting enough protein.  And on Wednesday we're going to the NHS health clinic to have Jack weighed.  I expect a significant increase over his last weigh-in of 15 pounds, as on the way to church this morning I could barely carry our little chubbler baby!  Along those lines, also hopefully more workouts for me.