Hernia News

It's the best news: Simon doesn't have a hernia. The consulting surgeon could find no sign of one. The surgical resident couldn't either. Awesome! My little guy won't have to go under the knife. I guess Simon's pediatrician was a little overcautious and saw hernia where there was only a little fat pad in the groin area. The surgeon said the fat pad should go away in time. So that's where Simon's been storing his fat!

We Survive A Moderate Earthquake!

No news here. It scared the hell out of me, but nothing bad happened. It was only a magnitude 5.4 and the epicenter was about 40 miles away, but it felt pretty damn strong. Simon's first earthquake!

The only consequence: I was so shaken it took me 25 minutes to remember what I had been doing when the shaking began. I finally remembered when I noticed a used nursing pad on the ground near the trash can. That's it: I had been replacing a nursing pad. I had thrown the old one away and had missed the trash can, and while I was leaning over to pick it up the earthquake struck.

Teeth

Finally... Simon is getting his first tooth. I saw a little tiny dash of white on his lower gums yesterday, but wasn't sure it was a tooth. I couldn't feel any bump--his gums were as smooth as they've always been. Today I checked his gums and I could feel the tooth--a genuine "for real" tooth! It grew quite a bit overnight. The days of the cute gummy smiles are coming to an end.

The Latest

Very busy around here. Simon is 8 months old as of yesterday. Somehow I'm managing to teach/direct our Summer Theater program 3 days a week. Simon comes with me and plays with a babysitter most of the time. But every once in a while (several times a day) he cries and needs a visit from Mommy. And I have to drive him around to get him to take his mid-day nap. This nap tends to last 27 minutes. He's amazing with the short naps. The kids in theater love him. A 12-year-old girl even sewed a baby quilt for him! That's his Official Park Blanket now and he uses it all the time.

I'm still trying to fatten Simon up, although I have no idea how well it's working. I'm too scared to weigh him, as I'm tired of being disappointed. I'm now adding powdered egg yolk to some of his meals, for the added calories, fat, and protein. I introduced yogurt to him last week and he liked that a lot, too. I just don't understand what he does with all the calories I cram into him. What would he do without all my extra efforts? Starve to death?

Simon is crawling all over the place now. He's starting to pull up almost to standing, but the problem is he can't stand yet. He's getting better, though. He loves to stand and walk, so I have to hold him up or hover while he's holding himself up. Tiring. The weird thing is he hates to sit. He almost never does it. When he does, he can hold himself up pretty well, but he's always reaching for things and tipping over. I would love it if he would sit by himself and play with a toy, but that's not the way it works around here.

We go to see a pediatric surgeon for a consultation about the inguinal hernia on July 28. I'm not looking forward to it.

The Puzzlemaster

Here's Simon playing with a puzzle, from 6/30/08. Yes, he's wearing leg warmers (to protect his knees, okay?):

Medical News

Last week Simon saw his doctor to follow up on the weight issue. The good news is he grew an inch since his checkup a month ago. He's in the 25th percentile for height. More good news is that the blood tests came back normal. The okay news is that Simon only gained 9.2 ounces in the last month. I was hoping for more, but it's better than he did the month before last. He's still below the 5th percentile for weight, but the doctor says he's started a new curve upward. Hooray! I've been stuffing his face with high-calorie foods, but he still burns a lot of it off, especially now that he's learning to crawl. The doctor thinks everything is fine and that Simon's healthy, since he seems to be thriving in every other area, but she wants to make sure there's no medical reason for his low weight. They took a urine sample, and that came back normal, too. Simon had to wear a urine collection bag around his penis and under his diaper until he peed. Of course he didn't pee for a long time, so I had to go home and drive back to the lab later in the afternoon. Let me tell you, peeling the adhesive from the bag off of my son's tender skin made my teeth itch.

Now for the bad news... Simon has a hernia and needs surgery. In fact, he might have hernias on both sides of his groin. We have to go see a pediatric surgeon to find out more details. Yikes! It's not an emergency, but it needs to be taken care of. I can't imagine my baby having surgery, even the supposedly simple surgery of hernia repair. He might have to stay overnight in the hospital. That's going to be rotten. I'm not looking forward to it.

Swimming

This is from 6/22/08:

Creeping

This is from 6/25/08:



He's improved a lot since then.

Laughing

This is from 6/17/08:

I Read The Book!

I finally read T. Jefferson Parker's California Girl. I had to squeeze the reading in nights before going to bed. Do you know why? I can't read around Simon 'cause he wants to chew the pages, and he gets crabby if paper is denied him. So, I read it in small snatches over the last week. I hate reading that way. When I get into a book, I like to hole up and read large chunks of it at a time.

The verdict? I liked it. I was hooked pretty early on, and it was annoying to have to put the book down as often as I had to. That's all I have time to say about it--Simon's getting snooty and creeping around the living room requesting my assistance.