May Day! May Day! Nine-month Doc Visit/Breathing Debacle

"Piggy-face" Ben approves this swing

Ben's nine-month "well-baby visit" today turned into a bit of a nightmare today.

During our discussion of Ben's development, I mentioned to the doctor that one of the daycare workers at our gym had said Ben breathes really fast sometimes. His breathing never seemed out of the ordinary to me, nor did he ever seem to be struggling to breathe, so I hadn't brought him into the doctor to have it checked out.

The doctor listened to him breathe repeatedly, and she became a little bit concerned. She had the nurses give him a nebulizer treatment (which he HATED), and that only made him scream and cough, and didn't slow his breathing down. The good part about that treatment not helping him breathe is that it probably rules out him having asthma.

Then the doctor sent us over to a lab to get his chest x-rayed (in case he had the beginnings of pnemonia or his lungs or heart weren't growing properly) and then she made Ben an appointment with a pulminary specialist for tomorrow morning.

The doctor's office called a little while ago with the x-ray results, and while his heart and lungs appear to be normal size and growing just fine, there was a bit of liquid in his lungs.

The doctor's office said he might just be getting over a cold or the flu (although he hasn't had any symptoms), or he might be about to come down with something, which could explain the liquid on the lungs. Anyway, they sent the x-rays on to the pulminary specialist so he can tell me what (if anything) needs to be done tomorrow. So much for a WELL baby visit.

Anyway, on the happier side of things, Ben now weighs 20.5 lbs and is in the 50% percentile on weight. He is 29.25 inches long (80% percentile), and his head circumference is in the 90% percentile. (Baby big-head!)

Of course none of those stats tell what a lovely, happy baby he is to be around most of the time. All of his latest advances sure make interacting with him more fun. He is really getting into peek-a-boo now, and he even initiated the game last night by hiding himself behind part of the couch and peeking out at me. He loves pulling all his books off of his shelf, and there is even one with extra-thick pages he can turn himself! (See video below)

"Baby Time" at the library: now he can finally really join in!

He's liking his new backyard swing Clay put up for him (installed just in time for us to get swarmed by the first mosquitos of the year). He's also pulling up on hands, legs, and furniture very well: he even pulled himself up in his crib for the first time the other day!

As a child development book I've been reading says: at this age babies go from being "problem solvers" to "problem posers." So instead of being satisfied by sitting back and "solving" what ever problem (toy) we put in front of him, he is now moving into the phase where he wants to make and then solve his own "problems."

Ben's April

two days ago he pulled up for the first time in his crib!

turning the pages and "Readin'", yo!