July

Well I can't believe that July has come and is almost gone. Reid is now 8 months old!! The older I get, the faster time flies.

We experienced our first childhood illness with Reid this month. I woke up on a Saturday morning before work and noticed Reid felt hot, he also had a rather smelly diaper, which is not normal (GO BREASTFEEDING!!!). So I took his temp. under his arm and it was 99.8. I wasn't too worried, just figured he was teething or something. When I got home from work though, he still felt hot and I took his temp. rectally and it was 103!!! We called the pediatrician and she said that as long as he seemed to feel better when his temp. went down (after tylenol or motrin), then don't worry. Erik had him again on Sunday and he said he seemed better all day. Erik was awesome with Reid that weekend. We had an okay night Sunday night. The next day was rough!! Reid was miserable. He just wanted to be held all day long. That night after giving him medicine his temp. was still 102, so I called the pediatrican again and she said that we should come in the next day. That night was rough. I think Reid got about 4 hours of sleep as of course did I. He ended up falling asleep on my chest, which hasn't happened since he was a newborn. (that was the sweet part about him being sick, was he was snuggly.) Anyway, we went to the pediatrician in the morning, and she checked him out, we decided it was probably a stomach bug, but she checked him for a UTI just in case-(this involved putting a bag over his boy parts to catch the urine). His urine was clear. She said that if he wasn't better by Thursday then we would need to do blood work. Well he finally started to get better on Wednesday and luckily on Thursday he had no more fever. That was such a relief.

This past week (the week after his illness), has been so fun!! He is so happy lately, everything is funny to him. Other noteworthy things this month are that he has started saying B and G sounds which is pretty cute and he has started scooting all over the place. First it started out as him pushing off with one leg, then pulling his body with the opposite arm as I mentioned before. The effect was quite comical, but it got him to where he wanted to go. Now he seems to be using both arms, and occasionally both legs. I am curious to see if he actually does crawl with his belly off the ground. He has made occasional moves that lead me to believe that he will. For the first time the other day he followed me into the kitchen, which is quite exciting as it demonstrates that he has a will and some independence. Conversely it is terrifyiing to know that he can get where he wants to go.



Reid is loving Gymoboree. We went to play the other day and there is a tube he can crawl through, he LOVED it. I put him down on one end and ran to the other end and he thought it was hilarious. He scooted to the middle of the tube and then would play for a while and eventually crawl to the other end with a huge grin of accomplishment.

Reid is definitely mastering the skill of wanting to play with things that are unsafe or that we don't want him to play with. We have started having to say no, which is hilarious, because the second we say it, he stops, looks up at us, gives a huge grin and goes back to what he was doing. If I take him away from something he goes right back. I can't believe we are already moving from caring for our child to parenting our child.

As for the adults, still nothing on the house. Although we seem to have pinpointed the area in which we would like to live, and have found some houses in our price range so are still just waiting. It seems as though two homes in our neighborhood have sold, so maybe we will sell our house. I for one am still in no hurry though.

Work is going well for both of us. Erik has been super busy at work. They are going through some big changes with software soon, so he is doing a lot to prepare for that. I had a recent negative interaction with a doctor, but I think I am finally over it. Yesterday I had a patient who was having her 3rd baby. Once the midwife broke her water she got really uncomfortable, but didn't want an epidural. She had been 6 cm dilated when the MW broke her water. About an hour or two later, she told me she really wanted to stand up, I tried to convince her to just sit all the way up which she did for a minute. She still wanted to stand so I went down the hall and asked the MW if it was okay, she said it was. The patient stood up and hugged her husband as he supported her and had about 2 contractions, which she tolerated much better. On that second contraction she said the baby was coming, so I held my hand between her legs while I tried to get the bed back down so she could get back in. She got back in bed and had the baby about 2 minutes later. It was AWESOME!! The only thing was when the baby came out I got squirted with amniotic fluid (GROSS!!) I felt like I was doing midwifery again. Granted it would have been really bad if the baby fell out, but that didn't happen. Women who don't have drugs know what position they need to be in to be more comfortable which is usually the position needed to get the baby out. It made me realize how much I miss home births where anything goes and birth is not ruled by monitors and IV's.

That is all for us for now. I hope everyone is doing well!!

Wow it's been a month!!!

Well I have not posted in a while, because basically there isn't much to report. We are all doing very well. We have gotten to spend some quality time with family in the last month which was nice. Erik's mother Susan and his step-father Alex, came up for the day a few weeks ago. Susan went to our last Level 1 gymboree class with Reid and I. He proved to be less than cooperative in that class but I think it was no longer keeping his interest. After that we had lunch and went back to our place to visit.It was fun to see them and Reid enjoyed playing on the floor with his gramma and grandpa.



In the middle of June we went with my Dad, step-mom, and brothers to Hammock Beach which is a resort in Palm Coast. My sister's fiance Rollin flies the planes for the bigwigs who own it. It is a beautiful place. We were only there for one night, but it was a lot of fun. Reid got to do a lot of swimming and so did we. It was fun to have a mini-break as the brits call it.

We had a nice fourth of July. We went on my Mom and Step-dad's boat and took Reid. We docked up at a place called Fort George. We swam and had a cook-out. This was Reid's first boat trip and he did wonderfully!!! He actually did better than Erik and I did. We were a little jumpy with some of the wakes, but Reid just sat there taking it all in. He didn't move a muscle for the entire boat ride on the way back to the marina. My mother was beside herself. Her two favorite hobbies are her boat and spending time with her grandson.



Reid has now graduated from rolling everywhere to "soldier crawling", basically while on his belly he pulls himself forward with one arm, then with the leg on the opposite side he pushes forward, it does not seem like the most efficient way to get around, but he does it surprisingly well. I am now wondering if he will be one of those kids that skips crawling all together.

I don't remember where we left off on our food list so I will just list them all:) Avacado, Peas, Green Beans, Acorn Squash, Apples, Peaches, Rice Cereal, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, and Banannas. I am going to venture out into some new things next week. He is a great eater when he is in the mood. I don't know if you people remember or if you don't have kids, but there is quite a sport to feeding a baby. You have to have pin-point accuracy on a moving target in order to not make a huge mess. Good thing I like a challenge:)

Reid had one vaccine last week and he didn't even cry. What a big boy!!!

Reid graduated to Level 2 in Gymboree. We moved from the sweet baby class to the very busy next level. The kids crawl on obstacle courses (I am not sure how Reid is supposed to crawl up something when he doesn't even crawl on a flat surface, but we improvise), Reid flies on my legs, he gets thrown around like a sack of potatoes to music, we play gymboree soccer, which means we pass a beachball to the other people while sitting in a circle and you use the baby's legs to hit the ball by flinging them in the air, we play with a parachute, and blow bubbles as well. I get a work out too!!! He and I are going to be taking a baby signs class, which should be interesting. The idea is that baby's understand language before their speech develops. They are able to learn signs to communicate earlier than speak which leads to improved communication between parent and child. I will let you all know if it works for us.

We have had only 2 people look at our house, which is fine with us. We have realized how we are in no hurry to move. We are happy with our situation now, and it will change when we raise our mortgage payment. We are just relaxing and waiting to see what comes our way.

Anyway, that is all from the Hirsch's for now.