Comma Dot Comma

I’m feeling some anxiety tonight as I type because I gave Abigail some wheat puffs with her dinner. We decided to test wheat again. She hasn’t had any exposure to wheat since she was four months old, and her reaction to it then was one of the milder ones– it took over a week for blood to appear in her stool, and in the meantime she didn’t have much trouble eating. Because she is theoretically outgrowing all of her protein intolerances, her gastrointestinal doc gave me the go-ahead to re-test wheat and oats. I have these little white cards he gave me that change to blue when exposed to blood, so after a week of wheat, I’ll start swiping the cards and see what we get. It would be nice to have a little more flexibility with the grains in her diet, since right now all she gets is rice, but I have this nagging fear that it is too soon and I will only harm her once again. On the other hand, she has been able to eat without trouble almost every single food she has tried so far, which gives me confidence that she is better able to handle a variety of foods now than she was when she was much younger (in baby time anyway) and breastfeeding. After she had eaten a whole pile of wheat puffs I belatedly decided that it would have been better to wait another week, since she just got her appetite back after being sick last week. I kind of wanted her to fatten back up a bit first. But now she has the wheat traveling through her system so we might as well stick it out and see how it goes.

I couldn’t be more proud of my little Abi. She’s weathered the traveling like a pro. She peacefully endured a 2+ hr drive from Eugene to Portland on Friday, a return trip on Saturday, 2 hrs in the airport followed by a 2 hr flight on Sunday, and a one hour drive home. She actually slept in the car and on the plane for most of the journeying– will wonders never cease! It was so much fun to watch her get reacquainted with our house this afternoon. She crawled from room to room and emptied out her toy drawers, but most of her energy was spent seeing if she could still pull herself up on all the furniture she used to pull herself up on. She could, and she could cruise along it, something new! Exciting! She got a little frustrated trying to shut the door of an armoire because her head was in the way. It didn’t feel that good to keep squeezing her own head, but golly, did she want that door closed! I helped her out.

I’m selfishly glad to have Abi to myself again, but I wish that others could see more of the sunny, chatty girl that I do. She still clams up around people she doesn’t know well and gets clingy and impatient. At the party on Saturday, she was sweet but didn’t feel like hanging out with anyone, least of all the charming young one-year-old son of a college friend who busied himself with exploring every nook and cranny of the house. When he would yell with glee, she would burst into tears. Ah, well, we are all most comfortable in our own domains among those we trust most, are we not?

Abigail stood without support for the first time today. For much of the day she’d been doing these full body flops, letting go of a table or couch and leaning toward someone’s waiting arms, as if she hoped just leaning far enough would turn into walking. But then, after a little gnawing on the TV remote and a little cat chasing over at Auntie Marie’s house, she pulled herself up on Dr. G, who wasn’t paying much attention at the moment. I saw her lift one arm away from his body and inch the other one slowly off as well. “Watch it!” I said to Dr. G, expecting another body flop. Abi had one hand waving in the air and then put the second one up. Her two little arms roved around above her head during a few seconds of unassisted wide-stance wobbling, then she toppled into her beloved Dada’s lap. She surfaced with a proud smile, clapping for herself as we oohed and aahed her accomplishment. Not bad for a little girl who still has only her sick-baby appetite, eating less than half her usual amounts for a week straight. Girls who can stand up for themselves need to eat!

At last! The fever seems to have gone, we hope for good. After a cranky morning, Abigail spent much of the afternoon bustling around sticking her nose into everybody’s business, just like old times. She developed a faint rash here and there on her torso, back, neck, and one leg, so we’re thinking maybe it was roseola. Whatever it was, we wish it good riddance.

Around the same time that Abigail was recovering, we had a lovely block of sunshine to enjoy between storms. So we took her up the trail behind the house. Dr. G’s childhood home is in a wonderful location, nestled up against a forested butte with a creek running down the hill and through a field next to the house. There is also a playground for young children and a running path. We passed the developed area and headed up the muddy path to the butte, and as soon as Abigail got under the trees she acquired the expression Dr. G has dubbed The Sponge. She got very still and quiet, concentrating intently on her surroundings. She titled her head back to look up at the mossy tree branches and then followed the path of a robin leaping from puddle to puddle in front of us. She craned her head for as long as she could see a dog (there were several out on the path with their owners) and quickly discovered that it is fun to tickle mama’s face with a proffered piece of long grass. She pointed down at the creekbed a few feet below us, but the banks were too slick to approach. We just stood for awhile to watch the water thread its way around the rocks. It felt good for all of us to get out of the house and smell that clean, green air. It felt like God pushing the “reset” button for us.

