Poor Micah

Well, as it turns out, Micah had a rough night last night after the giggling episodes. I went to get him up at 2:00 AM since he was crying and he was burning up. I took his temp and it was 102.5 - poor baby! I gave him some Tylenol right away and brought him down to our room. He was totally exhausted and at least seemed comforted to be cuddled on Mommy's chest. After getting him into some lighter clothes, I laid him down in our bed between us and we rubbed his back until he fell asleep. This was actually the first time he's been in bed with us! He was so out of it that he didn't even know where he was anyway. He slept soundly after that until about 9:00 this morning. He was burning up again when he got up (103.5 this time) but as soon as we got some Motrin in him, he was doing a lot better. As long as we kept him playing with doors (his latest obsession) and on the stairs while he was awake, he did pretty well. You could tell, though, that he was just really having a tough day. It's so hard to see your baby feeling so miserable! We're praying that after a good night's sleep (we hope) tonight that he'll be doing much better tomorrow.

Nighttime giggling

We are at my parents' house for Christmas right now and are really enjoying the family time with my siblings and Micah's cousin, Kate. Micah has been having a tough time adjusting to sleeping here, and our guess is because he's in a Pack N Play instead of a crib. It's been a long time since he's slept anywhere but his crib, so we figure that maybe it's just taking him a few days to get used to it. He had a very difficult, crabby day today. We think it's teething pain that's giving him grief since his two top molars are still breaking through the gums little by little. Normally we keep him on Tylenol for the pain, but tonight we decided we'd try the Infant Motrin since we'd heard it was a little stronger.

So we got him all ready for bed and gave him the Motrin, then put him down. He went down after fussing a few minutes (which was a great improvement over the last few nights) so we were thrilled with that. It's about 11:30 PM right now, and at about 11:00 we heard Micah talking over the monitor. Shortly after the talking started, we were hearing giggles out of his room! We have never heard this happen before. He kept giggling for at least 10 minutes upstairs, and we still have no idea why. Finally I got slightly worried that maybe he was reacting to the Motrin, or that he maybe had a high fever and was hallucinating or something! Steve and I decided to go up and check on him to make sure everything was okay.

Steve first stuck his head in the room and Micah was lying down in the Pack N Play, still giggling. He hadn't gotten into anything, and nothing looked strange, so we were assured that he was okay. He finally noticed that Steve was in the room and stood up in the crib, so we both went to him. He smiled and acted normal, though his nose sounded a bit stuffy. He didn't feel warm, so at least we could stop worrying about a fever! We said goodnight to him and left the room, and that was that. It's all been so weird...we still don't know why it happened! But it sure was funny to hear him giggling away over the monitor for no reason at all. :) Silly boy!

Micah is really walking!

He's been taking a few steps here and there for the last couple weeks, but just yesterday he started really walking around the house! It has been so exciting to see him take so many steps in a row and for him to grow in his confidence at this new task. He still prefers to crawl or push around his car toy to move around the house, but if he's already standing up and you call him to come to you, he'll usually do it! Here's a video from today:


What a joy to watch our little boy grow and accomplish new things!

16 week OB visit

I had my 16 week appointment today! All is well with the baby (my Dr. said I was textbook!) and with me. I think I'm definitely feeling the energy burst of the second trimester. I don't feel so tired all the time and don't need to nap during Micah's nap anymore. :) This baby continues to create challenges for the poor nurses who try to find his or her heartbeat! Just like last time, the nurse tried for over 5 minutes to find it, but never did. She said she heard a ton of movement, but had no luck. So once again they squeezed me in for a quick ultrasound. Woo hoo! She said the baby was in a crazy position in there (butt facing outward, and legs all the way stretched over the head), so she said she wasn't surprised the nurse had a hard time. I asked if this was likely to continue, and she said it was just a fluke...that as the baby and my uterus continue to grow that it will change. Our next visit is the BIG ULTRASOUND anyway! January 10th will be the big day when we hopefully find out if it's a boy or a girl. :) Can't wait!

Here is my 16 week belly shot:
And here's one of Micah because he's just so cute (he's 14 months old today!!!):
I'm also posting a link to our Thanksgiving pictures in Denver over on the right side of the blog.

Growth Spurt?

