Saturday, September 26, 2009

Videos 11-14 Weeks Old






14 Weeks Old

It is getting hard to even remember how many weeks old Eli is now! Time is flying by. The past few weeks have been extra busy for us because I was first preparing to return to work and trying to get lots of last minute cleaning done around the house and working on Christmas stuff, and then I started back to work this past Monday (9/21). All in all it went smoothly and is going fine.

We started Eli in daycare the week before I went back to work, and I know now that this was a good decision. The first day he only stayed for 4 hours, the next day 5 hours, then by Thursday spent a full day, then just a half day Friday so I could spend more time with my little man. The first day was quite an adjustment for him, he only napped for 15 minutes that day from the time he got up at 6:30 am until I got him down for a nap that afternoon around 3 or 4 finally. He was not a happy camper that day! He was really fussy that night because his routine was thrown off and he was really tired. The next day was a little better but much the same, but after that he started napping more at daycare and by the end of the week he was doing just fine. I am SO GLAD that we didn't have to go through the no-napping cranky-baby phase on the same day I went back to work, that would have been a lot to deal with. He seems to really like daycare and the women who work there are great, very loving and attentive and I can tell he is well taken care of. He doesn't cry when I drop him off and they say he isn't cranky during the day. And of course the best part is going to pick him up at the end of the day and when he sees me or Jeff he gets a huge smile and is really excited to see us. He really does love us!

The daycare is great too because they let me use cloth diapers, I take a bunch in every other day then bring them home at the end of each day and throw them in the diaper can then wash diapers pretty much every other day. It hasn't been bad and doesn't take up nearly as much time as washing and prepping bottles does. I highly recommend it! Still no diaper rash and I'm sure we have already paid for the cloth diapers by our savings from having to buy disposables (or at least are getting close).

He goes through about 6 cloth diapers a day plus one disposable over night (I'm not brave enough yet to leave him in cloth over night but here some day soon I should give it a try), and is drinking 5 5-oz bottles plus one 2-oz bottle a day (9:30 pm feeding), every 3 hours or so. He naps about 4-6 times a day. He goes to sleep usually at 6:30 pm but sometimes is up as late as 7:30 pm, and wakes up at 6 am -- he sleeps this entire time except when I wake him up around 9:30 pm to give him a small bottle to hold him over until the morning. I tried skipping this feeding once, and yeh, he woke up at 2 am hungry! I think I will wait another month or two before trying to eliminate that one. I know I shouldn't complain about my baby sleeping so much, and really I know I am a very lucky mommy and I love getting my sleep, but the one hard thing is that I get off work at 4:30 pm, get him home from daycare by 5:30 pm then only have an hour or so with him to play, get a bath, maybe a walk, and feed him by the time he gets tired and cranky. I'm hoping as he gets older he will start staying up a little later.

We are adjusted now to formula feeding and I made myself stop feeling bad about it (thank you everyone for your help with that!). He is thriving on it, no more blood in the poo, and he seems to be gaining a ton of weight, I am looking forward to his 4 month appointment next week to see how big he has gotten, I am guessing over 13 pounds by now! He drinks the formula no problem and will even drink it at room temperature, although he won't drink it straight out of the fridge. I have been adding a touch of organic pear juice to help avoid constipation (big problem for formula fed babies apparently) and gas drops to help with that. And good news: Tricare agreed to pay for the formula!!! $35 a can at 9-10 cans a month, thank goodness they agreed to pay for it or we would have gone broke! They even ship it straight to my door every month. We are so lucky.

Work is going well, I was really tired and had problems focusing on my work the first few days but by the end of the week I felt more in my groove and was actually getting quite a bit of work done. I do love my job and I enjoy being back, and I really don't feel that bad about leaving Eli in daycare. I do wish I could see him awake more every day so I can see how he is developing, but I make time to play with him every morning and afternoon so that helps, and of course we have the weekends. I also am realizing how close to impossible it is right now to be able to find time to work out. Jeff was able to pick Eli up one day this week and watch him so I could go run at the gym (I got in a nice 5k run - 3.1 miles, yay!). But other than that I haven't been able to do anything - Jeff's work is really busy and it is way too hot still to run outside with Eli after work. I did find a gym right down the road that has child care but I don't feel comfortable leaving Eli in child care at a gym after him being in daycare all day. So for now I'm at a loss... I have to figure something out though because I don't want to have to go buy a whole new wardrobe this winter! Any suggestions???

