A health update, haircuts, and videos!

The week before last I caught up on a lot of blogging, which was good, but unfortunately I found time to do it because we were sort of under quarantine. This account is rather long and detailed, but it's the first time that he's gotten sick, so it was a big deal to us.

About two weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon, Béla got his first fever. I didn't actually measure it, as he spent about four hours doing nothing but nursing and sleeping on my lap while sweating, and I didn't want to disturb his rest. Jer was at a rugby game, and by the time he got home Béla was already doing much better. That night and the next morning his temperature was higher but not terrible, something like 38.5 C, but then Monday night it got up to 41 C, which left him really miserable. Luckily it responded quickly to paracetamol (what acetaminophen is called in Europe, a.k.a. Tylenol, which is given to kids here as a suppository rather than liquid), and he was soon happily playing again. Interestingly, he was pretty happy still until the fever went above 40 C or so, and he never lost interest in nursing, although he had less of an appetite for other food. In fact, when the fever was really high, he pretty much wanted to nurse non-stop. At least I could do something to comfort him.

Tuesday morning I called the doctor, but I already had a routine exam scheduled for the next day, so decided to wait until then to go in. That Wednesday he aced his six month check-up despite not feeling 100%. (8.7 kg or 19 lb. 2 oz., 69 cm or 27.2 inches long, head diameter a whopping 46 cm or 18.1 inches, and, as my doctor said, the motor skills of a 9 month-old. She assured me that he'll be walking well before a year. Okay, I'm done bragging now.) The doctor checked him out, his ears looked fine, but his throat was a bit red. She figured it was just a virus, and it would clear itself up soon enough. Basically, since he was still nursing well, his fever responded to medication, and he seemed mostly okay about 18 hours of the day, there wasn't a huge cause for concern.

Unfortunately the fevers started coming with chills on Thursday night, while I was out at yoga, and Jer was worried enough that he went to ask our neighbours for advice. Instead of just getting hot he was starting with cold, even purple, hands and feet, cool cheeks, but a hot forehead, and shivers, whimpers, and shallow breathing, and then he'd fall asleep, sweating like crazy, and wake up shortly after with a high fever, and really miserable. This repeated Friday and Saturday afternoons. Sunday I went for brunch at a colleague's place, as I'd only left the apartment once since he got sick and was going a bit batty. He was fine all day Sunday, but woke up at 1:30 Monday morning with the chills, and had a high fever from 2:30-4:00. Of course I went back to the doctor Monday morning, as it was now 9 days with a fever, and they treated him right away despite the waiting room overflowing with sick children.

Apparently a fever without other symptoms can be a sign of a urinary tract infection (UTI), so they brought him into an examination room right away to put on a collection bag that attached like a band-aid all around his genitals. It looked uncomfortable, but he was fine, and the nurse said to dress him back up and head back to the waiting room to wait for a sample, which would hopefully arrive before I went in to see the doctor. I put the diaper back on, but we weren't going back outside, so I didn't bother putting on his tights or socks, I just put his pants on, and didn't do up his diaper shirt or put on his sweater. So I'm walking around the waiting area with him (there were nowhere near enough chairs for everyone), and this 8 year-old kid worriedly points out to his mom that my baby isn't wearing socks. sigh. I assured both him and his mom, and anyone within earshot, that I did actually have tights and socks with me, and that his feet were perfectly warm. The unspoken answer was no wonder your baby's sick.

It turns out that he did have a UTI, so they started him on antibiotics right away, with a follow-up appointment two days later. They gave me the urine collection bag to put on before leaving the house so there was a sample by the time I got to the doctor, and it was better, but still had elevated white blood cells, which is normal in case of infection. He'll be done the antibiotics this coming Wednesday, and on Friday I have to bring in another sample so they can culture it to be sure the bacteria are gone.

He responded really well to the treatment, and didn't have another fever. In fact, he seems perfectly fine. The funny smell we noticed in his diapers has also gone away. (I know, we should have figured that out before, but I thought it was just because he was eating more than just breast milk now.) He's got his appetite back too, and now that we know it's not contagious, he and I have been able to get out and meet up with other moms and kids again, which I usually do at least a couple times a week. It was a looong week and a half being cooped up at home with him.

