Dear Gabe- 7 Months

Dear Gabe,

You turned 7 months old two weeks ago and in two more weeks I'll be writing your 8 month old letter to you. You are still a really good baby (despite the whole turning blue-breath holding spell thing) and it's been amazing seeing you learn more things each day. What are you like at 7 months old? Happy. Happy. Happy. You just love sitting up and watching your sisters play around you. Lily still adores you so much and DOES NOT let you cry at all. If you start to fuss, she will run from playing in the play room and see you and make you laugh and smile to stop crying. It's the cutest thing ever. She will still talk to random people when we are out and about and say "This is baby Gabe. Mommy had him in her belly for 9 months and then he was born at the hospital". Grace who ignored you for the most part of your life (she's a girl on the move) is now taking after Lily and interacting with you and being a great big sister too. She calls you "Gabey".

 You have 6 teeth now (the two middle top ones just starting coming in when you turned 7 months old). You have 4 teeth on top and two on bottom. You just look so much older now. You now only nurse 4-5 times a day and eat baby cereal and baby food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You seem to like all of it so I'm hoping you will like your veggies later on like your big sisters. I recently have given you Gerber Puffs to try and also sippy cups! Your favorite things to do are being held in the baby carrier on mommy (it's a lifesaver!), playing with balls, putting everything in your mouth, bouncing while people hold you and in the Jumperoo, taking walks in the stroller- we can walk miles and miles and not hear a peep from you- you just like exploring everything! You are nowhere near crawling and you may skip that all together (crawling isn't a milestone anyways so it's okay to skip) I think part of that reason is you never need to reach or try to get anything for yourself- Lily is always there to help you if you need something. Luckily for the video monitor I can see you are practicing crawling in your crib :) We've been signing with you and you can sign "milk" and we are now just waiting for those precious first words----mama or dada! Which will be first? You  also like giving people hugs, playing "peek-a-boo" and "How Big Is Gabe?".

Here are some of my favorite pictures from last month:

Blame the whole flower headband thing on your sisters.

teething, teething, teething

At the zoo!

You love this toy car that Aunt Erica got you for Easter.

Riding in the Jeep stroller- at the March of Dimes Walk.

You think Baby Jamie is hot- check out the drool!

So happy!

First time eating puffs

I love binky smiles.

Trying bananas for the first time....

you like it!

Mmmm carrots!

Such a big boy now!

7 months old

Drawing look-a-likes

Check out this drawing Grace made the other day. Lily was doing "homework" for school (drawing her family in her "All About Me" book) while Grace was coloring across from her. I sorta knew that Grace could draw people now since I caught a glimpse of a person figure on her Magna Doodle one day before she erased it. She made this all by herself. No help from Lily or I. The only thing Lily and I did was put the caps back on her markers. Girlfriend doesn't always put them back on after coloring.

Seriously- isn't this so cute?  She said it was "Gabey" (her new nickname for Gabe) ...

I, on the other hand, thought it looked exactly like Oscar the fish from the movie Shark Tale. Am I the only one who sees it?

She also was very proud of the rainbow she made too.

Can't wait to see what other creative stuff she can come up with!

Lily's Spring Break

Lily was on spring break the week after Easter and since we weren't going anywhere for vacation that week or really doing anything terribly fun, I asked her to tell me 5 things she would like to do while on spring break. These were her answers (exactly how she said them):

So we set out to do the items on her list.

First we went to the zoo (we ate lunch there too so two things got crossed off the list!). We saw our favorite animals (the girls really like the monkeys and aquarium), ate lunch at the Fisher-Price Little People tables (Lily requests this every time and mainly wants to go to the zoo to eat lunch at those tables) and then played at the playground there. Lily and Gabe shared the double stroller with Gracie and it was a perfect day- no meltdowns by anyone, nobody got lost and I definitely got my exercise walking around pushing the heavy double stroller and wearing Gabe in his carrier.

she hearts the zoo

playing at the playground

making a wish in the fountain

watching the orangutan...

