I'm Back

  I'm back. Finally.  Getting our computer fixed took waaaaaaay longer than anticipated.  Life without a computer is no bueno.

  This is the two week saga:

  When our hard drive failure was imminent we contacted the Geek Squad at Best Buy to fix it and make it better.  They told us we needed the set-up disc specific to our computer for them to do anything.  We didn't have that disc because, this is too perfect, the Geek Squad set up our computer when we originally bought it and they didn't ever give us the disc.  So, we contacted HP to get the disc.  They told us that the hard drive for our computer was no longer being made/sold and we would have to just buy a whole new computer.  They actually told us that if we tried to save data from our old hard drive on to a new one it would corrupt everything.  Lying bastards.

So, Michael called the IT guy at his work.  He does private consultations in his off time.  He took our computer for 5 days, bought a new hard drive and transferred everything.  Successfully.  For less than $200. I was really, really, really worried that we had lost 3 years worth of pictures.  I got lazy in  June of 2009 and haven't backed up pictures since then.  Bad me.  Guess what I will be doing this summer? I do have thousands of pictures in my picasa albums that are all from the blog, but it would have sucked to have lost access to ALL of our pictures.

Now I'm behind on the blog.  It's like when I had to catch up after my 2 week bed rest in the hospital stay and Elliott's almost 2 week in the hospital with sepsis stay.  

These are some of the things I need to cover:

1) Elliott's latest appointment with Dr. Miloh (the hepatologist).  We got very, very, very good news.  That will be my next post because it's just mean to say that we got good news and not share it ASAP.

2) Michael's birthday.

  

3) Elliott starting solids.

  

4) Spencer finishing school for the year (including comparison pictures of his first and last day while wearing the same outfit).

  

5) Some stuff about my job.

 6) A random post with pictures that don't fit anywhere else.

  

But, Elliott will be up in the next hour-ish and instead of blogging I am going to foolishly try to go to sleep before then, resulting in me feeling like I am paralyzed and suffering from Alzheimers disease when I get up after only sleeping for 45 minutes.

  

Until my next post these tid bits will have to keep you entertained:

  

Spencer has been sleeping in a tent on his bed for 2 weeks.  He shows no signs of becoming bored with this set up.

Elliott can successfully fit 5 fingers in his mouth at once.  He's working on 6, but this currently results in gagging that lasts for minutes.

He also has the best back of the head hair I have ever seen. 

I mean, what is up with that line where it goes from random curly to straight up and down?  Is that part of his DNA?  Does an enzyme or a hormone control that?

All three of these bums continue to ruin each and every attempt at a beautiful picture for my blog header.

Crash

I am writing this post on my kindle fire. Did I mention I bought a kindle fire? Last spring (in a moment of great clarity and foreseeing of the future) I bought a short term disability policy for myself. I am self employed and work less than 25 hours a week so it was VERY difficult to find a policy that would cover me. But I persevered, knowing the loss of my income would be devastating to our family. I was thinking more along the lines of car accident, but then I found myself in the hospital on doctor ordered bed rest for 2 weeks. And guess what? My policy has a hospital rider, so I got paid for that time. Generously. Like more than I actually make when I work. Most of it went to paying our taxes. A big chunk is being saved for when I don't work over the summer. I wanted to buy a huge flat screen TV with the rest, but the policy didn't pay that well. So I bought myself a kindle fire as a reward for sleeping in a labor and delivery bed while dilated to 8 cm for 2 weeks. Anyway it's a good thing I did because our hard drive crashed yesterday. The actual message said that a hard disc failure was imminent. We have an appointment with the Geek Squad tomorrow to buy a new hard drive and have them transfer everything. I will have a hard core meltdown if we lost everything because I got very lazy about saving pictures to an external drive in, oh, 2009. Good thing I usually include 154 pictures with every post. Until we get the whole mess straightened out, I'm on this and my phone. I hate leaving comments on my phone, so you might not hear from me on your blogs for a bit. P.S. This is my 700th post. I was hoping to do something awesome. Definitel y not this. P.P.S. The kindle fire is great for web browsing, reading, games, watching movies,etc. Writing blog posts? Not so much.

5 Months

5 Months!

Date

May 16, 2012

The official 5 month picture

Weight/Size
Elliott had a weight check at the pediatrician's last Thursday and was 11 pounds 14 ounces. He was 24.5 inches.  He was gaining about an ounce a day so I'd guess that he is about 12 pounds 5ish ounces today.  We see Dr. Miloh next Thursday for a liver appointment so we'll get another weight check then. 

 

 

Elliott is wearing 3 month and 3-6 month clothes.  He is totally out of newborn and 0-3 month clothes.  The outfit he is wearing in these pictures is actually 6-9 months.  It's a little big.  He is wearing size 1-2 diapers, but his tummy has gotten so round that they are tight around his belly!