One thing that was a bit different from what I remember about antibiotics as a kid in Canada was that the bottle came filled with powder, and I had to add the water to make the solution myself. To make 100 ml of solution I had to add only 37 ml of water. It didn't even look possible, but it did work. I even took a picture because it seemed impossible. It's mostly sugar (5 ml solution contains 3.1 g sugar), with aspartame in to be sure it's sweet. Despite this, it's been a battle to get it into him most times.

In other non-baby news, Jer and I got our hair cut last Friday. My hair's been getting rattier due to the post-pregnancy hormone shift, and I've been wanting to get it cut for a while, but it's hard to schedule with the baby as well. Jer hadn't had his hair cut since he was in the military - not even a trim in three years - so he was well past due as well. I ended up making a family appointment for last Friday at 5:00 - Jer could come a bit earlier from work, and we could take turns looking after the baby while the other person was getting their hair done. We went to a salon about a block away that's run by our friend Grit's parents. Her mom was very excited to meet Béla as well, and he was quite spoiled while there, coming home with a little easter sheep as well. And he was quite taken by the many, many mirrors. Much more fun than the single mirror in our bathroom. Here's my new 'do, which I'm pretty happy with:

And Jeremi's:

It's really not what he'd planned. He went in with this picture from when we were in Ireland, but they really didn't want to cut all his hair off. I think they were worried he'd regret it. In any case, he ended up with this in-between sort of haircut. We're both getting used to it, but his first impression was that it was a little bit Price Valiant:

And my first impression was that he looked like a brown-eyed Dr. Niederbühl, a character from a German soap, Sturm der Liebe (Storm of Love). I now know that he's played by Austrian actor Erich Altenkopf. See what I mean? I think it's also because his beard is freshly trimmed.


Okay, back to the baby. He has a new favourite vegetable - okra. He's had it before, and like it then, but I thought it might have just been the sauce, but we made it again last week with a bunch of Indian food, and it was the first thing he grabbed at each meal. Here he is, going to town on it:The thing is, he can't really chew the fibrous outer coating well enough to really break it up, but he gums it and sucks out all the insides before spitting the outer layer back out. (A few bits of the outer coating do get swallowed though.) While he's working on it, we can't really tell if there's anything in his mouth, until one of the long green points starts to slide back out, which really looks like he's got a little lizard in there and its tail is coming out. Unfortunately this picture is out of focus, but you get the idea.And one more random picture of him, all dressed up and ready for our walk/going out to lunch on Sunday. It was his first full meal in a restaurant, and it went really well. I think he ate less than he usually does at home, but he had a good time with all the new food, new high chair, new people to charm... And finally, as promised, a couple of videos. The first one is pretty short, but features Béla's syllable of last week, "ba", combined in a greeting to his Baba and his Baba-baba (the silly name my baba is going by to her great-grandkids). Before this, he'd mostly been saying "ah", with the odd consonant thrown in, with the exception of three magical days when he said nothing but "mamamamama". (Alas, those didn't make it onto video.) Apparently it's pretty common at this age that they pick up a new sound and repeat it exclusively, and then move on to the next. As part of his 6 month check-up (U5 for those in Germany) the doctor asked about what noises he was making, and that very evening he decided to start with "bababa". I guess once he understood the assignment he was ready. I think this video was taken the next day, when he had a fever of about 39 C. As you can see, he wasn't suffering too badly at this point.



This video is a bit longer, and shows off his latest trick - making a "berzer", or raspberry on any surface at all. He's made raspberries with his lips for a while now, but it was only this past week that he figured out that if he made it against something that it would be much, much louder. This video is a bit longer, but pretty cute.

