HA! I started this post on Tuesday, when Donovan actually turned 2 months old. I got as far as the title. Now it's Friday afternoon. Let's see how far I get :-P.
Anyway, I already shared my big boy's stats on Facebook, but he is a whopping 15 lbs. 4 oz. He is 24 3/4" long and his head circumference is 16.5". He's 95th percentile for height, 90th for the other two.
He is not a good shot taker. None of them are, of course, but he seems worse than Jocelyn was. He got all feverish and lethargic, and has been extra gassy / fussy since. Hopefully he gets past it soon. It probably doesn't help that he had a bit of a cold on Monday and was already sort of lethargic from that. So that's no fun :-(.
But enough about that nonsense. I want to talk about all of the AWESOMENESS that is Donovan! My big boy holds his head up so well. He is so strong! And he is getting really fun. The first few weeks are sort of a blur, of course, but newborns don't do anything anyway. Now he is starting to DO stuff. Not much, mind you, he is only two months. But he is making little noises. He coos, and says Ah, and Ca, and some other sounds. And he smiles! Oh, his lovely smiles. He does it all the time. It is SO FLIPPING CUTE! He also likes to make faces. He sticks his tongue out and flutters it around. He will do it spontaneously, as well as in response to our tongue sticking. LOVE IT!
Since he is such a champ with being in the stroller, I have started to take a Baby Boot Camp class. It's awesome. He sleeps the whole time, and I get a good workout in. And as I work out, it's obvious that I really need it! I knew I had gotten out of shape since starting to have kids, but I didn't realize the extent of it until I started trying to work out again. I have a LONG way to go before I am as fit as I was prior to having Jocelyn. And, let's be honest, it's not as though I was in awesome shape then. I was healthy, but I wasn't exactly ready to pose in a bikini on the cover in Shape or anything like that.
The only issue we are having right now (besides his soy and dairy intolerances) is his sleep. The shots he had seemed to have thrown off his sleep schedule. He slept quite a lot after his shots. Then he was up all night. And he has slept poorly every night and napped great every day since. I hate to wake him from his daytime naps. Besides, you can't really stop a baby from sleeping when they want to sleep anyway. Unfortunately, it's just as impossible to make a baby sleep when he doesn't want to.
I also still have not figured out the delicate art of diapering baby boys effectively. He still pees clear out the side of them! I point him down to try to prevent upward peeing. The dangerous time is when I'm nursing. I think it's because he's lying down on his side so gravity is helping him out. I don't really know if it's leaking out the top or side of the diaper. One thing is clear - we really need to go up a size (we're working through the last of our size 1's and have 4 packs of 2's waiting in the wings). That might help. Or I might consider trying out different brands. We shall see....
Oh well. He's a good boy. He's huge. He's a champ about travel and a good sport about being out all day. He has a wonderful, handsome smile and he just LOVES to make smiley faces at me. He lights up my world in so many little ways and so many big ways. So I'll take a few sleepless nights and wet laps if I need to. It's totally worth it!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Donovan's Results and Recovery
For those who read my last, unadvertised, blog post and sent your well wishes, thank you! It warms my heart that I have followers who actually keep up with my posts without reminders.
The good news is that Donovan's upper GI tract looks great! In fact, it looks like the acid reflux diagnosis was probably incorrect - it doesn't look like there is any irritation anywhere.
The bad news is that it probably means that all of the issues are related to food sensitivities, most likely from dairy and soy proteins. Which means that Mama needs to give up on dairy and soy. Which will be difficult (dairy is easier, although not easy, soy is tricky because even my prenatal vitamins have soy in them!). That also includes beef. So no steaks for me! Well, I can have bison, so when I want to do something with red meat, bison it will be :-). She also said no pork, which I don't really understand, but I will abide. Of course, I just bought two pork tenderloins - WAY too much food for Mike to eat when I do cook it up. So I guess that one will have to go into our already way too full freezer for use another day. Fish is fine. No bread. No pasta. Grains are fine, but breads and pastas tend to have soy ingredients in them (I suppose if I fihd a soy / dairy free version that should be good, I guess). She recommends rice as a gentle grain to eat.
The great thing is that he is likely to outgrow this in a few months, so really it's only about 4 months of eating this way. So it shouldn't be too bad.
We will have biopsy results in a week, but she wants me to change my diet starting now. It takes about a week to flush out all of the dairy. I have already purchased coconut milk, so I have that. Now to research some dairy-free, family-friendly recipes. Tomorrow night I'll be roasting a chicken. It shouldn't be too bad. It will just be tricky to go out to eat. Oh well.
Donovan is recovering fine, I guess. He's sleepy. It makes me wish I hadn't had that coffee this morning, because I could be napping right now if I thought I could fall asleep (instead I'm blogging and doing laundry, which is very productive at least). His last 'meal' - if you could even call it that - was at 3:30 this morning. So he's hungry. But he's more tired and sore than hungry, I guess.
He was a champ, though. It was terrible timing, because I think he might have slept through the night had I not had to wake him for this procedure. That said, when I 'woke' him at 3:30 to eat he didn't actually wake up (just latched on and nibbled a bit). Then when I changed his diaper at 5:30 he woke briefly, cried as he got put in the car seat, but was asleep by the time he was snapped into the car. But once we had checked in and they went to take his height and weight, that was enough rousing to wake him. That was obnoxious that they did that first, actually, because the next part was to go over his history. Since he was very awake, and very hungry, he cried and rooted that entire time! They would have done the history stuff first and then measured his height and weight. They couldn't even get an accurate read on his vitals, because all of the crying made his pulse, BP and breathing rate go up. But they could have done all of those things gingerly as he slept, and then taken his height and weight just before the procedure, that way he would only be awake for a short while.
Anyway, by the time we got through the history (which I also gave them over the phone yesterday), the paperwork, consents, etc. made our way to the GI area, and they were ready to bring him back, it was 8:30. My poor little guy had to be awake for two hours all hungry and stuff! He dozed off at points during that, but every time he fell asleep in my arms it was time for me to do something (sign something, get out my insurance card, etc.), so I had to put him back down in his car seat and we'd start all over. He was asleep right before things were about to start up, though, which made it a bit easier to take. They wanted me in the room while they put him under (with gas, so no needles!), which would have been hard to take if he went from screaming to asleep in no time. But since he was already asleep, he didn't look any different. Then they sent me to wait in the lobby for some 20 minutes and they were done. The doctor showed me the pictures right away, and by the time she was done reviewing the results Donovan was awake and ready for me.
