Happy ONE month to Eli and 28 years to Daddy!

Today is the day for the men. My little guy is celebrating his 4th week of life on the outside and the big guy is finally as old as me (yes, I’m 9 months older than Aaron) So we do what THEY want to do today. For Aaron, of course its a day at the glider club with his family but since it’s supposed to be a scorcher again today, we may make an appearance for a short while later on. And as for Eli, we will spend the day eating and sleeping since those are HIS favorite activities :) What a life. His one month photos:

Blanket made using this tutorial

              
And one with Daddy:   
Both in their matching polos :)
As you all know, Eli and I went to the pediatrician yesterday for his 1 month well visit and to get some answers about my nipple issues. The visit went well and this little chunker is up to 9lbs and 9 oz and 22 inches long! She said “well he certainly is eating well and nursing isn’t and issue” but I was like “it is for me!” So we had a discussion about what could be wrong and she sent me home with  an “all purpose” cream for my nipples to apply after each feeding. Apparently it has an antifungal, (if it IS yeast although neither of us has any of the symptoms other than the knife like pain) an antibacterial (in case its a bacterial infection) and an antiinflammatory agent in it. I’m supposed to call next week if it isn’t improving. She said she had to give me major credit for sticking with nursing this long with pain like this and it took all I could not to start crying. So far the pain is not as bad and I’m having longer pain free periods, so I’m hopeful yet.
Yesterday was such a busy day for the both of us that I was too exhausted to post anything and even took a gamble putting Eli to bed after his 8pm feeding instead of staying up to feed him at his usual 10pm—I was THAT tired. However, the gamble did not pay off and he was up at 11pm hungry. I had hoped with the busy busy day we had  that he would have been just as tired as I was and sleep through the night :p I know, silly girl. Anyways it was a nice visit with our buddies Nicole and her little man Ryker and Scott and Jeri and their two kids Khloe and Kaleb. Thanks guys for a fun filled day :)
-Linds

Ohmygosh! We may have a breakthrough!

I look at all these pictures of my friend’s babies with pacifiers in their mouths from the get-go and still nursing successfully (no nipple confusion) and become envious! Eli wants NOTHING to do with the binky and it’s been incredibly frustrating for me when he nurses, does his awake time,  and then fusses usually at the 1hr mark and starts sucking on anything within reach as if he’s starving! I think its because he’s tired and has no coping skills yet other than to find comfort from nursing. We’re following the advice  of the book “On becoming baby wise” that recommends nursing the baby, awake time, THEN nap time. This is so he gets on a schedule and eventually sleeps through the night. Babies, I’ve read from multiple sources, NEED schedules and structure for a sense of security. That’s what this book is all about providing. (Every baby-wise baby I know has slept through the night from 8wks-12wks on and are the happiest kids I know) The first 2 steps have been going beautifully, but like I said, that darn one hour mark is gonna be the death of me. I DO NOT want to feed my kid every hour when he already nurses for 40 minutes at least as it is. So when Grandma is over, she works really hard with him on taking the binky and she’s noticed he’ll take it if he’s laying on her chest on his belly. Hmmm, interesting. So we try it again with him sitting up, he spits it out and wails. We try him laying on his chest and he takes it! Haaaaaalleluiah! Now he’s sucking away and low and behold, he falls peacefully asleep and I am a HAPPY camper :D
A pic of my widdle froggy sucking away on his binky while lying on his belly. 
Well tomorrow we have our 1 month (yes ONE month!!!) well visit with Eli’s pediatrician. I’m eager to see how much this kiddo weighs. I’m thinking he’s a 10 pounder, we shall see. I’ll be bringing up my nipple issues with her and pray she has a quick fix for me.

Night night all!
-Linds

Best Buds…

Today Eli and I got out of the house and visited with our buddies Jac and Parker for a little bit before heading to work to say goodbye to one of my co-workers who is retiring. Eli isn’t too much fun yet but they sure are soooo cute together. I got to witness Parker crawl for the first time today! He’s getting to be such a big boy. Have I mentioned how much I just love these boys??
 That double chin Eli is sportin’ I’m certain is from yesterday’s feeding marathon…Anywho, such handsome little fellas eh?
In an attempt to be less zombie-like by mid afternoon each day, my wonderful mom has offered to come over each morning at 6:30 to take him and love on him so momma can get a few more hours of shut eye. We started this morning and it was nice giving him his early morning feeding and then handing him over to grandma and not worrying about him for a few hours since he hasn’t been wanting to go back to sleep after this feeding. But it doesn’t help when Auntie Stephie calls TWICE during this time to sleep :/ Tsk, tsk. My mom is going to come back tomorrow morning so I’m excited, plus she just loves her alone time with her favorite grandson :)
Ok, again I know I’m biased but seriously, do these pics EVER get old?? This totally makes my heart melt…a puddle, people.
<Snugglin’ with his blankie, aka burp rag

                        Snugglin’ with Daddy>
Hope all is well with you guys!
p.s I love all your comments and advice but the “anonymous” ones drive me batty, leave your name so I know who to thank in my head, pleaseandthankyou :)
-Linds

Don’t let this face fool you…

                                                   “Hey! What’s up yo?”

