9 month checkup

Wow, it is hard to believe that it has been over 9 months already. In some ways the time has flown and in some ways it seems like yesterday that we were in Argentina and laying in a HOT hospital room. Manuk has changed so much in the past 9 months, I don't really even realise it until I see picture from when he was born and WOW. Betty, you aren't going to believe it. Manuk is very excited for you to come (and I'm sure you are as well, lol) we are counting the days.
Manuk had his 9 month checkup today, no shots which is nice, but a check up. He is 77.5 cm's long and weighs 10.9 kg's. He is a big boy but in the normal range of big. My friend Adam was saying the other day that he has no idea how big babies are supposed to be, he said, in his mind, a newborn and a one year old are about the same size (typical guy statement) so he was asking if Manus was big, my responce . . He is a big healthy boy, not "has his own TLC special" big but a big but in the normal range size.
Jacko and I are loving to watch Manuk grow and decover new things. He is crawling like crazy, always wanting to play music, wanting to climb stairs, wanting to be whereever you are. He is all around fun.

Manuk and his cold

Well, this has been a tough past week. Manuk started with a cough on Wednesday of last week and I took him in on Thursday just to get it checked. The doctor said that it was probably a cold and just to give him lots of fluids and rest. Well, y yesterday Manuk had been getting progressivly worse (his cough) so I took him back. The doctor listened to his chest and said that he couldn't hear anything but he wanted to send him for a chest X-ray just to be sure. Well, I took him for the X-ray, which was very tramaic for both of us. They had to strap him into this plexi gass tube sanding up with him arms above his head so that he woldn't move during the x-rays. He was screaming, Inwas trying not to cry but in the endn (after a few minutes that seemed like a few hours) they had their shots. Well, today we got a call from the doctor that there is a bit of a dense spot on the x-ray that could either be caused byt he cold or someting else, so we are headin back on Friday morning to get him checked again. Manuk has his good moments and his bad ones, but you can tell he really isn't feeling very well, poor little guy, and mommy is feeling tired and a little house bound. We were going to go to a mommy and me group at a friends church tomorrow morning, which was going to be a nice outing but I dont't think we are going to go now until we know if it is just a cold and weither it is contagious or not. On a brighter note, my friend Shannon and I are going to go ot a movie tomrorow night, which I am so looking forward to. It has been a long time since I have been out with Shannon without a Manuk in tow. It will be a good few hours.

First time crawling on grass

Well, today Manuk and I went to the park to have a picnic. We had a great time. I realised today that this is Mauks first spring/summer even though he is 9 months old. We left Argentina in the very beginning of spring and came here in fall so this is his first time crawling around in grass, eating leaves and grass and his first picnic at the park. We went with good friends of our, Lee and her daughter Illyanna. Illyanna is almost 3 and loves to play with "baby Manuk". Here are a few shots of us in Assiniboine park.

New hat, and first time eating avacado

Well, we went out today and Mnauk got a new hat. It is so nice out that we had to get a hat for our walks. Here are a few pics of Mauk in his new hat and his first time eating, and loving, avacado

New things

I didn't mean to post that last one, in other news, Manuk climbed a stair yesterday. He can't walk yet but crawled over to our stairs and made it up one. We are now going to have to get a gate for the bottom of the stairs as well. Manuk and I have been out for a few walks as well, now that the weather is beautiful and the sidewalks clear, it makes walks a lot nicer.
I will take a picture to post for everyone

Awesome nights

Well, I am not going to report anymore on our nights as they have been really good. We hve had uninterupted sleep for a few days in a row now and I am even getting Manuk down for at least one nap a day which wasn't happening before. Life is grand.

Day 6 - we're spoiled, really

Manuk had another awesome night. In fact he is still asleep. I got up to get some work done. We went out last night so Manuk did not get down at his usualy time. I was worried about that and Jacko or I were going to change our plans but decided not to and see how things went. I took Manuk and went to a crazy womens only clothing auction. My friend Vikki gets clothes donated for weeks and weeks (she does this every year) and then one night has a clothing auction. All items start at $0.25 and you bid on them from there. I spent a total of $4.75 and got a bad full of things. It was a lot of fun. We then went to our friends birthday party to pick up Jacko and didn't get home until midnight. We had a good night and put Manuk down and he was fine. Jacko and I had an amazing sleep in our new bed. How wonderful a new matress is. And, how wonderful that we are getting uninterupted sleep. I am waking up on my own after 8 solid hours and getting to come down and start working. I'm loving it. Also (for those of you who don't live in Winnipeg) it is getting so nice here. The weather is beautiful, going in to the double digits today and tomorrow, yippee!!!

