14.5 Months

I decided to do a quick post half way through the month because it seems like Nate is learning so many new things lately! We've been having such a fun summer so far and it hasn't even "officially" started yet!

Eating

We've had a rough few weeks with eating. It started with him not wanting to take his milk so much anymore. He goes through these stages every once in a while so we gave it some time to see if his appetite would perk up again. It didn't. He was eating almost half of what he normally does so we knew something was up with him. 

What really tipped us off was the return of daily throwing up. He started gagging on just about everything he ate, even stuff that he's done really well with for a while. A couple of Sundays ago, he was eating his little puffs during Sacrament meeting and started to gag. He ended up throwing up EVERYWHERE! Nate's clothes, my clothes, the bench, and the floor were covered. I just took him home but after a 5 minute walk in 90 degree weather, we both needed a bath when we got home. 

The next day, I took him into the doctor. This has happened before when he needs the dose of his reflux medication increased. We were hoping that Nate would be one of the many kids who can be weaned off his medication by the time he was a year old but it doesn't seem like he's quite ready :) Good news is, it worked and he went back to drinking all of his milk the very next day after the increase. 

Teeth

Nate has popped in a couple more new teeth so he now has 6 totally in and 2 more very close to breaking through. Luckily, these little side teeth haven't bothered him too much.

Favorite Foods

Nate has been all about fruit lately! Remember, he was the kid who hated fruit baby food. Apparently he is just picky about quality of the fruit he'll eat because now that it is in season, he can't get enough! His favorites are cantaloupe, watermelon, and strawberries. He's also really liking bread lately too. That makes outings much easier since bread is super portable and not very messy.

Favorite Toys

I don't know if he really has a new favorite toy right now. He's actually getting bored with his toy selection again. I realized that I still have a lot of little baby toys out for him to play with and he's thinking he's too big for them. I'm hoping just a couple of new little toys will keep him occupied again.

Crawling

No major improvements here. He's getting better at tolerating the crawling position when we force him into it. He still can't get there on his own. But he's figured out how to sit from the crawling position now so it's getting harder to work with him on it. 

Walking

Nate took some steps on his own today!!!!!!!! We have been waiting for this day for 10 weeks! That's right, for 10 weeks we have been hunched over holding Nate's hands to help him walk. My back is seriously dead so I'm hoping he'll really get it in the next couple of weeks or I'm going to have to hire the neighbor girls to come and walk my child :)

Talking

We've finally got some babbling going on now too! He's making the general "ba ba ba" sound but he can only do it if his tongue is sticking out so depending on how far he's got it out, we get some "da da da" and "pa pa pa" sounds too. That is a relief for us because it was getting pretty late and there were starting to be some concerns about the lack of forming consonant-vowel combination sounds. 

Memorial Day

Todd's family was all in town for Memorial Day this year so we took advantage of this rare occasion and took a trip up to the mountains for some 3-wheeler riding and campfire cooking. We had a great time. Nate loved watching all of the kids ride around and really like having so much space for walking. Hopefully it won't be another 2 years before the Jensens are all in town again.

Swim Class
Our local rec center offers a swim class for babies 6-18 months. It's just 4 classes and it was super cheap so I though it would be a fun activity for Nate and I to do together. We've been twice now and he absolutely loves it! He splashes from the time he touches the water until we get out a half hour later. He's not making very many new friends since he is the only baby in there that doesn't mind having his face splashed but he's having a great time :)

Doesn't he look so cute in his swimsuit? 

Misc

Here are a couple other random picture from the past couple of weeks. We sure have a wild boy on our hands!

Nate's especially crazy hair after his bath one night. You have to look VERY closely to see those 10 hairs sticking up :)

Having some water time in the backyard. He really liked splashing in the bucket and blowing bubbles.

WE LOVE SUMMER!!!!!!!!

Thoughts About the NICU

I don't usually express many personal experiences or feeling here on the blog (or ever really), but I had an experience today that I feel like I want to share. Maybe it can help my friends and family understand me a little better. Or maybe it can help another NICU family realize like someone else understands how they feel.

A friend of mine, who was at the NICU with her own 24 weeker born just a couple of days after Macie, Ellie, and Nate, posted a picture today of their recent visit to the NICU. It was a wonderful picture of a beautiful little girl and smiling doctors and nurses. The feelings that immediately came over me when I saw it really surprised me. I was jealous. Jealous that they live in Boise and get to go for visits any time they want. And jealous that we are 3 hours away and have only been able to visit once. I was so jealous that I became quite emotional. I kept thinking that it was so stupid. I was getting emotional that I couldn't go back to a place that I spent 140 days wanting nothing more than to escape? You've got to be kidding me! Why would I want to go back there so badly? Then, I suddenly realized why I was feeling that way. The NICU is our family. Not a single other person knows just how hard those 140 days were. Those doctors and nurses were there with us every minute of every day. They were there when the babies were born, when Ellie died, when no one thought Nate would make it either, when he did...twice, when I got to see them for the first time, when we got to hold Nate for the first time, when I called in the middle of every night for updates on Nate, when I had several emotional meltdowns, when Nate finally started to grow,  and when he finally got to come home. They were there during every setback and every step of progress. No one can understand what those days were like but the people who were there and helped us through it. No wonder I have such a connection to the NICU. The NICU feels like home to me. It is where some of the hardest and most emotional things I have ever experienced happened. And no one else experienced those moments with me more than my NICU family. I hope I always feel this connection to them and I hope, one day, Nate will grow to love them too.

Fire Station Open House

Our local fire station had an open house last weekend so we decided to take Nate. We had a fun time. He especially liked watching the kids spraying the fire hose and the cookies. That's right, Nate had his first cookie and loved it! It was even a gross fake Oreo. I can't wait until he tries something that's actually good :)

I love his new little hat!

He liked this hat much better :)

Fun on the fire truck