He looks all calm, sweet, and innocent here saying “hi” to you all but this kid has a drinking problem. See previous post about sensitive nipples and you should understand why this may be a problem for mommy. I unfortunately did not have any visits from grandma or auntie Stephie today to help distract him so I literally spent the day with him attached to my boob—no joke. He would get fussy and start rooting immediately when I took him off or if he fell asleep and let go himself, he’d startle awake and remember his mission: milk, must obtain milk! Since I had no plans today, I indulged him, mainly because I worried I wouldn’t have the patience to listen to him wail :/ He must be going through a growth spurt. Please pass soon!
So for my readers who are pregnant and “planning” to breast feed I HIGHLY recommend you evaluate your reasoning and make up your mind to give it 110% because although it is a natural process, ask anybody, breast feeding does NOT come naturally. If you go into it saying “eh, I’ll give it a try”, you’ll give up within a week, two tops, guaranteed. I complain about my nipples but I’m comforted by knowing just how good breast milk is for my baby. It also helps to have my hubby so supportive of breast feeding because he’s kept me focused and encouraged me every painful step of the way. All you experienced breast feeders, I’d really love to hear your advice and stories. I was given a book from my mother-in-law from the library called “The better way to breast feed” that is really informative. I highly recommend it.
If only my little peanut would take a binky!! I’ve tried 3 different ones and he sucks at each one ravenously but the minute he realizes there is no milk coming out of it he gives me the dirtiest look like “what, you think I’m an idiot?!” and spits it out and wails. He takes a bottle no problem, what a stinker.
Anyways, I want to send a shout out to my girl Jac for letting me borrow her baby swing! LOVE it when he’s all tanked up and fat & happy because he’ll sit in there all quiet and alert—so cute. I took a pic of him just after he fell asleep in it.

Alrighty, gonna feed this kid and hope he sleeps longer than an hour before wanting to eat again. Night all.
-Linds

Papa...paparazzi!!

I talked the hubby into getting a new camera for his birthday since I’ve been um, taking a lot lately. Everybody has been telling me I will want a good quality camera once the baby comes so it was something we’ve been talking about. Poor Eli constantly has clicking and flashes going off in his face. Anywho, we got a canon and so far I’m having a lot of fun with it! Here’s a quick impromptu family portrait session:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Love my family :)

-Linds

My widdle guy is 3 weeks!

Gosh when your day is now broken down into 2hr feeding-your-son increments, the days sure fly by! I cant believe my little guy has been around for 3 wks already. I want him to be 8 wks because I’m optimistic that he’ll be sleeping through the night by then (fingers and toes crossed!!)but he wont be so itty bitty anymore which makes me sad, so I’m torn :(
Ohmygosh! The picture above I swear was of him doing his first laugh. It lasted long enough for me to grab my phone and snap a picture. My mother-in-law was there and she got to witness it too. Aaron missed out because he was at his mistress’ house…aka the glider club. I can’t wait for him to laugh and smile intentionally when he sees me. I’m waiting, not so patiently, for the recognition in his eyes when he sees mommy. He definitely knows my voice, and daddy’s too for that matter ,but as far as focusing his eyes, I guess he’s too young.
Eli’s likes: laying on grandma’s chest and rocking, being held, lying on his belly, eating, going for walks in the stroller.
Eli’s dislikes: pooping and sitting in a poopy diaper ( he grunts and advertises to the whole world what he is doing which also usually results in a hysterical crying fit) not being the center of attention, and sleeping for long periods of time at night :/
Ok hope your Sunday is fantastic and you spend it doing Eli’s favorite pastime:

-Linds and Eli

Sooooo Spoiled!

Just had to share this picture from this morning. I am his mom so admittedly totally biased but…isnt he the ca-uutest thing???? I could spend my whole day just staring at him.

So grandma Marilyn came over to hang out with Eli and offered to let mommy get out and run some errands. It was soooo nice to get out and leave the house with ONLY me and a purse. Well I already told you Eli loves sleeping on his stomach so I left the house with him and grandma like this:

and I return 2hrs later and they were STILL like this! I said “puh-lease tell me you did not stay like that for 2 straight hours?!?!” She claims that she put him down in his cradle to nap (mmm hmmm..) and helped do some cleaning around the house. This last part was the only thing that made me actually believe her because she DID do that. ha ha. Thanks mom! We LOVE having you around.