The mighty internets have convinced Auntie Marie that Abigail has roseola. I guess the next day or so will reveal whether she is right. I hope we get past this fever soon. On Saturday Abi is due for another big meet-and-greet with some of our old friends and their babies, and I’ve been really looking forward to it and would hate to cancel.

Abi has a new word, thanks to her Auntie Marie and the local felines: cat, which she pronounces “Dot,” having yet to master the hard c sound. She loves to say it because her cat-loving aunt reacts so enthusiatically when she does. She also worked up the courage this morning to crawl after the grandparents’ cat, Gizmo. The two have been interested in but diffident toward each other so far. Gizmo is mostly outside so they don’t have many opportunities to get to know each other. Once in awhile Abi will very carefully reach out and touch the cat on the paw or the head, then whisk her hand away and grin. She does the same game with her grandfather, who is sort of mysterious to her still.

She is also quite proud of her new skill at cruising along coffee tables and other pieces of furniture. She methodically inches down the length of the table, examining each item in reach and throwing it on the floor before taking a few more steps and examining a new bunch of stuff. If there is a section of newspaper, she will open it up and shake it out so she can throw each page down individually. That is, she does all these things during the few windows of time that she feels up to it. Then she gets tired and lays down on the carpet for awhile or begs to be picked up. In her lethargy she will sometimes just chill on the couch with me for whole stretches of time– 15 or 20 minutes, even, reading books and resting and playing with whatever objects are in reach. It’s nice. I wish she would do that once in awhile when she is well.

Abigail seems to be getting used to life with a high fever, regaining her normal curiosity and some of her good cheer despite feeling bad. We do our best to keep it at 101 or so with tylenol or ibuprofen. The urgent care doctor ruled out anything serious, and told us to allow five days for the mysterious fever to run its course. In the meantime, Abigail has firmly adopted sleeping in the bed with us. Last night she slept better than ever despite a spike in her temp, but wanted to be snuggled up against me the entire night. HOT. But that was still better than last night, when she spent a few hours sleeping horizontally and fussed whenever I tried to adjust her. When we try to put her into her pack and play, she immediately starts crawling around and crying. When we put her on the bed, she immediately relaxes and closes her eyes. If we were at home and she were well, it would be more of a “you sleep where we tell you to sleep” situation. Here, I went to bed at 8 pm last night to keep her from rolling out of the bed. Abigail kept rearing up every 20 minutes to check if I was there, until about 9:30. I laid down with her at naptime, too, and got to witness her babble in her sleep. She completely sat up from a dead sleep, said a string of syllables, and laid back down with her eyes closed for another half hour. She also does a bulldozer move if she can’t get comfortable, crawling with her head still down on the mattress and her eyes still closed, until she comes up against a barrier and settles against it. Restless baby girl!

Yesterday Abigail made her grand debut among Dr. G’s extended family. Her grandmother threw a big party and invited everyone over to meet her, not too difficult a task when most uncles, aunts, and cousins live within a few hours of the town where Dr. G. grew up. Abigail was showing signs of sleepiness as the first guests arrived around noon, pretty early for her. She buried her face in my chest and closed her eyes at each introduction. But she perked up enough to meet everyone, even the stragglers, before going down for a nap. We had to wake her after an hour and fifteen minutes to spend some more time with her family before they had to depart. she was a hit, making everyone laugh when she insisted on seeing each photo immediately after it was taken and impressing them with her standing-up skills and baby babble. I felt bad about the truncated nap then but even worse last night, when she woke with a fever around 102 and did not settle again for the rest of the night. She would not sleep in her crib and woke every hour or two, sobbing, even after we gave her tylenol. She spent most of the wee hours either on our chests or scrunched between us in the full-sized guest bed.