Sleep

This varies a lot.  Some days he takes no morning nap, some days he takes an hour morning nap.  Some days he goes down for his afternoon nap for 2 hours without a peep, some days I am in there every 15 minutes rocking him.  He sleeps great, every night, from about 9 pm to between 12 and 2 am.  He is up every night, without fail, between 12 and 2 and again between 4 and 5.  I nurse him and he's back to sleep again until between 7 and 8.  Not a night goes by that I don't rock him at some point.  He stopped sleeping with me in bed after his acid reflux got really bad about 3-4 weeks ago.  We just couldn't get comfy together.  He's been sleeping naps and night in the rock n play. Even though we love it so, Elliott is getting too long for the miracle blanket.  He sleeps so good with it, but he gets mad that his legs are all bunched up.  We tried the halo sleep sack swaddler which is longer, but he busts out of that within an hour.  Just last night we went back to the merlin magic sleep suit now that he is officially within the correct weight range.

Movement
Elliott wants to stand all the time.  He likes standing on our laps and he likes when we lay down in bed and let him stand on our stomachs.  He is still rolling from tummy to back, although he will stay on his tummy for longer now.  He is SO close to rolling from back to tummy.  He can get almost there and then his arm gets in the way and stops him from going all the way over.  Spencer had the same problem at this age. Elliott loves it when we blast him into the air and do baby benchpresses.  He started playing in the jumperoo last week.

Communication
Lots and lots of cooing and prebabbling.  He hoots all the time.  Michael came home from work and Spencer, Elliott and I were hanging out on the bed together.  Michael asked if there was an owl in the room.  He laughs when we do something silly or when we tickle him.  He can make eye contact like nobody's business.  We have entire back and forth conversations that last minutes made entirely and of hoots and grunts.

Sweet Remembrances

1.  Elliott's first picnic in the park

2. Elliott's glamour shots at Sears (that we still haven't received.....don't even get me started on THAT one)

3. Elliott starting to sit in the high chair and liking it.

3. Elliott going in the jumperoo for the first time and loving it.

4. Going an entire month (6 weeks actually) with NO blood draws.

5. Being completely off (completely unneccesary) seizure medication and having no ill effects from the weaning process. 

Spencer took this picture!

Food
Nursing 8-9 times a day. Still supplementing with pregestimil formula and duocal.  If his liver enzymes are looking better we are looking forward to decreasing the formula and duocal as his ability to digest and absorb fat improves.

 

 

We're going to ask Dr. Miloh if there is any reason we can't start solids because of his liver issues.  This boy is ready to eat.  We'd like to start at the beginning of June if we get the go-ahead.  Banana is at the top of our list.

Mood
Happy!  He fusses when he wants to be standing and he's not.  He fusses as he's getting tired.  He cries when he gets too hungry.   Other than that he's a pretty happy guy.  With that said, I decided to take both kids to Target this afternoon.  I was nervous about germs, but we have permission from his pediatrician to rejoin the world.  I was so happy because he didn't cry in the car at all on the way there and I was thinking, "this is going to be great.  We're really doing this".  I got him out of the car seat, into the front carrier and we walked into the store.  He was fine.  We walked over to the carts.  I pulled a cart out.  Elliott started crying.  Screaming, actually.  I spent 10 minutes (hiding in an aisle) trying to calm him down.  He just got louder and more upset.  Nothing I did worked.  After 10 minutes I decided to leave.  Spencer and I were both pretty disappointed.  We love ourselves a Target trip.  The only thing I can think is that he was completely overwhelmed because he is 5 months old and is familiar with only 1) our house and 2) hospitals and doctor's offices.  Maybe Target was too much for him.  Or maybe he was on fire because it was 106 degrees and he is used to a life of air conditioning.

Medicine
No more keppra! He took his last dose on April 26th.  It's too bad that we had him on antiseizure medication for 4 months when he never needed it.  He is still taking ursodiol for his liver.  He is still on a multivitamin.  We started him on zantac for acid reflux last week.  It's helping a lot.  Spencer was on it too at this same age and eventually he just stopped having problems even with no medication. 

Likes and Dislikes

Likes: standing, being tickled, blasting off like a space ship, the jumperoo, sittting in the high chair (most of the time), sucking on his fingers.

