Jack's Appointment & a Little More

Jack had his follow up appointment with the pediatrician today regarding his spitting up. He weighed 10 pounds, 8 ounces. This is up 4 ounces from last Monday, which rules out pyloric stenosis as the cause of the spitting up. She is (as are we) convinced that he's got reflux, so we'll continue what we've been doing for the last 10 days as far as treating it. On the sleeping front, he's still not so great. Last night he was up for several hours in the night, and I had tried everything to get him to sleep. He wasn't crying or upset -- just wanted to hang out. I didn't. Finally I got his carseat and strapped him into it. We have a little box that attaches to his bed with a nightlight, vibration, music, etc. I set it to vibrate, plopped him in the carseat into his bed, and he slept for three hours. That is the longest he's slept at night. Ever. As in, ever in his entire little life. I woke up at 6:30 nervous, because I woke up before him! Above is a picture of him sleeping right now. (For some reason I can't move the photo?!) While I think it's very odd to put my baby to sleep in his carseat and cover him up with the cover, I'm all for it if it allows me to get some sleep!

I had my six week checkup with my OB on Monday. All is well, and *YIPPEE* no issues with my incision this time. Third time's the charm!

As for Weight Watchers this week. . . don't ask. I lost six tenths of a pound. I mean, are you freaking kidding me? Had I eaten breakfast I would have GAINED weight! I'll (hopefully) be kickstarting that pitiful loss with my new exercise program that starts Saturday morning. It's the Couch to 5K running program. I. Don't. Run. (In regards to the running, I want NO comments from anyone who has seen the DVD of my wedding. I'm laughing out loud right now as I think about it. If you've not seen it, don't ask. I seriously won't tell you.) From everything I've read this program will make a non-runner into a runner in 9 weeks. We'll see. . . I don't think I've run further than perhaps to the telephone since I was a senior in high school, and then I would only do it because I HAD to. For more info about the C to 5K business, go to coolrunning.com and it's under training.

D&H are their normal crazy selves. D is having some emotional breakdowns this week. I attribute it to being 3, which is the suckiest (?) age, and some latent baby adjustment issues. He is acting very whiny, constantly testing us, and doesn't want to be anywhere by himself (read: without me). He's been having some major breakdowns when we drop him off at school. I'm hoping we can get over it soon. What's that saying? When he's good he's very, very good and when he's bad he's. . . WICKED! H is H. He's going through a bit of a mean streak, 99% of the time toward D. And I would say most of his aggression is probably justifiable! He's doing well with his potty training, for the most part. For some reason today and yesterday he's been peeing all over the house like a puppy, but other than that he's doing really well. He loves to "surprise" us with it. He'll say, "Close your eyes and I'll give you a pee pee surprise!" Um, right. Not exactly the kind of surprise I want! Thankfully when he's surprising us, it's in the toilet!

I'm off to bed. . . keep your fingers crossed that the carseat works again tonight!

And PS. Spell check hasn't worked for weeks on this. . . sorry if there's a bunch of words spelled wrong! I'm not proofreading!

HOW?

How on earth is Jack big enough to do this already??

Weight Watchers Update

I know you've been sitting around waiting for me to let you know how Weight Watchers is going. I got off to a slow start last week and was down 1.2 pounds. I know, I know -- any loss is good. I'm not looking for Biggest Loser numbers here, but come on? 1.2 pounds? I wasn't happy. This week, however, I'm back! I lost 4 pounds. Grand total for those slow in the math department is 5.2 pounds. (Or, as we like to say around our house, 34.67% of the way to ridding myself of one of the infamous black suits!) The four pound loss was enough to push myself to the Y tomorrow morning. I think I'm supposed to wait 6 weeks after having a baby to work out, but I won't be getting crazy. Please. We're talking some exercise bike time here, not a cardio class.

