Urology update, playgrounds and the ghetto zoo

Tuesday was our 3 year wedding anniversary. We had an adult evening out, going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then stopping at Red Mango and just sitting around and chatting as we had a few hours baby-free for the evening.

Earlier in the day I had to run a few errands and decided to take Jay to Sapora Playworld which is the big local indoor playground area in the same building as the indoor ice rink. They have a baby area with a smaller set of play tubes as well as some squishy mats the kids can play, crawl and climb on too. I thought it might be fun for him and my mom pointed out last week that he should probably spend some time interacting with other kids and babies as he's mostly around adults.

Well, he was a little freaked out and stayed glued to me the whole time.

I tried to sit him down on one of the squishy block mats and he cried so I sat on one and held him on my lap til he got comfortable with the setting and then I sat him down on the mat next to me, with him clinging one fist to my shirt. There were a few other smaller kids there - one little girl came right up by him and he though she was funny. A few 6 year old girls came over and were fussing over him, but kept inquiring why he wasn't crawling if he could do it and why he wasn't playing - why was he just sitting there, watching? My response that it was his 1st time there and he was just taking it all in and that he didn't want to crawl right then didn't seem to satisfy them, lol... I tried to get him to climb/crawl on one of the squishy mats up to the next one but he freaked out instead.

We spent a half hour there though, so maybe if we make it a regular thing he'll get more comfortable and start playing. Under 11 months is free and then it's $1 til he's a little older, but they also do half price Tuesday.

He had another night terror Tuesday night. I was tired and so was he so we both went to bed a little early, however he woke me up at 230am, shrieking. I jumped out of bed to check on him, picked him up, and sure enough, he was having one, eyes clenched shut and no sign of snapping out of it. It lasted a few minutes, however he didn't seem to be able to get comfortable in his crib, freaking out when I laid him back down, so he snuggled in bed with me for a bit til he was sound asleep again. I hate these. He hasn't had one in awhile so I guess we were overdue for one =(

Wednesday night Jay learned how his bottle nipple works and that if there's milk in it, then it probably isn't a good idea to squeeze it with his hands or flick it - while playing with the bottle nipple instead of drinking he sprayed milk all over his face, the couch and my mom's leg, lol... he startled himself too, as he didn't realize what he had done right away - it was pretty funny!

Thursday we got up early and drove up to Madison for his urology appointment with the pediatric urology specialist up there and also had an ultrasound so they could see how it's doing.

Nothing new really - they said his left kidney is slightly more dilated than before, but not much and that it was nothing to worry about at this point. He said he'll probably have us do another check-up around his 1st birthday, then come back for another one 6 months later and then at around 2 years old we'll start discussing doing the surgery. Unfortunately, we're not sure yet if we'll be seeing this specialist again yet - he told us he's transferring in the next few months to the children's hospital in Milwaukee to be the pediatric urology chairman there. He invited us to come see him there, but I'll have to check with our insurance to see if they'll let us go there. He also referred us to his associate there in Madison, whom he had us make an appointment with for next time in case we decide to stay there, and he also gave me the names of the specialists at the children's hospital in Chicago that he would recommend if we chose to go there.

Jay was amusing during his ultrasound - the tech needed to check both his kidneys and his bladder to make sure there was nothing new and while checking his right kidney she needed me to roll him on his side, facing away from her. Well... him being curious like he is, he kept wanting to roll back over to see what she was doing and check out the ultrasound monitor, lol... he laughed when she rolled the wand over his bladder area so I'm guessing he's a little ticklish there (he's also ticklish in his armpits and on his sides - both mommy and daddy's ticklish spots! lol...). She let him stay on his back for his left kidney but then he noticed the other ultrasound wands within reach and their cords and started grabbing for those! lol... He freaked out during the visit with the specialist when he picked him up to check him out, but was fine 2 seconds later when mommy took him! Silly baby!

They weighed him too - he's now 18lbs even! Yay! My baby's gained 1lb and 1oz in a month!

We stopped at the infamous Ella's Deli for lunch before heading back to town. My parents used to take me there when I was little as there's soooo much stuff to look at, including all sorts of things moving around above your head, a little train on a track that goes all around the restaurant, a working carousel just outside and lots of other fun stuff! Jay seemed to enjoy it - he was starring and looking around at everything. They're also known for their ice cream desserts so I ordered a small dish of mint chocolate chip and let Jay eat some of it after he had his lunch - he still likes it! (we had let him have some at the fair last month).

It was a tiring day and we spent the late afternoon out at the mall with my mom and sister, getting stuff for her and holiday clothes for Jay since that stuff sells fast at work!

Today I had my annual gyno exam and since I didn't bring Jay with me to my 6wk follow-up, I brought him with this time so they could all see him. They all fussed over him and he ate it up.

