Small Successes

Faith and Family is hosting a weekly listing of the Small Successes of motherhood because, "the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph." The goal is to post these small successes every Thursday because it is in the small details of our work that the strength and splendor of motherhood is revealed. So in my effort to join and support other moms in celebrating our calling, here are my Small Successes for this past week.

1. I asked for help. After we discovered that John's medical issues were a result of my breastfeeding, we were in need of formula. A great group of fellow mothers stepped up to the call and went digging through ads/mailers providing me with a handful of coupons for the only formula that John can tolerate (Enfamil Premium). Equally successful was the realization that asking for help isn't all that hard...

2. Instead of dealing with the mountain of laundry or emptying (and reloading) the dishwasher, I spent quality time sitting in the front yard with my son. We observed a cement truck and construction crew work across the street, watched a neighbor hitting golf balls in his yard and examined a worm that was at least 12 inches long.

3. After several months of reading other moms' small successes, I finally took the plunge and wrote my own! Why was I waiting?

On the Move!

John's Crawling

Watch out! Here he comes! John is up and on the move. He's only going about 6 ft at a time, but he's up on his knees! John prefers to move his entire hips (much like he's salsa dancing on the floor) instead of picking his knees up off the floor. So far today he has crawled to Dad and managed to chase down a cell phone that Aunt Lizzy kept moving farther and farther away. John also successfully got into his diaper bag, retrieved his Gerber snacks, opened the container, dumped them on the floor and indulged in a few handfuls of the sweet corn snacks. (I guess that's a sign it's time to start baby-proofing?) Hopefully we'll have video to share shortly!

Pearly Whites

John is now up to 4 teeth. The top two broke through this week amid a bit of fussiness. We're happy to have 2 new chompers---but realizing that gone are the days of letting John chew on our fingers for comfort. It's quite possible that there is at least one more tooth (or two) trying to come in too. Although both of the teeth have fully cut through John is still chewing on everything in sight and we can see some stretched gums next to the two new ones that popped in this week. Only time will tell...

Twinkle Toes

John has been on the move for about a week now. While he hasn't officially learned to crawl, he has mastered scooting all around the room with nothing but his arms and his teeny toes. It's actually quite reminiscent of Fred Flinstone bowling. He bends at the hip, pushes up on his toes and basically 'plows' around the room in pursuit of whichever toy has evaded him. It's been hard to catch a good picture of Twinkle Toes in action, so you'll have to do with this image instead...

Heme/Onc Update!

Great news! Dr. Bednarski released John indefinitely from the Heme/Onc clinic at Children's Hospital. We still don't have a full diagnosis but the working diagnosis (which will probably never be confirmed) is that at birth I passed antibodies to John. For whatever reason John's body was trying to fight off the antibodies and that was causing the problems. It's also a result of John recieving antibodies through my breastmilk (explaining why things seem to get better now that we have stopped breastfeeding). No real concerns for future pregnancies other than the need to make sure that the doctors are aware of John's conditions and monitor any other child's hemoglobin very closely for the first couple months of life. I'll also probably end up having amniocentisis for future preganancies so that we can determine if my antibodies will mesh with the babies.

Nonetheless, it's great to feel like we're past all this. We're excited to quit having blood drawn and looking forward to not having to wrestle John to get medicine in his mouth.

We celebrated with a joint victory/Father's Day/Matt's birthday gift last night.

Grins and Giggles

If laughing is good for your health...John's a VERY healthy baby!