Since Eli and I are missing auntie Stephie already since she has worked the past 2 days (boo!) and will be gone the weekend and she has already yelled at me for “slacking” on my blog, I took a video for her to remember us by. This one is for you Auntie Stephie. Come see us, I’ll be enrolling him in preschool soon…

 

Ok enough for now bye everyone…

-Mommy and Eli

My handsome little man…

So I wish I could have a camera strapped to my head to capture all those “moments” you know? Especially in the middle of the night, when it’s just me and Eli up and he’s all wide eyed as I feed him or change his diaper. There are so many moments when I think “oh I wish Steph could see this face/expression etc” because I know she appreciates those times as much as I do since both our biggest weaknesses in life are babies. Its so funny because in the entire time I dated and have been married to my hubby, it was always me saying “isn’t such and such sooooo cute? Wasn’t such and such just the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen?!?” And he’d go “sure babe.” Now, I hear him saying “he’s sooo cute!” on a daily basis—heck multiple times a day! Too funny. I never thought he had it in him :)

The many faces of Eli. I swear I see 5 different babies in him on any given day based on his mood or if he’s sleepy or wide awake! Its the weirdest thing. Muuuah! I could just eat him up, or as my Auntie Glenna says “I wanna sop him up with a biscuit!” ha ha.

Well he’s definitely my kid alright. Just like mommy he LOVES sleeping on his belly. So because I follow the “back to sleep” advice at this time, we will let Eli lie on one of our chests (well in my case, my belly because my boobs are either rock hard or too tender) during the day or early morning and he’ll pass out like a light. He’s been waking up around 6am for his morning feeding and I like to feed him and lay him back down but today (and yesterday for that matter) he just wouldn’t have it. If daddy is home, he takes care of this so I can get a little more shut eye, but with him being back at work, it falls to me. So I let him lay on my belly and we both got a nice nap in. Thanks Punkin. Here’s a pic of him this morning passed out on my belly in his woombie I made him (LOVE that thing!)

Well I just took a 2hr nap from 730-930pm so I’m wide awake, but if I had any smarts, I’d get my butt to bed because Eli will be up in a few hrs looking for food. So night night all. Sweet dreams, Please enjoy 8+hrs of uninterrupted sleep for me :)

-Linds

Eli’s new hat…

Well I thought I would experiment making Eli a little baseball type hat because I felt an urge to sew today. This has been the first time sewing has interested me since he has been born. This hat is definitely not perfect and still a work in progress but it makes me smile.
First things first, in order to sew with a 2 wk old infant, THIS little ditty is a MUST :)
Once the little peanut was snug as a bug in a rug, I got to work… Here’s the final project:

     I added elastic to the back of the hat to “grab” his head a bit and I also added elastic to run under his chin to keep the hat in place but it was too tight the first time around so I tucked it under for this pic and added a longer piece of elastic. He happened to be napping when I finished this project and I just HAD to get a picture of him in it.
Okedokey, time to feed Eli before he becomes Mr. Fussy-buckets and then bed time for all of us. Night night.
-Linds

Mommy is so mean…

I was getting the little guy dressed the other day and got his onesie just past his face when I started cracking up because I thought he looked like a little lion and the onesie was his mane. So what’s a mommy to do in this situation?? Take a picture of course! Ha ha ha.

"whats so funny?!"

I took a video of Eli crawlin’ on Aaron’s chest yesterday. I was walking out of the bathroom as I was getting ready for bed and the boys were “rough housing” and I thought it was the ca-UUUTEST sight. I think Eli won. Sorry guys I didn’t realize you couldn’t rotate a video, Doh! So you just have to strain your necks for a minute (Steph…for 5-10 minutes as you watch it over and over again. Don’t deny the fact that you’ll hit replay multiple times)

Ok…I should get pretty now. Eli and I are going to do lunch with the girls and his buddy Parker today. Toodles!

Oh how I love these two…

First off I must say I’m sad my hubby is returning to work tomorrow :.( I thought I’d never say that actually, and that by the end of the 2 weeks I’d be begging him to get back to work. I just figured with post pregnancy hormones all over the place that we’d be at each other’s throats, but it’s actually been the opposite. I’ve fallen even more in love with this calming, loving and affectionate daddy each day. He is SO good with Eli and literally jumps to cuddle him, rock him, change him (yes I said change him!) and talk to him. **sigh** He’s such an amazing daddy. As you can see from the pic above, Eli adores his daddy as well :)
I love you boo! And I love YOU Punkin’ .
Night all, my son is calling me….

