A different child

For your enjoyment, here is a new pic of our little family!

It's like we have a totally different child these days! It's amazing what a little bit of cereal and some squash will do! His incessant vomiting has decreased by more than 50%, and he absolutely LOVES to eat. When he sees the spoon, he opens up his mouth really big and swallows the food immediately. So far all he has had is bananas and squash, but he loves them both. Squash seems to be his favorite right now. Soon we will be trying sweet potatoes. We will probably try those by the end of the week. We mix him up cereal and fruit and formula in the mornings, and then in the later part of the afternoon. Lunch and dinner is oatmeal mixed with squash. We have to make his food really thick or he throws it up, but thankfully he likes the oatmeal mixed with the squash.

CIO has also really helped our sanity! We were spending like 30 - 45 minutes putting him to sleep for bedtime and naptime. Now, it takes him about 5-7 minutes to put himself to sleep. And he never really cries, just kind grumpily squawks until he falls asleep. It has made things much much easier on Joelle, since she normally does naptime and most bedtimes. 

Please still  be in prayer for Jeremiah. He is working the craziest of hours, and barely gets to see Joelle and Benjamin. Many nights he comes home and B is already in bed :( He is emotionally and physically exhausted! Thankfully this weekend he has a 3 day weekend, which will help him recover some. 

4 months!!!!

4month c/u today  16lbs 9oz and 24in long - still mommies lil dumpling. He got 5more vaccines  and we are gonna start rice cereal and squash...hoping that that will help with the throwing up. If not, he has to see a GI doc to go on Prevacid

We have started crying it out at nights and naptime to go to sleep or back to sleep. So far it has only been about 5min at a time, and then he calms down and goes back to sleep 

His doc said that since he is throwing up so much then that is why he eats 6oz every 2 hours and gets up all night long. Hopefully the cereal and baby food will help him keep food down, and he won't have to go to the GI doc

lil update - Father's Day

Jeremiah had a great first Father's Day! Joelle made him a present of putting B's hand prints on a football. Turned out absolutely ADORABLE! As soon as we can remember to actually use our camera, we will post a pic of the football.

Not much else to report here tho: We went to Joelle's parents and grilled out, and just kinda relaxed. J needed it because he was looking "forward" to a rough week. He had a clean out last night, has one tonight, a trip to SC on Thurs, and then 2 days of being out of town next week. Sigh. It's gonna be a LONG two weeks :(

All is well on the home front!

It's been a little while, so time to let ya'll know what is going on :)

Benjamin is making so many new changes and growing so much! He has started sporadically rolling over, it's like when he rolls over he can't remember how he did it...very cute! He tries SO hard to roll over though, just quite can't get his legs up and over. Maybe it's because his thighs are so chubby? LOL :) He has also started grabbing for things, and has begun to put things in his mouth (like your fingers if you are not careful!). He loves to play on his little mat and hit the toys up above him.

We put him in his Bumbo, but he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He liked sitting up, but didn't enjoy being contained in the seat. He plays the game now where he will scrunch all the way down on your lap when you hold him, then get mad that he is not sitting up! So, you sit him up, and back down again he scrunches.

Still throwing up though, sigh. We tried increasing his dosage - again - and haven't really seen any results. However, he no longer has the screaming fits, and his gas isn't too bad. So, we figure we can deal with a little - ok A LOT - of throw-up. We currently should own stuck in a bib factory, with all that he uses in a day :)

On the 27th he goes for his 4 month checkup, and we should get the go ahead to start rice cereal. It will be an interesting experience to see how he likes it :) He will also get more shots, poor baby, and get weighed again. Two weeks he went to the doctor because he woke up with his left eye almost swollen shut and leaking fluid. Thankfully, it was just a clogged tear duct and nothing serious. Anyway, at that time he weighed a whopping 15lbs 3oz! We are anxious to see how much he weighs now, and how long he is.

We finally got him out of our bed and into the bassinet. However, he was not in there very long before he outgrew - or rather outweighed - it. We were afraid he would tip it over! So, we have moved him to his crib. However, he is not taking the adjustment very well. He has gone from one feeding a night and/or sleeping through the night to 3 -4 feedings throughout the night. We are hoping once he gets used to the crib (it's only been about 4 days) that he will go back to sleeping through the night.

