9 Months Old: It Feels Like We Have Arrived

So much has happened with Declan over the past few months.  And apparently there was a lot going on with me and I haven't had time to update my blog and tell the world.  Declan started crawling at 7 1/2 months, and days after, started pulling up and cruising too.  It all happened so fast!  Maybe that's why I'm busier...hmmm...

Teeth Update
He has had 2 bottom teeth for a while now (I may have already blogged about that?) and he's just started working on his two uppers.  The gums have been swollen for a day or two and I just noticed before I put him down for his nap how red one of them is.  He is still all smiles though.  Teething has never been hard for him.  I blamed a lot of his extra fussy times on teething and we often gave him Tylenol when he probably didn't need it.  "Teething" has never disrupted his sleep, thank God.  I like to think that it's because he's rested and we've trained him well how to sleep.  I'll get to that later though... you know I will.

Talking
He vocalizes a lot, saying "ma ma ma ma" and "ga ga" and more recently loud squawking.  Still working on "da da."

Personality
His sense of humor is coming out.  He likes to make us laugh with his funny faces and playing, "Nighttime, Daytime!" and "Where's the Baby?"  He gives me hugs a lot, and sometimes open-mouthed kisses on the cheek.  He's stingy with hugs when it comes to other people, though.  I think the only other people he has shared them with are Ryan and Aunt Ruthie.



Feeding
The past two weeks I have relaxed a lot on what I give him to eat.  I was following the 4 day rule: introduce a new food and wait 4 days before introducing another one in order to check for allergies.  Thankfully, we haven't had any allergic reactions despite my sudden lack of carefulness.  I am still not giving him any nuts, honey, and we're avoiding eggs, although he does get it in breads and probably other things I don't think about.  I'll ban those until he's a year old.  Anyway, so he's pretty much eating miniature versions of what we're eating.  I'm trying to give him lots of practice with self-feeding.  It's kinda tough though because of the mess (c:  Oh well.

I am still nursing him 4-5 times a day.  He's become very difficult to nurse and doesn't seem interested most of the time.  It started out as him stopping to give me a hug or smile at me.  Then it went to stopping to make a funny face or trying to get into a crawling position while still nursing.  At the back of my mind I wondered if I should discourage these interruptions, but we were both enjoying them and laughing so much that it became one of our favorite parts of the day.  I asked other moms what they thought and nobody seemed to think I should stop him, so I let it go on.  Now, he's wanting to switch so frequently or crawl off and play, then get upset when I assume he's done, that it's become a hassle.  I've started to think that maybe he's not getting enough.  I would be more worried, but I was planning on weaning him at 1  year.  I know they don't often wean themselves before 1 year, but it wouldn't be hard to head that direction if I wanted to.  We'll keep trying for 3 more months though.  Any thoughts on this?

Acid Reflux and Chiropractic Treatment
I'm so happy to report that his reflux has not made a comeback at all.  There were a couple of days in which he was extra fussy and spitty.  I still don't know what that was about - could have been a relapse.  I was very grumpy and got depressed during that time, not knowing what to do next if the reflux was back.  Thankfully it only lasted a couple of days.  Maybe it was something he ate, maybe he was overtired, maybe we'll just blame it on the mysterious "catch all" - teething.  He had more vertebral sublaxation than normal at his previous visit 10 days ago, but he had fewer at his appointment this morning.  Dr. Adams said it was probably due to his pulling up and plopping on his bottom that was throwing his spine out of whack more than normal.  Anyway, it was a good report today, and I have a happy baby to go along with it so... yay!  We go again in 2 weeks.

SLEEP!
And now, my update on  his sleep.  I save the best for last (c:  It has taken a long time for us to get over the overtired hump.  It's a crazy uphill battle, but we're there, finally.  More often than not, Declan takes two 1 - 1.5 hour naps a day, and he's now sleeping 12-13 hours a night.  Last night he went to bed at 6:30pm, woke up around 5am to eat, and went back to bed until I woke him at 7:45 (not sure how much longer he would have slept).  I am pretty sure that's a new record for him.

