Library story time. And other stuff.

I'm feeling a little bad about being such a home body lately.  I feel like Y and Miss M are getting bored. I mean we leave the house every day twice to walk to C's school to get him (we probably walk over a mile a day), and probably twice a week we go grocery shopping (I find everyone's patience levels, especially mine, are a little better on shorter trips). But other than that we pretty much stay home. I have been reading to them a lot, and they play outside and we color and what not, but still not much in the way of experiences I guess.  I don't really have any friends here yet and we don't have groups or anything that we belong to.

So anyway I thought I'd take them to the library to get more books.  Then I saw that the library has story time for preschoolers! I realize most libraries have this. However, when the C-Monster stayed home with me I just didn't have the energy to expend in taking them to a place where I knew he would be completely crazy.  Seriously. I knew I wouldn't be able to do it, so we just didn't.  A park or children's museum is one thing; a library is something completely different. :)

But anyway, I thought we'd try it out today. Of course Ben didn't take a morning nap, I tried putting him down FOUR TIMES before we had to leave and he just wasn't having it. Bad baby!  The format of story time was good, they read a book and then the kids got up to sing a song and wiggle and whatnot, then sit back down to read another book.  I think they read 4 or 5  books total. I was just expecting the kids to have a good time, but instead they literally stood there like statues. They knew every song, but didn't sing at all, didn't move. And then I remembered - oh yes, they are introverts.  :)  We will keep going and I think eventually they will warm up and be able to have fun, but it will take a while. Y was getting really uncomfortable toward the end asking when we could leave, I think it was pretty overwhelming for him.  But I also think it's good to do some things like that, it's good for them to sit and pay attention, and hey, it's only 30 minutes a week, no biggie! Then we can get books afterwards and they always like to get new books.

So they were statues during all the times they were supposed to be wiggling and dancing and singing during the story time, then when we were waiting to check out books (I had to get a library card and it took forever) of course they are trying to climb up the counter, yelling and spinning in circles, running, etc.  Of course. Kids!

I don't even know what else to write about. Ben still stinks at sleeping, I am letting him cry now if he wakes up less than 2 hours after he last woke up during the night (if that makes sense). He is getting better, the past 2 nights he has had two stretches of 3.5 hours of sleep which I will take any day!  Last night he woke up 6 times, twice I let him cry and 4 times I nursed him.  So, there you go.

I'm getting anxious about Ben's weight and taking him to a new doctor for his 9 month check up. Yes, it's a month away.  I don't have access anymore to a good scale to weigh him on, but when I weigh myself on our home scale and then weigh myself holding him it's at least 13 pounds difference. Of course he wiggles the whole time so the scale number keeps changing until it finally settles on something, so it's hard to know if that's right or not (it's an electric scale). I hope he weighs more than that, but I can't be sure.  For his adjusted age (5 months) according to the WHO chart he is below the bottom percentile if he does actually weigh 13 pounds. I'm hoping it's closer to 13.5 pounds, but of course it would be even more awesome if he was, say, 15 pounds. Ha. :) On the CDC chart it looks like he would be on the chart at 13 pounds, but barely.

Also can I just say I am so frustrated with the NICU follow up clinic.  They scheduled his 6 month adjusted check up for 9/11 (yes, that's tomorrow). He will be 5 months and 1 week adjusted. I know that by his 6 month check up they want him to be sitting on his own. He is getting pretty good at sitting, but I would definitely not be comfortable just letting him sit on his own. Sometimes he still throws himself back, and if he gets distracted by something he'll fall right over.  I work with him on it every day.  He can support himself sitting with his hands for a minute or two before toppling. As far as I know he is hitting all milestones (for FIVE MONTHS which is how old he is technically!), he is a happy baby. Seriously everyone comments on what a good baby he is. Of course they don't have to try to sleep in the same room with him at night. ;)  He also talks a lot, he has great head control, he rolls front to back and back to front, he grabs things and puts everything in sight into his mouth, he uses both hands, he can pull his legs underneath him while he's lying on his tummy and kind of propel himself forward. We have even had a few moments where I lay him on a blanket on the ground, run to do something, and I come back and there is no baby on the blanket! It's those moments of "Ack! Where did the baby go???" Of course he doesn't get far. Yet. :)

Another thing is that we moved, obviously, and I have called them twice to see if we can get set up for a similar appointment with someone in our new town.  Of course, they haven't called me back yet.  So basically I can either just not show up at the appointment tomorrow or take 3 kids on about a 50-ish minute trip to our old town, go to the appointment,then drive 50 minutes home.  It's not a HUGE deal, but like I just mentioned, I don't think he will pass their "standards", therefore I'm sure they'll refer us to physical therapy, and I'll be darned if I'm going to make trips out there once a week or whatever for therapy when I know that our current city has just as good, if not better, options available.  Ugh, it is just so frustrating. I want him to be followed up on, I want him to meet all his milestones and if he doesn't then I want him to get the help he needs. But I DON'T want to be jerked around, and I think it's terrible that they never return phone calls, and  it's not fair to him to schedule his appointments a month before they are supposed to be scheduled and then expect him to meet the milestones for an age he isn't even at yet.

We haven't started solid foods yet, he's not really showing all the signs of readiness. I think in the next couple weeks we'll give avocado a shot and see how it goes though, and if he doesn't want it or doesn't do well we can wait a week or two and try again.  I'm kind of excited but also nursing is pretty easy and involves little to no clean up (except for washing pump parts and a bottle daily I guess), and I don't think I'm really looking forward to baby-food splatter again. That probably makes me sound like a terrible person but it's true! :)

I am going to stop rambling now. Yeah, that is what I am doing. :)

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