Dislikes: going to Target

Mama's Mental Health
I'm adding this heading this month because between 4 and 5 months has been huge for me.  It's the first time that I haven't felt like I was going to lose my mind since Elliott was born.  #1) All of his health issues are resolving.  There were no more seizures to worry about (apparently there never were!) and his liver stuff just keeps getting better and better.  He's also gaining weight and the threat of a feeding tube seems to be less and less of an issue.  I no longer spend hours each day reading medical journal articles online.  The only thing I'm worried about, daily, is not knowing if we're going to do a liver biopsy or not.  #2) We're definitely out of the newborn phase.  I can sit Elliott in his seat or the rock n play and take a whole shower (it's still quick), without him crying the whole time.  That's HUGE.  #3) We have more of a routine, which makes each day more predictible, which makes me less crazy.  #4) Elliott's nursing is way more efficient which gives me more time in between.  I have an app on my phone for tracking when he nurses and for how long.  In January, we were nursing for 9ish hours in a 24 hour time frame.  We're down to 3-4 hours now. That's also huge. #5) He is sleeping so well independently.  Yes, I still nurse and rock him to sleep.  There is no "just put him down drowsy" fairytale in our family.  Yes, I still have to rock him a fair amount during naps and 1 or more times during the night.  But he sleeps on his own way more than with my assistance.  Again- HUGE!

Well, it looks like I took more pictures than I had headings for.  And I didn't even include like 40 of the pictures I took.

If you made it all the way here, thanks for reading.  I print these monthly reports for Elliott's baby book, which is why they are so detailed.  I have this delusion that Elliott is going to care when he's an adult.  Maybe his wife will.  I commend you for your dedication.

I took this just after midnight last night, so technically it was the 16th. 

This is sumo baby.

Mudder

Spencer still does not have the "th" sound in his phonemic repertoire, therefore I am his mudder, not his mother and we celebrate mudder's day in this family.

 

 

The day started with Elliott and me nursing (it was actually the third time of the day if we're being perfectly honest), Michael going to pick up our breakfast from Chompies and Spencer making a "list" of places I needed to look for my hidden present that he made at school.

  

This is the list.  #1 (on the right) is the laundry room refrigerator.  Can you tell what the things on the left are?  From top to bottom: Spencer's closet, the bathtub, the guest room closet, the living room chair, under the kitchen table and Elliott's crib.  Duh. 

Once Elliott was nice and full and the list was made, we enjoyed our breakfast in.  I don't think we'll  ever again go out to breakfast on mother's day.

  

Spencer had eggs, bacon and a bagel (not pictured- it was being cream cheesed).

Michael had eggs benedict.

I had an omelet, a potato pancake and an english muffin.  I ate it all.  And then I did not eat for the rest of the day.

Elliott chomped on a spoon.

Ginger licked her lips in anticipation, but no morsels were shared with her.  Sad.

After breakfast it was time for presents and pictures.

This is what Spencer made me.  It was hidden under the chair in the living room.

I FINALLY have enough silicone egg poaching cups to make 2 poached eggs for each of us at the same time.  It took 3 mother's days to accumulate 6 of them.  This will no longer be true when Elliott starts eating eggs, so Michael will have to buy me 2 more next year.

I got this sign to hang above the coffee maker.

I also got a dress, a shirt, a frame for the picture we had taken of the boys at Sears and fuzzy flip flop slippers.

It was the best mother's day ever!

Kisses for all.

Later in the day Spencer and I went to Target.  I bought Elliott his first pair of sunglasses.

This is him saying, Jesus Christ! Take. These. OFF!

Jumperoo

This was Spencer the first time we put him in the jumperoo. It was his 5 month birthday (February 6, 2008).  If I remember correctly he started crying right after I took this picture and it took something like 2 hours to calm him down.  Even after he was calm he kept losing it again all day.  He'd just start crying out of nowhere.  Man that kid was intense as a baby.  He was in overdrive all. the. time.

So here we are 4 years later and the baby of extreme emotion is now the big brother.  We decided to put Elliott in the jumperoo tonight.  He likes standing so much that we thought he'd be happy to be able to stand on his own.  He's just ever so slightly too short, even on the lowest setting, so Spencer happily carried his biggest book from his room to the living room.

It ended up being too big of a book. Elliott should be on his tippy toes and not flat footed.

He wasn't sure what to think of it at first.

Hmmm.  Do I like this?

Then Ginger came over to check out the commotion.

Then Spencer got all up in Elliott's business.

Then Ginger felt momentarily ashamed.  Of what we do not know.

And then Elliott started bouncing around like a madman.

The verdict?

He loved it.

We're so glad.

I mentioned before that my friend Sandy gave the jumperoo to me when I was pregnant with Spencer.  I'm so sad that I don't get to share Elliott enjoying her gift with her.

I've had the same dream about Sandy twice in the last couple of weeks.  I'm at a party and the doorbell rings.  Someone opens it and Sandy comes walking in.  I run over to her and give her a big hug and say, "But Sandy, you died.  There is no way you can be here.  I don't understand this."  Then she laughs and says, "No, that was all a big mistake.  I never died.  It wasn't me.  It's so crazy and it's been a huge mess." 

I don't think it takes a psychologist to figure out what that dream means.