Four month checkup!

Graham had his four-month checkup last Monday. He's about a pound lighter at 18 weeks than Finn was at 19 weeks; we think Finn's gigantic head is responsible for most of the difference. 16 lbs 8 oz., 25 inches tall, head 42.5 centimeters around. Other than his current cold, everything looks great. Look, new chart!

And Graham has a a new hobby: blowing raspberries. He mostly does it when bored or frustrated. It seems to be his way of saying "I tire of you. Something else, please." Other times he does it just for fun while sitting in his chair riding his invisible bike. Here's a movie:

Graham says ppbbblllt. from Katie on Vimeo.
Finn had his first parent teacher conference on Friday. Well, I suppose Jonathan and I did, since Finn wasn't there. We learned all sorts of interesting things - did you know Finn can count to ten? We didn't. Apparently we had never asked right. It seems like every week he's doing something new - this week he suddenly seemed to get the hang of first person pronouns ("I like Liam." "I would like some more water." So much better than "more water! more water!") and this morning he rode his bike all the way to and from the farmers market instead of riding in the stroller. That's a little over a mile and a half total, hills and all - a long ride for someone who'd never really made it off the block before. On the way there the pace was pretty slow, but on the way home he really kept us moving, especially on the hills. I left my camera at home so I could carry more goodies, but here's a shot of the kind of attitude that got him there.
More at Flickr.
One more thing, speaking of the conference - I mentioned earlier how Finn has a giant head? We heard from his teacher that he likes to follow some of the 3 and 4 year old boys around to try and play like/with them. They wear buckets on their heads to be "soldiers," but Finn's head is too big for the bucket to fit. Poor Finn!

Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball

Happy MLK Day, everybody. This is one of those rare days when both my and Jonathan's offices are closed, but the boys' day care is open. We usually start out by doing productive things around the house and then gradually work our way up to a nice lunch and a movie, feeling deliciously like we're getting away with something and playing hooky. This time we were going to finally see Avatar. Alas, it was not to be. Saturday Finn had a fever of 102-ish, and he's still kinda gross. Also...
***Please skip this paragraph if you're not a parent, TMI ahead.***
Finn is really constipated. Normally the kid poops twice a day, and while it's gross and stinky, it doesn't seem to bother him. He's hardly pooped at all since Friday, or possibly Thursday, and has spent much of the weekend piteously wailing "hurting, hurting," every 5-30 minutes. We're trying everything we can think of, and have a call in to our pediatrician, but so far we're having limited success.
***Okay, done talking about poop.***
So Graham went to day care today, both to get him further from Finn's germs and to reduce craziness around here a bit, but the rest of us are finishing up the longest three day weekend ever. Most of the day he's been watching movies, because he's a pile of mush when he's not yelling, and it's the easiest way to distract him, at least when he can decide what to watch. I think it took him half an hour this morning, as Jonathan repeatedly offered him things and a shrill, distressed Finn kept insisting "different show! different show!" For the first time in nearly a year, Finn wouldn't nap on his bed, and instead fell asleep on Jonathan, waking up periodically with the "hurting."

I think it'd do him good to get outside and run around a bit, because we're all getting a bit stir crazy, but it's been raining and gross all weekend, and now I'm hearing "severe thunderstorm warnings."
Graham has been extra fussy on and off as well, either in sympathy or for his own obscure reasons, but at least he's healthy. And last night he slept reasonably well again, which was nice. He's a big giggler now. The best ways to get him going are to tickle him, or to wave your hands around like you're a second grader doing fake karate. Since it's hard to hold a camera while doing the latter, here's a video of him being tickled.

Tickling Graham from Katie on Vimeo.

Our growing family

Remember how we're having another baby? That's only about three months away now (late-September-ish), which suddenly seems REALLY SOON in lots of ways. I can definitely tell that my innards are not all where they are supposed to be, and that I'm warmer than usual (I'm not even cold at work), and that I have a little more trouble catching my breath. The last two are great, by the way, when it's already 95 degrees out and you've had a cold (or sinus infection, or something) for about 4 weeks (last Thursday and 3 weeks ago were the low points; I'm breathing better this week and can once again climb stairs, and hope I'll be 100% soon). I also get kicked a lot, which is still fun and not painful, and we're going to start thinking about names any day now. Maybe next week.
Since someone else will eventually be using Finn's crib, we got him a big boy bed last weekend, hopefully early enough that we'll have plenty of time for him to make the transition. We put it up in his room yesterday, and so far he's a BIG fan. He likes to climb on it, and lie down and pretend snore, and point out all the animals on the blanket: monkey! fish! elephant! unintelligible jabbering! (In the photos, please also note his new dinosaur pajama shirt, which he would wear all day every day, if allowed.)
Generally speaking, Finn's a great napper these days. He goes down reliably, at a predictable time, sleeps for 1-2 hours, and is pretty okay when he wakes up, especially if you have a glass of milk waiting. And maybe a graham cracker. And a dinosaur book. And patience for dirty looks. But he's still more likely to sleep longer if he sees someone in the room with him when he comes half awake, so the best thing for now about the new bed in his room is that I get to take naps when he does now, instead of just hanging out in there and reading. I'm psyched.

