Camping Buddy In Training

Jacob has been wanting to take Josiah camping for quite some time now, but has been a little nervous about how it would go, so he decided to sleep in the tent in the yard for a trial run.  The weather had been a bit too chilly for this, then of course we had Elijah, so finally the time came on Friday night to try it out.

In the afternoon they set up the tent as Jacob tried to get Josiah excited about the idea.  Josiah LOVES sleeping in his bed, so we talked it up all afternoon and evening.

What is it with boys?

 Doing his best not to smile for the camera despite having fun.

I love this one.  It looks like they are laughing because Josiah said something silly, but in this one and the next one they are both saying “cheese” continually and in a silly way.

Jacob says this 2-man tent IS, in fact, big enough for two men, but NOT for one man and a toddler!

  Josiah dragging his sleeping bag and tent steaks out to the tent.  Sorry these pictures are blurry – that just means Jacob took these.

Then the time came to go outside and go to bed at about 8p.m..  Everything was all fine and good until they reached the tent and Josiah realized we meant what we had been talking about.  He freaked out a bit and ran back to the house!  Jacob caught him and carried him, crying, back to the tent where he got his milk and Jacob began reading him his Bible stories while I zipped them in.  Apparently they read all the books I sent with them twice.  Josiah had been playing with a little flashlight Jacob had given him and he turned it off and sly Jacob asked him if it was broken and Josiah said “broken” then settled in to go to bed in the dark at around 10 p.m..

Jacob said they had a good time, laughed about Josiah passing gas several times and had decent sleep.  Josiah woke up a couple times confused about where he was, but then went back to sleep.  He woke at 6 a.m. and Jacob entertained him with more reading until it was an acceptable time to come inside.

All this fun happened while I had baby duty inside.  It wasn’t the smoothest night for me due to some gas (on Elijah’s part!), but I used the opportunity to have Elijah sleep in his crib.  He seems to do better there compared to his bassinet, but we’ve avoided it since his room is next to Josiah’s and he cries some at night sometimes while feeding.  I think we may try it again tonight.  And maybe I’ll have to kick Jacob and Josiah out to the yard for a few weeks :)  We’ll see.

 

By the way, Josiah’s big day at Shands will be May 19th at 8:45 a.m. – unless we can sneak in for a cancellation before that.  It seems so far away.

4 Weeks Old!

Elijah has survived four whole weeks in our household.  It seems kind of funny how you spend 9 months preparing for the arrival of a newborn and in just a few short weeks they aren’t really even newborns anymore.  These first weeks both fly and drag by.  So precious, yet challenging.  I can’t believe 4 weeks of my maternity leave are up!

Our little man is growing like a weed, yet he seems to eat so little compared to what I expect.  We have been struggling a bit with “colic” for lack of a better term.  It isn’t technically colic by definition, but it is definitely stomach related pain and it interrupts probably at least a third of our feedings.  I remember dealing with this some with Josiah and I’m hoping it is just normal baby behavior for this stage while everything is leveling out rather than being a precursor to the problems Josiah now faces.  It did, thankfully, resolve with Josiah, so I’m just being patient. 

Elijah got his first 2 bottles this week.  We gave them for the feeding that he tends to have the most trouble with.  Jacob gave it the first night and everything went fabulously and he even went to bed early.  Not so much the second time, but we’ll give it another go.  I’m thinking I’m due to sleep through one feeding one night and let Jacob take it on!

I’m still not convinced that he is smiling at me since it is so early and they are faint, rare, and short lived.  I can’t instigate them, but they are definitely pleasant interactive faces that make me happy!

Here is a near-smile that I caught the tail end of.  He totally looks like a red head here.

 

Tummy time on the Boppy.

Just hanging out talking to Mommy.

Party At The Potty

I wasn’t sure if this was blog appropriate, but I think it is a relatively big deal in the life of most 2 year olds and for us it is huge, so here it is…

Josiah went poo poo in the potty!