Today was more of the same– a high fever that the tylenol only sort of combatted. The only thing that felt good to Abigail was being held by me or Dr. G, so we swapped shifts, with Grandma and Auntie Marie coming in as relief baby-soothers now and again. She would sleep only on my chest (and once on grandma’s), so I got three little sitting-up naps. It is easy to drift off with a little 19-lb furnace on you. Tonight Dr. G and I made plans to take her to the doctor in the morning and go in shifts holding her through the night, but on my first shift she started trembling with the chills; perhaps the fever is breaking. I got her to lay down in her bed, where she remains, more or less peaceful, two hours later, and when Dr. G checked on her he said she seemed cooler. So maybe the worst is past. It was just too sad to feel her hot little body trembling in my arms and know there was nothing I could do about it. If she hadn’t ended her boycott of the pack n play, I’d probably be crying my eyes out right now instead of typing. I feel bad for sick babies, especially mine.

Abigail had a pretty good second day in Oregon after a really rough night that involved vomiting, three hours of unhappy wakefulness, and a few more brief-wakeups. Her grandmother did a wonderful job of preparing for the visit– steam cleaning the carpets, converting a very full storage room to a guest room, and stocking the house with intriguing toys, among other things. One of Abi’s very favorite things about her new location, though, is the number of photos of herself in books, propped on tables, and framed on the walls. She especially appreciates being carried past the computer desk, where a new giant photo of herself flashes up every few seconds. To add to the glory, her Auntie Marie is a photography hobbyist with a very nice camera. Marie shows Abi each shot after she takes it. See her most recent pics of the wee one here:
flickr.com

A surefire way to distract Abigail from the fussies is to show her photos and videos of herself. When she watches a video of herself babbling and pounding the table, she copies herself as best as she is able, grinning the whole time. Ah, my sweet little narcissist! She loves her face as much as the rest of us do.

Abigail took her first plane flight today. We woke her up around 6 am and bundled her into the carseat to catch a budget commuter flight to Oregon. An airport gate is probably one of the few areas where people are sad to see babies, even cute ones. People lean over to try and glimpse the row number on your boarding pass to calculate how far away they will be sitting.

But Abigail was a champion flier. Granted, she did clamber from my lap to her dad’s and back about every 30 seconds for the whole two-and-a-half hour flight. She also strategically dropped her toys onto the floor to see if I would put her down to get them. I did that once or twice, and had to scramble to catch her before she made a break for it. One of her favorite activities was climbing up my chest to peer at the people behind us. They were so pleased to see that little head rise over the seat to smile and chat with them.

Of course she didn’t sleep a wink, and shrieked a few minutes during the descent because her ears hurt, but all in all it went well. All the relieved people in the seats around us congratulated us on having such a good baby. We had Abi aids (key: freeze-dried strawberries) crammed in both seat backs and all around us on the chairs and were thus nearly the last people off the plane. But we stepped into that 47 degree air with Abi’s lovely Auntie Marie who had come to pick us up, and were glad to be in Oregon.

It appears that I’ve been too cautious in seasoning Abigail’s food. She loves dill, is indifferent to cinnamon or ginger, and that’s all she’s tried so far. I’ve been hesitant to break out the big guns of garlic, onions, and hot peppers because I have to be so careful about her digestion. But after today, I’m thinking we should at least try a few things. Right off this morning, Abigail found a piece of raw garlic on the kitchen floor and ate it. She successfully dodged me every time I tried to reach into her mouth to retrieve it, and seemed sad when it was all eaten. Then, this afternoon as she was splashing in her baby pool in the backyard, she spotted a hot pepper on the lawn within reach. I had pulled it off a nearby bush recently. It isn’t a particularly spicy variety, and it dries out as it ripens, so I decided to let her bite it. She promptly did so, getting a tiny piece into her mouth. She has learned that I will take bite-sized things out of her hands and squirrel them away out of sight; she has countered by becoming quite speedy at getting at least a taste first. Her eyebrows went up a bit as she felt the heat of the pepper. Her eyes started to water but she kept doggedly chewing, staring at me and blinking. She pointed at me as she finished, wanting me to come in for a hug, I think. I gave her a wet rag to suck while she recovered a bit. Then darned if she didn’t go for another bite! I thought not and took the pepper away, as is my wont. But maybe she’ll get to try another soon.