Getting funner

Finn is a big boy now, 14 months. Almost ready to leave for college. He likes to do his own thing. Like last week, when I decided that I would check my email and let him amuse himself without my watchful eye. After perhaps a few minutes too long, I realized that things were a little too quiet. I found him in the kitchen. He'd opened a drawer and checked its contents. It happened to be the plastic bags/foil/wax paper drawer. Apparently most of these things were not interesting enough, and he'd carefully (maybe) put them into a little pile, until he found the box of sandwich bags. Much like a pop-up Kleenex box, removing a baggie only led to another! I walked in to find him grabbing the 2nd-to-last bag, and grabbed the camera. His face shows that this was just a normal day at the office.



He likes to make loud noises. This video is great. He also really likes to look at LCD screens.

Danger, cymbals! from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Have your cake and eat it too:

Graham cracker or cymbals? Both! from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

A touch of the cold

Finn's been pretty sick this week with some kind of chest cold. We decided not to bring him to daycare, so I stayed home with him Tuesday, Katie took Wednesday, and then today Katie had her usual Thursday at home. As you can see below, the illness hasn't effected his mood. We were moving too fast for the camera to know what to do!

Friday he goes back to daycare. :)

He's been talking a bit more lately. "Bow" (ball) is pretty common, and today, out of the blue, he said "nana" twice when it was banana time at breakfast. And "dada" when I was coming in to put him to bed. So maybe he's been saving this up! He still says "mamamama" sometimes, but kind of randomly. On the food front, he's been enamored with graham crackers lately. He can't get enough! We think he likes the he can hold the whole cracker in his hand and decide how big of bites to take. Plus, they're real tasty.

Who's not excited to bring their 13-month-old baby on a 4-hour plane ride? We're not! He can't sit still for 2 minutes. Ug. It looks like a totally full flight, and we don't yet have an aisle seat.

Mama's home... and Happy 4th of July!

I made it to and from Anaheim safe and sound. It was a great trip - I met some neat people, saw some interesting talks, got some free books, and had a wonderful time with Nina, my Mom, and Teri (yay Disneyland!). By Monday I was really looking forward to going home, though, and on Tuesday I ended up flying standby and getting a much earlier flight so I could be home before Finn's bedtime.

Here's my mom at the conference trying out the Wii Fit, getting hit on the head with a soccer cleat. Good times. Yes, this was part of the conference.

Mom on the Wii Fit from Katie on Vimeo.
And here's Finn's reaction to seeing me at the airport. He may have thought I was never coming back.

Reunion from Katie on Vimeo.

Finn got a crazy cold while I was gone, and has basically been a big snot ball for days. I don't know how we'd survive without our Nosefrida, or how that much snot comes out of that little nose. Eeew. He even finally got so sick it affected his moods; Christine and Dereck were visiting from New Jersey the other day and got to meet Finn for the first time, and I don't know if they believe that he smiles. But we turned a corner yesterday, and despite the snot and the new teeth and the weather, he's our little grinner again.

Oh! And yesterday while sitting in a little wagon at Jason & Gwen's 4th of July barbeque, he pulled himself up to standing, and then sat back down. I missed it, but Jonathan was there. Soon he'll be running all over, I'm sure, but in the meantime he can still only crawl in his head.
Also, he LOVES plums - thanks Jason & Gwen!

Happy 4th from Finn! More at my and Jonathan's Flickr sites.

Back to our regularly scheduled life

The photo above is from Poet's Seat, in Greenfield, MA. (Hi Ben and Martha!) Well, we're back and getting adjusted to life again. To those who may have been wondering, Finn got over "the crud" several days before we left for Boston, and he was fine while we were there. Katie got a cold when we got back to California, and it seems like Finn may have that now...but he's certainly better than he was in say, April.

