This month DD finally figured out crawling. Once she did, she crawled swiftly and professionally. She even crawled to chase a puppy! She also quickly moved to the next milestone: pulling herself up to a standing position from sitting.

Unfortunately her one-week sickness slowed her down and also sliced her weight to 25 percentile in her age group. Under our care, DD was back to normal by the end of this month. Gradually she regained her energy and strength and returned to be an energizer bunny. 

Week 36: This week Grandma brought home 12 Valentine balloons and gave us one. DD was so excited playing with the balloon. She wanted to hold the balloon, but it easily slipped her fingers and floated away. She figured it out to pull the string alternatively with both hands and drag the balloon down. Once she pulled down the balloon, she held the knot for a better grid. We recorded everything on the camcorder and enjoyed the fun as well.

We took her to a local supermarket this week. I showed her around the store and pointed to her vegetables, fruits, meats, bread, cookies, ice-cream, and other foods. She was amazed by the variety of colors and shapes and squealed excitedly whenever I showed her a new item.

This week she also reached one milestone of development: crawling. She crawled two steps on the bed. Then suddenly she burst into laughing. She must think “A-ha, I know how to do it now!” in her mind. M rushed to get the camcorder. He wanted to record this historical moment. But after we set everything up, she just lied on the bed, giggling and laughing. We tried all kinds of tricks to let her crawl. She just flipped, laughed and had a good time.

The next night I put DD on one end of the floor and placed her favorite thing—telephone—on the other end. This time the incentive worked. She crawled swiftly, like she had been crawling for years, towards the telephone and grabbed it. Then I put her back to the corner, she crawled back to get the telephone. We repeated the whole process three times. She was full of energy and finished each trip steadily and quickly.

Then Grandma came to visit. We put the newly-bought inflation tub on the floor. As soon she saw it, she wanted it. She crawled towards it. Just when we wondered what she was going to the next, she pushed the edge of the tub and dived into it! And just when M said “now what are you going to do? Can you get out of it?” She pushed the edge of the tub and dived out!!

But the fun didn’t end yet. Saturday morning Grandma and I went to visit our neighbor whose granddaughter just turned three months. Our neighbor’s cute little puppy came to greet us and sat in front of me, looking at DD friendly.

I put DD onto the floor. She crawled professionally towards the puppy and grabbed the dog’s tail. Poor puppy! She probably never experienced this kind of treatment. She immediately ran away and never came back. I picked DD up and held her on my lap. It might not be fun for the puppy, but everybody laughed or smiled.

Week 37: DD started a new word this week. She liked to say “dai” of all kinds: a-dai, e-dai, u-dai, and dai-dai. Is she a Japanese baby? She also liked to say “nein”, which means “no” in German. Possibly she is a German baby too? En?!    

After she passed the milestone of crawling, she quickly shot for the next one. She tried to pull herself to a standing position from sitting. Now she could sit up by herself without any problem. She could also stand by holding on to the couch.

Headache arrived after she became mobile. Wherever she decided to go, she was moving, without paying attention to the surroundings. She bumped her head on everything. I worried she might hurt herself by bumping her head against hard furniture. So I put pillows around the activity area. The pillows didn’t stop her, but at least they provided some cushion.  

Week 38: Monday night DD took a nap at 7:00 pm. She didn’t wake up at 9:00 pm as she usually did, but slept until 1:30 am. Then she wanted to eat and play. I stayed up with her until 3:30 am. She woke up 7:00 am Tuesday morning.

We had a weird weather this week. It snowed heavily on last weekend. When it was Wednesday, it was close to 70F. Since Wednesday, DD began to have running nose.   Thursday night she woke up three times. Each time I breastfed her and she went right back to sleep. She felt warm. At that time I didn’t relate all these symptoms to sickness, since she stayed so healthy after birth.

Friday she was quiet and lethargic whole day. She also took an extended long nap in the afternoon. When M came back home, she was lying on her play yard, sucking her fingers. “This is unusual.” M said. He toughed her forehead and it felt hot. He went to get thermometer and measured her temperature. It was around 100F.

At night, she still felt hot. M suggested dressing her with light, loose cotton clothes. She became more and more fussy. Whenever she woke up at night, she cried loudly. M and I got up several times at night and took her temperature frequently. Saturday morning she still felt hot on her forehead. And we noticed there was some redness below her right ear. It also felt hard like a lump. We took her to see the pediatrician right away.    

To our surprise, the doctor said the hard lump under her ear was caused by infection, and of course she caught a cold. I felt very bad for not taking actions earlier. Fortunately, she was still in the early stage of the infection and she didn’t get flu. The doctor prescribed an oral antibiotic for her and asked us to watch her closely.

 

Week 39: DD was sick through this whole week. She had running nose, sneezed a lot, coughed frequently; ran a fever of 100.5F or higher, and choked or vomited because of the excessive dry cough. She ate less, slept more, and was more irritable and fussy.

She kept howling, weeping or whining. She preferred to lean her head on my shoulder and fall into sleep. A lot times I held her and sat with her this way for hours.

She lost interest in solid foods during her sickness. So I cut them off and only fed her with breast milk. M and I took turns to check her temperature frequently. We paid extra attention whenever her temperature went up to 102F. When her temperature jumped up, we gave her a small doze of infant Tylenol designed for young children.

We also took her into the steamed-up bathroom and let her breathe in the warm steam for five minutes, and then we gave her a lukewarm bath to help her relax and go to sleep.

We spaced the medication once every eight hours. She didn’t like the taste of the antibiotic. Each time we had to use a little force to get her take it. Because she had a sore throat when she was sucking, she began to reject my nipples. So I pumped and fed her with expressed milk via bottles. She also didn’t feel like eating from the bottle.    

Thursday we returned to see the doctor for her 9-month check up. She lost half a pound within 6 days and her weight dropped to 25 percentile of her age group. Since she was sick, we postponed her vaccine shots.

By Saturday, she began to recover. Her fever broke. She began to accept nipple and gradually started to eat solids. But she kept her bad habit of crying loudly whenever she woke up.

 Related posts:
Baby’s growth, month 8
Baby’s growth, month 7
Baby’s growth, month 6
Baby’s growth, month 5
Baby’s growth, month 4
Baby’s growth, month 3
Baby’s growth, month 2
Baby’s growth, month 1

Tags: Baby's Growth | Baby's Growth, First Year, From Lina | Lina | April 3, 2009 3:40 pm | Comments (0)