Things to Remember

We've had such a busy month and a half. I thought I'd make a quick list of things that I'd like to remember. Time is flying and I lay awake at night hoping that I won't forget when these milestones took place with Alex. Funny, I could just write them down and they'd be out of my subconscious. But, go figure, I'd rather keep them all in my head and worry about it.

Here goes:

January 25, 2006: First attempt at sleep training. Alex was up for 2 hours in the night, but after he settled down, it worked like a charm. He slept through the night for a week. Until....

February 1, 2006: Our friends from Toronto arrive. We headed up to the mountains to ski. Alex even did great with sleep at the condo. But their little girl Emily (and basically every child in Colorado) was sick. Originally it looked like just a cold and bad cough, but little did we know.

February 2, 2006: Alex's first time in the skiing daycare. He did great and we had good reports from the staff at Vail. As we were leaving to head back to the condo, we were rear-ended on I-70. The mini-van must have been going at least 50 mph. We were dead stopped because of an accident about 1/2 mile in front of us. He slammed into us, dragged up the side of our car and pushed us into the guardrail. Our car was completely totaled. Thank goodness for seatbelts, carseats and guardrails. We were VERY shaken but uninjured. I was an emotional basketcase for several days.

February 3, 2006: We get home. (Just an aside...shortly after Alex started crawling in December, he started pulling up on things and crusing around furniture and down the length of the couch quite a bit.)

February 4 (11 p.m.): The sickness sets in. Turns out Emily (and lots of kids at the Vail daycare) had more than just a cold. Alex starts vomiting at 11 p.m. He threw up off and on for five hours.

The next two weeks: We fought off everything. Vomiting, cold, cough, sniffles, no appetite, recurring vomiting. We finally thought that we had him well, but he would lay in his crib at night and moan. Kevin convinced me to take him to the doctor. Sure enough, he had an ear infection. Amazing what a little amoxicillin and some ear drops will cure. He was back to his usual self in 48 hours.

Throughout all of this, Alex had been getting up several times in the night. Nursing seemed to be the only thing that would help him (accept during the ear infection when he wanted nothing to do with nursing.) He got a little spoiled with all of the extra attention, so sleeping through the night went right out the window.

February 21, 2006: Sleep training (round 2). Worked like a charm. He was up for 2 hours again. He settled down and started sleeping through the night again.

February 23-26: Kevin and I took a trip to the west side of the state for a little skiing. Alex stayed with my parents. He was feeling great and sleeping perfectly. He ate a ton. I think he gained a whole pound over the four days that he was with my parents. He started walking behind a walker that they had at their house. This thing looks like a very short shopping cart. It's counterbalanced so that he doesn't fall while walking behind it. It scared me to death the first time I saw him do it. But now, he's any old pro.

February 27, 2006: My parents had the plague while Alex was staying there. We thought they were over it before we dropped him off, but I guess the germs were sticking around. He comes down with a terrible cough. He has a cold relapse during that week and I finally took him to the doctor on Friday thinking that he had another ear infection. All symptoms were the same. No ear infection, just a cold that lasted into the next week.

March 7, 2006: Alex is over the cold and the cough. Thankfully!!!

With the second bout of sickness, he started weaning himself. He wasn't interested in nursing. Then when he started again, he was nursing once or twice a day. Usually he would only nurse if he woke up in the middle of the night. I know, I know...you thought we had the sleep thing fixed. Which leads me to...

March 9: Sleep training (round 3). Ha! It wasn't even sleep training. I just didn't get up when he started mumbling. I kept saying, "Okay, I'm going to give him ten minutes and then go in." Before the end of the ten minutes, he was back asleep and so was I. We had one night of 3-4 of these wakng episodes and he's been sleeping through ever since.

Alex started actively pointing at things while he was staying at my parents. It just picked up speed from there. Not only was he pointing at things, but I started asking him, "Alex, where's the light, table, dog, etc." He was recognizing words and pointing in response.

March 13, 2006: The last time that Alex nursed was at 2:30 a.m. on this day. We didn't know that he would be finished, but he just decided that it made sense in his mind. We kept him on formula for 3 or 4 days and then started him on whole milk. He's made the transition well, but he's not much of a drinker. He has no problem downing 10 oz. of water in a day, but I have to force feed the milk. Sometimes we're lucky enough to get 12 oz. in him. But that's on a good day.

March 15: I started my period again. Not that anyone cares except me, but I thought it might be something that I would wonder about in the future. So there it is!

March 17: Alex took two unassisted steps on two separate occassions. We're calling this the beginning of walking. Although it wasn't much, it's definitely the beginning of the movements. (He's been standing unassisted for quite a while - maybe a month and a half, so we knew that walking was coming any day.)

March 18: Today is the day that Alex learned to put shapes into the little shape box. You know the one. It has eight different shape openings on the top. They match the shape to the opening and it falls into the box. He's only consistent with the circle, but we've been working on this for awhile.

March 20: I went down the street to teach graphic design classes to a friend. While I was there, Kevin called and said that Alex was doing laps around the living room unassisted. He WALKS! Life as we know it will never be the same!