The scoop.
First, let me give the bad news. On Monday, Rosco had to have his right eye removed. He has had chronic problems for the past eight months that are painful and caused him to lose most of his vision in that eye, so we decided that the best thing for him would be to just have it removed. I just picked him up today, and he seems to be handling it very well. His vet is in Pacific Heights, AKA the rich neighborhood, so I had to walk my one-eyed dog down the busy streets with all the beautiful people. He was walking proudly, completely oblivious to what a horror show he looks like with one eye stitched close. In a couple of weeks, the stitches will be out and the hair will have grown out a bit, and he’ll just look like he’s winking all the time. We have already fondly started calling him “Lefty” and “Squints.”
Moving on, I have exciting news about Falco that I have been reluctant to share because of the fear of jinxing it. For over a week he has slept through the night almost every night! He first did it three nights in a row on his own, sleeping from about 6:30 p.m. until around 5:30 a.m. He had a night of waking up a couple times again, and I decided that I would try letting him cry (more like moan or fuss) for five minutes before going into his room and feeding him. The first night I tried it, he went back to sleep on his own within the five minutes. I was surprised and shocked and happy. I kept doing it for subsequent nights and it kept working. The past two nights he has woken up at around 4:45 and needed help to get back to sleep, but I bet he’ll be pretty consistently sleeping all night long pretty soon. It feels so luxurious to go to bed and not get up again until morning!
Yesterday was Falco’s four-month well-baby visit. As you know, we had been dreading it because he had to get vaccines and he seemed so uncomfortable and upset after his shots last time. Matt was able to come to the appointment too, and I expected to need the moral support. He was very good for his exam, as usual. He weighed 15 pounds, 6 ounces and was 26-1/2 inches tall. (That’s about the 50th percentile for weight and 95th for height.) Eventually, it came time for his shots. Luckily, we had the nice nurse this time, Stella, and not that mean guy from last time. She asked us to let Falco lie on the exam table instead of holding him in my arms, which I ended up liking better. When we layed him down, he was laughing and laughed through the restraining, alcohol, and the first shot! After the second shot he was sort of half laughing and half crying. When she got to his other leg for the other two shots, he cried a little for the third shot and started crying loudly after the final one because it stung. As soon as I picked him up and we gave him the pacifier he calmed down, and he just whimpered a little until we got him in the car. He slept the whole way home and was pretty much back to himself by the time we unloaded him from the car at home. I’m not sure if it went so much better this time because he had Tylenol on board before the shots or just because he is bigger and sturdier, but whatever the reason, he did fabulously and we were very proud of him.
To top off the day yesterday, I put him on a blanket on the floor before his bath last night, and he rolled over! He had been trying to do it for the past week or so but hadn’t been able to get past rolling onto his side. Last night he did it four times, so it wasn’t just a fluke. I was very impressed. Oh, also yesterday, he played with his first truck. We got him this big cement mixer truck that we figured he was too young to play with yet, but when we showed it to him while he was sitting in my lap on the floor, he pushed it back and forth and spun and dumped the back. It was cool to see him play with something besides just a boring rattle that he puts in his mouth, and it made me look forward to sitting on the floor and playing with him when he gets a little bigger. Here’s a teeny video from my phone of the rolling over event:
Our ongoing struggle with Falco is daytime sleep. He apparently thinks naps are for babies and would rather stay up all day, but he gets fussy if he doesn’t nap. I can usually get him to take two naps a day, but they might only be 30-45 minutes long. I have read that babies often get better at napping around 5-6 months of age, so I’m still hopeful it will just improve with time. Even if it doesn’t though, I’m so glad that he sleeps so well at night that I don’t really mind the napping situation that much. Even when he’s fussy, he’s still pretty good and I can deal. If we’re ever really desperate for him to nap, we just go on a long car ride and that does the trick. Speaking of naps, he is actually taking one right now so I need to go get some chores done and end this mega post!
