Pollen-palooza

Paxton woke up gagging this morning. His daddy came to his rescue...after Susanne had to wake him up, of course. Scott still slept like a rock even after getting adjusted to having Paxton and Susanne around a lot more. As Scott was tending to Paxton's needs, Susanne got ready for work.

While Scott got ready for his class this morning, he sat Paxton in front of the TV to watch Seasame Street. It was becoming part of his routine on certain days. Scott decided not to sit him directly facing the television. Instead, he faced his bouncer parallel to it. The purpose of this was to try to strengthen the muscles in his eyes. He was aiming for Paxton to be forced to look out to the side. It seemed to work really well.

After Scott left, Poppy and Paxton hung out for a while. Poppy entertained Paxton with a variety of toys that would force him to not only be visually stimulated, but also give him something tactile to touch. Poppy was always inventing creative ways to get some sort of therapy into Paxton's day.

Paxton was sleeping by the time that Susanne got home for lunch. She loved watching him sleep so peacefully. He had the sweetest face.

Scott got home shortly after Susanne. He was taking over for Poppy for the rest of the afternoon. Susanne didn't get to hang around much either because she had to head back to work. He worked on some tummy time and sitting. He encouraged Paxton to reach out for his toys. Scott was fascinated by the different sounds that Paxton was making. He would start off by making noises that sounded more nasal. This was usually when his tongue was pulled back and hitting the roof of his mouth. Scott did a series of mouth exercises and tried to get Paxton's tongue to lay down better. Once Paxton figured out what Scott wanted him to do, the noises that were coming out sounded completely different. Scott was certain that Paxton would be saying "ma-ma" by the end of the week. After about an hour of serious playtime, he was slowing down.

Scott ended the day with giving Paxton a nice warm bath. Paxton always loved this activity. Scott thought that afterwards, he would settle right down and fall asleep. Unfortunately, this was not the case. He twisted and turned. He squiggled and squirmed. It took over an hour for him to finally close his eyes.

He slept soundly for hours right up until Scott was setting up his overnight feeding. It was then that Paxton woke up sounding congested. He sounded like he was having difficulty breathing through his nose. Scott had to apply Little Noses to each nostril and then suction him out. He immediately felt better once this was done. Susanne and Scott thought that it had to be related to the season change. They both were sure he was feeling the effects of all of the pollen. The sneezing, congestion, and itchy eyes were causing them all to feel miserable. Hopefully, Paxton would adjust to the outside conditions quickly.