Finn is getting better at sitting and standing. Sitting up is no problem, and he can even steady himself sometimes when he starts to fall. In the past couple of days I've been letting him stand up next to the coffee table, and he can hold himself up and even grab at stuff on the table. Any movement left or right and he loses it, though. We took a little movie which we'll post very soon.

Yesterday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with some of Katie's NYU Law School friends. As expected, Finn loved it. His favorites were the silvery anchovies and the pink and orange jellyfish. He tries to grab them and even bonks his head on the glass.

Hey, it's June?! Yikes.

Leaving on a Jet Plane / 6 months!

Tonight we'll be packing up a large suitcase, a big backpack, a small backpack, a purse, another bag, a car seat, and a diaper bag, in preparation for our non-stop flight to Boston tomorrow morning. In Boston I have two scientific meetings (I'm giving a talk at each), and we'll be staying at 2 different hotels and with 2 different sets of friends.

Thankfully we won't have to bring all of our baby gear, as we'll be renting a stroller and exersaucer from www.babysawaynewengland.com. They even deliver! The family has emerged relatively unscathed from Katie's final school projects, which are now essentially done. Katie is looking forward to relaxing in Boston Common with Finn while I'm droppin' my science. This will also be a nice test to see if Finn starts feeling better after 12 days away from the Northern California air / daycare air.

His 6-month checkup yesterday went as well as expended. (Yesterday was also his 6 MONTH BIRTHDAY! Where has the time gone?!) He still has the crud, but is otherwise healthy. His growth is slowing a bit: 18 lbs, 11 oz (73rd percentile) and 26 inches (50% percentile.) He's still got a big noggin though (80th percentile). I think the next solid food we'll try will be bananas.

Big week, featuring: TEETH!

The chaos continues here at Casa Fortney. I have one project left, and it's about half done. Hopefully in another day or two I'll be turning it in, and then I can return to being a reasonably stable, functioning person who responds to e-mails, reads books, and goes outside. In the meantime, the breaks to feed Finn and play with him and hang out with him and Jonathan help me stay slightly sane.

This week marked the appearance of Finn's first tooth, followed closely by his second:
I think the new weird face he makes is tooth related... it's this weird wide mouthed smiling-grimace-with-chomping-motion. We'll try to get a picture. Also growing: the hair! Not going to be long any time soon, but definitely getting fuller and fluffier.

Another first this week: solids! Well, semi-solids. It's just about the six month mark, so we've tried a couple rounds of rice cereal. Finn's a big fan.Then we got too busy, and too grossed out by the diapers, so we might not try again until after Boston. We'll see.
Because they feed him so much more at day care than I can pump when I'm away from him, he's also had formula for the first time this week. I know lots of wonderful mothers who've fed their babies formula for one reason or another, so I'm not guilty about it (not really), but I AM annoyed that we've had to introduce this complication into our routine. Formula requires mixing, and has its own set of rules, and costs money (theoretically - our free samples should last us quite a while at this rate). Also, since formula is either milk or soy based, this really isn't helpful as we try to figure out if Finn has milk or soy intolerance issues.

Wanna see how well he sits up now (and how little he cares when he falls over)? Watch this movie of him playing with Murray:

Tummy time is pretty infrequent and short-lived these days, though, because he's gotten so good at the front-to-back rolling over. No interest in the back-to-front, though. He's generally either perfectly content to stay exactly where he is, or completely sick of the entire house/room/state and DEMANDS IMMEDIATE AND EXTREME RELOCATION.

Did Jonathan mentioned the mucous is back? It's some completely different snot sickness this time - he had a fever on Friday and I had to go pick him up from day care early. But the bedtime routine is going great, and we're getting more sleep than we were three or four weeks ago.

I've had a good first Mothers Day. Mostly it's been homework, but I did make some cookies, and Jonathan and Finn ran a TON of errands that were stressing me out. I got some kitchen stuff (and LASIK) and later this week I'm getting a trip to Boston. :) Keep your fingers crossed for me and I may just make it through these next few days...

Pulling the Plug

One of the "lesser joys" of having Finn in our lives is that we're well acquainted with with stumbling through our darkened house to find out why he's crying instead of sleeping. Before the crud set in 3 months ago, he was waking up 2-3 times a night. OK, fine. Since the crud, this increased to 4-5, as he would sometimes cough himself awake or have trouble breathing easily. There was a bout of super-crud (worse than usual) 2+ weeks back, and he stepped it up to waking up 8-10 times a night! Yeah... However, by the end of that run, all it would take to put him back to sleep was sticking the pacifier back into his mouth. It was instant-back-to-sleep that rocking, patting, and bouncing could not bring. The pacifier would drop out while he slept, then when he woke up, he would wonder where it was and started wailing. Nothing else was wrong.

