Daniel - awake - 4 months

I finally remembered to take pictures of Daniel awake. Look at those big eyes! He doesn't really love tummy time, but I make him occasionally. Can't get those strong muscles if he doesn't exercise them. :-)





Wheeee! I'm flying!

We got out our Johnny Jump-up thing and hung it in the doorway. Nathan loved this thing, and William liked it well enough too. So we thought we'd try Daniel out in it, since he's been standing on our laps for over 2 months. Strong legs.... He enjoyed standing and twisting around while chewing the edge for a few minutes, and then got hungry and his arm stuck. Please ignore the paper mess behind him.

We sure enjoy having him in our family. He can be a bit demanding, but those toothless smiles are worth it!

Shame on Me.

I have got to quit making awesome food and forgetting to take pictures of it. Like last night, I did some sweet and sour ribs in the crockpot, til almost fall-apart. Then finished them off in the oven and served them with the reduced and thickened sauce. Yumm! We had friends over and she warned me that her oldest daughter loves ribs. Loves is an understatment. I'm thinking 3 1/2 lbs just wasn't enough and next time I'll have to do 5 or 6 lbs. My crockpot can hold it.

I feel very productive today, which is good because even though we cleaned the house about 2 weeks ago, it's turned into a disaster. The laundry is backed up again, counters are full of stuff, toys all over the boys's bedrooms. But we got new couches over the weekend, and so my living room got scoured to make room. And it looks so nice that I want to make the other rooms match. So this morning, I did dishes, started laundry and switched some out to the dryer, swept and vacummed, scrubbed the table, and got rid of old papers. Whew! Then I remembered to eat breakfast...

It's just sad that I can clean and tomorrow it won"t look like it.

My own personal rollercoaster...

I have learned that I really need to be careful what I wish for. Because I just may get it.

I wished really hard to deliver at St. Lukes this time. I got it, with a great doctor.

I wished for a good doula and a perfect labor/delivery. I got it.

I wished for nursing to work. And I got it. How is this good and bad? Well, for starters, there was the nursing constantly the whole time at the hospital and about a week afterwards. I had no intentions of pacifier use, but I ate my words fairly quickly. Yet I was somehow proud that all he wanted was to be with his momma (and her milk buddies).

But there was the reflux and arching and having to sleep with us at night because he wanted held and was uncomfortable. And then there was the almost 2 months starting around Christmas where he wouldn't nurse unless I was laying down on my side. That was a long 2 months.

And the 2 bad episodes of low milk supply thanks to getting put on my medications. Both of which Fenugreek has saved my sanity. And I had the hardest time getting a hold of more when I ran out, so this last episode was not good at all. But everythings good now, it works wonders. Still, nursing every 30-60 minutes for 2 days straight was not enjoyable.

Why did I do this you may ask? Because the stinker refuses to take bottles! At all! He'll play with it and bite it, but then gets mad that milk comes out. Heaven forbid you offer it when he's starving, because he'll scream the house down until I get home. 3 different bottles, and 5-6 different nipples... I sort of lost count. Breastmilk or formula, doesn't matter. He doesn't want either one. So I don't know what to do with the nearly 30 bags of breastmilk in my freezer.

Of course, nothing really beats my 4month old with the gorgeous eyes pulling off midway through his meal, just to give me a huge, toothless smile, and latch back on. And blowing lovely spitbubbles at me when he's all done. Or the cute way he tries to curl up like a rollie-pollie and chew my shoulder when he's hungry. And yes, I can finally nurse sitting up. The boppy pillow, that he didn't want anything to do with, and that I nearly got rid of, has now become acceptable. So as long as I take it everywhere I go, I can nurse..... good grief. :-)

Sleepy Head

Took me 3 tries to spell the title right. I'm tired I think....

Daniel was sleeping on the couch this evening. He sleeps there a lot, because of the noise. He likes it and doesn't wake up as much sleeping in here as he does in his room during the day. He was so cute and peaceful that I just had to play with my camera. 4 months old last Saturday! I'll take awake pictures maybe tomorrow.



I love baby toes!

Just playing around with stuff. I liked his stripey shirt. And the way he sucks in his lower lip a little when he's asleep. We think he did that in utero, because just minutes after birth, he started sucking on his lower lip. He tried doing it while nursing and our doula caught it and helped us fix it early.

Oren wanted in on the fun. Why not? He does have the biggest blue eyes...

Anyway, just having fun with the camera. And the fact that my subject couldn't go anywhere.

"This bed is too BIG"

said my little Goldilocks.

We had some friends over last night, and after dinner William disappeared. I was tired and the house was noisy and Daniel was fussing so I didn't even really notice except to see that he didnt' finish his taco. I knew he was somewhere around, but just figured he'd pop in the room again.