Will Pee for Candy

I've totally been lazy about potty training H. Forgive me. I've been otherwise engaged with things like childbirth and staying up all night acting as a milk bar. I admit I've been less than consistent with my attempts to get H to pee somewhere other than in his pants or on the floor. This week we've refocused! OK, starting today. He can completely do it -- he's just more lazy about it than I am. Well, I'm pleased to announce that today he wore underpants all morning with no accidents. That's not the monumental news. The fact that he ran into the living room with his little potty in hand and said, "I don't want to pee on the floor! I do it in the potty!" then ripped down his dino undies and went to the bathroom. All on his own, without me asking him if he had to go. I'm so proud! Now if I could just get him to do it without eating a lollipop each time. Baby steps.

Welcome to Wal-Mart

OK seriously, WTF? We're at Wally World Monday afternoon, and by "we" I mean my three children and me. Alone. At the *grocery* store. At 3 in the afternoon. On a day when nobody (including me) took a nap. Can you see where this is going? To my surprise, everyone was remarkably well behaved. I'm sure I looked like a raging-lunatic-stupid-ass-who-doesn't-know-when-to-stop-procreating as I tooled around the Mart with H in the shopping cart repeating Rain Man style, "I want drinking yogurt," J strapped to me, and D walking around shouting, "DO YOU SEE D FOR DAVID? IS THIS SQUASH? DOES THAT START WITH D?" We check out, and I corral the crew over by the *hair salon* (Seriously? In Wal-Mart? Does it count as a salon?) I'm putting assorted jackets on while answering a million questions about why the salon's "garage door" was closed. This creepy with a capital C man was sitting on the bench by the motorized scooters. Really, really creepy man with a Dumb and Dumber haircut looked at us and smiled a WIDE smile. With a mouth full of summ'r teeth. You know, summ'r here, summ'r gone. His? Mostly gone. He points to D and says, "He can sit here. With me." and pats the seat next to him on the bench affectionately. Um, the hell he can! I smiled politely showing off my mouth full of shiny pearly whites and said, "No thanks." He smiles again and says, "But I really want him to." OK, WTF you dirty ass pedophile? At that point I was not nice anymore. I just said, "I'm sure you do," and we walked away as D asked, "WHY did that man want to sit with me?" And H said, "And WHERE are his teeth??"

Gotta run -- J's waking up and D is getting coked up on Valentine's Day party candy.

Public Offering

Yes folks, it's true. We're public again. Don't ask me why. I had a moment of craziness today.

Happy One Month Birthday!

Am I the only one who cannot believe Jack is one month old already? Considering the amount of sleep we've (not) been getting, it should probably feel like he's 6 months old! On that note, however, he did sleep for a 4 hour stretch last night. That's the first time that's happened during the night. The only negative aspect of it was that he was in bed with me! At this point, whatever works is what we're doing.


Jack had his first doctor's appointment yesterday for something other than a weight check. He's been spitting up a lot every time he eats, but over the weekend started projectile vomiting. And I mean projectile -- it hit the other end of the couch, which is 7 feet long. His pediatrician thinks it's reflux (other than the vomiting he has several classic symptoms of reflux) and we're treating it as such. He's on an acid blocker, has to sleep with a wedge in his bed, and must be held in an upright position for a minimum of 30 minutes after eating. However, it could also be something called Pyloric Stenosis which presents itself typically between 4 and 6 weeks. We're really hoping it's not pyloric stenosis, because the solution to that is surgery to repair an obstruction in the stomach. He weighed 10 pounds 4 ounces yesterday and will go back in 10 days for another weight check. If he's not gained any weight, we'll have to have some further testing to see if it's pyloric stenosis, because one other main indication is that PS babies do not gain weight -- they start losing it. Poor baby! So, fingers crossed that it's reflux. As nasty as reflux feels, I'd much prefer dealing with that to having my newborn have surgery!

He's changing so much every day. He's so much more alert now, checking everything out. I suspect he'll learn to defend himself quickly, because David is ALL in Jack's business "just trying to love him". We need to have some personal space lessons! Jack is sleeping great during the day and still a night owl. I sincerely hope this pattern is going to change, because I am about the furthest thing from a night owl. He's eating really well, and still has the sweetest little personality. He loves to be held and have his bum patted, and he loves to have someone sing to him. He is very alert when we read books, and he loves to watch his brothers.