Except for the short period of time when his symptoms had resolved and he was making great strides, Josiah is nearly always straining and anxious about going to the bathroom.  This results in him having a meltdown if he has the urge while not wearing a diaper – resulting in many difficult bathtimes.  Usually while his bathwater is running, we put him on the potty and read with no pressure whatsoever.  This has resulted in him peeing in the potty once, but when he has to poo he has a meltdown and we have to either wait it out if we think it is a false alarm or rush to get a diaper.  This time, though, Jacob successfully calmed him and he went on the potty!  I’ll spare you the picture, but it was quite significant!

We were very happy as this was such an encouragement to us in an area that we have been very discouraged – not so much with the potty training part, but the GI issues in general.  I’ve been worried that even if we may be able to cure him symptom-wise he may still experience learned anxiety each time, but this gave me hope that he can just relax.  We made a huge deal of it with praise and M&M’s (I apparently reward him with these too often because the other day I was thanking him for being a good boy and he started dancing around singing “em ems, em ems”.  Cutie pie!)

3 Week Checkup

Yes, I’m blogging again.  What else is a girl to do while she nurses a baby or pumps?  I have nothing good to read.

Elijah had his 3 week checkup today, but first things first.  I never got his measurements at his newborn appointment, so here they are at 4 days of age: 20.25” long (50% - they must have measured him too long at the hospital because they said he was 21”), 7lb 11 oz (45%), and head circumference of 35 cm (25%).  Today, at just over 3 weeks of age, he was 21” (50%), 9 lb 5 oz (50%), and head circumference of 36.5 cm (25%), so he is growing nicely.  I can’t believe I have a baby in the 50% range since Josiah has always been so small.  Maybe they won’t share clothes in season after all.  The other amazing thing is that his head is only in the 25th percentile!  Big heads run in my family.  Josiah’s was always around 70% and I thought Elijah’s head looked kind of big, but I guess not.  I know you aren’t supposed to compare your kids, but it is funny how they can be so different.  You know this ahead of time, but I still find myself surprised.  Besides, I love their differences.

Dr. Worthington spent some time discussing diet and other factors that could cause GI upset since we have had some problems with him getting fussy during nursing and in the evenings.  We aren’t too concerned about it, but will experiment with a few things to see if it makes a difference.  Mostly we are just holding our breath hoping that whatever Josiah’s issue is is not something that Elijah will have in common with him.  The one other topic of discussion was his favoring of turning his head to the left which is apparently pretty common.  One more thing he shares in common with Josiah.  But this was easily overcome by the sixth month, so we just have to be cognizant of laying him in a variety of positions – something that needs to be done anyway.

Overall he looked great!  Josiah enjoys going to the doctor when Elijah is the focus.  After last week’s traumatic visit I made sure that he got to watch closely while Elijah was examined.  He was so good and patient.

Family Fun

Our first attempt at family fun as a family of four was two weeks ago when we went to Pioneer Days in High Springs. It was a total dud, but we managed to salvage the outing by meeting Kevin and Stefanie, friends from church, at Conestogas for lunch.

Last weekend and week Josiah and Jacob passed a GI bug back and forth. Thankfully they left Elijah and I out of that fun. Then we were supposed to go south to celebrate Easter a bit early with Jacob’s family, but since we couldn’t quite get up our energy for that we opted to stay closer to home and went strawberry picking down the road at Roger’s Farms with Savannah and Grandma. I’ve been wanting to do this for weeks starting with the Saturday that I had Elijah – before those plans were changed, obviously. We had a good time, great weather to do it in and we picked more strawberries than I really know what to do with!

Teaching Josiah and Savannah which ones to pick was a bit tricky, but they did well.

Grandma brought along her blankie! Actually she just opted out of picking to cuddle with Elijah who was being protected from the wind.

Playing in the wind.

Watching the tractor and trailer come to drop more pickers off. I think that was Josiah’s favorite part.

Don’t let his camera hating attitude fool you. Just look at those faces! He actually had a blast!

He’s such a gentleman. Savannah fell and spilled her strawberries and he just stood there and watched her pick them up. We’ll have to work on that!