The poor little guy is all off as a result of everything. He is very drooly, probably because it hurts some to swallow. He also refused to eat right away. He's all groggy. And he's super gassy due to the air they had to put into his stomach. But he's in decent spirits. The soreness should go away in a day or so. And he already got a few big belches and farts out, so hopefully the extra gas will be relieved soon.
And since he hasn't wanted to eat yet, and I haven't pumped since 4 a.m., I need to pump again. This is good, it will build my back-to-work stash. But once I'm done with that, I think I'll be able to fall asleep. So maybe a little nap for Mommy as well :-)
The good news is that Donovan's upper GI tract looks great! In fact, it looks like the acid reflux diagnosis was probably incorrect - it doesn't look like there is any irritation anywhere.
The bad news is that it probably means that all of the issues are related to food sensitivities, most likely from dairy and soy proteins. Which means that Mama needs to give up on dairy and soy. Which will be difficult (dairy is easier, although not easy, soy is tricky because even my prenatal vitamins have soy in them!). That also includes beef. So no steaks for me! Well, I can have bison, so when I want to do something with red meat, bison it will be :-). She also said no pork, which I don't really understand, but I will abide. Of course, I just bought two pork tenderloins - WAY too much food for Mike to eat when I do cook it up. So I guess that one will have to go into our already way too full freezer for use another day. Fish is fine. No bread. No pasta. Grains are fine, but breads and pastas tend to have soy ingredients in them (I suppose if I fihd a soy / dairy free version that should be good, I guess). She recommends rice as a gentle grain to eat.
The great thing is that he is likely to outgrow this in a few months, so really it's only about 4 months of eating this way. So it shouldn't be too bad.
We will have biopsy results in a week, but she wants me to change my diet starting now. It takes about a week to flush out all of the dairy. I have already purchased coconut milk, so I have that. Now to research some dairy-free, family-friendly recipes. Tomorrow night I'll be roasting a chicken. It shouldn't be too bad. It will just be tricky to go out to eat. Oh well.
Donovan is recovering fine, I guess. He's sleepy. It makes me wish I hadn't had that coffee this morning, because I could be napping right now if I thought I could fall asleep (instead I'm blogging and doing laundry, which is very productive at least). His last 'meal' - if you could even call it that - was at 3:30 this morning. So he's hungry. But he's more tired and sore than hungry, I guess.
He was a champ, though. It was terrible timing, because I think he might have slept through the night had I not had to wake him for this procedure. That said, when I 'woke' him at 3:30 to eat he didn't actually wake up (just latched on and nibbled a bit). Then when I changed his diaper at 5:30 he woke briefly, cried as he got put in the car seat, but was asleep by the time he was snapped into the car. But once we had checked in and they went to take his height and weight, that was enough rousing to wake him. That was obnoxious that they did that first, actually, because the next part was to go over his history. Since he was very awake, and very hungry, he cried and rooted that entire time! They would have done the history stuff first and then measured his height and weight. They couldn't even get an accurate read on his vitals, because all of the crying made his pulse, BP and breathing rate go up. But they could have done all of those things gingerly as he slept, and then taken his height and weight just before the procedure, that way he would only be awake for a short while.
Anyway, by the time we got through the history (which I also gave them over the phone yesterday), the paperwork, consents, etc. made our way to the GI area, and they were ready to bring him back, it was 8:30. My poor little guy had to be awake for two hours all hungry and stuff! He dozed off at points during that, but every time he fell asleep in my arms it was time for me to do something (sign something, get out my insurance card, etc.), so I had to put him back down in his car seat and we'd start all over. He was asleep right before things were about to start up, though, which made it a bit easier to take. They wanted me in the room while they put him under (with gas, so no needles!), which would have been hard to take if he went from screaming to asleep in no time. But since he was already asleep, he didn't look any different. Then they sent me to wait in the lobby for some 20 minutes and they were done. The doctor showed me the pictures right away, and by the time she was done reviewing the results Donovan was awake and ready for me.
The poor little guy is all off as a result of everything. He is very drooly, probably because it hurts some to swallow. He also refused to eat right away. He's all groggy. And he's super gassy due to the air they had to put into his stomach. But he's in decent spirits. The soreness should go away in a day or so. And he already got a few big belches and farts out, so hopefully the extra gas will be relieved soon.
And since he hasn't wanted to eat yet, and I haven't pumped since 4 a.m., I need to pump again. This is good, it will build my back-to-work stash. But once I'm done with that, I think I'll be able to fall asleep. So maybe a little nap for Mommy as well :-)
Donovan's first surgery
A few weeks ago, in a seemingly unprompted event, Donovan had some blood in his spit up. Not a lot. Maybe a pea-sized clot in a 3 tbsp sample of spit. It was a congealed clot (not streaks) and bright red (not brown, so fairly fresh). Immediately I called the pediatrician's after hours line. The nurse told me that since it was an isolated event that I shouldn't worry about it. But if it happened again that I should take Donovan in to see them. Of course, she tried to convince me that it was one of two things: My blood (nope, nipples in tact), or residual Prevacid (nope, hadn't started him on the Prevacid yet, and also, that's pink and turns brown in spit up).
The next night we started him on the Prevacid, and didn't see any more blood. Unfortunately that only lasted for 2 weeks. Then he had a big spit up with a few balls of blood. Again, about pea-sized and bright red. This was in the middle of the day, so I was immediately on the phone with the pediatrician's office and scheduled an appointment with the nurse practitioner.
The NP examined Donovan and did not find any obvious source of bleeding. Also, since it wasn't projectile vomit, it was strange that any part of his esophagus was getting irritated enough to bleed like that. So a referral to a GI doctor was made.
We were able to take him in this past Monday. The doctor was really great and seemed to do a thorough in-office exam. She not only looked in his mouth but also pushed on his belly and looked at his skin. She came to the conclusion that Donovan probably has a food sensitivity. The rash on his body was mistaken for heat rash, but might be an allergic reaction. And the bloody spit up without the projectile action is evidently consistent with food sensitivities. Her guess is that it's dairy.
But we are investigating further anyway, because it's still disconcerting. So she is performing an EGD later this morning. That is basically an endoscopic look at the esophagus. She will take lots of pictures and look for any abnormalities. She will also take a biopsy to test for food sensitivities (and, I'm assuming, other things). The procedure itself should only take a few minutes. But he will be under anesthesia. So all told he'll be on the table for about an hour. Of course, they want us there 90 minutes early for check-in, and then will need to watch him afterward for at least an hour to make sure he can eat and hold down his food.