Day 5 - another great night

Well, night 5 was even beter than the previous nights. I was a little worried because we had company over that night and I was worried that the extra noise downstairs would throw things off, but NO. Manuk slept all night without even waking up for us to put his soother back in. Jacko and I both got 8 hours of uninterupted sleep. WOW!!! It was pretty awesome. Manuk also went down for a nap in he morning (11:30) and then we went for a long walk in the afternoon and he fell asleep on the walk. All in all, a good day of sleeping.

Day 4 - Awesome night

Well, I don't know if it has kicked in yet that when Manuk is in bed and his music is on that it is bedtime, or if he was just super tired after the night before but we had such a good night last night. Manuk went down at 10 and scied for maybe 5 minutes tops and then he was asleep. He woke up twice in the night but only for enough time to pop the soother back in and he was back alseep. Jacko and I are feeling great today after having such a good night sleep and Manuk was very happy this morning when I went in to get him and praised him on a job well done.
We are having company over for dinner tonight so hopefully that doesn't throw things off but we are thinking possitivly and hoping for another good night. Even if we don't sleep tonight, we get our new matress tomorrow during the day so we know we will have a good sleep tomorrow night. Yippee!!!!! I will report tomorrow as to how it goes.
Thanks for everyones prayers and support in this. This is one of the hard parts of being a mommy and it means a lot that everyone is thinking of us.

Day 3 - back to square one

Well, last night was terrible. Manuk went down OK at 9:45 but for some reason I had insomnia and couldn't fall asleep until 1 am. This woldn't have been too bad except that at 2:30 Manuk woke up hysterical and screaming. I went in and put his soother in, rubbed his back, told him I loved him, sang our bedtime song and left again. 5 minutes later while he was still screaming, I went in again, repeat. 10 minutes, o in again, repeat, 15 minutes (this is what you're supposed to be doing right, 5 minutes longer each time?!?). I stay in little longer this time. Jacko and I are both up, me on 1 1/2 of sleep so things seem a lot worse then they really might be. the screams are louder, our walls between us and the neighbours, thinner, the hours until you have to get up,less and less. Finally at 4 am, after an hour and a half of screaming, Manuk came into our bed. I know, I know, Back to square one, but after that little sleep and that much cying you would do it too.
Anyway, I spoke to Manuks doctor today and he said that I should put him down before he falls alseep, then let him cry. If it is for 20 minutes, fine, if it is for 2 hours, fine. He said that every time you go into his room , you let him know that if he screams for __ amount of time, then someone will come in. He said that he has to figure out that he can't ry to get mommy.
I am very stressed about tonight. I am worried. He is down now but I am worried that Manuk is going to wake up in the middle of the night and I will have to let him cry and cry. This means that I am lying in bed crying and if anyone knows me well enough to see me the day after crying lots, I can barely open my eyes and it is not a good idea to go out in public.
Anyway, here we go. We have switched the music to soft jazz and we'll see if that helps any. Wish us luck