After all of the frustration and going back and forth, what ended up being the best things for us was:

• The Nap Hour - leaving him to sleep, cry, or play for an hour at naptime no matter what - no exceptions.  Naptime is at 9am and 1pm (biological sleep windows for most babies age 4-8 months).
• Inadvertently teaching him to self-soothe.  I was still rocking him to sleep a couple of weeks ago when he started to squirm and fuss in my arms every time I started rocking.  This got frustrating for me so I just started to put him in his crib when this happened.  To my surprise, he'd go to sleep minutes after I left the room.  So I started to skip the rocking and just put him in his bed.  He usually cries for a few minutes and goes to sleep.  I saw an improvement in both the length of his naps and his nighttime sleep once I did this.
• Choosing an appropriately early bedtime - His sweet spot is between 6:15 and 6:30.  It's not too early or too late.  The night goes smoothly and I usually have to wake him the following morning to maintain our schedule.  

Starting tonight, we're going to work on sleeping through the night.  He's still taking one feeding, but it's moving later and later most nights.  And he's skipped it a few times, so I think he just needs a little nudge to get him sleeping 12-13 hours straight.  I'd let him sleep longer but I think we're already pushing the limitations of his diaper... (c;

Declan's Chiropractor Visit #2

Just got back from Declan's second visit with Dr. Adams.  He adjusted him again and talked to me about what the last couple of days have been like.  He also looked at the 66 pictures I brought him on a thumb drive at his request.

First of all, the past couple of days have been surprisingly normal.  The reason it's surprising is because Declan has not had any Prevacid since Monday morning.  The last time that we took him off of his medicine was after my 4 weeks of dairy elimination (around Thanksgiving).  After he missed his 2nd dose (less than 24 hours), he had a very rough night.  He was gagging and gushing during his feeding that evening, and then he was up every 2 or 3 hours.  I can just assume it was heartburn.  The next day we put him back on it and went on as normal, so I know he was still experiencing symptoms at that point.  So, the decision to take him off of it after Monday's appointment was a cautiously optimistic one. 

Declan recently started sleeping 12-13 hours at night (before we took him off of the Prevacid).  I was a little worried this progress would be damaged if we took him off, but he's maintaining it.  (phew!)  That is the "big one" in terms of indications that his first adjustment helped something.  He's also spitting and spewing less (although it's not completely eliminated).  So, he's either finally outgrowing his acid reflux this week or the adjustments are helping (c:


While looking at Declan's pictures, Dr. Adams said that Declan definitely had birth trauma.  I wasn't expecting to hear that.  When I was picking out the pictures, I looked closely but I didn't think I saw any strong trend of a tilted head.  These are a few that he pointed out in particular:

Turned to the left

Turned to the left

Turned to the left

Turned to the right but slight tilt to the left

He said this was one of the most telling pictures because he's holding his own head, camera is dead center in front of him, and there's still a tilt to the left.

Tilt to the left

Slight turn to the left

Tilt to the left

Turned to the right but tilted to the left

He said that Declan definitely had birth trauma, but it isn't so obvious in more recent pictures because he has gained neck strength.  He said we still might notice it when Declan starts to get tired. 

Now Dr. Adams wants us to have 3 more appointments over the next month and he'll re-examine, but he feels like Declan will be reflux free by then.  He said some kids do take longer but he doesn't think that will be Declan based on the progress we've already seen.

I am playing devil's advocate in my head, just because I don't like to be a sucker.  And because Ryan is a little skeptical of my whole "Chiropractors are Magical" theory.  Declan very well could be outgrowing his reflux on his own (most babies do it by 12-18 months old).  Financially, is it the right decision to go on with adjustments?  After 3 more appointments, we'll have spent $250.  Declan's Prevacid is almost $60 a month.  If he's going to deal with reflux til he's a year old and need the Prevacid, we'll come out even by treating it now.  If he's outgrowing it on his own at almost 8 months old, then we're "wasting" our money. 

I like to think of the unknown things we may be treating, though, by correcting his vertebral sublaxation.  A healthy spinal column enables the body to heal itself, and also allows for optimal immunity.  I don't know if it's a proper way to look at it, but I think adjustments are kind of like a tune-up?  It's preventative maintenance, too.  That is hard to put a price on since we don't know what the future holds.  Financial isn't the only angle to consider, but unfortunately it's a big factor.  It has to make sense to Ryan.