Guess not! I went into my room to lay Daniel down on the bed, it's more quiet than the rest of the house with 6 kids playing in the hallway, and suprise! William had decided to take a nap in my bed after dinner. He had a good 2 hour nap. Which meant he was up way after 11, when I put him in his bed. I think he finally fell asleep around midnight? Lovely...

Title?

I guess this is just some random update thoughts, like Rachel's post. Most of what I do is random anyway!

Oren had another appointment to check how his new meds were doing, so we could switch to his other med. But suprise! The kiddo gained 1 1/2 pounds in one week! We didn't expect that, so we're keeping him on the Adderol, and just upped it a tad to help at school since the tiny dose wasn't as good as we had hoped. It will be nice to have him not look like skin and bones, a skeleton. Slim is one thing, but he was way more than slim.

And Daniel started rice cereal this week! And loves it! He's been eyeing our food for a few days, from plate to mouth. He sits up great in his bumbo (heaven bless my friend for loaning to me so I didn't have to fork over $40) so we gave it a shot. I didn't even have to buy the cereal, since my friend Amanda had some left over. He was grabbing the spoon and helping me put it in his mouth! I would have taken pictures, but the tiny amounts on the spoon didn't really make a mess. Now, the first plate of spaghetti I'll definitely take shots of. :-)

Last week was a bad week. For me. I even called my mom by Friday night having a little mini breakdown or something, not sure what was up with that. But after starting my Concerta (for the ADHD) and my Lamictal (for bipolar) is still getting larger doses as we work up to the full management dose, I am doing much better. Even with it being a stimulant, Daniel doesn't seem to have a problem with the Concerta like I was worried he might. And it hasn't affected my milk supply so far. Yay!

---- It is now evening. And I want lots of ice cream! At one point I had 9 kids here. I babysat a friend's 2 daughters. Then she picked up her daughter, Oren and Nathan, and another boy from school. They ended up staying here to play for a while, because apparently my house is the preferred place to play. The boy's mom brought over his sister for a bit so she could run to the store. And then I had a piano lesson! Whew! A long evening.... yet somehow I managed a yummy steak and homemade rice pilaf dinner in between lessons. Yumm!

Aaaand..... I have a cake job! A friend who used to be in our ward gave my name to a lady in her new ward, who called and asked if I could do a wedding cake for her son's wedding. She needs it the same day as my sister-in-law, so I'll do all the flowers in advance for both cakes, and drop hers off at the church up here 2 days before, and take my sis-in-law's over to Rigby for her reception. I think I will be glad to have that week over and done with, and I won't be making a lot of money off the job, but I've never done the setup that this lady wants, so it will be good experience. And may mean more jobs in the future. I have until April. And then I'm doing Janelle's wedding cake in May. Hurray!

Now I think I'll go get some ice cream and then go to bed before Daniel wakes up and wants to nurse yet again.

Day on the town

Today was some sort of teacher inservice day, so the kids had the day off of school. I had an appointment in Boise, so we loaded everybody up and headed out. Fun isn't quite the word I'd use, but it wasn't a half bad day.

For starters, my doctor is putting me on Concerta for the ADHD. And scolded me for not getting enough sleep.... which is why I loaded everybody... so Mark could drive. Hopefulle that will improve some issues. And this time, we didn't crash the car on the way to lunch!

Daniel had issues all day until we got home. Because he will only nurse when I am laying down, that made for an interesting feeding situation. I brought my pump in case he wouldn't nurse so I wouldn't explode, but somehow forgot the handle that works the whole thing. Man, hand expressing hurts! I also had a thermos of warm water and formula powder. He wouldn't take either breastmilk or formula from the bottle, and so spent most of the morning/afternoon either screaming at us or sleeping. We felt so bad, but if he won't take it, what are we suppposed to do? I even laid the seat all the way back so he'd at least eat the side he doesnt' fight me on, so he got something. But it was a long day so it sort of bit that I had so many things I needed to do while in town.

But, I was able to find the cake pillars and plates I need for my sister-in-laws wedding cake. Otherwise I'd have to order them and that can take a few weeks. So, nice to know how much they are and where I can get them. Mark got his glasses fixed. I picked up the music books I needed for a couple students, and a couple new folios that caught my eye. (books with lots of songs) Nathan fell off his chair at McDonalds and scraped up his chin really well. He was wiggling around after we told him he needed to sit still, so I was kind of irked when an employee brought him stickers to help him feel better.

