Our little roller!

Santiago's 5 month letter

8/15/10

Dear Santiago:

You are now five months old! Almost half a year!

You have mastered rolling over! You can roll both back and forth, although you only roll to your left side. You tend to favor your left side more than your right – when you grab for toys, you mostly grab with your left hand, you roll to your left, etc. – mommy likes to think this means you will be great like her and a leftie, but only time will tell!

You’ve started laughing some big laughs. You’re also getting SO strong and when you’re not happy somewhere you’ll put your feet down and push your body up. Usually this isn’t that much of a problem, but sometimes you try and do it when you’re in the bathtub, on the changing table or in your bouncy chair, so we have to watch you all the time now!

We’ve also started you on solid foods! You’re doing so well! So far definite “likes” for food are carrots and apple. You have also tried sweet potato but you don’t really like it that much.

Here are some of the things you’re doing this month:

• Trying to sit up (when you’re in your car seat or on the bed you’ll lean your head forward trying to pick yourself up)

• Playing with your rattle (you get REALLY excited when we shake it in front of you and you’ll hold it in your hands and shake it around)
• Big belly laughing

• Eating solid foods and recognizing when mommy or daddy are eating

• Just starting to play with your sippy cup. You know that it goes to your mouth but you haven’t mastered the two handed hold on the handle

• “Talking” while we’re feeding you – you’re usually making a lot of commentary while you eat!

• Wearing Size 3 diapers

• Wearing size 3-6 month pants, 3-6 month shirts, some 9 month shirts and 6 month onesies

• Wearing size 1 shoes

• Wearing size 3-6 month hats

• Eating about 4-6 oz per feeding

• Rolling all over the place! We can’t really leave you in the gym anymore because you’ll roll into the sides

• Spitting up less and less, although when you do spit up now it involves colored food which stains

• Indicating that you want to play by flapping your arms around

• Feeling textures more and more – when we hold you you’ll often move your hand over our chests to feel the shirts. Also you’ll feel our arms, legs, etc. and when you’re in bed, you’ll feel the mattress

• Start out the evening sleeping on your back and then eventually rolling to your side and then tummy

• Still only have two teeth – the bottom middle two. Waiting on the top two to come in!

We have had so much fun with you this month! We can’t believe you’ll be half a year old next month – where did the time go? And how did you grow up so fast?

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Some of you have heard that I was in the hospital this weekend. Just wanted to update you on what happened to me. On Thursday evening, I went running with a friend (and did 4.33 miles which I'm pretty proud of in training for a 10k race in a few weeks.)

On Friday morning at about 4am, I woke up with pain in my arms. Like a dull achy pain. I got up and moved around, thinking I might have slept on my arm wrong. After a few minutes, I took a Tylenol. 20 mins later I felt no relief and Tito was awake, and massaged my arms, thinking that it might be dehydration from running. After another 20 mins with no relief, I took a nitroglycerin tablet that I keep for emergencies due to my heart condition. This had no effect other than giving me a headache. So we decided I should go to the ER to get checked out since it was better to be safe than sorry.

Needless to say, due to my history, they kept me (although it took them forever to get me back to a room and NO ONE was in the ER.) They did a blood enzyme test and it was negative. Then they did another one 4 hours later and it was slightly elevated. At that point, they decided to keep me in the hospital and repeat my enzymes at noon. When they did, it was elevated again. So they admitted me. Of course, it took them 9 hours to get me a bed, so I spent a total of 17 hours on a gurney in the ER. (Tito's dad was watching Santi during this time at the house.)

I finally got upstairs at 10pm, and they put me on heparin and then I went to sleep. That night they tested my enzymes again and the next morning they came in and said that they were elevated from a .4 to a 4. When the doctor came in I asked him what that meant and he said I had had a small heart attack (which for me, this was my third.) They wanted to do a cardiac catherization and said originally that they'd do it on Monday. Then, since it was a slow Saturday, they were able to get me in and I had the procedure that morning. The catherization showed that they think that I had had a clot/blockage on a very small artery that branches off from my main coronary arteries. They said that the clot wasn't there when they went in but they saw evidence of it (left over pieces of the clot.) They said it was in such a small part that it wouldn't have even been possible for them to get instruments in there to blast the clot if it had been present when they went in.