Other random cuteness, from months 5 and 6

Some more pictures since we're back in Germany, that didn't quite fit into any of the other categories. Yet another ridiculous position that Béla fell asleep in as Jer walked him around the apartment singing. (J'entends le moulin, tick-i-tick-i-tack-a... and repeat)
Here he is after being unloaded from the Ergo carrier after his first try in the back-carry position. As you can see, he clearly loved it. I love when he falls asleep in the carrier (usually on the front) and I manage to get him off and into a bed while still sleeping in the full spread-eagle position. Here I just had him on my back around the apartment, because he woke up when I was about to start mopping, with everything swept and furniture moved, and mopping with him on the front is just too hard. I haven't worn him on my back outside yet, because I don't like not being able to check on him as well, though a friend of mine here has a little mirror on a cord that she clips to the strap of her carrier for just that purpose. I may have to try that soon, as he's almost 20 pounds now, and soon it might get hard for me to carry him on my front.

A major event for us this year was the successful PhD defence of our good friend Valentina (hooray!), which also meant that it was time for her to move away from Jena (boooo!). She had a rocking going-away party which Béla and I visited for a while before heading home around midnight, while Jer stayed out until 4 or so. (It was for the best that I was the one who went home to bed, as I was pretty sick at this point, with a cold that turned into an evil lung infection, though I managed to beat it without visiting the doctor.) The weekend after, the night before she was flying back to Italy, we went out for supper with her and some friends.Béla was pretty good in the restaurant, though he got tired a bit before we did.
Saying goodbye to Valentina... (At this point I was just over the lung infection, at which point I developed a nasty blocked milk duct. Later this night, around 5:00 am, I woke up with a high fever and a very sore spot on my breast. Luckily, it was the weekend, so I was able to spend the next two days in bed doing nothing but resting, nursing, and pumping, so I was better by Monday. Not the best weekend ever, but luckily I've been healthy since then!)

Ah yes, and with the arrival of Béla's two teeth, we also began our nightly family toothbrushing time. First we give his teeth a decent pass over with the brush (which he doesn't seem to mind yet), and then we let him chew on the brush a bit while we brush our teeth. Here they are, both smiling...
...and here's Jeremi trying to imitate Béla, which I think is making Béla rathe suspicious.
I knit these socks for Jeremi for his birthday, and had a bit of yarn leftover, so Béla got his own pair for Valentine's Day. Aren't they cute?! And check out those two little teeth of his! (The teething wasn't so bad, just a week when he woke up more often in the night than usual, and his poop was frequent and bright green. We only figured out that it was from teething when it was basically past, and he had two teeth.)

And here are his little man socks as part of one of his super cute little man outfits, this one an Osh Kosh outfit that came from Chris and Karen, I think.
Ah yes, something else pretty cute that he did lately. When we have to do something in the bathroom for only a few minutes (like laundry, brushing hair and or teeth, not so long as a shower), and Béla doesn't feel like hanging out on his own (which is most of the time), he gets to come along and sit in his empty bathtub in the bath chair, where he can play with a couple of toys. If the washing machine is running he's content to stare at the spinning clothes for quite a while, but otherwise he needs some distraction. For a couple of weeks, the new magnetized picture of his cousin Owen did the trick. (Our fridge is tucked away behind a wooden cabinet, which means that any magnets we'd normally put on our fridge get stuck on our washing machine instead. A bit strange, but it works, and our toilet faces the washing machine, so we get to see them regularly.)
I'm sure he was just looking at the new high contrast object, but it was super cute, because it really looked like he was staring at his cousin, and reaching out to touch the picture.
Yes, Béla, I'm taking pictures of you!
And finally, Béla à l'envers! He really loves to be held upside down. If he's getting fussy in the evening, 15 seconds upside down buys at least a couple of minutes of contentedness afterward.

And there you have it! Now I just have to tackle the videos from the video camera, and we'll be basically up to date!

First time out with the Chariot

For Christmas we got a big fancy two seater Cougar Chariot from Joy, Bill and Baba. We finally got a chance to try it out a couple of weekends ago as we went for a jog with Béla. It was a pretty mild day out so we didn't have to bundle him or us up too much. Here he is about to be put in (after his tuque was arranged).

