Rebecca's first month and a new harness

At Rebecca's 1 month check up on Mon Jan 3, the pediatrician suspected that she may have hip dysplasia and referred us to an orthopaedic doctor who we saw a few days later on that Thursday where it was confirmed that he had it and where she was outfitted in a Pavlik harness to stablize her hip in the right place.  She must wear the harness 24 hours a day.  We went to see Dr Tuten, a different orthopaedic doctor, on Monday Jan 8, who specializes in pediatric orthopaedics and who we're much happier with.  He expects Rebecca to stay in the harness for 6 weeks instead of 10, which is great news.  Rebecca doesn't seem bothered at all by the harness and it really is only an inconvenience for me since I can't take it off to bathe her and it makes her clothing options limited.   We've found a few outfits that are 1-2 sizes up that fit her nicely though.  I can still hold and cuddle with her fairly easily.

Rebecca in happy in her harness

Rebecca's first month has been less than consistent when it comes to her sleeping patterns.  However, the last few nights she has slept soundly from 10 or 11 pm to around 3 am.  She still has some trouble settling down to sleep after that middle of the night feeding, and often times spends the rest of the night in the bed with me, if Daddy is down sleeping on the sofa, making sure he is better rested for work the next day.  She settles down so much better sleeping beside me than she does when I try to put her back in the bassinet.  She might be asleep in my arms, but shortly after I put her in the bassinet, she starts stirring and awakens.   She does not have a consistent napping schedule during the day yet.  She slept long stints at a time the first couple of weeks but has started taking shorter naps with more awake time the older she gets.  She also is more easily awaken.  Her first few weeks she probably could have slept through a train coming through the house.

Ben - Feb 27, 2011

Ben got his first haircut today!  He and I looked at pictures of the hair studio online on Friday, with the hopes getting him excited about sitting in one of the car shaped chairs.  He cried when we sat him in the police car though and when the stylist sprayed his hair with water.  Once she offerred him a lollipop though, he was much better, sucking on it throughout his cut and getting it replaced with a new one when he complained that hair had gotten on it.  Ben's hair had gotten pretty long, but it got cut pretty short, with the stylist even using the clippers to shave the nape of his neck.  His new short cut looked so cute on him.  Daddy said he wished we'd gotten it cut much earlier.  I thought he looked cute with his longer hair too though!

Lara came to visit at lunch, bringing chick filet chicken and fries for Ben.  He loved dipping the fries in the polynesian sauce.  He whispered to Lara to request a sip of her Dr Pepper, later asking for "more" in a whisper, Lara thought his whispers were an attempt to keep me from hearing, which may be true!

Allie and Henry came over in the afternoon after nap, and Ben seems to love having them at the house.  He gave them lots of hugs throughout the afternoon.

Ben has started saying the word "heavy" once he picks things up, even  for things that really shouldn't be that heavy for him.  This evening he described his puzzles that he picked up to carry from the family room to the mud room as "heavy".  He wanted to play with them with me in the mud room for some reason.  He and I played with his blocks in the mud room and then with most of his puzzles, one by one.  He and I were playing with his blocks when he said "puzzle" and we walked into the family room and he said "animals", but the first puzzle he chose was his vehicle puzzle, eventually getting to each of his animal puzzles.  After we finished with all but his house puzzle, he sat on my lap on the family room floor while we read several stories out of the "Farm Tales" book that was Allie and Henry's.  When we used to look at that book, it was just to look for "woof woof" pictures, but he pulled it out again this weekend and was interested in hearing all of the stories.  He sat through at least 4 of them at a time.  For the story where the animals are wondering where Farmer Brown is, Ben yells out "there he is" once we get to the page which shows Farmer Brown on his tractor.  Daddy then took Ben upstairs where they read books in "Daddy bed", probably Good Night Moon, which has become somewhat of a ritual.  And somehow Ben took Mommy's favorite pillow to his crib with him.

Ben - Jan & Feb 2011

Ben continues to be such a joy.  There are so many things he does that delight Mommy and Daddy.  I'll attempt to document many of them.

Daddy bought Ben toy animal figures at the zoo last June, which he still plays with now.  In the set are an elephant, lion, giraffe, cheetah, zebra, hippo, and warthog.  Ben had one of the animals out which I referred to as his "warthog" to which Ben replied "no", one of his favorite words by the way.  Then I noticed he had said "no" because it was actually the hippo that he had.  That was the first time Ben corrected Mommy, but I'm sure not nearly the last!

Ben is pretty good about wearing his hat when he's outside, usually wearing the red felt Old Navy hat of Pierce and Davis' that Robin gave him .  It's been a cold winter, so I have also been wearing a stocking cap when I go to pick Ben up in the afternoons.  Ben insists on wearing my hat as we leave school, by saying "Mommy's", indicating that he wants to wear my hat and wants me to wear his.  So most days, we walk out of school in eachother's hats.  He looks especially cute with an oversized hat on where I just look ridiculous with a hat on that is too small.  The teachers think it is very cute though.  Ben also likes to wear Daddy's stocking cap when he gets the chance.

Ben wearing Daddy's hat on the way to school.  Notice Ben's usual red hat in Daddy's hands.

Ben is also repeating several words that Daddy or I say, including "ready", "nuts", and "pizza" to name a few.  His language skills are improving so rapidly.

Ben loves to have his snacks in a bowl and when he sees a snack that he would like he says "bowl" to indicate that he'd like to have a bowl to put some in, whether it be crackers, fruit, or candy.  He also now knows which cabinet to go open and retrieve one of his small plastic snack bowls.

Ben enjoys pulling the tissues out of the tissue box, never stopping at just one.  He also asks for a tissue by name when his nose is running and can wipe his nose himself.

When Ben has a snack, he will often "share" it with his toys, feeding his trucks, especially those that have a smiling face on their grill.  Just lately he has started enjoying having his zoo and farm animals on his highchair tray with him, sharing his food with a few of his favorites.

Ben grabs at the computer screen, tv, or pictures of trucks, seemingly thinking that he can pull them off of the screen or page and play with them, sometimes saying "want some".

Ben consistently refers to the small "Incredible Hulk" toy he got out of a happy meal as "Daddy".

Ben has started showing a preference for the clothes he wears.  When I opened the middle drawer of his dresser, which was low enough for him to have a great view of the contents, he pulled out which shirt he wanted to wear.  First he pulled out his Caillou shirt and then changed his mind when he saw his moose shirt, indicating that he wanted to wear it instead.

Ben has started saying the word "heavy" once he picks things up, even  for things that really shouldn't be that heavy for him.