I think Micah must have had a growth spurt recently. All of a sudden his 18 month clothes are too small! More specifically, it's the onesies. It looks like he's wearing 3/4 length sleeve shirts! And they are pulled pretty tight to snap them at the crotch. I suppose it's been happening over a period of time (he's been in 18 month size since mid summer), but it really seems to me like it just now happened out of nowhere! So I've been shopping for 24 month onesies and pants lately. Wouldn't you know, they're hard to find?! I think it's because many of the winter clothes are on clearance now, so they're picked over. I know I could look at 2T size too, but I think his body type is more of a 24 month (bigger in the middle and not as tall). He does still fit many of his 18 month pants, but most of the shirts and onesies are being rotated out. I can't believe how big he's getting! His next doctor checkup is in a month, so I guess I'll have to wait until then to see what he weighs and measures. That seems like forever!

Tooth brushing

We recently decided it was time to start brushing Micah's teeth, so we've been doing it this week during bath time. We both assumed that Micah would hate it, which is probably why we waited this long to do it! You can imagine our surprise to find that he LOVES having his teeth brushed! He giggles as it tickles his gums and willingly opens his mouth over and over again for us to stick the toothbrush in. :) What a funny boy!

Also on the tooth front, Steve just told me that he can see Micah's third molar (in the space of a week or two) coming in on the top! I can't believe how many teeth he's getting right now! This is his fourth in two or three weeks. This happened before with him, so I guess he's the kind of kid that just gets his teeth in spurts. I have to say, though, that he's handling the teething much better this time around. (It's probably been about four months since his last tooth came in, so that was quite a break!) Praise the Lord!

Micah's getting so smart

Each day over the past couple weeks we feel like Micah's really growing in the vocabulary he's understanding. He knows many household words now and can point to the object if we say, "Where's the clock?" He says "doh" and points to a door (but he also uses "doh" for other things), he routinely says "uh oh" when he drops his cup or bath toy, he's said "boh" when pointing to Haley's food and water bowls, and he calls Haley "Didididididi" (we call her DeeDee). Just last night he did his first real baby sign! We haven't really worked with him on baby signs, but do "all done" from time to time after a meal in his high chair. Well, last night after his dinner we said "Micah, are you all done?" and he started waving his arms vigorously in the "all done" sign! We were so surprised! It's been so fun to watch him learn and to see this explosion of word understanding lately. :)

Feeling the baby kicking!

Over the past three days or so (but even a couple times before that), I'm almost positive I've been feeling the baby kicking! I'll be 14 weeks tomorrow, which seems a bit early, but I've heard that you feel it sooner the second time around because you know what it feels like. If I remember correctly, I started feeling Micah moving around 17 weeks. So that's pretty much a whole month earlier this time! It's so fun to feel it again - that was definitely one of the most special parts of pregnancy for me the first time around. I'm still just overjoyed to get to do this again - what an amazing privilege the Lord has blessed me with!

Playing at the pool

This morning Micah and I joined some playgroup friends at a local kids' pool. (Indoor of course...it's so stinkin' cold here today!) Micah hasn't ever been to a pool before, so I wasn't sure how he'd like it. We went to a sprinkler park over the summer, which he didn't enjoy much, but he was really too young. We just haven't had the opportunity to go to a pool since. So I decided to pack up and go, figuring we could always leave if it was a disaster. But he loved it! I took my time getting him into the water slowly, which went well. The water was 1 foot deep or less, so that was nice. They had a small little slide that I let him go down the last foot of, some fountains that bubbled up, and a water table type thing that they could play at. The hardest part for him was that he wanted to crawl around, but the bottom of the pool was really rough, so he'd put his knee down, then lift it up like, "Mom, why does it hurt to crawl?" He liked the bubbling fountains (though he was scared of them at first) and stuck his hands in them. There was a section of the pool that was 3 feet deep, so at one point I got in with him and held him in the deeper water. He did so great! He seemed to really love the water - bouncing around in it with me. So overall I'd say this morning was a success! I had so much fun with my sweet little boy today. :) He's totally konked out now...another benefit to some good AM playtime!

Micah's first steps!!!

I am so excited to write this post! Micah has now taken his first few tentative steps! I was in the kitchen cooking his oatmeal for breakfast and he was pushing his cart around as usual. He had pushed it just out of reach, so he was standing on his own for a few seconds just looking at the cart...then he took two steps to get to it! I couldn't believe my eyes! Steve just happened to be taking Haley outside at that moment, so he didn't get to see it. But I told him about it when he got back in, and then it was time to get him in his high chair for breakfast. Micah was holding onto the kitchen cabinet at that point, so Steve held out his arms and told him to come to him, and he took a couple more small steps to Steve! He was starving at that point, so we had to wait until after breakfast to try any more. :) Hopefully I'll catch it on video later today so I can post it! I'm so proud of my little boy!!!