Here he is all strapped in and ready to rock and mostly roll. The wagon is pretty awesome. It comes apart and is easy to put together. It's got a screen, sun shade, pockets on the inside, 5 point harnesses, and a fancy suspension. It's not recommended that we truck him around via bike power until he's 12 months old (we're probably going to start a little earlier, because he's such a bruiser), but luckily we also got the jogging kit that goes with it for Christmas, which means that there's a front wheel in front instead of the arm that that clips into the hitch.

After a quick stop at the gas station to get the tires pumped up, we went run-walking along the river. It was the warmest weekend we've had in a while, and it was good to get out and enjoy the sunshine while all three of us were healthy. And thus went Béla's second ever trip in a stroller.

Béla playing (with) Béla Bartók

This was really not posed - the book of music was on the shelf under our coffee table, which is now within his reach, and he pulled it out all by himself. I turned to find him lying on the wooden floor, looking mischievous under the book, so I decided to take a picture.


At which point he began to pose...Doesn't he look like he's reading it?




And doesn't he look smug!
This last picture is from much later in the day, when he passed out on Jeremi while he walked around with him. He's wearing the same clothes though, so I like the thought that he studied Bartók until he passed out from exhaustion.

I also love that he's looking at the music while wearing this ridiculous (Mike Myers character) Dieter-like outfit of navy beatnik turtleneck and tights. In my defence, he was wearing overalls when we went out. Another note about the tights - they're called Strumpfhosen in German, and are totally standard kids' clothing here, for boys as well as girls. Not just for babies either, for kids up to about 10 years old, it's totally normal for them to wear nothing but Strumpfhosen around the house. I used to think that they wore them under their pants in the winter, and then just took off their pants when they got home, but now that I've had more contact with kids (like at the paediatrician, and while visiting daycares), I suspect that they often wear them directly under snowpants (which must be worn by German children if it's under 5 C at all times, and under 10 C most of the time), and then are in tights all day. For babies I get it, it's nice that when the pants ride up there's no bare leg hanging out above the socks, but it's sort of ridiculous sometimes, with people putting up to three pairs on their baby when it's below zero. (I'm sure people put more, this is just what I've seen.) Still, I'm finding them somewhat practical, as they give him lots of freedom when crawling around, and we even have a pair with traction pads on the knees as well as the feet, which is pretty cool. Still, if we end up staying here longer, you'll have to remind me when we visit Canada that it's sort of not cool for little 8 year-old boys to hang out wearing nothing but tights, especially if his parents already gave him a fruity name like Béla. (Bella? No, Bay-la. Rhymes with Layla. Maybe that doesn't help...)

Adventures in eating

Without a doubt, one of the highlights of Béla getting older has been the introduction of food. We both love to cook and eat, and we're really hoping that we won't be forced to cook side portions of plain pasta just to keep our offspring from wasting away, because they don't like what we're eating. So far, so good.

After much reading, I decided that we were going to go with the approach known as Baby Led Weaning. (That link brings you to the website of a book about it, but the Wikipedia page is here, if you're interested.) The basic idea is, after breastfeeding for a full six months, rather than starting with spoon-fed purees and working up to finger foods, just let the kids have food, and feed themselves. The whole spoon-feeding thing was necessary back when babies were formula fed, and the formula wasn't sufficient for their nutritional needs, so they had to start on pablum at 3-4 months. By the time most babies are in their seventh month, they're able to sit up, and have sufficient fine motor skills to pick up reasonably large objects, and plough them into their mouths. No teeth? No problem. They gum everything, and as long as you're not feeding them raw carrots, they'll manage. They don't choke, because they're not shoving stuff way to the back of their mouths (as spoon feeding can do), though they do gag sometimes, when something big gets in there, but so far Béla hasn't had any trouble getting stuff out when necessary. I'm simplifying it a bit, but that's the basic idea. As for allergy concerns, new research suggests that if you wait at least 6 months, and breastfeed if possible, after that they can pretty well have what they want, and any allergies that are going to appear won't be prevented by waiting longer. (I'm really oversimplifying that part, and we're still not giving him any tree nuts, shellfish, or honey for now, and we've avoided egg whites for now, but I don't think that's going to last much longer.) Basically, as long as you eat good, nutritious food, you can just give your baby what you're eating. They shouldn't have too much salt or added sugar, so that means that we take his out before fully seasoning, or before adding sauce in a stir fry. He still gets the meat and veggies cooked with onions, garlic, ginger, and a bit of chili though, just no salty sauces. And at first it's easier for them if the food is somewhat spear-shaped, so they can grab it in their fist and chew on the other end, but they quickly learn how to deal with other shapes.

