Cullen’s overdue 7-month letter
September 1st, 2010The months where I have to write a letter to Maddie and a letter to Cullen are a little rough! It’s challenging to get them both done on time, and this time I missed the “deadlines.” Oh well, as long as I write the letter on or around the date, then I’m happy. Here’s the latest letter to Cullen. I wrote it on the day after his 7-month “birthday,” but I’ve been struggling to keep up with the photos.
Dear Cullen,
You’ve had a very big month, little man! You had your 6-month check up about a week after my last letter. At that appointment, you weighed 16 pounds, 10 ounces which they say is the 30th percentile. Your length was 27 inches (68th percentile) and your head circumference was 17.5 inches (98th percentile). I guess that means you have a big noggin’, but it seems proportionate to me. I’ve seen other percentiles that say your head is only 67th percentile, so that sounds more in line with your length. You are taking after your sister in weight. Since I carry you often, I appreciate your long, lean size!
You continue to be very active. Shortly after my last letter, you started getting around by rolling and spinning on your belly. I don’t think you always ended up where you intended, but you were certainly getting places. A couple weeks ago, you officially started crawling! I love your cute little army crawl! You use your strong little arms to drag your body across the floor pretty quickly now. Every once in a while, you get up on your hands and knees, but you don’t seem to care to crawl that way just yet. You’re getting around just fine by scooting on your belly. I love when you crawl across the room to get to me. It’s so sweet! It breaks my heart when you’re upset and looking for comfort and make your way to your Mommy.
I love watching you crawl. This has been a very fun milestone! We let you explore the living room without many restrictions, though we often have to check the floor for choking hazards. Now that you’re mobile, you are really into your big sister’s toys! She’s not too happy about this. Sometimes, you get upset when your sister snatches toys away from you. Other times, you think it is hilarious!!! You have a head start on the relentless taunting that I’m sure you will subject each other to throughout the years. Some of your best belly laughs have been due to your toy snatching.
Your baby giggles are so sweet. You have a few ticklish spots, and you often find peek-a-boo to be hilarious. I love making you laugh. Your sister makes you laugh by making silly noises (and by getting mad when you snatch her toys). You are often a happy little dude. You have the absolute greatest smile. You continue to win people over everywhere you go.
You’re often happy, but when you’re not happy, you make sure everyone knows about it. This month, you had a few rough patches as you had your first fever in months. We went to the doctor and figured that you had some sort of cold. You had a small amount of congestion and a little bit of a cough. Later, we realized that the cough was just a new noise you had learned how to make. The doctor told us to come back in a few days if your fever did not go away.
We happened to have your well-baby visit the next day, which turned out to be more of a sick-baby visit. Your fever had increased to around 103, so the doctor offered to get urine and blood samples to run some tests. Alternatively, we could have waited another day or so, and then they would have done the same tests. The doctor wasn’t too concerned until she saw your elevated white blood count. Unfortunately, this pointed to an infection. Your urine results were somewhat abnormal and grew bacteria over the next two days. I knew you had been experiencing pain! You had a bladder infection, and I know that must not have been very fun for you. Fortunately, your fever subsided about 12 hours after starting the antibiotic.
Since you are so young, your doctor wanted to send you to the hospital for some more testing. They did an ultrasound of your urinary tract, primarily looking for damage to the kidneys. They also did a very unpleasant test to test for kidney reflux, a condition present at birth that allows urine to flow back into the kidneys from the bladder.
The voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) test involved catheterizing you, injecting dye into your bladder, and watching whether the dye travels through your ureters and into the kidneys. This was your 5th or 6th catheter as you had it done several times when you were teeny with your hospital visits as well as a couple of doctor’s office visits. I don’t think that this is a procedure that one gets used to having.
You scream every time you are catheterized (I don’t blame you one bit), and I hold your little hands and try my best to comfort you. It breaks my heart any time that I cannot pick you up and you look at me with those pleading eyes while screaming. I do not like subjecting you to these things! The VCUG test takes a little while, and you hated every minute. Normally, they do the test twice with infants your age. It’s not exactly good news that they only had to run the test once – your reflux was obvious the first time.