Josiah was king of the buckets – empty buckets, that is.

He spent pretty much the whole time dumping the contents of his bucket into everyone else’s. Apparently he likes an empty bucket. You would think the sharing would make Savannah happy, but it just frustrated her.Dumping his bucket…

…again…

…and again.

Will Josiah ever pose for the camera again?

This is about the only way to make him smile for the camera. Daddy needs to be around to coax it out of him with play.

Then Savannah got in on the chase and he was all smiles. Notice the poor boy holding his pants up as he runs. He kept losing them. If his mom was a good mom he’d be wearing pants that fit!

Later that night we had dinner at Grandma’s and here are the post-dinner festivities:

Angel food cake with strawberries and ice cream.

Can you believe I didn't get wet? I love hearing my little boy laugh a hearty laugh!

3 Weeks With Mr. Blue Eyes

Week one was spent winging it as I felt overwhelmed realizing I needed a new plan and routine in order to make it through everyday life and attempting to formulate that routine.  Week two was spent attempting to implement it and making changes to it.  Week three has been spent “perfecting” that routine.  Not that it is anywhere near perfect (nor will it ever be), but we’ve got something going that works for us for now.  I’ve even gotten on the treadmill 3 times, which is a big deal considering I have to get the treadmill ready and prepare the room with cartoons, toys, books, and a snack to entertain Josiah, get myself dressed for it, then put Elijah down (successfully) for a nap, and still have time to walk before the next feeding.  We’ve also eaten 3 made-from-scratch meals as opposed to me pulling a previously made meal from the freezer, so life is regaining a bit of normalcy.  Now that we are settling in he’ll change his ways next week!

As far as Elijah goes, I thought I got his first couple faint but real smiles on Tuesday, but haven't gotten any since.  Maybe he was just trying to brighten that blah day.  He is getting into a nice predictable routine and going for longer periods between feedings more regularly at night.  The only negative is that he is beginning to develop a fussy, almost colicky time in the evenings lately.  He needs more help going down for naps in the daytime than I remember Josiah ever needing, but that is improving and is not at all true during the night.  Sometimes I worry that he’s not eating enough, but then I’m used to Josiah’s piggish ways and he seems much bigger than Josiah was at this stage.  We go back to the doctor on Monday, so we’ll get to check on his growth then.

I’m proud of our littlest little man.  He’s such a trooper and has endured the negligence of parents who have had divided attention while Josiah was sick or needs attention in general and he has survived many less than gentle but well-intended cuddles from Josiah as well as flying toys and books.  I’m looking forward to the coming weeks and his further development as we learn just who this little guy is and get to have more 2 way interaction.

I had to have Josiah kiss Elijah about 5 times before I got the picture.  My son is too fast and my camera too slow.

   He’s so smart that he can already touch his ear when we ask him where it is!

He LOVES to sprawl out when placed flat on his back.  I guess he spends too much time curled up to sleep and cuddle with us.

After I wrote this post I had some really great wake time with Elijah and I got a few more slight smiles.  I guess it was real.  Sometimes I worry that I don’t have enough time to spend in front of his face interacting.

Two Year Checkup And GI Update

First off I just want to say that my eyes got to see the backside of my eyelids until 9 a.m. for the first time in over 2 years today!  Of course my eyes didn’t settle into that position till nearly midnight and missed the 2 and 5 o’clock hours due to a rarely fussy infant.  Josiah has NEVER slept even close to that late, even 8 a.m. is a rarity, so hopefully nothing else is wrong.

After our late start we rushed to make it to Josiah’s doctor appointment.  We went to once again follow up on his never-ending GI issues, but also worked in his routine 2 year checkup.  He is now 2’10” tall and 25 pounds and is back on his growth curve.  Hallelujah!  And this is after a week of poor appetite due to teething and a GI bug this weekend.  (Oh yes, I should note that he cut his last two 2 year molars.)  All of the routine stuff checked out just fine and he got one vaccine.

