Author: seannarae

These fits almost always occur after he has been running around unhindered, like on a playground or open turf. But they also happen in the middle of the night, and when they do, are usually more severe. These fits almost always end with him lungeing for the sippy.cup anna or i try to have on hand for him these days. We now call it the “coughy cup.” We just KNOW its been a productive cough because he ends up chewing & swallowing after the gag at the end of the coughing fit. “Would you like some coughy with that phlegm, sir?”

He just finished his 10-day cycle on the augmentin. He never missed a dose. Simply put, he f’ing LOVED taking his medication. The nebuliser is a wee different story.

The nebuliser, if you dont already know, is a devices that uses compressed air to turn a liquid medication into a mist that is then inhaled by the patient. Most often it seems, the medication is a steroid of some sort, and is most commonly prescribed to those with asthma who need to bring the medication straight to the lungs.

The device consists of a compressor feeding a tube where at the end there is a contraption that ‘nebulises’ the air and channels it out into a stream. We pour the contents of .5ml capsules of “The Goods” into the contraption, close it up, fire the compressor and do our best to keep the stream of mist flowing straight into Jude’s nostrils. To keep him from TOTALLY bugging out, we give him a pacifier and an episode of The Teletubbies. It takes about 6-7 minutes for one of the capsules to be completely used.

now, we’ve been giving him the nebuliser for almost a week now, once a day in the mornings. Again, there has been tragically little progress in his coughing. We’re not sure how long we are supposed to be giving this treatment to our lil man. We will most certainly be making another appointment with Dr Dow before we leave for Orange County for the holidays.

This time last year, Jude was a wreck and mess with ear infections. He managed to rack up 6 discreet ear infections, sometimes with simultaneous infections in both ears, or more often back to back no more then 2 weeks apart. Dr Dow once confided in me that 5 was the most he had seen in one season for a child (then) Jude’s age. So, 6 was way more then average. But this season, he’s had NONE. This could be due to at least two factors: An increase in the width/development of his ear canals [a] or [b] A lack of chronic colds which cause and/or exacerbate ear infections.

Personally, i feel Jude to be a FAR healthier child once he left the infectious environment of The Kids Place in Corte Madera. Despite their Gestapo-like efforts to keep their daycare healthy, Jude was sicker there then Dr Dow has ever seen from a daycare center. “Daycare Crud” is simply a fact of life for children his age. Contageous? Yes. Manageable? Completely. To have a child spend a stretch of 6 continuous months leapfrogging from one cold to the next? Unacceptible. So while the season IS young, Jude has not had a single cold at his current daycare.

This cough is something unique. No runny nose or other symptoms to report. It has now been almost 3 months since he’s had what Anna and i would consider a ‘chronic’ and ‘productive’ cough.

This began on Friday night 9/26 upon our arrival in Santa Barbara for the engagement party of Jena Jenkins & Jan Martinez. As soon as we put the little man down on the bed at the hotel, he started to arch his back & body is such a way that he was pivoting & teetering on that one hip. He was [this close] to rolling over. We had NO idea at what age these creatures ought to be rolling over, but if felt like he was early, just shy of his 4th month birthday. With the grunts & groans of anything trying to heft the better part of its own weight from Here to There, he kept trying and kept trying, only getting as far as the left hip. Only to collapse back onto his back in tears under the fatigue of the continued effort. By Saturday morning, with an audience of Jena & Jan, he seemed to get a wee bit further towards the goal as he would find that notch and just hang out there on the left hip. For the rest of the weekend and on into the beginning of the week, he would try his new move whenever he had the chance. The most “amusing” being that 4 second span between being placed into the car-seat and being strapped into it. But on Tuesday afternoon 9/30, Anna calls me at work literally screaming. She had placed the lil dood down to beat his rhino whilst she went downstairs to fetch the laundry. But upon coming back up the steps, there he was on his stomache. “I fucking missed it!” she cried. But soon afterwards, non unlike the training wheels coming off, he began to roll over more frequently then she she could count, always to the left. And it wasnt until Thursday night that i finally saw it. Now, he his literally spinning over not only to the left, but to the right as well. Furthermore, he is reportedly rolling back over in a baby’s version of a 360. Again, i have yet to see this. It is not until DAD sees the event that it becomes real!!

I think it was also on the Santa Barbara trip that he discovered another new trick. It is no insignificant trick either. AS i’ve been trying to tell him, as a boy growing up, it is one of the most important noises he, as a boy, CAN MAKE. For those boys who can achieve higher & more realistic executions of this trick, their social status amopngst their peers will most certainly be elevated. For boys anyway. I am of course referring to the almighty Fart Noise.

