At Ellie’s 4 month checkup, she already weighed 16 pounds, 7 ounces, and was 26 inches tall! That’s a little under the 90th percentile in weight, and a little over the 90th in length. Since she was also sitting up (with support) and showing a keen interest in food, her pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to start solid foods. We tried our rice cereal, bananas, and squash. She was a little confused, but started to get the hang of it after a few tries.
This month, Ellie also found her voice – and used it, loudly. Squeals, giggles, and a funny noise that we like to call her “teradactyl cry.” She’d even talk in her sleep sometimes. And while she still worked on learning to sit up, her favorite new activity was learning to stand. No matter where we were, or how fussy or hungry she was, just standing on our laps cheered her up and made her smile. Right away she learned to stand up holding only our hands, or supported only at the waist.
Walks with Mama became new and exciting, both because of the cold weather and because of some new carriers we tried out. We bought a “mei tai” that Ellie seems to enjoy, and borrowed a Beco that allows her to face outward. They say that facing inward is much better for little babies’ spines, but Ellie likes to see what’s going on. When she does face inward, she often cranes her neck around and rolls her eyes as far to the side as they’ll go, in an effort to see what’s ahead.
This month we were lucky to have more family visitors: Aunt Steph, Uncle Willie, and cousins Sienna & Eden all came up from Fort Worth to spend a few days getting to know Ellie – while we got to know Eden! Both babies are nearly the same age, but such different personalities already. Eden was definitely the more mellow of the two, but the Hunters also helped Melissa learn how to encourage that sort of happy independence in Ellie – leaving her to entertain herself once in a while, and not assuming that every cry was hunger. Together, we went to the Boston Harbor Islands and explored the city on foot and using mass transit. After all, we couldn’t fit 4 adults and 3 little ones in the car!
After the Hunters left, we had our biggest scare yet. Late one night, with no warning, Ellie started vomiting. Steve saw it on the monitor and ran in to flip her over and help her cough it out. Then she just kept vomiting and we had to take her to the ER at Children's. She was so dehydrated and limp. They gave her an IV and some anti-nausea medicine, and those made her feel a lot better. But they also ran a lot of tests to see what was wrong, and whether she needed surgery - and each of those tests was torture for her and for us. We were there all night, not allowed to feed her in case she was heading to emergency surgery, and forcing her through an Xray, an ultrasound, and something involving a barium drink. It was sad to see how much she loved drinking the barium because she was so hungry, and that she slept through the ultrasound out of exhaustion. She was so brave and strong! As soon as she started feeling better, she took great interest in the IV attached to her hand, and seemed to think it was a fun new toy we had put there for her enjoyment.
Two days later, we knew Ellie’s illness had been a stomach bug – because Melissa came down with it, and also needed rehydration via IV. Steve took ill as well, but not so violently. At the close of the month, we began exploring new childcare options so that Ellie wouldn’t have to get sick so often, and bring so many germs home with her – and so she could have more personal attention than a daycare is able to provide.
No comments:
Post a Comment