Pumpkin Patch

A week ago Monday the family went out to the pumpkin patch.  Alyce had the most fun but Luke wasn't left out.  He seemed to enjoy the fall weather and all the pumpkins he could reach.

He's Rolling

Luke has turned into quite the roller.  Starting a week and a half ago Luke was starting to flip from his front to his back consistently.  Fast forward to last week and he now has a mode of transportation, the baby roll.  Luke will move across the room not by crawling but by rolling over and over again.  Moving in such a way he can easily move in one dimension (left and right) but is still hampered and moving forward and backward.  Given enough time he can roll and kick enough to switch directions but he usually gets bored, tired, or angry before he completes his three point turn.

Just yesterday he was rolling into the kitchen and onto the hard tile.  Because his rolls aren't perfect his head still bumps the floor on occasion.  However, he didn't seem to mind and enjoyed looking at the light fixtures on the ceiling.  Mom's lunch yesterday was also interrupted by having to repeatedly reposition Luke because he would roll himself into a corner.

Luke is also making inroads to learning out to crawl.  He has the right idea but the execution is all wrong.  While laying on his belly he will pick up both his hands and feet and thrash them about while resting on his chest and belly.  A turtle on its back would be a good visual reference.  He is trying hard but not getting anywhere.  Alyce is doing her best to help teach him how to crawl.  She will crawl on the floor while Luke is watching her as an  example on how to do it.  Alyce is doing this at our request and seems more than willing to help.

I guess it is time for Mom and I to start baby proofing for small pieces again.  I've forgotten what it is like with babies trying to eat everything.

A Bonding Moment

Yesterday I had a nice bonding moment with Luke. I took the day off to work on my ongoing retaining wall project.  Mom, Luke, and I went to Culver's for lunch without Alyce because she was in school.  Luke had been asleep for most of the morning and upon reaching the restaurant he was awake and in a good mood.  Mom and I ate our lunch in peace and quiet while Luke sat in his seat happy as a can be.  After I was finished I picked Luke up out of his seat and plopped him on my lap.  While on my lap Luke was having a great time.  He grabbed the paper my burger came in and was shaking, crinkling, and tried to eat it.  Luke was squealing with delight at me, mom, and all the people around us.  It was a great time and I was sad that I had to go and get back to work on my project.


I usually don't get that much time alone with Luke because Alyce is always wanting my attention.  Alyce isn't jealous of the attention I give to Luke and the time I spend with the two is probably 50/50.  The problem is that my time with Luke involves keeping him alive (feeding, changing, bathing) rather than being able to enjoy him.  Throw on that he goes to bed two hours after I get home and the last hour he is pretty cranky I don't get tons of quality time with him.

First Haircut

Last Tuesday Luke had his first haircut.  It was a long time in coming.  When he was first born he had a full head of hair.  Mom and I thought that Luke would be like his sister and all of his newborn hair would fall out and be bald for a few months.  Some of his hair did fall out and he wore a patch in the back of his head when we started turning his head but the majority of it stayed in.  What was left was very thin on the sides and thick and long in the middle.  Once his hair started growing that middle patched started to look like a comb over.

Luke's haircut wasn't very traumatic but it wasn't very easy either.  Luke was sitting in Mom's lap while the stylist did her best to cut Luke's hair and not Luke.  Luke didn't cry but he was very interested in what she was doing.  Luke would turn and look whenever the scissors were outside his field of view.

When finished Luke's hair in my opinion looks much better.  I would have preferred something shorter and spikier but I'll have to wait until his hair gets some body to it before that style is possible.

6 Month Update

As mentioned yesterday on Luke's sister's blog www.alycesworld.me the kids of the family had their checkups at the doctors office.  Luke's checkup went fairly well.  He endured all of the poking and prodding of the doctor without out making too much of a fuss.  By the time the doctor finally came in he was well past his nap time so anything less of a meltdown would have been considered a good trip.  Luke's dimensions still exceed statistical limits but the 100th percentile is catching up to him.  If he were to continue his weight gain trend from now to 9 months he would weight roughly 26 lbs.  This would put him in the 95th percentile in weight for children that age.  I think his earlier weight gain was a statistical anomaly and that like his sister he will soon be within normal bounds.

• Height: 28 inches is the 95th percentile
  
• Weight: 23 lbs 10 oz is greater than the 100th percentile
  
• Head: 44.5 cm is the 75th percentile

Developmentally he is right on track for where he should be.  Luke is starting to roll over, sit up when supported, and is able to pass items from one hand to another.  The doc said that we could start introducing more foods to him including fruits and vegetables to with a new one being added every few days.

The only complication to the checkup is that the doctor noticed some wheezing in Luke's lower lungs.  This is due to the cold that he has for the past two weeks.  Eventually his body will clear out the infection and get rid of the junk down below but until that point we have to give Luke some Albuterol treatments.  Albuterol is a drug that most Asthma patients use to dilate their bronchial tubes during an Asthma attack.  The same properties would be helpful for Luke to open up his lower lungs and help move the infection out.  The procedure to get him this medication is time consuming.  We have to take the substance that is a liquid, put it in a machine, the machine vaporizes it, and Luke breathes in the vapors.  The treatment takes about 20 minutes in which we have to keep this tube in front of Luke's nose and mouth.  Kind of hard with a 6 month old.

Luke needed a few injections with the checkup including the seasonal flu vaccine.  He didn't complain too much about the injections and afterward he fell asleep on the way out to the car.

Update:  I forgot to comment on one item.  We asked the doctor about Luke's night terrors and she carried the same opinion that Luke was having a night terror. She also confirmed our course of action which is to go in and check on him, but not to wake him up and let his mind get through to the next stage in his sleep cycle on its own..

