Anyway, Will is now 8.5 months old! He's starting to do so many things. His words are slowly expanding. One he just started a few days ago is "good". Every time he takes a bite to eat, I automatically say "good?" Now when he takes a bite, he looks up at me and says "goo". He says hi, dada (which he's only said while actually looking at Bill) mama (usually said when he's angry and really wants to be picked up right.this.minute) and one or two others.
Will loves Joe from Blue's Clues. Katie was always very firmly team Steve, but Will only likes Joe. He was crazy for Elmo, but Joe definitely wins now. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse also entertains him.
He's trying to crawl and walk at the same time. He's doing better with walking than crawling, funny enough. Whenever he tries to get up on his hands and knees and move forward, he tends to fall on his face. But he loves to stand up. If I hold him just for balance (he holds his weight) he will take one step after the other. He walked all the way across the room and to his daddy yesterday this way. His balance is still a little wonky, he sometimes steps on his own feet and nearly falls from it. But he's still doing well. He now enjoys slithering off the sofa (with me holding him) and standing instead of sitting or laying with me. He loves to stand and look like his own little person!
I'm about half way through the Dr. Sears book. I've been putting Will in his Maya sling lately for nap (which he went from hating to absolutely LOVING). While I walk him to sleep with the vacuum on, I read the book. It's doing wonders for me. Understanding better what's going on and why Will does the things he does and how to help him has really given me more sanity, patience, and feeling more in control instead of helpless.
He's becoming more of a morning person now. He used to sleep like Katie, who sleeps until about 11 AM. She LOVES her sleep. Will now wakes up between 7:30-9, which is an adjustment.
Will has so many teeth coming in at once! His top teeth just came through, and now he's getting both incisors in and two more bottom teeth. The one bottom tooth is completely through now, so he has 5 teeth out and three more about to break the surface. No wonder I'm always in pain! Those hurting teeth love to pierce me, take chunks out of me, and leave lovely looking holes. When one finally heals, another happens!
He's now 26.2 lbs (well, as of two weeks ago) and 31 inches. He's wearing 2T clothing, but even 2T pants can't be buttoned or zipped. I accidentally grabbed Katie's pants for him the one day and they STILL didn't zip up - Katie is 3 and he is 8 months. I don't even know what to do about that!
Poor little boy still has a cough, but it's only an occasional cough and it's pretty light. He gets a bit raspy some mornings. Since it's been 4 weeks, I believe it sort of confirms what I thought he may have had - a possibly minor case of Pertussis. He was vaccinated twice, but it takes 3 times for it to be in full effect. (Fully vaxed Katie never got the cold. Bill had a cold three weeks before and still occasionally has a cough even now, almost two months after he was sick) We both had a nasty cold, which we got over, but then had a nasty cough for about two weeks before I started looking up what may be going on. I'm glad I did so much research on it, including talking to people in his due date group who had babies going through it, because I know I took the best recourse. The hospital does not treat the Pertussis, because there is no actual cure for it. They treat the spreading of it (the first two weeks is when it's contagious, which is when we never left the house) and they treat the lack of breathing when the cough gets too bad (through steroids and apnea type machine). I decided, while waiting it out to see if he developed the whooping noise or if I was just very paranoid, to start treating him at home just in case. Medical journals said that there is one defense against Pertussis - lots of vitamin C. Pertussis causes mucous to pool in your lungs, and then destroys the hairs in your lungs and throat so you can't get the mucous back up. It blocks the white cells from killing the virus. So vitamin C takes away the blockage to fight and strengthens the hairs. Taking it makes lots of mucous come up so it gets out of your lungs.
Will never had the whooping cough. He never coughed to the point of blueness or gagging. But after I started the vitamin C doses, he did throw up a lot of mucous. I had lots come out as well. I'm 100% better - I never cough anymore. I felt cured about a week or so after I started the doses. Will improved a huge amount.
I've very carefully monitored him for the last 4 weeks. I was ready to rush him to the hospital the moment his cough turned too severe, the moment I saw him struggling to breathe, or any of the bad Pertussis signs. I actually had a bag packed. But after I started having him sleep at an angle, giving him vitamins, and doing what the medical journals all agreed on, he never gave me a reason to go. He still has a minor cough and minor rattling at times, but I noticed it usually only appears if I forgot a dosage due to being out of the house. I'm so pleased that he's doing well, especially because Pertussis is the worst between weeks 3-4. This is when he should be doing the "turning blue coughs" and choking.
Of course, it may be me looking too far into this. It could be a cold that just lingers with a cough for weeks on end. It could be something more minor. Either way, he's doing very well and what I'm doing for him is helping whatever it is that we've had. My many prayers have been answered!
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