So 8:00 procedure meant no more milk for my little man after 4 a.m. So I woke him at 3:30 to try to get him to eat some. He did, but not nearly enough to keep me from getting engorged. And since I won't be able to nurse him until after 9 a.m., but will be 'up' at 5 a.m., I am up now pumping. Yes, it's 4:20, I'm finishing up my pump, and have to wake for the day at 5:00 so I can leave the house by 5:45. And, yes, I am going to go back to sleep and try to get in that last little nap.
Anyway, I'm kind of a nervous wreck. Any time the word 'biopsy' is uses in conjunction with your child, well, that gets your attention. And the fact that he needs anesthesia at only not-quite-8-weeks-old is also nerve-wracking. And I need to go by myself, because somebody needs to stay back with Jocelyn and get her off to daycare, and she wont' be up until an hour after I have checked in. And I need to leave before 6 a.m. to get to the hospital in time for check in, so there would bv nowhere to take her even if we did get her up early. And since Mike won't have dropped Jocelyn off until after Donovan is under, and it's a short procedure, and it's down in Dallas, I'm not even sure if it makes sense for him to meet us down there. We might just get him on the phone to discuss results. I don't know. That last one we will play by ear.
In my head I'm sure it will all be fine. But as a mom, well, you can understand that in my heart I'm a mess.
The next night we started him on the Prevacid, and didn't see any more blood. Unfortunately that only lasted for 2 weeks. Then he had a big spit up with a few balls of blood. Again, about pea-sized and bright red. This was in the middle of the day, so I was immediately on the phone with the pediatrician's office and scheduled an appointment with the nurse practitioner.
The NP examined Donovan and did not find any obvious source of bleeding. Also, since it wasn't projectile vomit, it was strange that any part of his esophagus was getting irritated enough to bleed like that. So a referral to a GI doctor was made.
We were able to take him in this past Monday. The doctor was really great and seemed to do a thorough in-office exam. She not only looked in his mouth but also pushed on his belly and looked at his skin. She came to the conclusion that Donovan probably has a food sensitivity. The rash on his body was mistaken for heat rash, but might be an allergic reaction. And the bloody spit up without the projectile action is evidently consistent with food sensitivities. Her guess is that it's dairy.
But we are investigating further anyway, because it's still disconcerting. So she is performing an EGD later this morning. That is basically an endoscopic look at the esophagus. She will take lots of pictures and look for any abnormalities. She will also take a biopsy to test for food sensitivities (and, I'm assuming, other things). The procedure itself should only take a few minutes. But he will be under anesthesia. So all told he'll be on the table for about an hour. Of course, they want us there 90 minutes early for check-in, and then will need to watch him afterward for at least an hour to make sure he can eat and hold down his food.
So 8:00 procedure meant no more milk for my little man after 4 a.m. So I woke him at 3:30 to try to get him to eat some. He did, but not nearly enough to keep me from getting engorged. And since I won't be able to nurse him until after 9 a.m., but will be 'up' at 5 a.m., I am up now pumping. Yes, it's 4:20, I'm finishing up my pump, and have to wake for the day at 5:00 so I can leave the house by 5:45. And, yes, I am going to go back to sleep and try to get in that last little nap.
Anyway, I'm kind of a nervous wreck. Any time the word 'biopsy' is uses in conjunction with your child, well, that gets your attention. And the fact that he needs anesthesia at only not-quite-8-weeks-old is also nerve-wracking. And I need to go by myself, because somebody needs to stay back with Jocelyn and get her off to daycare, and she wont' be up until an hour after I have checked in. And I need to leave before 6 a.m. to get to the hospital in time for check in, so there would bv nowhere to take her even if we did get her up early. And since Mike won't have dropped Jocelyn off until after Donovan is under, and it's a short procedure, and it's down in Dallas, I'm not even sure if it makes sense for him to meet us down there. We might just get him on the phone to discuss results. I don't know. That last one we will play by ear.
In my head I'm sure it will all be fine. But as a mom, well, you can understand that in my heart I'm a mess.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Who's this? And what will she eat?
Jocelyn loves to look at pictures. And we often go through the album asking who people are, and then we tell her who they are. But on Friday, Jocelyn surprised us - when we asked "Who's this?" and pointed to a picture of her, she answered "Jossin." Yes, my kid can say her own name! Proud Mommy over here :-).
The funny thing is that the night before we were talking with some friends whose son is 5 months older than Jocelyn, and we got on the topic of them being able to say their own names. We mentioned that Jocelyn couldn't say her own name yet. And that was that. And then 24 hours later - BAM - she busts out a 'Jossin!'
That's not all. Also on Friday, she pointed to a picture of her Aunt Sarah and said "Seesoo." So that was also really cool. We, of course, immediately called Sarah and had Jocelyn say it on the voicemail. And, of course, Aunt Sarah loved it.
We spent the weekend working on the family members. She even got out an "A-Pat" for Uncle Pat (Aunt Sarah's husband), and tonight she made sort of an "A-Ja" for Uncle Jeff. She hasn't attempted Grandpa yet. And she's working on Grandma. It is turning from 'Manga' to something more along the lines of 'Gamma' and 'Gramma.' She usually does default back to 'Manga,' though.
We haven't worked much on my family yet. We don't spend much time with the early albums, and my family doesn't visit us so we haven't seen them in a while (my mom in December for a few hours, during which we didn't take any pictures, and my brothers since the summer). So she doesn't know Babci, Uncle Omar or Uncle JJ very well.
She is also getting so much better with her sentences. I picked her up from daycare yesterday and, as usual, she ran right up to me and gave me a hug. But she was in the diaper line, so she looked at me, patted her butt and said 'poo poo.' The teacher whisked her back to the changing area and changed her diaper and I talked to the teacher all of this. When she was done, I was still talking to the teacher (and now the director, who had come into the room). Well, Jocelyn was ready to go. She pointed to Donovan's car seat and said, "Baby up." She then pointed to the door and said, "Walk. Home." It was really impressive!
In more frustrating news, Jocelyn has basically quit being a good eater. Her old favorites are no longer favorites. We used to get her to eat basically anything by letting her dip it - chicken dipped in ketchup or barbecue sauce, beef dipped in ketchup or spaghetti sauce, pork dipped in ketchup or gravy, etc. And of course, pancakes and waffles (waf-waf) would be dipped in syrup. But now she won't eat any meats, regardless of dip, except for fast food chicken tenders (not nuggets... because we won't buy those for her). Pancakes are hit or miss, as are waffles (waffles > pancakes). She's happy to eat junk, like crackers, cookies and french fries (which we, of course, try to limit). PB&J used to be a safe bet, but she won't eat that anymore. All she eats as far as healthy foods go are yogurt, fruit, dry grown-up cereal and baby cereal mixed with fruit. And she loves to drink milk and juice (100% juice, of course, not that sugary crap). She has even become hot and cold on tea (which was her drink of choice for a few weeks there).
