Wes Wild: 7 Months Old

I can't believe you are seven months old, Wes Wild!

You had one REALLY big development in your seventh month - you got a helmet! We've been seeing a specialist since you were two months old, and finally decided this month to go ahead and get a helmet. This was a big adjustment for you and for me! We had to slowly transition you into the helmet - wearing it for a few hours at first and then building up until you wear it everyday, 23 hours a day, with only an hour break in the afternoons to clean it. Weirdly, I cried when you got your glasses, but did not cry when you got your helmet - I think because you just looked SO AMAZINGLY CUTE in it!! :) 

You adjusted to the helmet very well, and I am so glad. At first it was kind of big on your head and twisted a bit to bother your ears. We went in and had it adjusted a bit and it was much better after that. The more your head grew, the more comfy it seemed for you. You don't mind one bit when I put it on you - you just sit still so I can do it. 

We have to clean it every day by spraying it down with rubbing alcohol. It helps keep it from getting stinky from your head sweat. It had affected the kind of clothes I can put you in. Because I don't want to be taking the helmet on and off all day and I don't want your daycare to, either, I now dress you shirts that can stretch over the helmet or unbutton completely like the kimono style onesies. 

Everyone that sees you has to comment on how cute you are. Your helmet is quite the conversation starter! So many people ask about why you have it or tell me about their baby that had a helmet. Little kids LOVE to ask questions about it. I always answer by telling them that your helmet is helping to make your head nice and round. One little girl in Elle's class at school asked me if you were wearing it because you ride a motorcycle. BEST comment ever! :) 

You can't wear your helmet when you're bathing or swimming because it can't get wet so we always take it off for that. Also, if it's a really hot day and we're outside, I will take it off to let you cool down a bit. We got you a special clip on fan for your stroller to help keep you cool in the El Paso heat!

You also had a terrible visit to the emergency room this month. I had noticed you were acting funny with one of your legs when I would pick you up. You were holding it close to your body and whining like it hurt. I went ahead and took you into the emergency room, and they were worried that your leg joint might have an infection in it so they had to run some tests. It was CRAZY hard to get blood out of your little veins. They poked you so many times. It was terrible. I usually do not do well with needles but I was there with you every step of the way. I held you and watched everything they did. I willed them to find a vein that worked. Finally they ended up pricking your heel and squeezing the blood out drop by drop. It was the WORST! You were so hungry but they didn't want you to eat in case you ended up needed a treatment that required an empty stomach. You cried and cried and I walked and bounced you and we were there for so long. It really was a terrible, terrible night. Finally, all of the tests came back negative and we got to go home at 11pm. Wren and Elle were with us and the nurses gave them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and juice because we were there for so long. On the way home, I went through the McDonald's drive thru and we all got midnight snacks.

The next day when you woke up, your little body was covered in tiny red dots. I texted a photo of it to your Aunt Kelli (because she's a nurse), and she said it looked like Fifth or Sixth Disease, a common infection that babies can get. It can also cause joint pain, which is most likely why you were holding your leg funny. I was relieved to know what it was but also hated that I had put you through all of that terribleness the night before for nothing. But I guess better safe than sorry. That was such a terrible experience!!

I started trying out some solid foods with you this month, and it did not go so well. Every time I would feed you a vegetable puree, you would get really really sick a few hours later. (Fruits were fine, though!) Usually, I was feeding it to you for dinner, so a few hours into sleep, you'd wake up projectile vomiting all over your bed. It scared me to death! I'd have to clean you and your bed up, then I'd cover myself in towels and let you sleep on me. You'd puke until there was nothing in your stomach and then you would just dry heave. I felt so bad for you! It took me a few times to figure out the pattern, so I did some internet research and there is a condition where you can be allergic to the proteins in vegetables. I asked your doc about it but he wasn't concerned, just said to stay away from anything that's made you sick before and try other foods. Not going to lie, it kind of scared me away from solid foods for a bit. I decided to try new foods earlier in the day on the weekend days moving forward - that way if you got sick, at least it wasn't during the night when we needed to be sleeping. 

This month it got hot enough to introduce you to some of El Paso's splash pads - our favorite thing to do in the summer months! You love splashing in the water! We also celebrated Mother's Day this month - so happy I get to be your mom and that you joined (and completed!) our family, baby boy! 

Wes Wild: 6 Months Old

Baby boy! You've been a part of our lives for HALF A YEAR! And we feel the luckiest!