So, you have been diagnosed with bilateral kidney reflux with Grade 2 on your left side and Grade 3 on the right. The good news is that prognosis is generally good when diagnosed so early. We are meeting with the urologist this week to find out more details about your treatment and such. Our guess is that he will want to monitor your condition, including frequent urine checks as well as regular ultrasounds and VCUGs (unfortunately). Many kids outgrow the kidney reflux by ages 5-7, and some require surgery. You likely will need to take a preventative maintenance dose of antibiotics until you no longer have the reflux, whether you outgrow it or you have surgery. We have a lot of questions and concerns, and we hope to have these addressed at your appointment this week.
I’m not sure whether any of your bladder infection and kidney reflux issues are to blame for your inability to sleep through the night. It would be nice to have a good excuse, but I think you’re just not a sleeper. You spent the majority of the month refusing to sleep in the bassinet, crib, or pack-n-play. We stopped using the bassinet this month due to your added mobility. It wasn’t a safe option any longer, though the co-sleeper made a fabulous bed rail. We put away the co-sleeper and got out our trusty Snug Tuck pillow. We spent many nights holding you until we went to bed where you would stay the rest of the night. The past week or so has you spending up to 2-3 hours in the crib each night. Some nights, you only sleep in the crib an hour and other nights you stay in it longer with a few interruptions. We love you biggest bunches, but it would be nice if you spent a little more time in your crib. It’s a good thing you’re so darn cute (especially in your new 12-month sized Children’s Place jammies – those seem to be made especially for long and lean babies!).
You squeal and babble more and more. I love all of your cooing, and sometimes Maddie even lets us know what you’re saying. For whatever reason, she often exclaims, “Cullen is saying ‘donkey!’” You have some consonant sounds, but you do not have any real defined “dada”s or “mama”s just yet. Your pediatrician commented on your advanced babbling, so I think you’re right on track.
You can sit easily for a long time now. When you fall, you do it much more gracefully and somewhat catch yourself and roll over so you can crawl. You are able to hold toys in your hand while sitting, and you love to sit at the toy piano and bang on it. I have to say, it’s quite adorable!
You have also started sitting in restaurant high chairs this month! We have brought dinner along for you a few times now. Speaking of dinner, you are loving your solid foods!! Since your last letter, you have tried avocado, banana, prunes, peaches, oatmeal (used to thicken your purees), green beans, butternut squash, acorn squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Your favorite seems to be sweet potatoes, though you do love just about all of it with the exception of green beans and plain avocado. The avocado seems tastier mixed with prunes or bananas. You’ve been enjoying other mixes as well, such as peach/banana/oatmeal. I think I might try one of the squashes with green beans to see if that is any tastier for you. We have some apples ready for you, and we plan to try pears soon. Aside from the prunes (which we bought ready-made out of necessity), everything has been made using fresh and often organic fruits and veggies. I love making your baby food!
The foods were added into your regular nursing schedule. You still nurse the same amount, though I am now providing a bottle of Mommy’s milk for your afternoon feeding. I was sad to go from visiting you twice a day to only once, but I still see you less than an hour after your feeding to pick you up and take you home. I usually feed you shortly after 8, then again at lunch around noon. The afternoon feeding is generally around 4pm. You then nurse again before eating with us at the dinner table (and often shortly after). You then nurse at least once more before bed (and several times during the night). I love being able to visit you in the middle of the day, and now that I’m coming over just once a day, I can spend a few minutes playing with you in your classroom.
We’re still taking photos of you every day, which means we’ve already accumulated thousands of Cullen pictures. You are quite photogenic with that winning, gummy smile. We are still waiting on your first tooth. You’re extremely drooly, and people often comment that you might be getting teeth. One of these days, they are going to be correct, but I’m not sure it is soon. You have learned how to blow raspberries, which I find very funny. You love your sister and often look at her admiringly. I love how you crane your neck around your bucketed car seat to try to see what Maddie is doing in the car.
You love your Daddy, too, but your favorite person is your Mommy. It’s pretty awesome to be the object of such affection! You reach for me, crawl towards me, and look at me longingly with those beautiful, blue eyes. When I take you into my arms, you often cuddle against me, burrowing your sweet head into my shoulder. You’re a very sweet boy, and I’m proud to be your Mommy. We love you more than you could ever know.
Love,
Mommy
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