When she stopped gaining weight after her first birthday (pretty much coincided with weaning), I didn't care because she ate really well. But she has become SO picky! She won't even bargain for food anymore (eat a bite of chicken and we'll give you more grapes, etc.). She's healthy, and I think she gets plenty of calories with all the milk and yogurt she has. But I'm worried that it's not going to last. I need this kid to eat more foods :-(.
The funny thing is that the night before we were talking with some friends whose son is 5 months older than Jocelyn, and we got on the topic of them being able to say their own names. We mentioned that Jocelyn couldn't say her own name yet. And that was that. And then 24 hours later - BAM - she busts out a 'Jossin!'
That's not all. Also on Friday, she pointed to a picture of her Aunt Sarah and said "Seesoo." So that was also really cool. We, of course, immediately called Sarah and had Jocelyn say it on the voicemail. And, of course, Aunt Sarah loved it.
We spent the weekend working on the family members. She even got out an "A-Pat" for Uncle Pat (Aunt Sarah's husband), and tonight she made sort of an "A-Ja" for Uncle Jeff. She hasn't attempted Grandpa yet. And she's working on Grandma. It is turning from 'Manga' to something more along the lines of 'Gamma' and 'Gramma.' She usually does default back to 'Manga,' though.
We haven't worked much on my family yet. We don't spend much time with the early albums, and my family doesn't visit us so we haven't seen them in a while (my mom in December for a few hours, during which we didn't take any pictures, and my brothers since the summer). So she doesn't know Babci, Uncle Omar or Uncle JJ very well.
She is also getting so much better with her sentences. I picked her up from daycare yesterday and, as usual, she ran right up to me and gave me a hug. But she was in the diaper line, so she looked at me, patted her butt and said 'poo poo.' The teacher whisked her back to the changing area and changed her diaper and I talked to the teacher all of this. When she was done, I was still talking to the teacher (and now the director, who had come into the room). Well, Jocelyn was ready to go. She pointed to Donovan's car seat and said, "Baby up." She then pointed to the door and said, "Walk. Home." It was really impressive!
In more frustrating news, Jocelyn has basically quit being a good eater. Her old favorites are no longer favorites. We used to get her to eat basically anything by letting her dip it - chicken dipped in ketchup or barbecue sauce, beef dipped in ketchup or spaghetti sauce, pork dipped in ketchup or gravy, etc. And of course, pancakes and waffles (waf-waf) would be dipped in syrup. But now she won't eat any meats, regardless of dip, except for fast food chicken tenders (not nuggets... because we won't buy those for her). Pancakes are hit or miss, as are waffles (waffles > pancakes). She's happy to eat junk, like crackers, cookies and french fries (which we, of course, try to limit). PB&J used to be a safe bet, but she won't eat that anymore. All she eats as far as healthy foods go are yogurt, fruit, dry grown-up cereal and baby cereal mixed with fruit. And she loves to drink milk and juice (100% juice, of course, not that sugary crap). She has even become hot and cold on tea (which was her drink of choice for a few weeks there).
When she stopped gaining weight after her first birthday (pretty much coincided with weaning), I didn't care because she ate really well. But she has become SO picky! She won't even bargain for food anymore (eat a bite of chicken and we'll give you more grapes, etc.). She's healthy, and I think she gets plenty of calories with all the milk and yogurt she has. But I'm worried that it's not going to last. I need this kid to eat more foods :-(.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Chatty Kathy!
I cannot believe how fast my little girl is growing! I know I have said this before, but it is just so amazing to see her learn. Her vocabulary has totally skyrocketed. I believe that the book says she should know 10 words now. She has FAR surpassed that!
While Jocelyn obviously can't read, she really recognizes things and knows what they are by name (even if she can't say them). This one story I'm about to go into happened probably 3 or 4 weeks ago, but I haven't gotten a chance to tell it:
Mike brought home a bag of bags of chips from work. The bag is a paper bag with a Starbucks logo on it. So I stuck the whole bag on top of the refrigerator. Well, Jocelyn was sitting in her high chair and started pointing at the bag making her 'I want' sound. I was confused, because she doesn't eat chips (or, at least didn't at the time... more on that later). And, besides, she didn't know there were chips in there. But then it hit me later - she recognized the Starbucks logo! She and Grandma would take walks to Starbucks a few times a week and split a piece of coffee cake. So she saw the Starbucks bag and figured there was coffee cake in there. Seriously! How smart is that?
It's the same thing when we go to the grocery store. We walk past Goldfish crackers, and she points and yells "YUMMY!" And sometimes she gets it wrong. When I pulled out a box of chicken stock she pointed and yelled "Milk!" because their milk at daycare comes from boxes instead of cartons or jugs. And, of course, she recognizes foods themselves - yesterday Mike was holding her while I stirred the rice and she pointed and yelled "Rice! Yummy!" (which I didn't know she knew, either the word or the object, or liked). And she chowed down on it!
But, I swear, she learn new words every day! She knows basically all of the Sesame street characters ("Ernie" is the cutest for her to say, followed by "Bert"). Oh, and she has a book called Peek-a-Who and there is a Peek-a-Zoo page with lots of animals on it. The animals are not labeled, and there is a spotted cat on it. Sometimes we call it leopard, sometimes we call it cheetah. Well, Mike was reading her the book and she was pointing at all of the animals. When she pointed to the spotted cat Mike said "cheetah." She kept on pointing at it, as though she was challenging him on what he told her. He kept on repeating himself. Eventually she spit out "Leopard." She totally corrected him! So, from now on, it's a leopard.
She knows basically all of her colors. She recognizes and tries to say all of them, but she still has trouble with orange and green. G's and R's are hard to say. Pink is also an approximation. But she gets the rest fairly clearly. Oh, and she also says Grandma - but it comes out like "Munga" or "Ranga." I think that this last visit from Grandma made her very aware of her absence now, and that she misses her, because Jocelyn is often pointing to Grandma's chair, room, etc. and saying "Munga." She even pointed at Mike's beer, tried to push it away from him, and yelled, "Munga!" Because, you know, beer is Grandma's drink :-).