The solution? No more pacifier. We started on Monday and life has improved considerably. It is harder to get him to go sleep without it? Sure. But when he wakes up, we know since there is no pacifier there is nothing that WE can do to help him go to sleep. He's gotta learn on his own. And he is. His wake-ups are shorter and they're more whimper now than wail. Katie is still feeding him 3 times a night, and I change a diaper during feeding 2, but that is WAY better than 10 times. (We have been caving in on the pacifier from 4-6 a.m. because he's a terrible sleeper then, but soon we'll take that away too.) Hopefully soon we'll move to 2 feedings, and then if the crud EVER leaves, we can probably get down to 1.

It's a little know fact (well known to some) that I had a pacifier until I was X years old (actual number withheld due to embarrassment, but it is less than 5), so I'm fine with him stopping now and managing on his own. We'll see what I think on our 5 1/2 flight to Boston next week.

Congrats to Auntie Jeanna!

Jeanna and Craig are getting married! March 28, 2009! Yay you guys! They live in DC but are coming to Minnesota to get married. It'll be a good time.

In Finn news, we're past 2 1/2 months and the crud is still with him. He seemed to be getting better, but then he caught my cold, we think. His chest x-ray came back normal, which is good. Katie is going to try altering her diet (no milk and soy) to see if that helps him, too.

He wheezes, coughs, smiles, and giggles all through the day, and wheezes, coughs, cries and whines all through the night. Yeah.... We're going to Boston/Harvard for 11 days in mid/late May, and we HOPE he is in better shape by then.

Here we are on Finn's first hike, from about 10 days ago. We went to the Montalvo Arts Center in nearby Saratoga. An old-timey California senator left his hilly vacation home and grounds to be used as a center for the arts. In a break in the forest there are great views of Silicon Valley.

New stroller, and other excitement

New Gear
You know how we keep saying how huge he's getting? It finally hit us a week or two ago that that meant more than outgrowing his clothes - he's approaching the weight limit on his car seat! Convertible car seats researched; car seat ordered; arriving today. Check!

Up to now, our car seat (+ a handy frame) has also been our stroller, so we had to get a new stroller, too. Again with the research, again with the shopping, and we're now the proud owners of two shockingly neon colored baby transport devices. There's a bright orange very basic folding one we're keeping in the car for short walks on smooth surfaces like the floor of Target until he gets big enough to sit up well in the cart, and then there's this awesome monster:

It's not the clearest photo, but it seems to be the best wide-angle shot I have so far. More glamour shots of the new ride, including one where you can see how much Finn likes it, at Flickr.

I love it. Since we go for multiple-hour-long walks 2 to 5 days a week over bumpy urban terrain, we (I?) decided we needed something a little more robust than little plastic wheels, and these 12" inflated ones make for a much smoother ride than the old stroller. It's like going over sidewalk cracks on a bike instead of roller skates. The only drawbacks are that this has a smaller storage bin (how am I supposed to go grocery shopping?) and not-too-great sun protection, so the first accessory we purchased was the sun cover. Also, it makes me wish we had a garage to stick it in. But you know what's cool? You can stick a second seat on the back. Or the front, actually.

New Skills
We're getting closer and closer to sitting up. He does great at it, actually, as long as I put toys by his feet so he leans forward instead of back, and sit behind him to serve as a bumper for the inevitable falling over.

Not that he minds the falling over. Apparently it's hilarious to suddenly find yourself lying back on the Boppy. But then, so many things are hilarious when you're Finn.

Finn also thinks he's ready to branch out from breastmilk. He's been eyeing our food pretty intently, especially my morning oatmeal, and likes to try and grab for my glass when I get a drink of water. I've let him try to drink from the glass a couple times, but that just gets drool in my water and water on his clothes. So actually this is more of an "interest" than a "skill" at this point. We're waiting for the six month mark to officially start on other foods, which is just a few short weeks away. Should be interesting.

Same Old Cough

Dr. Lee finally resorted to antibiotics to try and help Finn get rid of his... whatever it is that is/was causing his coughing and mucus issues (cold? sinus infection? asthma?). The primary and immediate result of this was diarrhea (silly antibiotics, killing off good bacteria with the bad), which led to the worst diaper rash EVER, which led to our first disposable diaper purchase in months because you're not supposed to get creams all over the wicking layer of our cloth ones. Happy Earth Day!