As far as his GI issues go, we went today planning to ask for referral just out of sheer desperation, but she offered it right off the bat without our request almost sounding as though to convince us saying that we have exhausted all the routine things that the vast majority of patients are helped by and that mostly only noninfectious causes are left as possibilities.  I was completely relieved to get a referral at the time, but now I find myself a bit panicked by that now as reality hits.  In order to prepare for referral to the pediatric gastroenterologists at Shands we went ahead and drew blood for extensive bloodwork which we should get back in a week or so at which point the referral appointment will be set up.

It was a rough appointment.  Before we got there Jacob started feeling nauseous and while there he turned pale and had to leave.  Hopefully he hasn’t gotten Josiah’s bug.  This left me to physically hold Josiah down for his blood draw which involved two sticks with one blown vein to finally get about 7 tubes!  My poor baby.  We both cried while he struggled and screamed “don’t want it” and “all done”.  Darn postpartum hormones!  That and worry.  I felt so guilty when he looked into my eyes and didn’t seem to understand what was going on.  Then there was one more needle stick for his vaccine.  The whole time he was begging to get his shoes back on since that means he is “going”.  Oh, and did I mention the rain and Elijah crying to be fed? 

Now Jacob and I are vegging out on the couches watching tv shows on the internet that we have missed since having Elijah while both boys are napping.  Neither of us has the gumption to do anything worthwhile.  We better get some energy soon, though, because I promised Josiah all kinds of fun this afternoon while he was getting his blood drawn!

On a more upbeat note, we know God has all of this under control and we will make it through just fine, one way or another.  We are dreading putting Josiah through diagnostics and are concerned about getting a diagnosis and knowing if it is treatable and what that treatment will be, but also excited to hopefully put an end to it all or at least be able to manage it.  Part of me wants to send Jacob alone with him for these appointments since I feel like I just can’t take it, but the other part of me does not want to let Josiah down.  I’m so thankful we aren’t faced with a life threatening problem (or at least we pray we aren’t) as I see how that must be so difficult as a parent.  We both just keep saying that he is just too precious and sweet to have a major problem, but I’m sure all parents think that.

So much for potty training for now.  I knew this a month ago when things started getting bad again.  I guess I just got excited when everything was going well prior to this and he showed all the right signs of being ready and I knew I’d have some time off of work.  But how do you potty train a 2 year old who anxiously strains to poop constantly?  This too shall pass…we hope.

Newborn Preciousness

Elijah turned 2 weeks old yesterday!  He’s been doing really well and is slowly adjusting as he wakes up out of his newborn stupor and lengthens his wake time during the day and feeding intervals at night.  I have to keep reminding myself that he is only 2 weeks old because I find myself expecting too much from him since I want him to go down perfectly for naps (I’m spoiled here) and I’m already looking for him to sleep through the night!  I’m beginning to remind myself more frequently to stop and enjoy the ride since we won’t get this precious time back.  Though sleeping through the night will be nice!

With Josiah I remember the fatigue and difficulties of parenting beginning at three weeks, but I guess with 2 kids it sets in more quickly since halfway through this week I started feeling it.  Of course a teething toddler with a GI bug and a mid week road trip could also have contributed!  I’m hoping week 3 brings improvement.  Here are some snapshots of the week:

First bath at 8 days!

This is what all my boys were doing while I did laundry and dishes.

So small in the pack n’ play!

 In his church clothes for his first time.  He grunted and snored all through Sunday School – how embarrassing!

We made a quickie trip to Tampa this week to my Uncle Tommy’s house for some newborn (12 day old) pictures of Elijah.  We tried to include our camera loathing 2 year old and squeeze in some family photos, but soon decided it was easier to just photograph the cooperative newborn alone.  We did get a couple good ones of us and many great ones of Elijah, though.  Elijah also complicated things by having excessively dry, peeling skin and blocked tear ducts causing lots of eye “gunk”.  Tommy says he can take care of some of that, but here are some of the raw images:

         

What color do you think his hair is?  Sometimes it looks blonde, sometimes light brown, and sometimes there is a hint of red, but in general it seems to be getting a bit darker.