...he kept dipping paper in a puddle and then having the water drip in his mouth.

eating lunch at her favorite spot

Lily loves Dr. Seuss books and declared we needed some more. Of course, she only picked out one Dr. Seuss books and moved on to the "Word Bird" books.

We planned a play date with her best friend C and the girls enjoyed painting their nails with Strawberry Shortcake nail polish!

Baby Jamie enjoyed taking a walk around the mall with Lily. We also showed Baby Jamie the Disney store. Who doesn't love the Disney store?

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Lily was also super lucky and had her very first sleepover with her best friend C. I was more nervous for her since back in August when I was super pregnant with Gabe, her best friend C's family took her to pick blueberries and Lily cried most of the time (later she told me she cried because she missed Grace). I was afraid she would end up crying and we would have to pick her up at 2 a.m. or something. She did awesome though and had so much fun! She wanted to stay late the next morning and skipped the March of Dimes walk with us so she could play with her best friend longer. I can't believe she is old enough to spend the night at a friend's house! We are now starting to plan for her friend to sleep over at our house :)

Ready to spend the night! She brought "Flowers" her Build-a-Bear that she sleeps with and of course Jamie (Jamie was in her sleep over bag).

They went to Steak n' Shake to eat.

 

Isn't this super cute- a memento of her first sleep over that C gave her. Lily is so lucky to have C as her best friend!

Freaky Friday

Last Friday (Friday the 13th) we were all eating Chipotle at home for lunch. No wait, that's not right. My girls don't eat that kind of food and of course Gabe doesn't eat that either. Marty and I were eating our Chipotle for lunch and the girls were enjoying a wonderful healthy lunch of Chicken McNuggets from McDonald's and talking about their new Squinkies Happy Meal toys (for the record Grace got the dragon and Lily got the unicorn). Gabe was in his high chair and had just finished eating some yummy pear baby food. He started crying (he was finished eating and super tired) and so I stopped eating my super awesome Chipotle and got him out of his high chair. He needed to take a nap but first I wanted to nurse him before nap time. I started walking toward the couch (he was happy in my arms since he knew he was going to nurse) but then I decided I should probably change his diaper first and THEN nurse him. I laid him down to change his diaper and he started crying. No big deal, right? But no sound was coming out of his mouth and he was turning blue. This has happened a few times before that he would cry and start turning blue and you just blow in his face gently and he is able to breath and cry again. Not this time though- I tried blowing in his face over and over but he just turned bluer and bluer. I quickly realized that the blowing in his face was not working and I picked him up (diaper-less and all) and started yelling for Marty (he was 5 feet away from me enjoying his Chipotle). I gave him to Marty- and was yelling Gabe's name over and over and grabbed the phone to call 911. I dialed 911 and then waited a few seconds before pressing "Send". Gabe finally started breathing again and I didn't finish that phone call to 911. He was only unresponsive for 30-45 seconds but it felt like forever. I know infant cpr and was ready to use it but luckily Gabe became responsive again. It was the scariest moment of my entire life. Just seeing him go limp, have his face turn that horrible shade of purple-blue and for him to pass out and be unresponsive was every mother's worst fear. Once he seemed to act normal I called the doctor's office but they were on lunch. I then nursed him and instead of putting him to sleep in his crib, I held him and watched his chest rise and fall with each breath. My lunch was half-eaten, the table still a mess from lunch and Maisy kept ringing the bell to be let outside but I didn't want to move. I just wanted to hold my baby boy tight and thank God that he was okay. Three hours later while crying- he did it again! I blew in his face a few times and thankfully he stopped turning blue and holding his breath.

