The Other Child

Malachi with Grandma South last week.

Malachi getting clean this morning.

Babies bathing in the sink are so cute aren't they? I figured since I wrote about and posted pictures of the girls the other day that I should throw up a few comments and pictures of Malachi.

Malachi is just over 7 months old. He's 28.5 inches long (95th percentile), and weighs 19 lbs, 6 ozs (60th percentile). His head circumference is off the charts. I told the pediatrician that big heads run the the family :) We've been trying solids for a couple of months now. At first Malachi was really eager to eat. But every time he'd throw up 2 hours after eating, no matter what he ate. We'd wait a week or so and try again with something different. And again he'd throw up after 2 hours. I did some googling, but the only thing that matched his symptoms was an intolerance to milk and soy proteins. Since Malachi drinks milk-based formula with no negative side effects, I ruled that out. At his checkup a couple weeks ago his pediatrician confirmed that anything he could think of didn't mesh - if it was gastroperesis it would have started months ago and would make him throw up after nursing as well. Same for FPIES (the milk/spy intolerance). Dr. Martinez is of the "he's obviously doing fine on breastmilk and formula, so let's just wait and see if he grows out of it" midset, which I like. He does want me to feed Malachi solids once a day for two weeks and chart what he eats, how much, what time, and then what time he throws up. Malachi came down with thrush a few days later, so I didn't start until today. Unfortunately, Malachi is now refusing to eat solids. I managed to get about a teaspoon into him before he clammed up for good. That was an hour ago. We'll see if he keeps it down.

In happier developments, he is almost crawling. It's been so fun watching him work it out. He's taking a lot longer than the girls did. I think he's going to be a little more cautious, thinking things out before trying them, when he's older. Libby just dives right in to things. Jaina seems a little competitive. The song "Anything you can do, I can do better" comes to mind when I watch her and Libby together. Malachi is quiet and observant, and takes his time. He's very studious. Anyway, his latest trick is to sit on his bum with his hands on the floor, then walk his hands in a circle, pivoting around on his bum. It's pretty cute.

Malachi is the most ticklish baby we've had. He laughs hardest when you squeeze his stomach. And he likes to be thrown in the air and "dropped" while being held. His little belly laughs just crack me up. He's very happy in the car. I think he likes to watch the girls while he rides in his car seat. We have the seat next to him folded down so we can sit on it while we buckle up the girls in the way back. So he has an unobstructed view of Libby. She makes him laugh a lot.

One night we did the Ferber Method of cry-it-out. It took about 10 minutes of crying for Malachi to go to sleep. Since that night I've been able to lay him down awake at night and for his naps and he puts himself to sleep. Occasionally he'll fuss, but most of the time he goes right to sleep. Makes my hectic life a little easier now that I can just plop all three of my kids in bed at night and they go to sleep with no fuss. Although, when John is out of town (like he is this week), bedtimes are hard because Malachi gets tired and hungry just as the girls need to go to bed, so he cries while I get them ready. I'm thinking tonight I'll try getting him in bed first and just let the girls stay up 30 minutes later than usual.

Malachi came with us to the barn Saturday. He seemed to really like the horses, as long as they kept their distance. One horse, Rusty, LOVES babies and kids. When we went to say hi to Rusty and give him some treats, he stuck his nose up against Malachi's belly and snuffled him head to toe. Malachi was not so impressed. He seemed to like Rusty's dog friend, Chloe, a little better. Probably because Chloe wasn't too interested in him. But he did like to sit and watch the horses. We'll get him up on one soon enough, I'm sure.