Auntie!

You guys, I'm an aunt now! My sister had her baby over the weekend. She was induced on Friday morning, a week overdue. The induction didn't do a whole lot quickly, and she just inched along and was in labor TWO days!  She didn't deliver until last night at 10:00. It was a long couple days waiting for updates.   Fiona is finally here though, and she weighs 7.1.  Awesome that Liam will have a cousin so close in age, but they are 4 hours apart.  :-(

Liam has had a cold for awhile now, and although it has improved, he is still stuffed up and coughing.  I plan to call his doctor tomorrow to discuss. Last week she said to let her know if he still had symptoms tomorrow.  We have also started him on Neocate formula, at the direction of his GI Pedi. It's pretty much the end of the line in the reflux game.  I am not entirely convinced that reflux is even the entire issue at this point.  Reflux/colic issues generally start to improve at this age evidently, but his fussiness is really just getting worse.  His doctor is somewhat stumped.  She said it's probably time to start running some tests to rule things out (not sure what, exactly). So on Tuesday he's having an u/s of his head and kidneys.  She said she does not expect to find anything..... I really have no idea on the kidney thing. Apparently this is a common "starting point" with infant testing. 

So I hope we can figure out to make our little man a little happier and sleeping better again so we can get some sleep and see some smiles! :)

Handy Hubby

You guys know what is super awesome?  When you have a rather long post almost done, and you cleverly hit some combination of keys that just deletes everything.  *SIGH*.   TAKE TWO.

So I need to give a little shout-out to D who has been at it again with his handyman skills. He just built a shelf in Liam's room, which is apparently uber-necessary for us to have, as Jack decided his new favorite past-time is chewing up Liam's books!  Grrr.  I think it turned out great!

He and Mark also made built-in shelves in our whole closet.  I LOVE them!  Who knew it would be possible for me to see and/or actually find my clothes??!!

I think I will keep my handy hubby :))

Unfortunately in the midst of our quest to figure out Liam's digestive/fussiness issues and tinkering with his food, he has developed a cold. He is having a rough go lately.  This is a basically like an adult-sized cold complete with fully stuffed up nose and coughing. I feel so bad for him! He was up 2 nights ago coughing and having a hard time breathing.  It was a rough night for everyone.  Yesterday they called from daycare to say he was more or less inconsolable, and they just didn't know what to do for him.  So I picked him up and took him to the doctor. They wanted to make sure he didn't have an ear infection or congestion/fluid in his lungs.  Thankfully both are clear, but that means there isn't  much we can do for his symptoms. Makes us feel so helpless!  So last night we put a pillow under his crib matteress to slant it a bit, then we filled up the bathroom with steam, and I sat in there with him for a little while.  Then we slathered him with baby Vicks and hoped for the best.  He had a slightly better night, but it still wasn't very good. He wakes himself up coughing, which sounds like dramatic cough-choking :((.  His breathing sounds like Darth Vadar.  So he eventually eneded up in bed with us again last night. I realize this is a horrible habit, but it's the only way anyone gets any sleep this week.  He sleeps in the crook of D's arm, and this seems to be a good angle so he can have a clearer airway.

I just called to check on him, and they said he is having a slightly better day today, but it's still not very good. He doesn't want his pacifier b/c he can't breathe, and he really doesn't want to sleep b/c he can't breathe then either!  So he's exhausted and miserable. I feel so bad for him!  I hope he can kick this cold's ass and get it to move along quickly!
Here he is yawning in the waiting room yesterday; luckily he was quiet and well-behaved for that portion of our afternoon!  (although maybe that would have gotten us taken back to be seen quicker!!)

Poor buddy, get well soon.
And a yay moment for me, I have squeezed myself into size 27 Citizens of Humanity jeans today!  Woot!

4 Months

I'm a little behind here, but Liam officially turned 4 months on Sunday! Despite his big smile in this picture, he was actually pretty fussy that day, and we had to work hard for that big smile.  Yesterday he saw both a chiropractor and a Peds GI doc to hopefully get the fussiness/spitting up under control.   My chiropractor sees a lot of babies for reflux and GI issues, and she also has 4 young boys herself. I am hoping she will be able to work some magic.  The doc wants to start him on solids!  Crazy! We are also supposed to mix the Alimentum formula in with the soy until he gets used to the taste and we can make the switch.  He also is starting Liam on solids once/day at this point. We are going to start with cereal, but he doesn't want him to have any that contains milk or soy, and evidently that isn't easy to find.  Apparently Trader Joes and Whole Foods are the places to go, so TJ, here I come!  I really need no excuse to pay my favorite Joe a visit :)  We are also hoping if we get all this under control he will start sleeping through the night again. I know he has it in him, as he was doing it around the 3 month mark, but there's been some serious sleep regression going on lately, and Mama is TIRED.

Here is a family pic from Monday night's Packer/Bear game.  Too bad the Packers pretty much beat themselves :-(

D and I are off to Farm Aid in Milwaukee this weekend while Liam stays with Grandpa and Grandma.  Should be a good time, there are a lot of good artists there this year!

New Activities, Appointment

So Liam likes his Jumperoo!  It's nice to have a new "entertaining" option for him, albeit it's another thing to take up even more space in our small living room.  I am one of those people who likes contemporary minimalism and no clutter, so it's taken some getting used to to have our living room look like a daycare!

 He also has been sitting in his bumbo seat a bit (more living room clutter!!)
But he would prefer to be carried around these days so he can look at everything....the TV on the wall, lights, out the window, etc.

We had his 4 month appt yesterday, even though he isn't technically 4 months until Sunday.  He weighs 13.13 now, which is the 33rd percentile, and he is 24", which is just the 22nd percentile.  He continues to have reflux issues, so they did give us some Nutramigen samples yesterday. He REFUSED to eat it!  I imagine perhaps because it smells like dog food! Blech.  So today they gave us samples of Similac Alimentum to try. Hopefully Mr. Picky won't turn up his nose at that!  He has been pretty fussy lately, and they are attributing it to the reflux still.  He's still on Prevacid, but I don't think it's doing enough. He's just not a happy camper a lot of the time, which is frustrating for everyone. I want to get the little guy feeling well, because he's tons of fun when he's in a good mood. We even had a successful stroller ride recently!
Here is D and I from my cousin's wedding last weekend.

I posted this picture on FB and my friend pointed out that it looks like D has weird dreads.  Haha.