I always draw a blank when it comes to blog-writing time, so I can never list out all of the words she knows. She definitely knows "baby" now and uses it all the time. She asks for Donovan when he is not around, and if she finds his blanket is without him then she still runs it to him. When we sing 'Wheels on the Bus' she rolls her hands together. When she is supposed to clap in a song she claps. She loves to play with her balls, her puzzles, her cars and trucks, her stuffed animals and of course she loves her books. She babies her stuffed animals, probably because she has a baby brother and sees mommy taking care of a baby.
Tonight I drew Jocelyn a bubble bath, and when she got to the bathroom she yelled "bubbles!" and got super excited to get in the bath. She can also say "pee" and "poop" and points to her front and tushie, respectively, when saying them. She can say "Milk" and "Cookies" and often combines those words with the word "more. Who can blame her? Oh, and the kid LOVES tea! She used to ask for sips of my tea (she always wants sips of what the grown ups are drinking), and if I was drinking herbal tea I would oblige. She also has a tea set, which we lay with a lot. But it's gotten to where she wants me to make her tea! And she is not patient about it, either. She wants it NOW. I take her through the steps as I make it, that way she can start to maybe understand the time piece. It's cute how she yells "tea" though. Oh, and incidentally, that is not a word we can spell to talk about, since the first letter of it is the word itself.
She can also say apple, applesauce, water, cake (often followed by yummy), running, mat (in reference to Donovan's play mat), please, peas, dog / doggie, cat (which she used to say, and then stopped), Dakota, hat, hug, up, walk, out, and a whole bunch of other words. And 'na na' is her word for blanket.
She loves to give kisses. Tonight at bed time she must have given me at least 6 while I was singing to her. She also gave Mike and Donovan quite a few. And she loves to give hugs - she runs into your arms (usually when you're sitting on the floor or squatting to her level) and throws her arms around you, then pats you on the back. It's awesome :-).
Typical for a child her age, her favorite word is "NO!" It's the one word she doesn't say in her sweet little voice. She screeches it at the top of her lungs, often accompanied by tears. It's my least favorite word in her vocabulary, and I totally blame Mo Williams and his stupid pigeon (okay, I really like that book, but it taught her how fun it is to yell NO at the top of your lungs). I know this is normal, but that doesn't mean I like it. Ah, terrible two's... what a misnomer, since they start WAY before the second birthday.
While Jocelyn obviously can't read, she really recognizes things and knows what they are by name (even if she can't say them). This one story I'm about to go into happened probably 3 or 4 weeks ago, but I haven't gotten a chance to tell it:
Mike brought home a bag of bags of chips from work. The bag is a paper bag with a Starbucks logo on it. So I stuck the whole bag on top of the refrigerator. Well, Jocelyn was sitting in her high chair and started pointing at the bag making her 'I want' sound. I was confused, because she doesn't eat chips (or, at least didn't at the time... more on that later). And, besides, she didn't know there were chips in there. But then it hit me later - she recognized the Starbucks logo! She and Grandma would take walks to Starbucks a few times a week and split a piece of coffee cake. So she saw the Starbucks bag and figured there was coffee cake in there. Seriously! How smart is that?
It's the same thing when we go to the grocery store. We walk past Goldfish crackers, and she points and yells "YUMMY!" And sometimes she gets it wrong. When I pulled out a box of chicken stock she pointed and yelled "Milk!" because their milk at daycare comes from boxes instead of cartons or jugs. And, of course, she recognizes foods themselves - yesterday Mike was holding her while I stirred the rice and she pointed and yelled "Rice! Yummy!" (which I didn't know she knew, either the word or the object, or liked). And she chowed down on it!
But, I swear, she learn new words every day! She knows basically all of the Sesame street characters ("Ernie" is the cutest for her to say, followed by "Bert"). Oh, and she has a book called Peek-a-Who and there is a Peek-a-Zoo page with lots of animals on it. The animals are not labeled, and there is a spotted cat on it. Sometimes we call it leopard, sometimes we call it cheetah. Well, Mike was reading her the book and she was pointing at all of the animals. When she pointed to the spotted cat Mike said "cheetah." She kept on pointing at it, as though she was challenging him on what he told her. He kept on repeating himself. Eventually she spit out "Leopard." She totally corrected him! So, from now on, it's a leopard.
She knows basically all of her colors. She recognizes and tries to say all of them, but she still has trouble with orange and green. G's and R's are hard to say. Pink is also an approximation. But she gets the rest fairly clearly. Oh, and she also says Grandma - but it comes out like "Munga" or "Ranga." I think that this last visit from Grandma made her very aware of her absence now, and that she misses her, because Jocelyn is often pointing to Grandma's chair, room, etc. and saying "Munga." She even pointed at Mike's beer, tried to push it away from him, and yelled, "Munga!" Because, you know, beer is Grandma's drink :-).
I always draw a blank when it comes to blog-writing time, so I can never list out all of the words she knows. She definitely knows "baby" now and uses it all the time. She asks for Donovan when he is not around, and if she finds his blanket is without him then she still runs it to him. When we sing 'Wheels on the Bus' she rolls her hands together. When she is supposed to clap in a song she claps. She loves to play with her balls, her puzzles, her cars and trucks, her stuffed animals and of course she loves her books. She babies her stuffed animals, probably because she has a baby brother and sees mommy taking care of a baby.
Tonight I drew Jocelyn a bubble bath, and when she got to the bathroom she yelled "bubbles!" and got super excited to get in the bath. She can also say "pee" and "poop" and points to her front and tushie, respectively, when saying them. She can say "Milk" and "Cookies" and often combines those words with the word "more. Who can blame her? Oh, and the kid LOVES tea! She used to ask for sips of my tea (she always wants sips of what the grown ups are drinking), and if I was drinking herbal tea I would oblige. She also has a tea set, which we lay with a lot. But it's gotten to where she wants me to make her tea! And she is not patient about it, either. She wants it NOW. I take her through the steps as I make it, that way she can start to maybe understand the time piece. It's cute how she yells "tea" though. Oh, and incidentally, that is not a word we can spell to talk about, since the first letter of it is the word itself.
She can also say apple, applesauce, water, cake (often followed by yummy), running, mat (in reference to Donovan's play mat), please, peas, dog / doggie, cat (which she used to say, and then stopped), Dakota, hat, hug, up, walk, out, and a whole bunch of other words. And 'na na' is her word for blanket.
She loves to give kisses. Tonight at bed time she must have given me at least 6 while I was singing to her. She also gave Mike and Donovan quite a few. And she loves to give hugs - she runs into your arms (usually when you're sitting on the floor or squatting to her level) and throws her arms around you, then pats you on the back. It's awesome :-).