So what is new with Eli lately?
- He has started using his hands a lot more, usually this means me putting a toy in his hand and the toy then going straight into his mouth :-)
- He will roll from his back onto his side, but he still won't roll from belly to back or back to belly. He is getting better with tummy time, probably thanks to daycare, but it still isn't his favorite activity.
- We bought him a jumping chair for him to hang out in while we are in the living room, see the pics and video below. He likes looking at all the colors and shapes, but doesn't play in it too much yet, and he is too short to really jump much.
- He giggles and smiles a lot now. He is also ticklish!!! Often when I take a onesie off, it tickles him and he will roll around and giggle, it is the cutest thing ever, I need to try to get it on video. He smiles at us and other people all the time. He also likes me to rub a finger up and down on his lips, for some reason this is really funny to him. Sometimes I will get him going and tickle his belly, armpits and neck and he just laughs and laughs.
- He still doesn't like the bumbo chair much. Maybe he just isn't a bumbo boy!
- His neck is really strong and can hold it up really well in tummy time and in the jumper chair. His abs are starting to get stronger too, he is already trying to sit up when I recline him back against my legs. He will put quite a bit of his weight on his legs too, and we practice this at least once a day and he seems to love it, sometimes he does squats and when he pushes up to stand he will smile.
- He had his first cold this past week :-( Of course he starts in daycare and immediately gets a cold. It wasn't bad though, and he got over it pretty quickly and never had to stay home from daycare or let it bother his sleep.

One thing I can definitely say now is that having a baby is better and more fun than I imagined it would be. I thought I would never get any sleep and be tired all the time and never have any time for myself. It was that way at first, and those days were rough, and I still can't go to sleep as early as I would like or sleep in and can't just pick up and go somewhere, but I don't mind it at all! I love this little boy and will do anything for him. Having him is something I couldn't understand until actually going through it myself. I love being this little boy's mommy and I'm so happy.






























Monday, September 7, 2009

Doing Good!

Ok so I just have to brag on myself a little :-)

I fit into my black formal size 2 dress! Yes it does have an empire waist so it isn't tight over the biggest part of my body, my hips and thighs. But it zips and everything!!! I'm so unbelievably happy about this. Now I don't have to spend money buying a new (bigger) dress for the Air Force Ball that is in 2 weeks. Yay!!! I'm getting there :-)




11 Weeks Old

Another week has gone by in our little man's life :-)

This week, Eli has been working on trying some new things and getting stronger. We put him in his jumping chair for the first time. It hangs from a doorway, which is why the first time he was in the closet! Ha. He isn't too sure about it yet but every day he seems to get more used to it. The second day I used a pad from his car seat to support his head, this helped a lot. Here are pictures from his first time in the jumper, there is also a video of this at the bottom of this post.


Eli has started "talking" more, he likes to make little "woooo" sounds when he is playing. And a few days ago he laughed then made a sound just like a dolphin! It was so cute but weird. He smiles all the time, especially at daddy when he gets home. Sometimes Jeff will be feeding him at night and Eli can't eat because he is too busy smiling at daddy!!! And every time I get close to him and say "I love you" he gets the biggest grin. I love it!!!
Eli has also been working on sitting upright on my lap while I hold his hands, he seems to like this, but he still doesn't like the bumbo chair! And we are practicing standing and putting some weight on his legs, he is getting so strong! Then we play Super Baby and fly around like Super Man, I'm not sure if he likes that or not but I think it's pretty fun! He is also getting better at playing on his own and not wanting to be held all the time. Still no rolling over yet, but when laying on his back he will raise his legs up really high and will twist them sideways and almost roll onto his side. Now when I put him on his tummy he will just stick his thumb in his mouth and go to sleep! Silly boy. When I prop him up on a pillow though, he is able to hold his head up to look at his books for a long time!