And so the plan was to wait until the beginning of March, when he'd be a full six months old. But then at the doctor's appointment when he was just shy of 5 months, when the pediatrician saw him sitting up unassisted, she said that he was developmentally ready to eat, and suggested that we start him on cereal. I was still going to wait, following the midwife's advice instead, when a friend with a baby two months older mentioned that her daughter was really disinterested in eating, and she wished she'd started introducing food a couple of weeks earlier, when she was showing lots of interest in what they were eating. She felt like she'd sort of missed a window of opportunity, during which she should have started introducing food.

And so I waited a little bit longer, but decided it was time to get a high chair at least. He was definitely showing interest in food, and we were at the point where we had to take turns eating, while the other person was holding the baby, well out of arm's reach of any food or cutlery or dishes. Here's our fancy wooden high chair, a gift from Paul and Betty Ann (thanks guys!).
What's more, he's happy to play in it for a while, which lets me get a bit of work done in the kitchen while he's awake during the day, which can be a lifesaver. Look how much he's loving that chair!
Of course, once he was in the chair and it was supper time, we realized that we couldn't just let him sit there and watch him eat. And so, entirely unprepared, at 5.5 months, we decided to let him have some of what we were eating, just to play with it. I don't even remember what we were eating - it was covered in a sauce he shouldn't have, so we just gave him a bit of sticky rice, naively putting it into a container first.
Yes, right on his chair is much better. We were not planning this at all, as you can see by his lack of bib.

I had stupidly thought that sticky rice would be easier, as it would stick together into clumps that he could get into his mouth, but of course it stuck to everything! And so the rice grains were uniformly distributed within a one arm radius of the baby. But still, he enjoyed himself, we enjoyed watching, and we were able to eat our supper at the same time. I'd call that a success.He even made a few valiant efforts with the sippy cup - that's not all drool on his shirt!
Another thing that we used at first, and we still use a bit when out with him, are these little mesh bags that attach to a big handle that you can fill with bits of food that the baby can chomp on until it's broken down into small enough pieces to fit through the mesh. We actually got two, one from Jer's cousin Crystal, and one from my friend Pam (thanks guys!), and they've proven really useful for too-mushy-to-grab food (oatmeal, overcooked sweet potato), and when on the go. Here he's tucking in to some apple or pear while on my lap in the living room. (Ignore my greasy hair - I was really sick.)

He also got better at both eating and drinking really quickly. The first few times we fed him, there was food everywhere. Within a week, almost nothing fell on the ground. (He still loses chunks onto his seat, but they're cleaner when they get rescued at least.) And within two days he'd figured out the sippy cup. (For those who are interested, it's full of water. He gets water with his meals, and nothing else besides breastmilk.) Here I was trying to take a picture of him drinking so well, but he kept putting it down to look at the camera......like so.

This was also in the first week, and you can see what's left of his first quarter pear, with the second ready to be devoured. At the start I peeled his pears and apples, but now I leave the peel on, and he manages. In fact, he managed so well, that I gave him a whole pear to see what he'd do with it, and after obsessively chewing on the stick (which I cut off), he totally managed to eat it, starting at the top end. He made it through well over half, leaving a chunk around the bottom (fat) end of the pear. The next day when he pooped out the intact seed casing, I realized that I should probably be better about coring all his fruit in the future.Here he's enjoying his first meal of mets belge, a favourite of Jeremi's. The green beans were mostly chewed on until only the skin was left, and then discarded, but a few made it all the way through.
Ah yes, the cat. The only thing that manages to distract him from, well, everything. He adores her. There's a whole post in their relationship, how he's learned to pet without grabbing (most of the time, except for those so-tempting ears), and how she's gone from being surprisingly tolerant to being downright indulgent, coming to sit next to him on purpose, and even purring through some of his mauling sessions. She even licked his fingers off after his first meal of high fat yogurt today. (I did wash them, but 10% fat yogurt leaves a lovely creamy coating that the cat just couldn't resist.)
Here he is with his current favourite food, broccoli, a vegetable that is conveniently club-shaped, allowing him to grasp the stump while sucking away at the florets, until his table is littered with stumps that look like the remains of a forest after locusts have been through.

