February Begins

Last week was no exception to our string of illness at the Bailey house: Paige got her first ear infection. Since I've been spending countless hours at the pediatrician lately, our neighbor (who is a doctor with her own family practice) came over to check Paige out. After looking in both her ears, she confirmed that Paige did, indeed, need to go to the doctor. The final verdict was an ear/sinus infection. We caught it before a bad fever developed (although it seems like my kids seldom run fevers with ear infections), and Paige is getting her first dose of antibiotics.

In other news, Reese is completely potty trained!! Hooray! She has been going poopie and pee-pee in the potty for over a week now with no accidents. She even goes without prompting and will sit down to go while I'm busy taking care of Paige and then tell me she has a "surprise" for me in the potty. She's very proud, and I'm super relieved. On the flip side, I think we're starting to see the beginning of the end of afternoon naps for her. Now most days at nap time she talks to herself, sings to herself, plays in her room, or sits on the potty reading books. She's only really napping once every 3-4 days. Most days she seems to manage ok minus the nap, but she does get a little crankier in the evenings. I've tried pushing nap time later, making it earlier, and nothing has worked. There's still hope that when the weather warms up consistently some trips to the park might wear her out and get her back in the habit. Until then, I'm still offering nap as a "quiet time" and we've moved her bedtime a little earlier to compensate (now 7pm).

Paige is finally sleeping well (knock on wood) in her bed at night. We're able to put her down around 7 and she doesn't wake up immediately or within the hour screaming. She's even becoming consistent about have just TWO feedings at night. Reese had one or two feedings a night until she was 7-8 months old, so I expect it will be the same for Paige. Naps are still a struggle for us. She's guaranteed to nap if she's in her swing, but the bed is a total toss up. We're going to give it a few more weeks (particularly since she's recovering from the ear infection and she gets her immunizations next week) before trying to banish the swing for good.

Paige is sitting really well in her Bumbo now and her neck control is pretty impressive. I've noticed that when I put her in her bouncy seat or car seat, she trys to sit up more. It's like she's doing crunches. It's hard to believe she can pull her upper body up so well.

I've been hesitant to introduce solids to Paige since she's been dealing with bowel issues on just formula, but her antibiotics are now giving her the runs so I may try a brand of rice cereal with probiotics and see how it goes. We started Reese on rice cereal right around four months, so it may be time.

Paige has also been enjoying the exersaucer lately. She can't work all the toys yet, but she likes to stare at them, bat at them wildly, and watch Reese show her how everything works. I dug up a picture of Reese in her exersaucer from around the same age. What do you think, do you see any resemblance? (Paige top, Reese bottom)