Socks: They're Not Just For Feet Anymore

Addy now has several pairs of "mittens" (a.k.a., "socks") because we're all tired of cleaning up vomit.  Today is the first day of wearing them and so far they're doing a good job of keeping her fingers out of the back of her throat, but we'll see how mad they make her.

Hand, hand, finger, thumb

Hands have become Addy's obsession lately.  Hers, yours, doesn't matter.  Hands are fascinating.  And tasty.  She always has one hand in her mouth and she's pretty sure that she can get the other one in there, too, and she loves watching you play Patty Cakes or sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" (only in her version, she eats the spider before he gets to the top of the water spout). 

So far it's been pretty convenient--it's not like her hands can suddenly fall on the floor when she stops sucking on them.  But it's also proving to be pretty messy since she has started tickling the back of her throat, which causes her to throw up.

Feet (and toes)

Addy's physical therapist wants her to work on playing with her feet (reaching for them, grabbing them, and even sucking on them).  So far this seems to rank only slightly higher than tummy time on the "List of Things Addy Likes to Do." It doesn't make her mad like tummy time does.  She just doesn't really seem to care that she has feet.

PT did caution me that another client of hers who has Spina Bifida accidentally used her toes for teething...

Not having the desired effect

Crib wedge, schmib wedge.  It doesn't seem to be keeping Addy comfortable during the night.  She has gone back to sleeping through the night again, but now it's a game as to what new and wacky place you'll find her in the morning.  Twice now she's gotten herself scooted 90 degrees from where I put her to bed and last night she had rotated herself 180 degrees around so that her feet were at the top of the incline instead of her head!

Growing up so fast!

Happy 1/3-of-a-year day, Addy!  According to the bathroom scale, she's approaching 15 pounds already.  It doesn't sound like much, but when you're trying to lift her (and the car seat) into the car, it feels like she weighs a lot more than that!

In shunt-healing news, Addy seems to be back to her old self again.  The stitches in her scalp incision are starting to dissolve and the ones on her tummy are all gone now.  They seem to have used super-duper strength betadine in the OR because I still haven't gotten all of that washed out of her scalp.  (Derek has apparently seen a different version of "South Pacific" than I have because he's been singing "Gotta wash betadine right outta my hair" to Addy during bath time.)

Advanced thumb sucking

We knew it was bound to happen with all of the fist sucking that Addy has been doing lately.  She has finally achieved honest-to-goodness thumb sucking!  It still involves the occasional scratch to the face (and it's often more thumb chewing than thumb sucking), but it's quite cute nonetheless.  The down side is that she usually swallows a lot of air when she's gnawing on her hands, so we have to try to burp her every so often, even when she isn't eating.

"Daylight Savings" Time

It's time for my annual rant about "Daylight Savings Time."  First, you're not actually saving daylight by setting your clock ahead by an hour.  The number of hours of daylight each day is a function of the Earth's orbit around the sun and not the arbitrary designation of when 8:00am happens to occur.  And it's not just that it has a stupid name.  The whole concept is stupid.  What good can possibly come from forcing everyone to adjust their schedules by an hour in the spring and fall?  If anything, you're decreasing productivity by disrupting everyone's sleep schedules.  And don't even try to make the "energy savings" argument.  That's just hooey.  There cannot possibly be enough of an impact on our energy usage to justify the time change.

But I digress.  This year's daylight savings time annoyance is extra special because it reminds me that babies do not understand clocks and they certainly do not understand daylight savings time.  On the other hand I guess if she's going to get up in the night it doesn't really matter what time she goes to bed, does it?

We had 3 big poopy diapers, 2 pee-throughs, and 1 vomit all before 9:30 this morning (which felt like 8:30 because of the time change).  Oh, the joys of parenthood.