Happy One Month Jack! We love you!

PS. I promise birth announcements and photos will be in the mail soon. I'm sure you can understand why they've taken me a bit longer than normal!

It's all Over!

We all survived our first experience with non-family childcare! And, dare I say? We all enjoyed it! David and Henry were in different rooms because Henry is under 3. He was in the nursery with three little girls. David was with the bigger kids in the church fellowship hall. The children in the nursery played, ate pizza, watched Veggie Tales, and colored. And, as Henry said, "did a lot of sliding" on this tiny slide in the room. I think Henry's feet almost touched the ground before he slid down. In the bigger kids room they ate pizza, made a Valentine's headband, bracelet, and bookmark, watched a Charlie Brown movie, and decorated cookies and cakes for the baked goods auction at the church tomorrow. The people who ran it said they were so surprised that D&H had never stayed with anyone before, because they were great. There was nobody from David's class there, so there were no familiar faces for either of them. I'm so proud of them! Neither cried when we left, and they were both playing when we got there. I'm so proud of me too, because I had talked myself out of dropping them off several times before we actually got to 5 o'clock! We'll definitely do it again.

Chris, Jack, and I went to Tokyo, a relatively new Japanese steakhouse in town. We had hibachi, and it was so good. Chris had shrimp and steak, and I had shrimp and scallops. It was delicious! After that we went to The Avenue (a new outdoor shopping center) and walked around window shopping. It was a very nice night, so we just walked around for a little bit. It was such a nice night! And David and Henry are already in bed -- we picked them up less than an hour ago!

Park It

Yesterday's weather was GORGEOUS! We spent the majority of the day at the park. Unfortunately, school was let out early, so most of Smyrna was there too. We went to the "big" park in town, and there were lots of junior high-ish aged children there. Hi, you're too big to play on the same equipment as my children who are 2 and 3. I didn't like it! We brought their bicycles too, so they tooled around the park trails for about an hour. Little Henry's legs were pumping! I bet they rode a mile. Well, Henry walked some of it and poor Chris had to carry Henry's tricycle! Here are some pictures!

My Funny Valentines

I hope everyone's sweetie was good to them on Valentine's Day. Chris surprised me with some beautiful flowers. David and Henry were very happy and excited to get their Valentine's treats this morning. They eat enough junk, so no candy here. They each got flashlights, Cars bouncy balls, and new underpants. I also got them each a Thomas book last week, but have somehow managed to lose them! (Along with a portion of my mind!) They'll turn up somewhere, I'm sure. Perhaps to be used as a birthday gift?! David was so sweet when I was tucking them in for bed tonight. I gave him a kiss and he said, "Mama, I hope you had a sweet Valentine's Day. I love you." SO SWEET!!! I love that boy. I'll leave you with some photos of my four Valentine boys. A girl couldn't get any luckier.

Wacky Wednesday

I love these boys.

Tuesday Twelve

1. Jack slept much better last night. This could be due to many things. He woke up, ate, then slept in his swing for two and a half hours. I didn't turn the television on at all -- I figured the less stimulation he had the better. The second time he woke up he slept with me after he was done eating. Not my favorite option, but at this point we're going with whatever works.

2. Jack's new and improved sleeping last night allowed me to get out of bed, eat breakfast, fix breakfast for everyone else, shower, get everyone dressed, and get out of the house by 8:15. Seriously folks, this is the first time in 24 days I've been out of bed before 8 o'clock. I HATE sleeping late. I feel like I'm burning daylight, and I have too much to do to sleep late.

3. David and Henry got Valentine's Day cards yesterday from my Grammy and Grampy and were SO excited to get $5 in them. (Jack was too, but he doesn't quite get the whole money thing yet.) Today they brought their $5 to Wal-Mart (seriously, how WT are we that this constituted a "fun trip"?). They were responsible for their own money and picked what they purchased with it. They were thrilled to be able to act so big! (And, FYI, they both picked the same thing to buy. A Bertie the Bus.)