Eli is not a morning person, at least not the first 10 minutes or so after waking up. This picture below shows how he sleeps every single night. Now I know some people think crib bumpers are a huge no-no, and I know this may look like he is about to smother himself. But he can breathe just fine, and no matter where I put him at night in his crib this is always where he ends up! I don't want to duck tape him to the mattress and I don't want him pressing his face up against the crib bars so I just let him be. He sleeps in long sleeve footed pajamas with a sleep sack over it because he always kicks off his covers.


This is Eli's morning face!





Mom got us a BOB jogging stroller, it is awesome!!! Great suspension and it handles really well. I can't wait for Eli to be strong enough so I can actually run with it instead of just walking. Here we are out one evening for a walk in the jogging stroller.

So the big news this week is that we finally decided to quit breastfeeding and exclusively formula feed. It seemed like no matter how strict I made my diet, nothing worked and he continued having tummy pain and blood. And I was getting pretty tired of not being able to eat anything!!! He has been on nothing but formula since the middle of the week, and I am happy to say that the bleeding has stopped! His poo is still really green and sometimes still has mucus in it like before, but I think that should change as his system heals and gets used to formula. His eczema has also pretty much gone away - apparently eczema can be associated with food allergies. The pediatrician says some babies are sensitive to something in the breast milk that isn't caused by the food the mother eats but rather is something else in the milk and that for some babies, no matter how strict the mother's diet it, nothing works. The main drawback of this is that his formula costs $35 a can, and we go through a can in 3-4 days!!! Our pediatrician thinks our health insurance will pay for it since it is due to a severe food allergy and I can't breastfeed. Hopefully we will hear soon, keep your fingers crossed for us! I do still have around 200 ounces of frozen breast milk so after 2 months or so I might try giving it to him again and if he can handle it then, I will mix it with his formula so he gets more breast milk benefits.
But as of yesterday, I am letting my milk dry up. Man does that HURT!!! I look like I had DD breast implants put in, and they feel like rocks. I couldn't even sleep in my left side last night because it hurt so bad. Hopefully it will start getting better today, I definitely can't exercise like this, a boob might explode! Ha. I'm honestly at peace with the decision now and I feel ok about it. I REALLY wanted to breastfeed for a year, but it just didn't work for us. I know I did everything I possibly could to make it work, and I was able to nurse him 2+ months at least. I know formula fed babies turn out just fine and my little man won't be any different. And bottle feeding isn't as bad as I thought it would be, just expensive! And now I can eat whatever I want and have a glass of wine (or 3), exercise and diet without worrying about drying up my milk, let Jeff help with feeding, and get things done in the time I used to spend pumping (it would take me 30-45 minutes to pump each time). Now I don't have to worry about finding time to pump at work, carting milk home, and nursing in public (which isn't really so bad just a little strange). Jeff and I feel that at this point this is the best thing to do for Eli and we are happy with our decision. I packed away all my breastfeeding supplies yesterday which was a little sad. But I know we want another baby (in a few years!) and hopefully I will be able to nurse that one, at least for a little while, so I should be able to use all my supplies again.

I made my decision about daycare last week as well and got Eli signed up. We are taking him to a Kindercare center. I have been there twice and it has a nice infant room and nice teachers, and they offer a military discount. He is also on the waiting list for the daycare on base, though, and we will probably move him there once a spot opens up because it is a super nice daycare and costs about $50 less a week! However the base daycare infant program has a 8-12 month wait -- yeh no one told me that before!! Apparently you need to get on the waiting list when you find out you are pregnant. What?!?!? Ok well now we know. So I decided it would be best for both Eli and myself to start daycare the week before I go back to work (next week). This is so Eli can get used to daycare slowly, I can get used to him being away from me, we can work on Eli's schedule at both the daycare and at home, and we can figure out how much formula and diapers he needs at daycare (by the way they are letting me use my cloth diapers and wipes!!!). The first day I plan to take him in mid morning and only leave him 3 hours, then gradually increase the time there and get him there earlier in the day until by Friday he spends a whole day there. I think that will make my first day back at work MUCH better on both of us. That is worth an extra week of daycare to me! Plus I can get a lot of stuff done around the house before heading back to work.
Here are some videos from this week, enjoy!!!