I'm not sure about the cough. He's definitely less mucus-y, but he still coughs more and sounds kinda thicker than I think he ought to, or than I remember from what he was like when this started two months ago. So we'll see.

More Grandma Visits

My mom gets here Thursday afternoon and will be here for nearly a week. I'm looking forward to getting caught up on homework and taking some serious naps. And guess what? I'm getting LASIK on Friday. Whee!

Interaction & Distraction

I'm often asked how I manage school, work, and a baby. The answer is that sometimes I don't, which is how Jonathan got in two posts since my last one. I realize that's hardly the end of the world, but I try do to make this a priority since our loved ones are so spread out. It's been a full couple weeks around here, and things are only going to get busier.

Finn turns 5 months old in a week, and he's definitely growing more interested and knowledgeable about the world around him. Whereas before his reactions seemed mostly categorizable into "pretty!" "bright!" and "face!" he's become much more discerning. Some objects (like brightly colored toys) are more interesting than others; people are generally more interesting than objects; and cats are more interesting than people. He's differentiating among different people more, too: he can be in a perfectly good, smiley mood with Jonathan or Mary while I'm off getting homework done, and then I walk in the room and he sees me and just overloads, at least smiling, but several times smiling briefly and then dissolving into tears - often tears mixed with laughter. Fortunately the tears can usually be stemmed by feeding him or taking him to wherever Mona is. Murray just sits around sometimes and is apparently boring, but Mona is rarely still, and has even let Finn grab her ears. It was a big hit.
Here's a video of Finn playing, taking a break to admire Mona across the room, and then going back to what he was doing. It's a little hard to see his face at this size, so I tried uploading it to Google Video as well, where it appears to be pretty pixelated, and therefore not much better. Obviously this is something I need to look into a little more. Anyway, there you go.
"Toys... kitty!... hey, look, a star thing... kitty!... yawn...kitty!..."


Mostly his increased interest in the world around him is a good thing, but there is at least one drawback. My boy, who has always been a champion eater, now usually has to have something draped over his head to nurse. Otherwise Jonathan's or my voice, the sound of my spoon against my oatmeal bowl, or nothing at all, can cause him to pop off and turn to see what's going on. Sometimes he'll take a long break to tell me what's on his mind before he resumes his meal. It's adorable, but can be a bit frustrating. Here he is on one of his meal breaks.
He's got really good torso strength these days, and I feel like it won't be too long before he's sitting up. He hasn't yet repeated his rolling over feat, but he's getting closer. He also still has the cough that started in mid-February, which means none of us are getting a ton of sleep; some nights I don't get more than 90 minutes at a stretch. Before the cough I think 3 or 4 hours at a time was not unusual. We've been to see Dr. Lee a few times, and we're sure eventually he'll kick it. In the meantime, the Children's Benadryl got us a couple nights with five or six hour stretches (now he's apparently Benadryl-resistant), and now we're trying a special baby inhaler three times a day which he just LOVES, as I'm sure you can imagine.

More photos, including some cute Bumbo shots, at Flickr.

Finn has a cold, but he doesn't let that keep him from having a good time.

Finn's caught his first cold. It's mostly just a throat/sinusy-sounding-thing- no fever, hardly any runny nose, and it doesn't seem to bother him too much most of the time. He has been sleeping more (though not as soundly) and eating well. He just gets cranky a little more often, for which I can't blame him, since it must suck to not be able to control when you cough or sneeze, and then to add insult to injury we keep sticking stuff up his nose.
It was officially more than normal baby snortiness as of about Saturday, so we started running the humidifier and having him sleep at an incline then (well, actually, he sleeps in an inclined position most of the time, so we were a step ahead on that one). The cough and congestion got a little bit worse every day over Presidents' Day weekend, and we weren't sure how long these things were supposed to last, so we called the doctors' office yesterday. They said that it sounded like a basic cold, but since he was so little, we could go ahead and come in and they'd squeeze him in to check on things. Dr. Lee confirmed that his lungs sounded fine, much to our relief, and there really wasn't anything to do but keep an eye on him and wait it out. So that's what we're doing.
But - as a bonus of making the trip to the office, we have more official weight data: 15 pounds, 13.something ounces. Big Finn!
In other news, Finn is officially ticklish. Here's proof:


The best and biggest giggles, of course, we never have the camera handy for. For instance, just now he was getting cranky while I was writing this, so I danced and sang a bit to the Cake song that's playing on the stereo, and he thought that was hilarious.
To be fair, it probably was.