4. I have babysitter issues. My children have never had a babysitter other than very close family friends (Hi, who are all married with their own children. Is that a "babysitter"?) or their grandparents. I have a VERY hard time trusting someone else to care for my children. We really should have started with sitters years ago, because as time goes on my issue gets worse. I'm taking a baby step on Saturday -- David and Henry will be going to a Parent's Night Out from 5-8 at church. I'm already having anxiety.

5. We bought a new camera today! YAHOO!

6. David has had such good behavior today. He can be very trying sometimes, and it's days like today that remind me how lucky I am. He's so sweet, silly, smart, and fun. I was so proud of him I wanted to eat him.

7. I have mountains of laundry to fold and no ambition to do it!

8. No matter how old I get or how many times I do it, I hate to empty the dishwasher more than any other chore.

9. Jack looks like he's entered his teenage years very early, as he has TERRIBLE acne! I hate it!

10. David, Henry, and Jack were all snuggling in my bed this morning and I wanted to freeze time. It made my heart hurt it was so sweet.

11. I'm back at Weight Watchers, and very excited to lose 15 pounds. That's my first goal, and I told my husband I would throw out my "black suit" (black velour pants and hoodie) that is my favorite go-to outfit, and his least favorite outfit of all time. I would wear it everyday if that wasn't gross. I have two of them. They're identical. I will only throw one out!

12. I'm ready for spring!!

I love the night life

And so apparently does Jack. . . the child is very confused about when we sleep in this house. I'm not a middle-of-the-night kind of gal. I can handle with no problems the middle of the night feedings of the change diaper/eat/burp/go back to sleep variety. It's the change diaper/eat/burp/look around the damn room for four freaking hours sort that I dislike. Honestly, there's not that much to look at. Especially when the child can only see what? 8 inches in front of his face? That view must get old quick, since IT'S ME! I'll cut him some slack. He's only 23 days old. This is something he needs to pick up fast though. If he continues his current sleeping during the day and party all night long lifestyle, I'll be sending him to work with his daddy at night.

Where did they come from?

My children are insane. They were making a bunch of noise during their "nap" yesterday, so Chris went in to see what they were doing. I heard silence when he walked in, followed by, "Go show Mama." That's never good. David and Henry both came walking out into the living room with black marker ALL OVER themselves. Henry looked like one of the prisoners in a documentary with prison tattoos all over his face. He also had his back, legs, arms, and feet marked, and even his belly button colored in! David had slash marks all over his legs and arms, and even on the bottoms of his feet. They wrote on the carpet, drapes, dresser, each rung of the ladder on their bed, Henry's sheets, the train table, the tv cabinet, their cups, and the door to their closet. Thankfully it was a dry erase-type marker from a book they have which had been mistakenly put away in their toy box instead of put in the closet. It came off of everything easily, but we haven't attempted the carpet yet. I'm sure we'll be able to get it out though. At this point we have master carpet cleaning skills. And the worst part is that my camera is broken so I couldn't even take pictures of it!!! We got it on video though, and if I can figure out how to upload it I will. I was laughing so hard they kept saying, "Mama, why you crying?" It was so hysterical I couldn't be angry!

Back to a New Normal

Ah, reality has set in. Chris has gone back to work, and I'm officially the full-time parent to three small boys. What the hell have I gotten myself into?! Just kidding. . . it's actually gone well for the last few days. Although, I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed having Chris home for two weeks. I'm not a person who generally likes disruption to my "routine", and yes I sometimes consider my husband being home off schedule to be a disruption!! When he was off at Christmas (for almost 3 weeks) I was soooooo ready for him to go back to work. I was also 8+ months pregnant and not a happy camper really. This time though, I was sad for him to go back. We had so much fun together and with the boys, and he is such a good dad. He plays with David and Henry pretty much all day long, did baths, got David ready for school, did laundry and dishes, made sure I was resting, and was so sweet with Jack. I'd forgotten how loving and sweet he was with David and Henry when they were born. For someone who had NO experience at all with babies until David was born, he's amazing with newborns. We're so lucky to have him.

