Bun-In-My-Oven: July 2009

Okay, I said that I would refrain from calling him fat and use the more accurate, "healthy." But I couldn't resist one last time. We're going to a baby swimming party today and I'm quite excited. He loves water, takes showers with me and doesn't get freaked out by being splashed in the face, so I think he's going to have an excellent time.

This is his first time in a pool. I got him some Huggies swim diapers a couple of weeks ago, so he's set. Me, not as much. Just found my swimsuits 2 days ago and seeing myself in them suggests that I might need to go shop for something stronger! Not back to pre-baby fighting shape, but today's not about me. So I'll just wrap it all up and keep it moving! Hopefully we'll get pictures from the pool without destroying our camera!

Myles is now 4 months old! He's such a big boy now. He has a sense of humor and little games that he plays with you. There is the laughing game where he laughs at you through his nose, with his mouth wide open and he does it, you repeat it, he does it again, you repeat it and then he escalates it by breaking into squeals! Very funny. He has favorite toys, preferences and is just such a little tiny person now instead of just being a warm, cute lump.

I had a band rehearsal at our house yesterday for a gig I'm doing this weekend and he slept through the first 40 minutes or so, then sat there happily on my lap for the next couple of hours. He was particularly entranced by the guitarist. At some point, another singer got up and sang, then played harmonica, standing up in front of Myles, and yet he couldn't be distracted from the guitarist. We joked that maybe that's his instrument of choice. But if you've ever seen video of him in his kicker with his keys, he looks like a manic drummer. A regular Virgil Donati, double bass drumming it and doing a shaker in a different time signature, simultaneously.

He had his 4 month doctor visit and vaccinations today. The doctor, usually quite stoic and blasé, was taken by how personable and happy he is. He tried to engage her in the laughing game and flirted in his usual way and won her over. She initially asked, "he's a happy baby, huh," but after poking and prodding and pushing and he was STILL smiling and happy, she repeated, "he is really a good baby." A statement rather than a question, which for her (dry lady) is the equivalent of turning a cartwheel. I just smiled proudly as said, "yep, that's my boy."

That's how we knew he was having an extra issue with the reflux and milk protein intolerance (they call it MSPI - milk soy protein intolerance). His nature is sunny, so when he's crying it's just not much like him. Some babies are a little crotchety and a tear or two wouldn't be a red flag. But this boy is sunshine, so when he's not, you'd better pay attention. I guess it's just colic, but I'm convinced that most colic is just some type of food allergy that wasn't caught, and eventually gets grown out of as the baby's gut matures. Myles isn't lactose intolerant - that's permanent. He's just protein intolerant and he will someday grow out of that - hopefully soon so that mama can have a bowl of ice cream or some cheese! If you think I was upset about giving up soft and unpasteurized cheese during my pregnancy, imagine finding out I can't eat ANY cheese at all until Myles can handle it. So far, I try something out every now and then. He MIGHT be able to stand semi-sweet and dark chocolate now. I had 2 Mrs. Field's cookies on 2 different occasions that didn't seem to set him off, but some milk chocolate cocoa (made w/rice milk) made him go on a crying jag. I'll try some cheese at month 4 1/2 or 5, on some day when Mark and I have the luxury of withstanding an hour-long screaming fit. I dare not try it on a weeknight!

It's so funny, when you look back on pictures of him from the first month, he was a different baby. Sort of frowned up. I showed Mark a picture and he said, "who's that? That's not our baby." But it was. That goodness for mother's intuition and Google. I would've never known what was up otherwise. Well, also Aunt Carolyn helped a lot by pointing me in the right direction by showing me the difference between a pain cry and a normal hungry/wet diaper cry. It woud've taken me another month on my own to catch that clue. I would've thought, "babies cry" and just accepted all of that hollering as a fact of life. I probably would've joined in on the crying with him at some point, had we not stopped the cycle.

Well, now he's healthy and thriving. 17" head, 26.5" long and 17lbs! He's in the 87th percentile for height and the 78th percentile for weight - up from being a great 50th percentile at his 3 month checkup. He's growing like gangbusters and he's exclusively breastfed - well, except for the bottle or 2 Mark gives him on Sunday's when I'm teaching if I don't pump ahead. It's time to think about starting him on cereal and I'm conflicted. A lot of new research suggests to put it off a long as possible - meaning as close to 6 months as possible. Yeah, I know we all ate rice cereal WAY earlier, but that was 30 years ago and we didn't have any numbers to prove or disprove anything. Now the research suggests what should have been common sense anyhow: breast milk is best. Don't rush them off the boob if you don't have to, don't force them to grow up too quickly just because you hope they'll sleep through the night, etc.

The truth is probably that your genes determine food allergies anyhow. When you feed them what is only triggering what's going to happen anyhow. Which then goes to say that really it's just your choice or your baby's. So far, he's not very interested in our food, he's not crying out of hunger, I'm not running out of milk, so why rush him. We'll be spilling cereal on the floor for the dogs to lap up and doing more laundry soon enough, I think I'll just enjoy these last couple of weeks before he signals to me that he wants to do yet another big boy thing. He's a good communicator - he lets us know lots of stuff. He let us know when he needed teething toys and that he was ready for a jumper. He'll start grabbing at my food soon enough.

Here he is, being such a sweet, patient boy on the pediatrician's table, and charming our nurse.

Last week, I was watching the Michael Jackson funeral and was surprised to see my friend/bandmate from the Polnareff tour, Judith Hill, singing lead on a couple of MJ songs. For a second, it felt bad being out of the loop of the working singers, and then I looked down at my angel and thought, is there really anyplace I'd rather be than here, now? And as he gurgled, my heart said, "heck no!" I'm still singing here and there, but he's growing so quickly right now that I don't want to miss a thing.