Back to the grind

I went back to work today.  I didn't cry and I actually wasn't very upset at all.  It's not that I am not sad about leaving Elliott, I just recognize that I am leaving him for a very short amount of time and he will be just fine without me. The first day I went back to work when Spencer was a baby I cried the whole way there and several times during the day.  I was leaving him with Michael, so, in hindsight this was a little bit of overkill.  I went back when Spencer was 16 weeks old and I worked about 6.5 hours on both Tuesday and Thursday.  Michael was home with him both days.  I was also really concerned that pumping and bottle feeding was going to derail nursing with Spencer.  Elliott is already on formula and I have a whole freezer full of breast milk already, so I don't have the same concerns with Elliott.

  I am working 4 hours on Tuesday with Michael at home and 4 hours on Thursday with Megan here.  It's an ideal situation.

The work day went well.  Everyone was really glad to see me, I got a whole bunch of "stuff" done and I got some great news from my principal.  I will tell you what it is if you contact me privately.  I just don't want to share it in such a public forum. 

This was the scene when I got home:

Did you really think I wouldn't do this?

A side by side comparison of my babies when I got home from my first day back to work.

Spencer was just barely starting to come out of his colic phase when I went back.  Michael was way less nervous to be with Elliott today.  The only worry that we had was Elliott refusing the bottle.  He actually did OK with breast milk in it.  He just won't take formula from a bottle.  Can't say I blame him.

More Projects

The pinning continues. I've been making dinner almost every night from recipes I find on pinterest.  I've been trying really hard to make a schedule for dinners for the week and then I base grocery shopping off of the schedule.  Spencer and I go grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon while Elliott naps.  We both look forward to it as sometimes it is the only time I leave the house all week.  Having a schedule makes dinner way less chaotic and we're eating in the 6:00 hour instead of the 8:00 hour.  I'm not going to show you our dinners though, because I don't take pictures of them.  That was a lot of build up for nothing, huh?

Here are some of the pinterest projects we've done in the last month.

We made our own laundry detergent.  The root beer was not part of the recipe.  It was for root beer pulled pork.

We did one load of laundry with it.  It works great.  We wanted to use up the rest of the detergent we already had before using it though.  That's going to happen this week.

We made our own fabric softener.  We haven't used it yet, but it smells really good.

We made yarn chandeliers.  I told Spencer they were hot air balloons.

It was an annoying, time consuming undertaking that we stretched out into a 2 week project, but the end result was worth it.  They look great in the boys' rooms.

This one I actually did not find on pinterest.  I found it through google.

Spencer had started wearing this toy storage bin on his back and calling it a jet pack.

He was blasting off to Mars on a daily basis.  I asked if he would like it if I made him his own real jet pack.  Of course he said yes.

So while he was in Tucson last week I got all the necessary items and made it for him.  I was so excited for him to come home and see it.

It was all ready for him when he got here, except for the straps which we wanted to do with him so we could make them fit. 

This was his initial reaction when he saw it: no smiling, looking disappointed, no sounds of glee. This is what he said: "But mom, I want it to have real fire coming out.  That is not real fire". 

I really thought I had been inventive with the fire too.  Nothing like the disappointed complaints of a 4 year old to make you feel like a real jerk of a mom.  I just can't think of a single way to make real fire safe for play.  Sorry Spencer.  The string confetti will have to do until you become Iron Man after college. 

I already had a friend ask for step by step directions on how to make this and luckily I did take a couple pictures during the process so I'm going to do a whole blog post about how I made this.

Finally, this was not a pinterest project, but I didn't know where else to put it.  I didn't want to write an entire blog post about it.

Ginger turned 10 on March 10th.  It was her Golden Birthday! 

We had pie in her honor.

Spencer was kind enough to blow out her candles.

The birthday girl.

Just one more thing, because he wasn't in this post anywhere. Here's Elliott this morning wearing fleece jammies on an unexpectedly cold Arizona day in March.

A very green day

Spencer recovered from his ear infection nicely.  He was begging to come home on Tuesday night, but by the time he had 2 doses of antibiotics and some of the pain relief ear drops he changed his mind and decided to stay in Tucson.  My mom brought him home on Friday night.  We were so glad to see him.  We really missed him.  Don't tell him, but we were ready for him to go back by Saturday morning.

The reason he came home Friday night and didn't stay longer was because we had signed him up for a class through parks and recs, and it started Saturday morning.  Michael took him and wouldn't you know it- the class (all 6 sessions) was cancelled because not enough kids signed up.  NOBODY called to tell us ahead of time.  I was pretty annoyed.  Spencer handled it well. We signed him up for a baseball class that starts in a month and that is what he is most excited about.

They played at the park for a little bit so that the trip wasn't totally wasted and then came home. I wanted to have a special St. Patrick's Day breakfast for Spencer so my mom (who had spent the night) helped to make green waffles. 

I was going to make green smoothies to go with the waffles, but wouldn't you know it- our blender broke the day before.  We got it as a wedding gift.  It makes me sad that our wedding presents are wearing out.  I guess that is a sign of a good, lasting marriage though.  I doubt Kim Kardashian wore out any of her wedding gifts.  Instead of green smoothies Michael stopped on the way home and got Shamrock milkshakes from McDonald's.  They were very sweet.  I was not really a fan.