The good, the bad, and the ugly…

I’d like to start out with the good for today. Once again, Eli had me and daddy laughing so hard. We were watching a movie with Aaron’s brother and his girlfriend Leah when Daddy took Eli to feed him a bottle (of breast milk). The kid guzzled it down in record time, and next thing we know Aaron says “um, I think he just peed ALL over my stomach. I’m suddenly warm and I feel wet.” We all started cracking up because Eli is swaddled in a blanket, he has a diaper, onesie and pants on and so we thought he was crazy. Nope. Here’s a pic of the evidence and of course my little angel looking innocent.

 

Another “good” is that I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how quickly my body is returning to pre-pregnancy :) I’m definitely more “curvy” than before, but I’m liking it :) Too bad my hubby can’t take advantage of the curvy department…see below.
As for the bad…Eli has been so fussy today :( I have no idea what his deal is. Usually he’s sleepy and only gets fussy when he’s struggling to latch on to feed (until he gets the hang of it). But today, if he was awake he was crying. Sooooo frustrating. Thank GOD for daddy who is so good with Eli and mommy. He gets everyone to calm down. The poor kid seems like he’s starving and that I haven’t fed him in days even if its only been an hour or two. This morning he nursed for 30 minutes on one side and then 10 minutes on the other side before he crapped out, but once I take him off, he cries. I KNOW he’s getting plenty of milk because I hear him GULPING and he has milk all over his face. So I pulled out some breast milk I had pumped the day before and he took a whole 2 oz more! Sheesh. This kid is going to be a chunker in no time at this rate. We’re guessing (hoping rather) that he’s just going through a growth spurt and that this too shall pass. PLEASE LORD.
And the ugly. Mommy pity party time. My nipples have been sensitive since the day I ovulated over 10 months ago. I kept thinking while pregnant “I sure hope my nipples don’t feel this way once the baby gets here, gosh, breast feeding will be torturous!” No such luck. Now I’m relying on my prescription strength motrin just to get through the initial latching on and sucking. Once he’s on its fine, but he bounces off and on until he gets it just right and my feet curl and sweat and I wanna chuck  him across the room. This morning he grabbed my nipple with both hands and threw in a head butt for good measure and if I wasn’t already sitting down with him neatly propped, I would have dropped him. I now understand why God makes babies so freakin’ cute… Pray for my nipples, pleaseandthankyou :)

Ok, Gonna give this blogging thing another chance….

Well It’s been almost 2 weeks since the little guy has joined our family and things are going very well :) What a learning experience. This kid literally makes Aaron and I laugh on a daily basis. Its been so much fun to see his evolving personality.

A lot of people have been asking how the birth went so I thought I’d recap it for you all. Well he came into this world at 39 weeks and 1 day which turned out to be July 2, 2011. All day we were planning to go to Pingree Grove to watch the fireworks but at 0630 in the morning I started to have what I thought were contractions but I’d never had them before so I wasn’t sure. We even looked online to determine if I was experiencing braxton hicks or true labor. They were between 5-7 minutes apart and lasting1 full minute ALL DAY until 6:45pm when my water finally broke and I told Aaron we had to go to the hospital NOW. They very gradually got stronger and worse as the day progressed but I didn’t want any interventions at the hospital, meaning them breaking my water or sending me home because I “wasn’t progressing”, so I labored at home until I was sure he was coming.

<<Last pic before heading to hospital

By the time we got to the hospital (and what a loooong uncomfortable ride that was!) I was 9 1/2cm dilated and his head was “right there!”. I should have warned the nurse that his head has been “right there” for a weeks now because she freaked out and hopped on the phone to page the doc stat. Well close to 2 hrs later of pushing, he finally came out. Steph, Aaron and Jac were my labor coaches and were AWESOME! They were so helpful and I was so happy they were all able to make it. Steph worked her 12hr shift and just as she was getting out I was heading to the hospital. Perfect timing. She got to the hospital from Arlington Heights about the same time we got there! She had to have been going 100mph!

Eli’s stats: He was 20 in long, 8lbs 3oz, and born at 10pm on the dot. He was definitely NOT cute when he came out as hard as it is for me to type that! He scared me. I remember thinking “oh jeeze, the unconditional love card is being played here because there is nothing cute about this kid.”

<<he was gray and scary looking!

<< **sigh, much better.

Fast forward a few days and we STRUGGLED with the latching on for breast feeding. Guh. He was jaundiced, he got circumcised, and he was tongue tied and had to have his tongue clipped, all of which totally sabotaged our getting the hang of things,--not to mention the fun that is engorgement and tender sore nipples. Poor us! We certainly had a rough few days and I have to say the second day home from the hospital was probably the WORST day of my life, to have what he needs (milk), and him not able to nurse due to the above issues.

Now, I’m happy to report that he’s nursing well, and back up to his birth weight and of course cuter than ever ;) Things are looking good.