4 months.

This is the first time that I have had time to sit down and blog since Bennet's 4-month appointment with Dr. Bucci yesterday. Why? Because as it turns out, Bennet isn't teething like we thought - Bennet is sick. Poor little guy has his first cold. I thought having a baby made me busy, but having a sick baby is a busyness I could never have imagined.

Some quick info about all of the 4-month appointment business - He weighed in at 18 pounds, 6.5 ounces on the official Dr. Bucci scale (BIG.) He is in the 97th percentile for weight, the 90th for height, and the 95th for head circumference. He's going to play football. I'm going to have a son in the NFL. Maybe we'll be rich...but I digress.

Dr. B also gave me the green light to start Bennet on solids. He starts out with yellow and orange vegetables (sweet potatoes, squash, carrots) and then moves on to the green veggies. Then, he can start on fruit. He wants him to get used to veggies before moving to fruits so that he won't get used to the sweet, yummy fruit and refuse vegetables all together. Something I didn't realize is that he has to have one food for five days before introducing a new one (to make sure he isn't allergic.) All this baby-feeding can be pretty complicated!

When I told Dr. Bucci that I thought Bennet was teething, he told me he didn't think he was because very few babies teethe at 4 months (usually it's closer to 6.) He checked Bennet's gums and didn't see any teeth coming in. Then, he looked at his throat and saw little white spots in the back of it and said it was really red! He had been having a runny nose for about a day, but I thought that was part of teething. My poor little monkey - he has a cold!

Dr. Bucci has him taking Tylenol every 4 hours for the next few days. He also gave me a recipe for a "liquid lozenge" for his throat, which is made by mixing Anbesol, Maalox, and Benadryl. He hates the taste of it, but it seems to be making him more content.

You should have seen me, running around with a snot-faced little one, buying baby food and all kinds of cold treatment items. It was a wild time.

I definitely have some favorite cold-treating extras that I bought for Bennet yesterday.

Boogie Wipes - saline wipes for little noses. They clean off all the stuck-on snot but are moist and much, much more gentle than tissues.

Little Colds Baby Rub - it's like all-natural Vapo Rub for babies. I love all Little Remedies products. They're homeopathic and they work wonders.

Monkey is doing great today. He is currently taking his second long nap, which I'm sure is good for healing his little body. I am secretly so excited for 4:00 when I get to feed him sweet potatoes. He loves 'em. The first experience with them yesterday went swimmingly. I wonder what he'll think of carrots when we move on to them.