Ok, he’s a slobbery baby. So much so that we thinks the excess of spit is the precursor to early teething. Whatever the case, he’s producing so much slobber that anythng that even THINKS of coming in contact with his mouth will get slippery wet. So, add to this the his achievment of pursing his lips and blowing air thru them. Viola: the ones & zeros of the Fart Noise. With his level of moisture, the fart noise becomes the moist sloppy kind. Sometimes, right after i wipe away the fuel from his mouth, he’ll crack-out one of the more classical staccato farts, only thereafter to degrade again into the messy wet farts. Of all the milestones thus far, i am most proud of this one. He’s getting really good at it. He’s putting some vocalisations behind them, which gives them the bass & heft & authentic sound of The Real Thing. And these are SO LOUD for such a little big man! Call me juvenile, but the more realistically he can create these magical sounds, the more revered he’ll be by his mates, and the more effective he’ll be at making people smile.

And in a much more sad milestone, Jude has also caught his first illness. There was an episode in mid to late September where we were sure he had pink-eye. Not so much because his eye was teary and red, but more so because Dad developed a funky stye in his eye not too long after that. But this is different. This is a full-blown cold, complete with the stuffy yet runny nose, the sneezing and the coughing, the loaginess and the lack of appetite. And Dad gave it to him. We had just come back from the baptism in arizona where i had caught the legendary 5-day bender cold. No sooner did i make it out of those woods then he starts to develop the same thing. Have you ever tried to suck thru a straw with your nose clogged? How about a nipple? You CANT! Feeding has become crazy hard. And you lie a baby horizontal with all that gunk in his head, and it just turns to concrete and the pressure increases. In a reality where for the next 15 years it will be HIM that gives US these illnesses, i’m not too sure how i feel about having given HIM his first.

He’s clearly getting us back by keeping us up every hour of the night by waking up in his crib and practicing what else: the high-decible fart noises and thrashings of a little big man rolling over & over in his crib.

joy…

(Originally Posted: 2003_1010)

there is the slow growth which reveals itself in spurts and moments of realisation. “oh man these pajamas are already too small for him” and then there is the growth where the progress is tangible enough to taste. some of the first hints i’ve had that i’m dealing with an intelligent being and not some glorified pet was the Cause & Effect reactions he began to develop round about the 2nd month. of course, there was the shallow-slumber, startling-awake, freak-out wake-ups we’d endure when a loud noise was made. then came the smiles.

at first on their own seemingly without specific causes. then later, there arose a distinct pattern to the smiles. we had insane success with getting the lil dood to smile on cue. wether it be an open-mouth to bare-belly fart or simply the gobbley-gook JudeSpeak one hears around our house, he had a smile for us that took over his whole face. and they’re all day long. when he first sees us in the morning: he’s smiling. when you sneak a peek at him to see if he’s still awake or finally asleep: he’s smiling. when you reach around to console him when he’s fussy in the car: he’s smiling. his smiles even have him at-odds with his other emotions, for when he’s cranky enough to burst into screams, you can throw him a curve by squeaking a kiss on his neck. this puts him into a fit of dualing emotions as the smile cuts thru thru the furled brow as if he were a Muppett.

he had begun to use his voice around the same time. the only patern here being that he was most vocal when he was beating his rhino or in a session with his therapy-bears. sometimes he’s pipe-off a few sentences while he swung watching melrose with anna in the mornings. yet it was at mario’s BBQ in early to mid-august where something spectacular happened. he had just pounded 8 ounces and was being sat upright on my knee facing out towards the party-goers. he just began to orate. it was very important that he hear himself say what he had to say. it seemed that the more he heard himself, the more he would speak. he wasnt playing with the volume of his voice so much as the articulation of the voice. it sounded so authentic that the only missing element was the subtitles underneath him. From then on out, he took advantage of the post-feed-knee to express his opinions. and it hasnt stopped there. he’s liable to sit in his swing and have lengthy conversations with the telly, his llama, or just with himself.

and here enters The Screech. In his first call & response action, he had a week where he was practicing his squeals of delight. Yet, not so much on his own, by himself. No. These were in direct response & reaction to similar noises from anna or myself. Anna would hit a pitch like bird, and a few seconds later, he’s respond with a pitch & decibels that would shatter a wineglass. One right after the other. Call & Response. But about the 24th consecutive hour of this, we thought it best to cease & desist. They were cute, but highly disturbing for the hour before bedtime. But The Screech is gone. For when we stopped the bird noises, so did he. And now we cannot get him to do them again, at all. Now that they’re gone, we miss them.

Yet, in the week since i wrote this, he’s begun something that just trumps them all…

(Originally Posted: 2003_1001)