Typical for a child her age, her favorite word is "NO!" It's the one word she doesn't say in her sweet little voice. She screeches it at the top of her lungs, often accompanied by tears. It's my least favorite word in her vocabulary, and I totally blame Mo Williams and his stupid pigeon (okay, I really like that book, but it taught her how fun it is to yell NO at the top of your lungs). I know this is normal, but that doesn't mean I like it. Ah, terrible two's... what a misnomer, since they start WAY before the second birthday.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Growing Pains
Bringing a new baby into the fold is, of course, an adjustment. Adjusting to nursing again. Adjusting to getting your sleep in 1-3 hour chunks. Adjusting to not getting nearly enough sleep. Adjusting to not getting to eat, shower, use the restroom or do anything else on your own schedule.
But when there is already a baby, well, that complicates things further. Jocelyn is going through the most profound adjustment of anybody. Sure, she's very advanced for her age, and she comprehends a whole lot. But, at not quite 20 months old, she is still very much a baby herself. This is frustrating for her - she went from center of the world to feeling like yesterday's news. Of course we try to tell her and show her that we still lover her just as much as we always have, but it's hard for a baby to understand it. And, as a result, Mike and I are having to venture into uncharted parenting territory (for us... obviously people have second kids all the time).
We may have done us all a disservice by having so much help right out of the gate with Donovan. We had my mother in law here - she flew in the day I went into the hospital - so Jocelyn had somebody to distract her for the first 3 weeks that Donovan was around. Then my sister in law was here for a long weekend in there, who was basically Jocelyn's BFF during that time. Then we had a few days before Grandpa came along for a weekend. So we have delayed the big swell of anger, or maybe just stretched it out. This past weekend was our first as a family. It was unpleasant, to put it mildly.
When we first introduced Jocelyn to Donovan we were at the hospital. So she noticed him, and paid enough attention to him that we knew that she 'got' that he was important. But since we were in a new place she had lots of other stuff to explore. Thus, she didn't really care much about him. He did give her an Elmo doll, so that made her happy, but I'm not sure that she really connects the two of them (which is too bad, because she LOVES Elmo).
Once Donovan came home, it was clear that Jocelyn was displeased. She clearly loved *him*. It was *me* who she blamed (and still blames). She ignored me for the first two weeks. She would eventually come around if, say, Donovan was with somebody else. Her tantrum frequency increased to probably 2-3 per day. But she was also sick, and her schedule was all wacky (some days at daycare, some days at home, and lots of movement at daycare on top of it), so who knows if it was all due to him or if there were other factors. She was on a course of oral antibiotics, which gave her tummy troubles, and as soon as they were over she was sick again. When that didn't go away we went back to the doctor to discover she had a double ear infection! So then she needed a round of anti-biotic shots. So it was a rough go for her even without her baby brother.
Eventually she warmed back up to me, but then Grandma left. I think that this goodbye to Grandma was worse than the last, because she is that much older and able to comprehend (last time she didn't ask about Grandma.. now she points to the chair, the bedroom, etc. and says "Manga?" It's heartbreaking). Adding injury to insult, that was the week of the antibiotic shots. I also had to droop her off two mornings that week as well due to Mike's schedule. So more off routine, more tummy woes from more antibiotics, and this time with needles!
The Wednesday of that week daycare called me to say that they were out of clothes - Jocelyn pooped through everything. So I brought more up to daycare, but I saw that Jocelyn was sad, so I brought her home. That was a BIG mistake. When we got home I needed to nurse Donovan. That launched a HUGE temper tantrum. She was kicking, punching, trying to steal the Boppy pillow, trying to climb up me and push Donovan away. She was screaming and crying, that made it hard for him to stay latched on and eat, but he was hungry so he started crying. Eventually I started crying. Luckily for me Mike was on his way home (he left work when I told him I'd be home with two babies). The position we settled on was Donovan nursing on my left side and Jocelyn cuddled up on my right. They both fell asleep - Donovan from nursing, Jocelyn from crying her head off. So Mike got home to find me underneath two sleepy babies. Sure, it was cute once they were asleep. But it was TOUGH until we got there!
The new thing is that she is SUPER clingy with Mike when they get home in the evening. He can't even go to the bathroom without hr falling into hysterics. And she wants nothing to do with me (forget Donovan). It doesn't matter if he is nursing or napping, I'm public enemy #1. Oh, and Mike is not allowed anywhere near Donovan. If he cries, Jocelyn yells "Mommy" and points to him. Yeah, it's my job to take care of Donovan. Daddy is her parent. We usually have 3-4 tantrums leading up to dinner (which is within 30 minutes of their arrival home). During that time she warms up to me some. After we eat Mike always tries to hold Donovan - partly because he wants to hold him, partly because I want to spend some time with Jocelyn, and partly because we need Jocelyn to learn that Mike needs to hold the baby sometimes. Last night it didn't go well at all, the tantrum was too much to bear.
Tonight, however, went better. I am starting to learn an effective 'ignore' technique. It's not enough to simply ignore the tantrum, she will follow you around and climb on you. But you ignore and engage in an activity she wants to do (start working a puzzle, start reading one of her books) and she gets distracted from the tantrum and engaged in the activity. I got her distracted and willing to play with me, and Mike got to hold Donovan. Eventually we were all on the couch and we were all cuddling together. Of course, at that point she realized that she didn't want to be wearing footie pajamas, but rather footless pajamas and socks (specifically the socks she had on all day, which she threw a tantrum about taking off at bath time, and which we promised she could wear when we got out of the bath but then we all forgot about... until she remembered). Good thing I was able to figure it out relatively quickly and fix it before she totally melted down.
Anyway, this has been rambly. Partly because I'm really sleep deprived, and partly because I have started and stopped writing it more times than I remember. But I did want to capture it. I want to remember the impact this had on Jocelyn. I want her to know that it was hard for her, and that we did our best to make it easy for her and knew how hard it was for her. It makes us sad when she has tantrums, we don't want to see her so angry. But also, we wanted to remember this for the dating years, as it can be spun into a pretty embarrassing set of stories :-).
But when there is already a baby, well, that complicates things further. Jocelyn is going through the most profound adjustment of anybody. Sure, she's very advanced for her age, and she comprehends a whole lot. But, at not quite 20 months old, she is still very much a baby herself. This is frustrating for her - she went from center of the world to feeling like yesterday's news. Of course we try to tell her and show her that we still lover her just as much as we always have, but it's hard for a baby to understand it. And, as a result, Mike and I are having to venture into uncharted parenting territory (for us... obviously people have second kids all the time).