During your sixth month, you mastered rolling both ways (so you were no longer stuck on your belly!) and you learned to scoot. The scooting phase is always one of my favorites - I never know where you'll end up around the house. Once I found you stuck between the TV stand and the lamp. And usually, you'll scoot until you scoot yourself into a corner, then you get mad that you can't scoot anymore and start to cry. I rescue you, put you back in the middle of the room and you start scooting again! :)

In your last update, I wrote that you got glasses, but you hated them on your face. During your sixth month, we went back to the eye doctor and talked to her about how you'd rather eat your glasses than wear them. She suggested we start patching your good eye for two hours a day to make your weak eye do more work. She said we could do that instead of the glasses and see what happens, so we are! Every day when you get home from daycare, we put on your patch. You don't seem to mind it, thankfully. And you are the cutest little pirate baby I've ever seen!

You celebrated your first Easter this month! Didi and Pops came to visit for Easter, and you got your own Easter basket filled with bath toys and cool eye patches and fun diapers - all the things a baby needs!

The weather started to warm up this month, so we were able to play outside more, which you love.

You light up our lives, baby boy! We love you!

Wes Wild: 5 Months Old

Wes! You are a big five month old now! There were two really big things that happened during your fifth month...

One of the biggest things that happened for you this month was that you learned to roll from back to belly! Then every time I put you down on your back, you immediately rolled onto your belly. However, you were not usually happy to be on your belly and then would get mad until someone put you back on your back, but then you would immediately flip again to your belly! HAHA! Babies are silly!

Another pretty big thing during your fifth month - you got glasses! You absolutely hate them and never wear them, though. But you look SO CUTE during the five seconds a day you keep them on your face. :) Your pediatrician saw something with one of your eyes and referred us to an eye specialist. At our first appointment, they dilated your eyes and did an eye exam. She said you have an astigmatism in one of your eyes and the glasses will help correct it so that you don't need surgery down the road. I cried in the hallway after she told us that. Then I called your dad and told him that I just felt so sorry for you - no baby wants to wear glasses! But if it means no surgery, then we will definitely do what we have to do to make your eyes better! 

You continue to be the happiest baby on the block. I really don't know what I did before I had such a big hunk of love in my life. You're always smiling and making everyone around you smile. SO happy that you are ours, baby boy! SO HAPPY! 

Wes Wild: 4 Months Old

Little brother! You are four months old now! That seems so old, and you are growing like a weed! You celebrated your first New Year's Eve and New Year's Day during your fourth month. You also outgrew your 0-3 month clothes, and I broke out the 3-6 month clothes, even though they are still a tad bit too big on you.

You started daycare this month, and the transition went pretty good except that you've pretty much been sick ever since your first week. You are happy when you are there and you nap good and you seem to be fine with being there. But being around all those kiddos with all their germs has done a number on your immune system. You caught a cold after your first week, which then turned out to be the flu and double ear infections! You got a terrible cough that sounded like a barking seal and made me very nervous. Then once I thought you were getting better, you started running a fever, which thankfully only lasted a couple days. Then Wren got sick and you got sick AGAIN - sneezing and coughing all day.

I really hope you will get over all of it soon! The good news is that it doesn't seem to phase you. You continue to be the happiest baby on the block! Smiling and laughing, kicking your legs and sucking your hands all day long!

This month you definitely found your hands and realized you love to eat them. You're also getting better at grabbing toys and bringing them to your mouth. You get REALLY excited when we show you a toy and immediately bring your arms together in the middle to try to grab it.

You've gotten a lot better at tummy time this month, mostly because they do it with you multiple times a day at daycare, which I am thankful for. We've been putting you in your Bumbo seat for short periods of time and you do like that, until you get too tired of holding your big head up. :)

At your four month check up, you weren't able to get your four month shots because you had just been running a fever. The doctor still does not feel good about the shape of your head, so they are recommending we put you in a helmet when you turn 5 months. I ordered some head shaping pillows to use for this month to see if we can get some improvement. Also, your doctor wants us to get your eyes checked out. He thinks one of them turns in toward your nose, which might mean you need baby glasses. :( We will see what the specialist says.

You started sleeping for longer chunks of time during your fourth month - 5-6 hours at a time! Except when you were sick, then you went back to waking up every 2 hours, which was not fun. Our nightly routine is for me to put the girls to bed at 8pm. Then I put you in the bath, which you love, and I pour water all over you and show you your bath book and you smile and kick your legs and wiggle your body until you're almost falling off your bath seat. Then I get you all lotioned up and in a clean onesie, zip you into your swaddle and feed you one last bottle. You usually fall alseep during your bottle and I can transfer you to your Rock 'N Play, but sometimes you are awake after your bottle. When that happens, I'll put you in your bouncer and bounce you until you fall asleep. Usually I'll watch TV or work on my computer while I bounce you, and you just stare at my face the whole time and when I look over at you, a slow sweet smile spreads across your face and it is my favorite thing EVER!