We even managed to do some fun things while he was off. The first weekend we were home from the hospital David and Henry were invited to spend the night with my parents, so Chris and I went out for dinner with Jack. He enjoyed his nap in his carrier while I enjoyed some sushi for the first time in almost a year. I was so happy to eat it! (And so glad Chris doesn't like it, because I didn't want to share!) We went to a store in Nashville we love called "Train up a Child". They have EVERY sort of Thomas the tank engine toys, puzzles, etc. you could want. They also have several train tables, and you can pay a small fee to play for as long as you want. I think we're going to have David's birthday party there this year in their party room. We also went to the Discovery Center, which David and Henry loved. (For those outside of Nashville, this is a link to the Discovery Center website. http://www.discoverycenteronline.org/) They had so much fun, so we renewed our membership. Unfortunately, we had to leave a bit early because there was some funky smell and they evacuated to call the fire department!

David is doing well. He's having some adjustment issues with Jack being here, mostly showing themselves in the form of tantrums. Big, long, tantrums. Over nothing. Not surprisingly, as he is the carbon copy of me when I was a child, most of the tantrums seem to happen when he's tired. We're trying VERY hard to be patient with him, but it's difficult after about 45 minutes of screaming and crying. Hopefully this doesn't last long, because I can't take it for long! Other than that, he continues to be very affectionate with Jack, wants to hold him and kiss him, and loves to help.

Henry is still crazy Henry. He's wild and carefree Henry. He's not really paying much attention to Jack, but is much sweeter to him when he does talk to him. He's hugging and kissing Jack more, but still really doesn't care to interact with him. I think once Jack's mobile and more fun Henry will be more into him. Henry's starting to act much more like the 3 year old he almost is than the sweet baby he was. He's asserting himself much more, arguing, and becoming much more opinionated. He turns it off (generally) as fast as he turns it on, but he's definitely starting to be more obstinate and hard headed! He's going to be an interesting child!

Jack is still doing so well. He's eating like a champ, all day and all night long. He's a wonderful, snuggly, sweet boy. He's much more alert now, and keeps his eyes open or stays awake for much longer periods of time now. I just want to smell him and snuggle him all day long! He had his first doctor's appointment on January 25th to check his weight, etc. He was back up to his birth weight and not jaundiced at all. He does have blocked tear ducts in both eyes. They were extremely goopy with green gunk for about 10 days. His pediatrician said about 40% of newborns have this problem, and that it generally clears up on it's own. She showed us where to massage his face to encourage the ducts to open, and thankfully it seems to have worked. There's still a small amount of secretion from each eye, but NOTHING like it was. I'm sure in a couple of weeks it will probably be gone completely. (Thank God, because the alternative if it didn't open on it's own was a "procedure" around a year old where a WIRE is inserted through the corner of his eye down into the place his eye drains into his nose to open the duct!!!!) She also said he has ultra sensitive skin, so we're being very careful about what we wash our clothes in and the soaps and lotions we use. We've noticed a difference in his skin just in the last week or so since his appointment, so we'll definitely continue what we've been doing. We've done the cloth diapers and G diapers for a few days while we're home. I really like them, especially considering his skin sensitivities. I really need to get a diaper pail specifically to keep the cloth diapers in, as they need to be washed seperately. I'm also going to get some different diapers that don't require covers, because using the diaper and an additional cover is pretty bulky on a boy who's already bulky himself!

I'm feeling great, despite some lingering surgery "issues". Very minor, just some general discomfort really. This could potentially be attributed to having two 40+ pound children in addition to a newborn, and of course they all want to be held or sit on my lap at the same time! Our adjustment, so far, to having three children has been MUCH easier than our adjustment when Henry was born. I'm so thankful for all of them, and I can't believe we ever were without Jack.

David and Henry are "resting" now (read: wrestling in their room), so I've got to run and get some things done while Jack is sleeping. Have a great day!