I also have a new appreciation for Payless employees and boys who are decisive. Payless was our last stop of the day, since Nathan's shoes were falling apart and Oren's were a bit snug. The nice young man measured their feet quilcky and helped me figure out what sizes they needed to have some room to grow. Once we got to the right section, the boys found what they wanted within minutes! Nathan opted for easy velcro, and Oren chose some basic slip-ons. We threw the old shoes away and the guys let them wear the shoes out of the store. Hurray! Happy feet! In and out in 10 minutes.... not half bad.

Home for a 5 minute snooze while feeding a very hungry baby, and then an hour teaching piano. I have a student learning Fur Elise, and we're struggling with the concept of 32nd notes being 16th notes and all that. Finding where the beat is and where the notes are in relation to each other. But she's good, and determined, and that helps. But after that I was exhausted again.

So I took another quick nap and went down to Walmart. Yes, my day wasn't over. I needed to pick up my prescription. Turns out they got one of them wrong because the way the doctor wrote it out, but they agreed to fill my other one last minute so I didn't make the trip for nothing. Take and bake pizza for dinner tonight!

And now I want nothing more than to go to bed, because my face hurts from clenching my jaw last night, my eyes are burning and don't want to stay open, and I haven't managed more than 5-6 hours a night for over a week. But Mark is playing the piano right not, at 10:30pm, and I'd never get to sleep!

Yippee!

Mark's car is done, and we are picking it up this morning. It's been a long 3 weeks, and it was a definite reminder of why we have 2 vehicles. Holy cow. I miss that little purple thing. :-)

I went to Boise Friday to plead on my ticket. I decided to fight the misdemeaner charge, because I think it was ridiculous and the situation didn't warrant the charge. A nice long morning, but I have a pretrial date for March and a trial date for April in case we can't resolve it at the pretrial. I'll pay a fine, go to defensive driving class, deduct license points... whatever. Just don't stick a criminal charge on my clean record!

Oren is going through a medication adjustment. At his appointment last week, we talked about how he started meds at 12% height for weight. Now he's 4%. There is a special request med that has been known to help kids like him have a better appetite and gain a little more weight while controlling his symptoms, but he has to fail on 2 other meds to get on it. So we've "failed" the Concerta for lack of weight gain. And he started Adderol for 2 weeks and will "fail" on that because of course he won't gain a ton of weight on it. Then the doctor can prescribe Viavace for him. But gettting the Concerta out of his system, adjusting to the Adderol, getting that out and adjusting to the Viavace is going to make for a fun month. We've already had 3 boxes of tissue made into snow, baby powder ALL over my bathroom, and major pencil chewage. Plus several meltdowns since the new med is making him very over-emotional.

The boys were playing so nicely together that I had to take a picture. They had been fairly well behaved all evening, just being so nice and quiet. But not too quiet, the kind that means trouble.

So this mess was a huge shocker! They were "using their imaginations!" to quote Oren, the mastermind of the whole thing. This is what 3 boxes of tissues looks like when pulled out, shredded, and tossed about like a snowstorm.

Nathan has gotten even taller somehow recently. I'll be suprised if he doesn't hit 6 feet by adulthood. He's doing great in school, and has really picked up on reading. It's very suprising hearing them both spout off facts that they've read or learned... because it's stuff I didn't teach them. He just loves helping with "baby Daniel" and is always at the ready with a toy or pacifier. He's been into helping William get snacks too, which is both good and bad. The nutella sandwich for breakfast I could have done without, but the grapes and carrots after lunch was fine. :-)

William loves his little brother too, and takes great pride in holding him carefully, giving him his pacifier while when he cries and I'm trying to take care of dinner. He lost a shoe, and so wore either his Sunday shoes, or mixmatched snow boots for 2 weeks until I gave up trying to find this thing and just grabbed the next size up out of my hand-me-down shoe box. They're big, but they match! So many people at the school laughed and said "I remember those days!" instead of judging me. I love this school! He loves to copy his daddy which is hilarious when the legos fell over yesterday and he spouts off "By Gad Almighty!" Which is Daddy's go to when he's frustrated. Daddy wasn't quite sure what to think of his son's language...

And Daniel is just growing like a weed! We had some issues with milk supply last week and I thought it was done for. But I've been taking blessed thistle and fenugreek and drinking lots of water, plus letting him sleep with us for several nights to nurse as much as he wanted, seems to have taken care of the problem. At least, he's going a couple hours now and is happy after nursing, even in the evening. Whew! Although, he still won't nurse unless I'm laying down. And now he even prefers the bed to the couch. Here I was praying hard that it would work this time, and now I can totally see myself having to nurse laying down until he weans at a year. Good grief. If I lost weight while nursing that'd be fine, but I gain.... But we'll probably be starting cereal in a few weeks when he turns 4 months, we'll see how his checkup goes.

And, he rolled over onto his tummy yesterday! Daddy saw it, but I only saw him roll back over onto his back.