You are the happiest baby I've ever known, and I am just so happy that you are ours. You are such a fun addition to our family, and I can't imagine our lives without you in it!

Wes Wild: 3 Months Old

Wes Wild! Happy 3 months old! Your third month was a fun one because you got to celebrate your first Christmas with your aunt, uncle, Didi and Pops! Everyone came to El Paso for Christmas and we all had fun celebrating together. Even though you weren't too interested in them, you did get a few gifts for your first Christmas. You got a Bumbo seat with a tray for your toys, you got a cool toy car with a surfboard on top and you got a super soft blanket to snuggle with in your car seat.

On Christmas Eve, we all wore ugly Christmas sweaters, and you even had one! It was tiny and had the Grinch on it. You looked super cute!

I was still on maternity leave during your third month, so we did a lot of snuggling while your sisters were at school. I wrapped a lot of Christmas presents while you watched me from your bouncy chair.

You learned how to grab things this month, starting with your burp rag. If it was on your lap, you would grab it and bring it up to snuggle by your face.

You also let out your first real laugh this month, and it is the best sound ever - super squeaky! You continue to be so smiley and happy all the time. The only time you really get upset is when you are hungry or when you're sleepy and want someone to cozy you up for sleep.

We love you so much! So happy you are part of our family, Wes!

Wes Wild: 2 Months Old

Little Wes, I love this photo of you so much! Your little face just looked like it was made out of clay! Like I could mold it with my hands! :)

Your second month continued to be just as sweet as your first. We dressed you up as Batman for your first Halloween, but it turned out to be a super cold, rainy night so you couldn't go trick or treating with your sisters. You went out for a sec, and then headed back home with your dad to hand out candy.

The biggest milestone for our family during your second month happened on Nov 8 when your dad deployed to Korea. He was so sad to leave you. He'll be back when you are 9 months old this summer. It was really hard for me to adjust to not having him there to help with you, and the first couple weeks he was gone were hard, but I'm happy to say that we got in a good groove eventually and all is good now.

At the end of your second month, we took a road trip to the other side of Texas to spend Thanksgiving with your Dengler side of the family. You got to meet your Didi and Pops, Aunt Brianne and Uncle Andy and all your other extended family! Your pops flew to El Paso to make the drive with us. We thought it would be an easy trip because you loved your carseat and slept in it really well, but it turned out to be pretty stressful. You would wake up ready to eat and sometimes there was no where to stop and you would just cry and get so upset that you would have these terrible coughing fits. Then once we got to Houston, we hit some horrible traffic and you were so upset and it was all just bad. But we made it to Beaumont and had a great week with family and friends, and I'm thankful for those memories. I think we'll just hold on another major road trip for a while. ;)

You transitioned from sleeping on your Boppy pillow to sleeping in your Rock 'n Play during your second month, but you continued waking up every 3 hours at night to eat. By this time, I was used to it and operating pretty well on 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I realized this month that you didn't sleep as good when your arms were tucked down by your sides, so I found a swaddle that lets you keep your arms up by your face and you started sleeping much better with that.

During your second month, you started having some scary reflux issues. You would sometimes vomit after eating and then choke on the vomit. It was terrifying to watch. You would vomit, then I would immediately have to suck your mouth out with a bulb syringe so that you could breath. The scariest part was when it happened at night. At your two month check up, I told the doctor about it and they sent us to a specialist to do a barium test. You had to lay on this xray table and drink barium (a thick white liquid) out of a bottle while they took xrays. The test showed that you did have pretty bad reflux. I did some research and learned that ready to feed formula worked better for babies with reflux than powder formula so we switched to that and you stopped vomiting immediately. One day, I only had powder formula with me so I fed it to you and you vomited twice after that. That's when I knew for sure that the powder formula was not working, so I stopped feeding it to you. Since that day, we've only used ready to feed formula and you haven't vomited since!

Also at your two month check up, your doctor referred you to a specialist to get your flat head checked out, so we did and you were diagnosed with Torticollis just like your sister, Elle, had. So we started head positioning and stretching exercises with you to work your neck muscles and even out your head.

But aside from all that not so fun stuff, my favorite thing about your second month was when you started smiling! And you have the sweetest smile that just lights up your face. I took a photo of you every time you smiled and sent it to your dad so he could see the cuteness.

We love you so much, Wes Wild, and are having a blast watching you grow!