But at that point, my heart looked good and the aneurysms were all still there, all still giant and from they could tell, all unchanged. I was shuttled back to my room where they elevated my bed which was flat, at a 45 degree angle down. I had to lay flat for 5 hours...doesn't seem to bad until you have a few hours left and your back is killing you from lying on the world's most uncomfortable bed! At this point, Tito, his dad and Santi were all there, so I was able to see them all before and after the procedure. When I was allowed up, I walked a bit and then finally changed positions.


So I was surprised when the docs came in this morning and said I could go home! They put me on Lovenox (hello old friend! I didn't think I'd see you again until the next time I was pregnant!) and Coumadin and told me to get rechecked in a couple of days to see if my blood levels were therapeutic.

Basically they said that I had a clot that formed in a tiny "branch" off off my main coronary arteries where my aneurysms are. So due to that, and the elevated enzyme levels, I essentially had a heart attack. A baby one, super tiny and no damage. They said when they looked at me via the cardiac cath that the clot was gone but that if it had been there it was in such a small spot they wouldn't have been able to get any equipment down there to remove it anyway. So the heparin they put me on the first day I was there apparently worked to bust the clot out of there, and keeping any damage from occurring to my heart.

Santi, Tito and my father in law came to the hospital today and I was so happy to be able to tell them that I could go home! And once we got home, I had a surprise - Santi rolled over! Back to front! On Saturday he almost went all the way...here's the video:

Almost rolling over! (8/21/2010) from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

And today, right from when we walked in the door we put him down on the floor and within minutes he'd rolled over! I hadn't seen him and thought FIL had just put him down on his front. But then we put him down on his back and he rolled right over!

Here's that video:

He rolls! (8/22/10) from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

5 months!

Guess who is 5 months old? Who knew the time would fly by so quickly? SO much has changed with Santi in the past 5 months. He's such a fun little guy and getting to be more and more interactive every day!

At 5 months, Santi is:

* Talking and squealing more and more

* Has perfected the "airplane" pose when on his belly - legs up, arms up, rocking on his belly

* Still sleeping through the night although lately has been waking up for one feeding at about 4am (we think he's in a prolonged growth spurt!)

* Recognizes my voice and looks for me in the room when he hears me

* Recognizes daddy's voice and looks for him too - especially if I'm talking on speaker phone to him!

* Likes his stroller more and more and is now sitting up completely in the jogger stroller

* Still working on sitting on his own

* Can stand with just holding onto my fingers (no longer needs my hands under his arms!)

* Loves playing hide and seek with me


Stats:
17 lbs. 6 oz
25.5" tall
Wearing Size 3 diapers
Wearing 6-9 month clothes
Wearing Size 1 shoes

Official photo

Wait, what does this say?

I'm what??

Oh...5 months old!

Look how big I'm getting!

So we have decided to do baby led weaning, which basically means, when Santi is interested in solid foods, we'd let him try it. So for the past two weeks, he's been showing TONS of interest in what we're eating, i.e. trying to grab our food, watching us while we eat with intensity, and trying to grab cups from us if we drink while holding him. So we decided that on his 5 month birthday we'd allow him to have rice cereal.

We were very excited about this event, and a little sad too - it means our "little baby" is no longer little and is a bigger baby. But exciting because we're watching him grow and change all the time!

So we mixed up the rice cereal with some breast milk tonight and weren't sure what would happen...we weren't prepared for how much he loved it! In fact, we couldn't get it in him fast enough it seems!

Santi tries solid food for the first time! from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

Videos for a laugh

Just had to share - Santi was a little fussy so I started playing hide and seek with him while I was making dinner. He was loving it when I popped up from behind the counter, so I had to tape it...enjoy!

More laughing from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

Laughing from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

And also, if you're ever looking for videos of Santi, I put them on Vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/user2821642/videos

You can subscribe to them so every time I add a new video you'll get an email!