Last week Isaac developed conjunctivitis and to keep Mama on her toes he also contracted a nasty respiratory infection called Bronchiolitis. To allay his misery from these ailments, I am tasked with medicating (a.k.a. torturing) my child. How to treat the yellow gooey matter oozing from behind his red eyes? Take a small metal tube of antibacterial ointment and simply squeeze the long metal applicator into the lower lids of the eyes. What the instructions don’t tell you is that the baby will thrash his head violently from side to side and cry hysterically making this task nearly impossible. And how do we treat bronchial inflammation that makes a child cough so incessantly that he vomits and is breathless? A nebulizer that uses Albuterol. Once again the instructions are a how-to for an adult … attach piece A to piece B… place mask over nose and mouth… There is no disclaimer that a baby will cry uncontrollably for the duration of the treatment and you therefore won’t be able to tell the difference in breathing post treatment. Or, that he will struggle with you to pull off the mask or hose attachments and thrash about as if you are suffocating him. Were these medications actually tested on infants (I admit to not having read the 1 point font)? And if so, why aren’t there instructions for infant use? Why aren’t common medical devices and procedures specifically made or developed for infant use? This can’t be an untapped area, can it? I’m not just feeling blue now but for some reason I’m also feeling blood red.
About a month ago Isaac began leaning forward when in a reclined position in his car seat or bouncer. He wasn’t reaching for anything per se but was simply trying to sit up. Propping pillows behind him for support, he eventually ends up slumped to one side or sliding all the way down until he is supine. Now when he sits supported in the Boppy or in my lap, he reaches out for objects of interest but hasn’t figured out that the effect of reaching too far means that his body gets stuck between his legs as he can’t easily do the reverse. Recently Isaac has been sitting unassisted (with Mama, Daddy, or pillows close by) for short periods of time.
Around the same time Isaac was exploring how to make his spine work, he was also discovering his tongue. Occasionally he likes to take his tongue on a spin outside his own mouth. In the pictures below I’m not sure if he’s discovered his lips or if he’s airing out his tongue:
Seems like Isaac has finally gotten over most of his illness. We had one cold after another there for a while, which was really screwing up his eating and sleeping. But now he seems to be back to sleeping through the night. And we’ve really ramped up on the solid foods. So far Mr. J. likes carrots, tolerates peas, and is indifferent to bananas. Here we are working the peas:
This weekend was pretty tasty weather, but Blossom and I are both still feeling a little punky so we just hung about the house. We got out for a few errands, and played with Isaac whenever he was awake. I spent some time showing him some moves.
Now that was a mellow vacation. Not much happening at all. We were all felled by colds, and motivation was low to actually leave the house. So we spent the holidays making pizza, watching movies, and lying down a lot. I did manage to shoot a couple of movies with Mr. J.
Last Friday Blossom went off to her office holiday party, and I was left in charge of Mr. J. It’s not often that I am running the show by myself, so I was a little nervous about taking care of him. But we made out all right.
Last weekend Brian and I had badly butchered Isaac’s long, thin hair in an attempt to trim it. To rectify this situation, I had planned to take Isaac later that day for a professional cut. Instead, Brian and I had lunch with our friends Mike and Debbie. On the menu was chicken soup, a non-traditional spinach and feta quiche, and latkes. Ahhh, I was so content to a) avoid thinking about cooking, b) not eat my cooking, or c) delay the thirty minute drive to Framingham for yet another Issac errand.
Mike and Debbie have two young kids and Mike has been the family barber to them for about eight years now. Uncle Mike graciously snipped Isaac’s do so that Brian and I no longer will suffer the embarrassment and shame of that first awful haircut. Mike and Deb, thanks so much for the trim and latkes!!!
All videos on this site were hosted with Brightcove. Alas, they are discontinuing their personal video service to focus on their commercial platform. So I am in the process of moving all my videos over to Vimeo. They limit the number of bytes you can upload per week, so it may take me a bit of time to get everything transfered over. Apologies for the hiatus.
Well that was fun. I left work today at 2:30, about an hour after it started snowing. A mere three hours later I got home. Let’s see, my commute is 12.5 miles, so I averaged about 4 miles an hour. The best part was when my wipers got so clogged with snow they quit working, and I drove the last third of the way unable to see anything. But at 4 miles an hour, that isn’t very risky. Pardon me, I’m off for my 2nd cocktail.
Plague has struck the house of Jamieson! Isaac is still going to daycare two days a week, and daycare is still a cesspit of diseased munchkins. Friday Mr. J. was getting fussy and sounding pretty stuffy, and by the end of the day he had become Mr. Sunffles. Poor little guy had trouble sleeping, and Blossom was up several times with him. Then on Saturday she started to get sick too. I remain the sole paragon of health, thanks to frequent infusions of vitamin C and gin.
The worst part is that Isaac has a cough, and a couple of times he has started coughing right after a bottle and lost his moo all over Blossom. Then he gets hungry again and fusses. Today has been a little better — he got a long nap in this afternoon. We’ll see how he does tonight, but it looks like we are in for a long week.