We may have done us all a disservice by having so much help right out of the gate with Donovan. We had my mother in law here - she flew in the day I went into the hospital - so Jocelyn had somebody to distract her for the first 3 weeks that Donovan was around. Then my sister in law was here for a long weekend in there, who was basically Jocelyn's BFF during that time. Then we had a few days before Grandpa came along for a weekend. So we have delayed the big swell of anger, or maybe just stretched it out. This past weekend was our first as a family. It was unpleasant, to put it mildly.
When we first introduced Jocelyn to Donovan we were at the hospital. So she noticed him, and paid enough attention to him that we knew that she 'got' that he was important. But since we were in a new place she had lots of other stuff to explore. Thus, she didn't really care much about him. He did give her an Elmo doll, so that made her happy, but I'm not sure that she really connects the two of them (which is too bad, because she LOVES Elmo).
Once Donovan came home, it was clear that Jocelyn was displeased. She clearly loved *him*. It was *me* who she blamed (and still blames). She ignored me for the first two weeks. She would eventually come around if, say, Donovan was with somebody else. Her tantrum frequency increased to probably 2-3 per day. But she was also sick, and her schedule was all wacky (some days at daycare, some days at home, and lots of movement at daycare on top of it), so who knows if it was all due to him or if there were other factors. She was on a course of oral antibiotics, which gave her tummy troubles, and as soon as they were over she was sick again. When that didn't go away we went back to the doctor to discover she had a double ear infection! So then she needed a round of anti-biotic shots. So it was a rough go for her even without her baby brother.
Eventually she warmed back up to me, but then Grandma left. I think that this goodbye to Grandma was worse than the last, because she is that much older and able to comprehend (last time she didn't ask about Grandma.. now she points to the chair, the bedroom, etc. and says "Manga?" It's heartbreaking). Adding injury to insult, that was the week of the antibiotic shots. I also had to droop her off two mornings that week as well due to Mike's schedule. So more off routine, more tummy woes from more antibiotics, and this time with needles!
The Wednesday of that week daycare called me to say that they were out of clothes - Jocelyn pooped through everything. So I brought more up to daycare, but I saw that Jocelyn was sad, so I brought her home. That was a BIG mistake. When we got home I needed to nurse Donovan. That launched a HUGE temper tantrum. She was kicking, punching, trying to steal the Boppy pillow, trying to climb up me and push Donovan away. She was screaming and crying, that made it hard for him to stay latched on and eat, but he was hungry so he started crying. Eventually I started crying. Luckily for me Mike was on his way home (he left work when I told him I'd be home with two babies). The position we settled on was Donovan nursing on my left side and Jocelyn cuddled up on my right. They both fell asleep - Donovan from nursing, Jocelyn from crying her head off. So Mike got home to find me underneath two sleepy babies. Sure, it was cute once they were asleep. But it was TOUGH until we got there!
The new thing is that she is SUPER clingy with Mike when they get home in the evening. He can't even go to the bathroom without hr falling into hysterics. And she wants nothing to do with me (forget Donovan). It doesn't matter if he is nursing or napping, I'm public enemy #1. Oh, and Mike is not allowed anywhere near Donovan. If he cries, Jocelyn yells "Mommy" and points to him. Yeah, it's my job to take care of Donovan. Daddy is her parent. We usually have 3-4 tantrums leading up to dinner (which is within 30 minutes of their arrival home). During that time she warms up to me some. After we eat Mike always tries to hold Donovan - partly because he wants to hold him, partly because I want to spend some time with Jocelyn, and partly because we need Jocelyn to learn that Mike needs to hold the baby sometimes. Last night it didn't go well at all, the tantrum was too much to bear.
Tonight, however, went better. I am starting to learn an effective 'ignore' technique. It's not enough to simply ignore the tantrum, she will follow you around and climb on you. But you ignore and engage in an activity she wants to do (start working a puzzle, start reading one of her books) and she gets distracted from the tantrum and engaged in the activity. I got her distracted and willing to play with me, and Mike got to hold Donovan. Eventually we were all on the couch and we were all cuddling together. Of course, at that point she realized that she didn't want to be wearing footie pajamas, but rather footless pajamas and socks (specifically the socks she had on all day, which she threw a tantrum about taking off at bath time, and which we promised she could wear when we got out of the bath but then we all forgot about... until she remembered). Good thing I was able to figure it out relatively quickly and fix it before she totally melted down.
Anyway, this has been rambly. Partly because I'm really sleep deprived, and partly because I have started and stopped writing it more times than I remember. But I did want to capture it. I want to remember the impact this had on Jocelyn. I want her to know that it was hard for her, and that we did our best to make it easy for her and knew how hard it was for her. It makes us sad when she has tantrums, we don't want to see her so angry. But also, we wanted to remember this for the dating years, as it can be spun into a pretty embarrassing set of stories :-).
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Where did the past 5 weeks go? And also, toothless smiles are so awesome!
I think I was much better about blogging Jocelyn's early days. What can I say? It's just harder with two. Deciding to send Jocelyn to daycare while I am out on leave has turned out to be the best decision I could have made.
So Donovan is over 5 weeks old now. He's 5 weeks and 2 days old. It's been crazy! He is a good boy, and I love him so very much. I couldn't imagine loving somebody as much as I love Jocelyn, but it turns out that it is possible to.
The two of them are about as different as night and day in some ways. He *hates* getting undressed. Diaper changes are torture for him. Whereas she never minded getting her diaper changed, or being naked. She still loves being naked! But all other times, he's really chill, whereas she was rarely chill. Jocelyn needed constant attention - needed to be held, walked, rocked, etc. She was NOT about to sleep without it. Jocelyn also hated the car seat and riding in the car. Donovan doesn't love the car seat, but once it's in the stroller or car and we're moving, he's good. He passes out. Actually Jocelyn also hated the stroller. Jocelyn loved the swing, though. She could swing all day. See, they were very different babies :-P.
But enough compare / contrast between my kids. This is about Donovan. He's playing with his daddy right now, and uttered his first "word." He said 'CA!' He said it three times. It was awesome :-). Donovan has amazing head control. He can keep his head level with his body when being pulled into a sit-up. He has strong legs as well, and likes to push them into the floor and pretend to stand up. And when you hold him up at his torso, he can hold his head up for quite a while. It's super cute.
I was sitting on the floor this evening holding him up by his torso, and as he held his head up he totally smiled at me. It was awesome. Now he's been 'smiling' practice smiles since the beginning. And he has sort of a giggle. And today I was pretty sure he smiled at me before latching on and then did his giggle. But the play time / alert time smile was definitely the real deal.