He has also developed a really good nap schedule, which is nice in a way for Joelle in the mornings. She knows when he is going down so she can plan her day around that, and get things done in the house, and maybe take a nap herself! However, she still has to plan her morning around the nap time ;) He also takes a long afternoon nap which is nice too!

He is not sure what to make of the pool at our complex. He doesn't cry, but he doesn't seem to like splashing or playing in it either. Hopefully by the end of summer he will be more adjusted to it, and will enjoy playing in it. He loves to take a bath though, and kick and kick!

He loves to play with his hands, and will fall asleep holding his hands together. We are just waiting for him to find his feet, and let the playing begin!

Picture Time!

For your enjoyment, here are some new pics of Little B! 

:)

We had to up B's medicine again, which is a good thing. He was not stopping spitting up for like two days, and then had a really bad reflux attack one night. He hasn't had one of those in a while. So, thankfully, the doc could tell us what to do over the phone and we did not have to take him in and pay our copay for a simple weight check. However, they said if it didn't improve within 5 days we would have to bring him in.We think we are seeing progress, and hopefully that progress will continue.

He is becoming so much more alert now! He smiles at you and talks and coos, and responds when you make silly noises. He likes to bat things, even though his aim is still pretty bad :) He has is becoming much more aware of us! When we are out in public and we move out of his line of vision, he cries. He doesn't do this at home tho.

When he wakes up in the morning he just talks and coos with Joelle, and then sits in his bouncer like a big boy while she gets ready for the day. It's unbelievable how much he has just blossomed in the past 2 or 3 weeks. Sleep is an issue again though. We must have jinxed ourselves earlier talking about him only waking up once. The past 3 weeks he has woken up three times a night, sometimes more. Apparently when they do this they are supposed to be getting ready for some big developmental leap - we wish it would hurry up and happen so we can get some sleep again! :)

He goes back for his 4month checkup on June 27th, cannot wait to see how much he weighs and how long he is. He still seems a little short to us, and is definitely CHUNKING up. He is hard for Joelle to carry already in the seat. Pretty soon he will be able to become a hip baby and that will make things easier on her arms (tho she doesn't mind the work out hehe!).

Happy thoughts :-)

Wow! Time for an update, sorry it's been so long. Not much has happened tho, lol. Little B is still growing like a weed, faster and faster. He weighs about 13lbs now, and is 21inches long still. He has more and more alert times during the day, and loves to smile and "talk". We will be riding down the road and he will just be cooing and laughing in the back seat, happy as can be with himself. He is such a delight to our hearts!

His reflux is doing MUCH better. He still spits up, but it seems to be decreasing every day. His nightly screaming fits have all but disappeared as well, which is a huge answer to prayer. We have noticed that if we let him cry to hard before he eats (while we are making the bottle) it seems to activate his reflux, and then he cannot eat. We are trying to not let him get upset...which is kinda hard to do because he wakes up CRANKY and wants to eat immediately lol.

Last night he came THISCLOSE to sleeping through the night! And he slept in his bassinet the whole time, for the first time. Of course Joelle was up constantly checking on him, but he did good. We were so proud of him! Hopefully this means he will now sleep in his bassinet and then crib instead of with us. Mommy and Daddy slept a whole lot better last night too! (But don't tell Little B that or he will regress lol).

Joelle had a HORRIBLE spell with her migraines 2weeks ago. She spent 4 days completely drugged, while her mom watched the baby. She ended up in the ER and still got no relief. Her neurologist put her on another daily med, and gave her a stronger pain pill. Used sparingly, the pain pill seemed to break the cycle of the migraine, finally. And then the daily med (verapamil) seems to be holding a new horrible migraine at bay. Please just keep praying that these meds work and she finally gets some relief from the migraines.

Mother's day was a happy day! We went out to eat with her family, and then went out for a little shopping. Little B sleeping so well at night definitely helped Mommy out alot!

We cannot believe how blessed we are with our son, and we hope and pray daily that we would become more and more like Christ, and be a living Word to him, that he might know Christ through our examples.