April 30, 2014

Two Months Old

*I started writing this on 4.14.14 and, well, time just got away from me. Imagine that.*

The little fella turned two months old last week!

He had his 2 month well check and was exactly 12 lbs (40th percentile) and 23 inches (50th percentile.) He is keeping right on track with his growth curve. He got two vaccinations and will continue to get a couple each month until he's mostly caught up. I am just more comfortable spacing them out a little bit.

He is getting very responsive -- he turns toward our voices and smiles and "talks" to us and a couple of times over the weekend he came thisclose to a real chuckle! He holds his head up pretty well when he is upright, but gets really mad when he has to have tummy time. He loves to watch the mobile over his crib and tracks it well, and just recently has become enthralled with the toy bar over his bouncy seat. He's been trying very hard over the past couple of weeks to get his hand to his mouth and is getting a little better at that each day. I think there's a good chance that he may end up a thumb-sucker like Peabody, but we'll see how that pans out.

His hair is filling back in, as dark as it was before. His eyes are still dark but they are not turning brown as I had hoped. I'm not sure what is going to happen with them. In some lights they are dark dark blue with a hint of brown. In other lights they are hazel-ish. In our living room they look brown. So I don't know! It's weird!

He consistently turns his head to his left when lying on his back, so we are working on encouraging him to look the other way so he doesn't develop torticollis. I'm pretty sure the Boogie had it at around the same age -- hers was never diagnosed and with some help from us it self-corrected.

He is still randomly napping throughout the day though he is awake for longer stretches of time. He still sleeps great at night, usually giving me one 6-7 hour stretch then another 3 hour one after a diaper change and feeding. He's going to bed rather late -- as he starts consolidating his daytime sleep I will work with him toward an earlier bedtime. Overall, though, I have no complaints about his sleep habits. I know it can change at any time so I'm enjoying it for as long as it lasts ... and holding out hope that it never changes!

We've been really blessed with clothes for him. His cousin O was born in March, so SIL Deanna loaned us a couple of bins of seasonal- and size-appropriate clothes. Then someone else gave me a box full of cute little boy stuff, so we are pretty set for a while. I'm so thankful for hand-me-downs. And of course he's gotten quite a few new outfits too, including some from Scotland. Even our elderly German neighbor Oma went shopping for him which I thought was so sweet.

Due to little man having some *ahem* digestive issues, I have been on an elimination diet for almost two weeks -- no dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, or nuts. In that time I have learned that there is dairy in almost everything, there is soy in even more things, and wheat is hidden in surprising places. I was definitely skeptical about it working, but the little fella has shown some improvement, though I am hopeful that it is just coincidental. Wednesday will be two full weeks of the elimination diet and then I will start adding things back to see if he regresses. Not that I'm counting down or anything but Wednesday is less than 48 hours away. I am having trouble deciding which I want to eat first, eggs or wheat. First world problems ...

He's still on Zantac for silent reflux. I'd hoped that completely eliminating dairy and soy from my diet would take care of that, but I accidentally skipped a couple of his doses and he was pretty unhappy for a couple of days after each time, so I think he needs to be on it for a little while longer. That stuff is nasty tasting and it's becoming a struggle to get it into him! He is getting really good at spitting it back out. Poor guy, I feel so badly for him but I'd rather fight to get the meds into him twice a day than have him be uncomfortable and unhappy 24/7.


4.30.14
Goodness, how time flies.

I've added eggs, wheat, and soy back into my diet and while I've seen a little bit of regression for the most part he seems to be tolerating it well. In a few more days I will try some dairy. I don't know what I've missed the most -- half-and-half in my coffee, or cheese, or ice cream. I sure hope that he can handle dairy! Meanwhile coconut milk for cereal and baking has been tolerable. Processed tomato products have made it on the forbidden food list, though fresh tomato in small amounts seems to be okay. Seriously, though, look at this face:
I'd live on chicken and rice for this little guy!

Anyway, the only reason I postponed publishing this post for so long was because I have a bunch of pictures on Eric's old iPhone that I need to transfer to the computer so I can post them, but this has waited long enough so I will settle for cell phone pics this time.



"I'll fight you!"




And saving the best for last, this is my FAVORITE recent one. He's wearing his Easter Sunday outfit from Scotland.
Adorable little manchild!

April 1, 2014

Lela's Visit

Lela came to help out for a couple of weeks after Mr. A was born. We didn't do much, winter and new baby and all that being considered. She helped a lot with housework and kids and everything, but really I think we all just enjoyed having her around.

I didn't take many pictures but here are a few.

There was a lot of this while she was here:

 


One day the furnace stopped working and this was how we kept the baby warm:


Mr. A did a lot of this:

Curious George got up to some hijinks. Funny how he always gets into trouble while Lela is here!

And the girls got lots of Lela time as well:



We had the hardest time saying good-bye at the end of this visit!