In addition to being loved by Béla, broccoli is also quite easy to distinguish later in his poop, and somehow some florets manage to hang around long after it's been eaten. I swear he pooped florets for five solid days after a single eating, mixed with whatever else he ate in the meantime. Strange.So we're completely loving this experiment in baby-feeding, and so is Béla. I love that the three of us get to enjoy our meals at the same time, without having to devote one person to spooning food into him. Instead, he eats what he wants, and we're entertained in watching. And so far he's enjoyed everything he's tried, which has included (among other things, and in no particular order): pears, apples, bananas, pineapple, avocado, broccoli, cauliflower, roasted eggplant, zucchini, peppers, roasted onions, mushrooms, pizza (Greek and Napoli), hummous, meat and rice-stuffed dried eggplants, beef, okra, pasta with pesto, cucumber, celery sticks, rice, rice cakes, and yogurt.

While he can eat almost anything now if he puts his mind to it, some things really lend themselves to being spooned. (Although I thought the same thing of the hummous, which I spread on a rice cake for him to make it easier to eat, and he scooped it up with his fist and shoved it in his mouth without the rice cake.) Still, I thought it would be fun to add some yogurt to his standard breakfast of fruit, so I tried that this morning. Reading around on baby-led weaning sites, people suggested presenting the baby with a fully loaded spoon, and let them figure out what to do with it. And wow, did it ever work. He figured out which one was the business end of the spoon right away.

And after about 10 more loads, he was a happy and yogurty baby. I took a little video of it too, because Jeremi was at work, and I felt badly that he was missing this. We have an awesome videocamera now, with much better sound, but it was in the other room, and I didn't want to leave him to go get it, so there's only a crappy video from our camera, with the annoying hiss on the audio. Still, it gives you the idea. It's a bit long, but it was mostly for Jeremi's sake. I'm sure there are a few grandparents out there who won't mind sitting through two minutes of this...

Bath time!

I know that lots of parents love to brag about how their babies are little "water babies", who just love bath time. Well, that's not our son. We do try to get him in there every week or so, just to take care of basic hygiene, but it's never been so much fun for him, and lately has bordered on torture. Honestly, it sounds like we're dunking him in hot oil, to hear him scream. I thought it might help if he graduated to the big bathtub, and one of us went in with him. And so his first bath with Jeremi took place a few weeks back, and it was magical. Forgive me for posting so many pictures of a single happy bath, an event that takes place in some households nightly, but for us it was one brief moment in time, as he's since reverted to screaming. (A friend suggested nursing him in the tub, which I might try, but the water just isn't hot enough for my taste. I'll probably break down and try it this weekend though, because it's really awful.)

But back to the happiest of baths! First a little shampoo...


...playing with the rabbit sponge...
...and the rubber ducky.
Sitting on his daddy's lap to get rinsed off.

Not loving the rinsing. What could cheer this baby up?
I think he has an idea!We just have to distract him with his bath book, "Où est ta maman, petit canard?". (As an embarrassing aside, when our friends Marie and Tristan brought this book over as a gift when Béla was about 10 days old, I was so emotional that this little three page bath book made me cry. The poor duckling! He can't find his mom! They assured me that it had a happy ending. Damn hormones.)


All clean! And the duckling found his mom. (Phew!)



This is so much fun, I'll play with the bath thermometer! (Truth be told, I slipped in these last two pictures because, despite all the skin in the above post, there weren't very many pictures of Jeremi's naked torso, and a couple of our loyal readers - you know who you are - mentioned that there weren't nearly as many topless pictures of Jeremi in our pictures from Canada. What can I say? I aim to please.)
Yay! The end of a happy bath. The only happy bath. Sigh.