Day 2

Well, Manuk was up at 7 am and ready to go for the day, so we get up and by 10:30 he is falling alseep in my arms. I manage to get him down for a 20 minute nap (I was hoping for more but no such luck). He is up by 11 and really happy and playful. I read online that at his age babies should be sleeping 12-15 hours a day and wondering why he doesn't want to do that. Is it because he just isn't tired? He is truly Jacko's son who can live off of a few hours of sleep? Then around 2 Manuk is asleep again but only, again, for aobut 20 minutes. By this time I am sort of wanting to keep him up so that he'ss sleep through the night. When Jacko gets home, we start to set up Manuk's room for sleep. We pick out a night time CD, which is hard, we were debating between Bob Marley and techno house music, but as Manuk really likes to dance, we decided both would be a little too "upeddy" and found an old CD of ours that is Gregorian chants. Jacko got our diskman set up with some computer speakers and got the room ready. Manuk and I went out with mom to go to costco and walmart and by the time we got home he was feeling ready for bed. We had a bottle, sang a few songs and started talking about how it was going to be bedtime soon. I put my nightshirt which I usually sleep in, in bed with Manuk by his face so that he could smell me in his bed and by 10:15 he was in bed and asleep. I was so excited. I went to bed as well and fell asleep. Manuk woke up at 2:30 am and I went in and sang a little bedtime song and rubbed his head, put in his soother and he was back alseep. Yippee. Then I crawled back in to bed and realised that I had had 3 and a half hours of uninterupted sleep. This is a little unusual and my body went, "you're done, you've slept a lot, you're awake". Needless to say I was up until 3:15 when I finally fell back alseep again. I woke up when Jacko got up for work at 6:45 and then fell back alseep unitl 8:30. Manuk slept the whole time. When he got up we had a congradulatory dance, told him how good he was and we started the day.
Now naptime waas a different story. I don't know if I am crazy to try both things at once but we are trying. I got Manuk in his bed for a nap aound 2pm. I le him stand in his crib and hang out. I closed the blinds and turned on his music. He was good for about 10 minutes then cried. I went up and talked to him and layed him down. He DID NOT like that. Screams. I left him for 5 minutes, then went back up. We talked again and sang our little song then I left him again. 5 minutes later I went up again and did the same thing. This time after 7y minutes or so I couldn't hear anything. He is alseep. Yippee. I just hope now that he doesn't sleep too long and not go down tonight. Oh well, one step at a time.

Day 1 - Manuks new sleep routine

Wel, I am going to keep track of how this goes because I think it is both good for me to get this off my chest and if any other mothers read this they will know that someone else is in the same boat.
I want to start of by saying that Manuk has been a great sleeper from day 1. He has been in his own bed (when we have had one) and in his own room (again, when we have had one) pretty much from the beginning. Then about a month or so ago he started not sleeping very well, wakin gup lots in the night and not falling alseep unless he was in our arms. Once we would put him down he would wake up and the only way for us to get any sleep at all was to bring him into bed with us. Bad habit to get into.
We made the decision, now that he was feeling better and getting over his ear infection, to move him back to his own bed and try and get him to stay there all night long. Harder than one might think. I first wrote to a few cousins who gave me some much appreciated advice. It is so hard to hear your baby scream and not know weather to go in and get him or not. I hate to think that he is crying himself to sleep and he would get so worked up that I don't think he would have been able to sleep even if he was super tired. I really appreciated hearing back from my cousins about their experiences and we have decided to give it another go. Here is how it is going . . .
DAY 1,
Well, we decided that it ws the day to try. Jacko is not working nights now so we are around to support each other. We also realised that we bought a new matress (finally) and we don't want Manuk to get used to our matress (which we get on Saturday) because we want it all to ourselves. LOL.
We got Manuk wound down and put him in bed. After a few minutes we woke up and realised that he was no longer in our arms. SCREAMED !!!!! We left him about 10 minutes then went up to say that we loved him but he had to sleep. Got him down again, for about 20 minutes, then he was up screaming again. After a few times we got him to sleep until about 2 am. At 2 he woke up and was awake, wnating to play. We could not get him down again and gave in and brought him into bed with us. I know, I know, big mistake. But, in my defense, you don't really think too clearly at 2 am when you have not really slept yet. All you are thinking is, can I still get 2 or 3 hours of seep if he comes o bed with us and you think, "yes, I can". Little did we know that, no, we couldn't. He has gotten so big that he is hitting us in the face and kicking us in the bum. Even though he is asleep, Jacko and I aren't really. The next morning, I read a few email s from my cousin and decude to give it another try the next night. It's funny too, since I have been thinking about this, 2 or 3 days or so, I have been receiveing all these parting email (from a weekly email I get) and they are all about sleep habits and ideas. Well, we are up for the day so I will let you know how day 2 went

Feeling better

Well, Manuk is feeling a bit better I think. He has more energy now and it getting back to himself. He is vomitting a lot though which is a little abnormal. We did have some trouble with his medication though. He reacted to it and had a diaper rash like I have never seen. We are using a cream for yeast infections and having lots of baths and things seem to be improving.

Another new first

Well, after 2 days of a very cranky Manuk and constant crying and not wanting to be put down at all. After two days of him sleeping in our bed because it was the only way we could get some sleep (sort of, he is big enough to kick s and hit us in the face now, lol) I finally took him into the doctors today and the poor little man has an ear infection. We are going to get his antibiotics today so hopefully in the next two days he will be feeling better.