Night Terrors

Last night something really scary happened with Luke; Mom and I think he had a night terror.  About an hour after we put Luke to bed he pierced the quiet of the house with a blood curdling scream.  I was two floors away in the basement and I could hear him.  Mom immediately looked in on him as this wasn't his normal I'm awake and unhappy cry.  Luke's eyes were closed, he wasn't making tears, his body was trembling, and he was screaming at the top of his lungs.  Mom came down to get me and the both of us consoled him and when that didn't work we even tried to wake him up.  I picked Luke up and walked him around the room and that made it worse.  We had an idea that Luke was having a night terror and that the only thing we could do for him would be to let him work his way out of it; so we put him back into his crib, told him we loved him, and left the room.  About 45 minutes later Luke's cries finally subsided and he drifted back off into peaceful sleep.  Thinking about the past this isn't the first time it has happened. 

A week or so ago he had the same sort of behavior but upon picking him up he let loose with a loud burp and we thought we had found the culprit.  It still took him a while for his cries to subside and for Luke to go back to sleep so the symptoms seemed the same but less severe in comparison.

A night terror, sleep terror, or pavor nocturnus is a sleep disruption similar to a nightmare however a terror occurs later in the sleep cycle when making the transition from REM sleep to non REM sleep.  Unlike nightmares (which occur during REM sleep), a night terror is not technically a dream, but more like a sudden reaction of fear that happens during the transition from one sleep phase to another (KidsHealth.org).  The following are symptoms of a night terror.

• Screaming
• Thrashing
• Not aware of their surroundings
  
• Unable to talk to, comfort, or fully awaken the child
• Sweating, breathing fast, fast heart rate, and dilated pupils.

The cause of night terrors is an over-arousal of the central nervous system (CNS) during sleep. This may happen because the CNS (which regulates sleep and waking brain activity) is still maturing. Some kids may inherit a tendency for this over-arousal — about 80% who have night terrors have a family member who also experienced them or sleepwalking (a similar type of sleep disturbance) (KidsHealth.org).  While a night terror is dramatic and alarming for the parents they aren't the symptom of another deeper underlying issue; just something that will have to be endured until it is grown out of.  The lone bright spot with these as compared to a nightmare is that the person having the terror will have no recollection of the event ever taking place.

If Luke wasn't going to have a checkup this coming Wednesday Mom and I would be taking him to the doctor to make sure our diagnosis was correct.  Once we hear from the doctor about what this is / could be I think Mom and I will be less panicked if / when we have a repeat of last night.

Rolling Over on Video

This weekend Mom got a video of Luke rolling over.  Since the taking of this video Luke has turned into rolling over machine.  The problem is that he doesn't know how to get back onto his back.  This morning at 6:30 we heard a cry coming from Luke's room.  Checking on him he was flipped on his tummy, stuck, and none too happy about it.  Rolling him back over he cheered up and went back to sleep.  Later today Luke would roll over onto his stomach, get angry, and mom would roll him back over, then a few minutes later he would be back on stomach again.  I think Luke is proud of his new found movement and wants to try it as much as he can even though it is on a one way street.

Rolling Over For Real

Today Luke officially rolled over.  A few weeks ago Luke rolled over in his Pack N Play from his front to his back but he had some help by pushing off the sides of the crib.  Today he rolled over from his back to his tummy all by himself.

This morning Mom put Luke on the floor on top of his activity mat while she went into the kitchen to have some breakfast.  After a while she heard Luke making a fuss.  Mom went in to investigate and found Luke laying on his tummy, unable to turn back over, and getting ticked off about it.

Later in the day Mom tried to get a video for a repeat of the big event but Luke must have been shy and wouldn't complete the maneuver.  Now that he is partially mobile there isn't any more laying him on the bed or couch unattended.

First Solid Food

Last night during dinner Luke had his first taste of solid food.  We have been wanting to try for a while now but finally had the time and opportunity to do it yesterday.  Before we tried to feed Luke we all ate our dinner.  We like to bring Luke into the kitchen with us but normally he only lasts a few minutes in his feeding table.  To keep him entertained we let him play with a childhood favorite toy, the paper bag.  He was really quite taken with the bag and even managed to get his arm inside.  Even though he tried Luke didn't have a whole lot of luck eating the bag instead he just managed to drool on it.

His first solid food experience wasn't really all that excited.  Mom is a bit out of practice though.  She managed to spill dried rice cereal all over the floor.  Mom did manage to get a few spoonfuls of food into his mouth and I think he even managed to swallow some of it.  More than anything he kept smacking his lips and moving his tongue around his mouth.  I'm guess it is a new experience for him and he really didn't know what to do with it.  After a while either he got full or bored he didn't want anything more to do with food.  Luke would close his mouth and turn his head when Mom brought up another bite to eat.

Balloon Race

On Saturday the family went to the balloon race.  This is the second year in a row and technically it is Luke's second trip too.  Last time we were there Luke had a view of Mom's belly.  This time he got to see what it was like on the outside.

Luke was a little angel during our trip to the race.  He only complained once and that was because we were taking our time getting to feeding him.  While there he was his usual social self.  He would smile for anyone who would take the time to make eye contact with him and smile back.  Mom even got some video.

He is Getting Cuter

As Luke gets older he is getting cuter.  Maybe he is finally growing into this weight or his glowing personality is clouding my judgement.  One of the best things about Luke and the age he is is that he is so happy to see me.  I can walk into the room after work and I am greeted to the worlds biggest smile and he starts to kick his legs back and forth.  It makes me happy to know that he likes me enough to miss me and be happy with my return even if I was only gone for 5 minutes.