But this month+ has been a whirlwind. I barely remember any of it. Donovan is growing like a weed. He was nearly 13 lbs a week ago! Newborn clothing ranges from 5-8 lbs. We're WAY beyond that now! He's wearing 3 month clothing, and sometimes those are a bit tight on him.
Donovan's health has still kept us up. We are no longer worried about his murmur, of course, since the doctor told us not to. But he has already had (and still kind of has) his first cold. He occasionally breaths rapidly and hard still, which is of course disconcerting. His gas is also out of control. While it is probably just immature digestion and my diet isn't impacting it much, I have still cut down on the raw and cruciferous veggies, dairy and caffeine (much to my displeasure!). I haven't been able to cut out all of those ingredients at 100%, mostly because I still have a family to cook for (and they need veggies, even if I don't want them) and I can't 100% give up chocolate (which has dairy solids and caffeine) :-P. Also, he has been diagnosed with acid reflux, so we started him on a nightly dose of Prevacid. He wasn't spitting up (like Jocelyn did), but he got to where eating was getting really painful for him. He would fuss and have trouble staying latched on. I tried giving him some homemade gripe water, but he wasn't having it. I thnk it freaked him out a bit, he wouldn't even swallow it. We tried it from a dropper and a bottle, and neither were acceptable. So Prevacid it is. It's helping a lot - he no longer has pain during nursing.
Having a boy is very different than having a girl when it comes to diaper changes, though. It took me about a month to master the art of pee pee tucking, and even then I am not always very good at it. Just today we had an accident that resulted in my second pair of maternity pants in two days getting soaked through. I think he missed the diaper completely and got all of it out of the diaper! And that was *after* he peed in the bath (fountain style) and on the changing pad. And I'm not talking hours later, I'm talking an hour later.
Actually this evening was his first tub bath. Infant tub, of course. Until now we have been doing sponge baths. I honestly don't remember when we started bathing Jocelyn in this tub. I think we had her in the free tub from the hospital for a while, but Donovan is way too big for that thing! Even at the hospital the water was running out and he over-filled it :-P. I tell you what, Jocelyn did not like sharing her tub with him, even though she recognizes that it's a baby tub. I think it would have been fine, if we didn't put it into 'her' bathtub (the guest bathroom is 'their' bathroom). Also, I wasn't allowed to diaper him on her changing pad (he has his own in our room, which makes sense, since that's where he sleeps).
All in all, life is really, really hard. I didn't understand how hard my life would be with two children. But as hard as it is, I am also really, really happy. Tired, sure. But happy. I love my little doodle bugs!
So Donovan is over 5 weeks old now. He's 5 weeks and 2 days old. It's been crazy! He is a good boy, and I love him so very much. I couldn't imagine loving somebody as much as I love Jocelyn, but it turns out that it is possible to.
The two of them are about as different as night and day in some ways. He *hates* getting undressed. Diaper changes are torture for him. Whereas she never minded getting her diaper changed, or being naked. She still loves being naked! But all other times, he's really chill, whereas she was rarely chill. Jocelyn needed constant attention - needed to be held, walked, rocked, etc. She was NOT about to sleep without it. Jocelyn also hated the car seat and riding in the car. Donovan doesn't love the car seat, but once it's in the stroller or car and we're moving, he's good. He passes out. Actually Jocelyn also hated the stroller. Jocelyn loved the swing, though. She could swing all day. See, they were very different babies :-P.
But enough compare / contrast between my kids. This is about Donovan. He's playing with his daddy right now, and uttered his first "word." He said 'CA!' He said it three times. It was awesome :-). Donovan has amazing head control. He can keep his head level with his body when being pulled into a sit-up. He has strong legs as well, and likes to push them into the floor and pretend to stand up. And when you hold him up at his torso, he can hold his head up for quite a while. It's super cute.
I was sitting on the floor this evening holding him up by his torso, and as he held his head up he totally smiled at me. It was awesome. Now he's been 'smiling' practice smiles since the beginning. And he has sort of a giggle. And today I was pretty sure he smiled at me before latching on and then did his giggle. But the play time / alert time smile was definitely the real deal.
But this month+ has been a whirlwind. I barely remember any of it. Donovan is growing like a weed. He was nearly 13 lbs a week ago! Newborn clothing ranges from 5-8 lbs. We're WAY beyond that now! He's wearing 3 month clothing, and sometimes those are a bit tight on him.
Donovan's health has still kept us up. We are no longer worried about his murmur, of course, since the doctor told us not to. But he has already had (and still kind of has) his first cold. He occasionally breaths rapidly and hard still, which is of course disconcerting. His gas is also out of control. While it is probably just immature digestion and my diet isn't impacting it much, I have still cut down on the raw and cruciferous veggies, dairy and caffeine (much to my displeasure!). I haven't been able to cut out all of those ingredients at 100%, mostly because I still have a family to cook for (and they need veggies, even if I don't want them) and I can't 100% give up chocolate (which has dairy solids and caffeine) :-P. Also, he has been diagnosed with acid reflux, so we started him on a nightly dose of Prevacid. He wasn't spitting up (like Jocelyn did), but he got to where eating was getting really painful for him. He would fuss and have trouble staying latched on. I tried giving him some homemade gripe water, but he wasn't having it. I thnk it freaked him out a bit, he wouldn't even swallow it. We tried it from a dropper and a bottle, and neither were acceptable. So Prevacid it is. It's helping a lot - he no longer has pain during nursing.
Having a boy is very different than having a girl when it comes to diaper changes, though. It took me about a month to master the art of pee pee tucking, and even then I am not always very good at it. Just today we had an accident that resulted in my second pair of maternity pants in two days getting soaked through. I think he missed the diaper completely and got all of it out of the diaper! And that was *after* he peed in the bath (fountain style) and on the changing pad. And I'm not talking hours later, I'm talking an hour later.
Actually this evening was his first tub bath. Infant tub, of course. Until now we have been doing sponge baths. I honestly don't remember when we started bathing Jocelyn in this tub. I think we had her in the free tub from the hospital for a while, but Donovan is way too big for that thing! Even at the hospital the water was running out and he over-filled it :-P. I tell you what, Jocelyn did not like sharing her tub with him, even though she recognizes that it's a baby tub. I think it would have been fine, if we didn't put it into 'her' bathtub (the guest bathroom is 'their' bathroom). Also, I wasn't allowed to diaper him on her changing pad (he has his own in our room, which makes sense, since that's where he sleeps).
All in all, life is really, really hard. I didn't understand how hard my life would be with two children. But as hard as it is, I am also really, really happy. Tired, sure. But happy. I love my little doodle bugs!
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