An hour after the breath holding incident- nap time in my arms

I worry a lot as a mom. A lot. Worrying so much is not fun. However, I have always heard stories from my mother-in-law about my brother-in-law doing this exact same thing while he was a baby. I also looked it up (yes you can't trust the Internet for a lot of information but I trusted  the WebMD diagnosis of breath holding spells). Gabe had all the symptoms of having a "Breath Holding Spell". Sounds like a fake thing, right? I thought so too. It usually happens to kids around 6 months to age 6 but around 1-3 years of age is when it happens the most. It's a reflex- children don't hold their breath on purpose :) Children with these spells can turn blue and pass out and if it's over a minute- call 911 and get help. It can happen every once in awhile or every day. Good news is that babies/children that experience breath holding spells WILL out grow it.

I called the pediatricians office again later when I knew they weren't on lunch anymore. I told the office lady what had happened and that Gabe was fine now sitting on the floor and playing. I had told her that I believed it was a breath holding spell and that my mother-in-law said my brother-in-law did it all the time. I told her that he has done it before but blowing in his face has always worked and that I can bring him in to get checked out if they would like me to. She told me that I HAD to take him to the Emergency Room at the hospital. I told her that I didn't really want to take him to the ER since he was completely fine at that point sitting and playing and acting like he did not just scare his mama. She then said that she has been doing this for over 20 years and that babies just don't turn blue for no reason. I had told her that he did it because he was crying and was so upset and that I was most certain it was a breath holding spell. I told her that I wanted to take him to the peditricians or even the Urgent Care Center but not really the ER since 1- It wasn't an emergency- he was playing and happy and his normal non-blue self, 2- We didn't have anyone to watch the girls and 3- We have already done the pointless 3 night stay in the hospital with Gabe and those bills were no fun to pay. She told me that she has never heard of breath holding spells and that mother-in-laws can be wrong. Lastly she asked the most horrible question ever to me: "How would you feel if he died in the middle of the night and you didn't know. How could you live with yourself as a mother?"  She didn't say it very nice either. After she asked that question I broke down and announced to Marty that we would be going to the nearest hospital RIGHT NOW since I didn't want to feel like an even worse mother than I already was. I have never felt more like a failure as a mother than I did at that moment. A simple "Honey, it's better to be safe than sorry" would have been a better approach. It's not like I didn't want him checked out... I did... just not at the ER.

After packing the girls little backpacks with snacks, books and their baby dolls (Jamie and Jessie) we headed to the ER and - get this- we were in and out of there in less than an hour! Gabe got to wear a cute little gown and then each doctor and nurse came in to tell us that it was indeed... a Breath Holding Spell and that basically Gabe is now the ruler of our house since we are afraid to let him cry :)

The girls were given Popsicles after their good behavior ER visit from the doctor

He hasn't had another breath holding spell since Friday. I'm going to laminate infant cpr instructions and post it on the fridge in case someone is babysitting when it happens (or in case I freak out again and go in shock).

Even though Lily and Grace were 5 feet away from Gabe when it happened, they didn't see Gabe turn blue (he was in the other room and the girls were at the table in the kitchen eating) but they did hear me yelling for Gabe to be okay and they in turn were yelling at me "Don't yell Mommy! Don't yell Mommy!" A half hour later I was putting the girls down for nap (my hands still shaking and holding a sweet and happy Gabe) when Lily asked me "Mommy do you not like my baby brother anymore?" I asked "Of course I love him, why do you ask that?" and Lily said "Because you were yelling at him and that's not very nice". That broke my heart hearing her say that. Oh, Friday the 13th was not a fun day. But it all worked out okay. Gabe is fine and I'm thankful Marty was home to help me.

Here is a picture from Gabe yesterday enjoying a walk in the stroller. See? Cute and happy - just like how I love him.

Bottle up time

While playing with Gabriel this afternoon, I realized I'd bottle up time and have him be 6 months old a bit longer if I could. I love his little facial expressions and just how sweet he is. Here's the cute faces he made while playing today.

He was looking at his reflection in the fireplace door and laughing.

Drooling :)