After breakfast I wanted to take some pictures of the boys.  Spencer said he would if he could take my picture first.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Later that day, while Elliott and Michael napped, Spencer and I went shopping.  We bought some spring time (lighter) footy jammies.  They were an appropriate color for the day.

Look at how long and skinny they make him look.

Maryellen and her husband John invited everyone over for burgers on Saturday night.  It was our great fortune that everyone else (except their friend James) was busy or sick.  No kids and healthy adults meant that we could take Elliott with us.  It was his first dinner party!  We ate delicious burgers and then while I nursed Elliott in the back room and Maryellen kept me company, the boys played pool.  Spencer took the pictures.

John and Maryellen had joked earlier in the night that James looked like he belonged in our family because we were all wearing green.  So we decided to take some family photos.

Welcome to the family James!

It was such a simple little night but it was wonderful because we finally all got to get out of the house and have some fun.

3 months old

Elliott is fighting his first cold.  He has a crusty little nose, a tiny little cough and is sneezing like 4-5 times in a row.  It was tough to get a good picture of him today because he wasn't feeling good.

The official 3 month picture

Date

March 16, 2012

The rest of the "not so good" pictures

Weight/Size
We went to our pediatrician today because Elliott hadn't pooped in 3 days and because we are being extra cautious with any illness.  I was really not concerned about his cold because his symptoms are so mild, but with his history I was not taking ANY chances. He was 8 pounds 12.5 ounces.  That is a gain of a little more than 5 ounces in 3 days.  Know how many times I pumped and fed him in a bottle?  ZERO.  Take THAT nutritionist.  He gained almost a pound (1/2 an ounce short) since he was 2 months.

Elliott is wearing an entire variety of clothes sizes.  He still fits in newborn, but those outfits are getting a little short.  He fits nicely in 0-3 months.  The giraffe outfit he was wearing today was 3 months.  I don't think anybody would say it was too big on him.  He is still wearing newborn diapers.  At his appointment with Dr. Miloh on Tuesday he was 22.1 inches.

(Our pediatrician told us that Elliott's system was probably adjusting to the bump in calories in his supplementary formula.  She said to give him 1 more day to poop.  If he didn't go we could give him 1 tsp of karo syrup twice a day.  He pooped twice within a couple hours of the appointment.  He probably lost 3 of those 5 ounces)

Sleep

Not much different from last month.  Bed between 9 and 10.  Eating 2-3 times during the night.  Up between 8 and 9.  With Spencer gone this week we slept until 9:45 one morning!  A little nap in the morning around 11 and a longer nap in the afternoon. He is sleeping longer stretches by himself during naps, but he is with me in bed at night and I have to say, I love it.

Movement

Still rolling from his tummy to his back.  He can kick really hard- if he kicks off something he can move his whole body.  He holds his head up really well. He has found his fingers and works really hard to get them in his mouth.  He is not very coordinated though and when they slip out he gets mad that he can't get them back in. 

Communication

Elliott is cooing when he is happy.  He makes general little "baby noises".  Not babbling, but kind of pre-babbling.  He makes good eye contact and is giving purposeful smiles a lot.  He grins at me when he is nursing, which is adorable.

Sweet Remembrances

1) Having multiple appointments with Dr. Miloh where various tests came back with good news.

2) Having Elliott's bilirubin level drop to 1.8

3) Elliott's first Leap Day

4) Taking his 2nd trip to Tucson and going to Grandma and Papa's house for the first time.

4) Packing on some weight

Food

Started supplemental pregestimil at 2 months 1 week.  Did 1 week of 3-4 ounces a day.  Did 1 week of 8-10 ounces a day.  The past few days we have been aiming for about 13 ounces a day.  I am still nursing 9-10 times a day.  He gets all his formula in a supplemental nurser while I am nursing.  It has worked well.  He has completely rejected taking a bottle, which is a problem since I go back to work next week.  We got a Dr. Brown's bottle that we're going to try this weekend.  Dr. Miloh is encouraged that once his bilirubin levels return to normal and his liver starts functioning that his fat malabsorption problems will improve and we can cut back on the formula.

Side note: Spencer was totally breast fed.  Breast milk poop does not stink.  Formula poop?  NASTY.

Mood

Elliott is finally over having a "fussy time" in the evenings.  He does not like to just sit and be still.  He wants to be held and walked around the house.  He actually slept for about an hour on the way to Tucson and almost the whole way back. 

Medicine

Elliott was finally weaned off phenobarbital this past Monday.  He has done great without it.   He is still taking ursodiol (1 mL twice a day) to try to clear bile and conjugated bilirubin out of his system, fat soluble vitamin drops (1 mL once a day) and keppra (0.4 mL twice a day) for seizures.

Likes/Dislikes

Likes: being held by mommy and daddy, taking medicine, taking baths (until it's done and then he hates the drying off part), being swaddled to fall asleep. Dislikes: staying still for too long, the new stroller, being in the car seat without movement.

Just for fun- A side by side comparison of Spencer and Elliott at 3 months

Elliott was almost a pound more than Spencer at birth.  Spencer obviously didn't have the liver problems that Elliott does though, so Spencer was about 6 ounces more than Elliott at 3 months. I predict that Elliott will overtake Spencer by 4 months because Spencer had a touch of acid reflux between 3 and 4 months and gained slowly that month.

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