We had to run a few errands too, one of which was getting kitty food at Petco (we buy the Hills Science Diet stuff and the only places that seem to sell it are Petco and Petsmart) so I took Jay with and we walked around looking at all the animals and fishies. A friend on Facebook referred to it as the "ghetto zoo" which is quite funny, but true! Jay was once again fascinated by all the fish, as well as the ferrets and guinea pigs too this time! The turtles were mostly sleeping, as were the birds, hamsters/gerbils and cats. We didn't see that many people walking doggies with them this time either. He still enjoyed it though!

Night Terrors and Teeth

As I mentioned previously, we believe Jay is teething and has been for almost a month or so now - it's been quite the adventure!

I wanted to hold off on the Baby Orajel until we had some idea where the tooth was coming in at rather than rubbing it all over his entire gums and making his whole mouth numb. We've been lucky that up until this point he's only been drooling like a faucet rather than the vomit or diarrhea or fever I've read some babies get when teething. Well, that dang tooth better be coming in soon as today he's constant diarrhea! It hasn't been much each time but I've changed his diaper more today than ever before - usually he only has 1 decent-sized poopy diaper a day, today there's been some liquidy diarrhea in almost each one! I've been changing it right away too as it smells rancid and sounds like a mini-explosion in his diaper when in fact it's actually not that much. I hope this doesn't continue the rest of the time he's teething - we'll be going through diapers like crazy!

Poor guy though, he's not too fond of teething rings yet, only sucking on them for a minute or 2 before it hurts. And I've tried Baby Orajel the past 2 nights... last night it seemed to help, but tonight, the second I got my finger in his mouth to rub it on the area where we think the tooth is coming in (the front top right) he started sucking on my finger thinking I was giving him some food to taste. Needless to say, he didn't like what he tasted on my finger! We're dealing but I wish this tooth would come in already, I hate seeing him in pain like this - the only comfort that seems to work is snuggles and letting him suck on his fist or burpie cloth or bib.

Because of the teething though he's gained a great interest in people's mouths and teeth! His latest thing is staring at your mouth and teeth and then sticking his hand in there to check out the teeth as he seems to realize he doesn't have them but everyone else does. Tonight he gripped onto my teeth and tried pulling them out, lol...

He's flipped over a few more times - hubby got him to do it a few times tonight, so daddy's finally seen him do it, and I got him to do it for me again last week. Seems like he's getting the hang of it and right on track for his milestones.

He ate most of his bowl of rice cereal today with little fuss than usual, which is a relief! I'm hoping the doctor says we can start him on actual solid foods at his 4 month check-up on the 8th. I think he'd take to that better as the rice cereal is probably pretty bland with not much taste. He seems fine eating from a spoon though. I figure we'll start him on sweet potatoes, then the mashed peas, carrots, etc before introducing the fruit as my mom said once you do fruit they'll prefer the sweetness of it over the veggies.

Another thing I thought I'd mention that I need to remember to ask the doctor about is night terrors.

Jay's had least 4 episodes that I can recall now since he was born and he's just under 4 months old. He'll be sleeping and all of a sudden he'll just start shrieking, like he's trapped in a nightmare. I try to hold him and rock him and comfort him and call his name, telling him to open his eyes and that mommy's here, but it takes a good few minutes before he snaps out of it and then he's fine. One occurrence was when my mom was watching him at the house while we were getting all moved in - freaked her out a bit.

Curious, I did some research and came across the Night Terrors Resource Center page, run by a guy who also suffers from them and decided to do his own research on the condition (for over 20 years) to help others.

There's some interesting stuff.

He does say though that it can occur in babies even at birth, contrary to some belief. They say most times the sufferer doesn't even know they had an episode until someone tells them and it usually occurs about 45 minutes into the sleep cycle. They'll "wake up" startled, screaming or crying, no idea where they are or what's going on. It can last roughly 5 minutes on average but sometimes longer and no matter what you do to console them it doesn't make a difference until they snap out of it on their own. In children they say the best thing to do is just comfort them as much as you can; if they wake up the next morning and have no recollection of the episode, don't tell them about it as it'll likely just scare them.

He also says it's possible it is genetic, which if that's true, in Jay's case it makes me wonder as there has been a handful of times where hubby "wakes up" in the middle of the night, sweating, breathing hard, frantic and scared, unsure of what's happening. He usually goes back to sleep in a matter of minutes but it has creeped me out a few times. I recall his dad telling me he'd occasionally have episodes like that when he was really little, claiming to see a demon or something in his room. Another thing with the night terrors is that sometimes people do think they see a person in the room with them that isn't actually there. If hubby has the occasional night terror, it's possible that's what that could have been when he was young.

It's definitely interesting and worth checking into more! I hate it when it happens though, as Jay's usually asleep in my arms, it's usually been about 45 minutes and he just shrieks for a good few minutes until he actually wakes up and is perfectly fine like nothing just happened.