Would love to hear arguments either way if you've got an opinion.

Declan's First Visit to the Chiropractor

I took Declan to his first appointment with Dr. Adams, a local chiropractor who also has a degree in Pediatrics, this morning.  I got a lot of encouragement from my friends for looking into alternate treatment for him.  Some people were confused.  I think that, despite how awesome and practical the work that chiropractors do, it is really, really misunderstood.  Somebody needs to promote them.  I'm doing my part!

The reason I am having Declan see a chiropractor is mostly for treatment of his acid reflux, but I also know that keeping his spine in alignment will "fix" or prevent other problems that we may never even know about.  The list of ailments that preventing vertebral sublaxation can prevent is extensive.  Common things that you might take your child (or yourself) to the doctor for, like ear infections, unexplained crying, growing pains, poor concentration, allergic reactions, digestive problems, etc. are very successfully treated by a chiropractor.  I learned a new term today... (did you see me use it in a sentence? (c;)

vertebral sublaxation

"A lesion or dysfunction in a joint or motion segment in which alignment, movement integrity and/or physiological function are altered, although contact between joint surfaces remains intact. It is essentially a functional entity, which may influence biomechanical and neural integrity."

Thanks, Wikipedia.

So I learned a lot.  I wish I had taken notes!  He asked me a lot of questions, then examined him with a thermo-sensor thingie.  Declan wiggled too much to get a good shot, but he got a good look at his neck vertebra and could see some sublaxation there, including a big bad one up by his head.  He adjusted him.  Declan cried a little on the first adjustment.  Dr. Adams said it wasn't supposed to hurt, but it must have been a pretty sore spot. 

He showed me on a model how Declan's esophagus might be being squeezed when his head is turned to one side.  That explains why Declan prefers nursing from one side as opposed to the other.  He also held him upside down by his feet (!!!) and then let go of one leg.  He said he was checking to see if Declan's head would turn the opposite way.  He tested both legs and it only worked on one side.  So there must have been something else out. 

He also told me that the Prevacid that Declan is on (which neutralizes the stomach acid) might be causing more harm than good.  I told him about how sometimes Declan was still spitting up when it was time for his next feeding, sometimes 3 or 4 hours after his last meal.  This confused me a lot because I know that babies' stomachs should be empty 2 hours after their last meal, especially with breast milk (it is very quickly and easily digested).  The Prevacid might actually be causing that problem because it is inhibiting the acid from digesting the food.  (A while back our pediatrician wanted to put Declan on a medicine that would speed digestion.  I didn't do it because I read on the Internet that it was a dangerous medicine.  Black-labeled by the FDA!).  So he would have been on 2 medicines and one of them would just be to "fix" the problem that the other one was causing!

Dr. Adams could not tell me to take Declan off of the Prevacid, but he did say that it might be hard to tell if the adjustments were working if his symptoms were masked.  It's my goal to get him off of the medicine, anyway, so I'm going for it! 

Before our visit was over, he had the receptionist take a picture of him and Declan.  This is cute and sentimental and all, but he also does it to track visual progress of his patients.  He actually asked me to bring in 50-100 pictures of Declan from birth to present in order to examine trends in his posture and how he holds his head.  He said he might be able to decipher if his sublaxation is a result of birth trauma.  So I have a fun project ahead for Thursday!  Dr. Adams also had me bring in Declan's carseat and he showed me some problem areas on it and told me what I can do to make it better for Declan's spine.  Awesome!

After the adjustments, the doctor said it's not uncommon for babies to take a 4-5 hour nap, or have a big diaper, haha.  Well, he just woke up from his 45 minute nap, so much for that.  Anyway, we have a follow-up on Thursday and he might get examined and adjusted again.  I should add that the examinations and consultation on kids is free, so if you're in the area and are curious about seeing if your child might benefit from a chiropractor (I tend to believe it's great for overall wellness, not just for treating problems), it couldn't hurt to check it out!  The adjustment cost was $50.  Financially, it was an easy decision for us (his Prevacid costs $60 a month!).  A small price to pay for my son's health, especially when it's medicine-free (no negative side affects!), and it allows for his body to heal itself.  I'll be making appointments for Ryan and I, too (c: