TGIF!

WAHOO, it's Friday!!!!

Isaiah is 5 Months Old!

This is 5 days late... does it count that I've been thinking about it since before he turned 5 months?

-Isaiah is a little over 17 lbs (Weighed naked on our digital scale he was 17.2 lbs on his 5 month birthday).

-He is 27.25 inches tall and in 9 month clothing.  He's grown almost 2 inches in the past month and can't squeeze into 6 month at all anymore.

-His head circumference is about 17 inches.

-Same as last month, he is on the medium rise setting on his diapers. Even though we have hundreds of diapers (I'm slowly selling off the pocket diapers that there is no chance of me using anymore), we exclusively use Flip covers with various inserts (stay dry, organic cotton, Thirsties inserts, flats, or prefolds) during the day, with a few bumGenius Freetimes thrown in, mostly for Daddy. At night he wears an sbish snapless fitted (with both doublers) with a Blueberry one size cover with aplix. The rise on the cover is completely unsnapped to fit over the fitted.

-He still has those two bottom teeth playing peekaboo, and his bottom gums are swelling out in other areas, so I think some of his other teeth are moving around.  The poor baby's stubborn teeth just won't poke all the way through!

-He has no bottles ever, nor will he ever have one unless something horrible happens, like me ending up in the hospital on my deathbed unable to breastfeed.

-We've been cosleeping for over a month, and we love it.  He sleeps like an infant is supposed to - getting up to nurse anywhere from 1 to 3 times in the night.  He can fall asleep if I put him down when he's awake, as long as he's calm and relaxed.  I lie there with him, though.

-Overall he sleeps about 11.5-12 hours at night, and goes to bed between 7 and 8, depending on when he woke up from his final nap - right now it's usually closer to 7.

-Isaiah doesn't nap in a crib anymore, just on me while I wear him (which is what we're doing right now).  His naps are usually 30-40 minutes, but occasionally we get one around an hour long.

-He is down to 3 naps a day, which isn't a lot of napping time considering his naps are usually only 30-40 minutes long, but it seems to be all he needs.  Apparently I breed children who need freakishly short naps.

-He still sleeps on his tummy, which I am less nervous about now that we cosleep.

-Isaiah is THE happiest baby I have ever met.  His constant enormous smile makes us all smile constantly, too.  I love his shrieks and giggles and how he "talks" to us.  He has such an awesome personality.

-He's getting very good at grabbing things and putting them in his mouth.

-He rolled over for the first time at 15 months (front to back), and didn't do it again until 19 weeks when he started going both ways.  Then he didn't really do it much until the week before he turned 5 months.  Now he's just like Noah was at the same age - if you lay him down on his back he will immediately roll onto his front.

-He is friendly to people and smiles at them when they talk to and smile at him, but he's very selective about who he wants to hold him.  He is obviously awesome with me, good with Justin, good with my mom or sister, but kind of awful with my inlaws.  He likes them from afar, but if they even start talking about holding him he gets a scared look on his face and will start crying.  So weird.

-He really likes his Dad, I think maybe more than Noah did when he was this age, but my memory might be skewed because once Noah was about 6 or 7 months (and for a long time after that) he had a HUGE preference for me, and it sometimes seemed like he didn't even like his Dad (which was sad and  ridiculous because Justin is the world's greatest Dad!)

-He can sit independently for up to 15 seconds if he's interested in balancing himself properly.  He is nowhere near mastering this, but I have no doubt that by 6 months he'll be sitting independently.

-He loves Noah!

-We still babywear all the time, which makes us all very happy, and our carrier stash continues to grow. I've sold a ton of carriers, but I'm pretty sure I have about 25 right now.  I honestly lost track, and I need to do inventory.

-Evenings are no longer witching hours for Isaiah.  He's pretty happy, the only difference is that if he is tired, he NEEDS to be with me.  If Justin is carrying him around while I get stuff ready for bed he will start to WAIL, and then stop as soon as I take him.  We can hold this off for a bit if Justin follows me around while I get stuff ready, but he HAS to see me. It's only when he's feeling tired, but as soon as I take him he can often be perfectly happy for another half hour before starting bedtime routine.  We find it rather amusing.

-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me.

Picture time!

The day he turned 5 months!  This was not a planned "photo shoot", he just happened to be naked on my bedroom floor:

I'm currently selling this wrap: 

Brothers:

I did not tell Noah to put him arms around Isaiah... that's all him!

Because he's teething he is ALWAYS chewing on his tongue!  I think it's cute :)

LOVE this kid! 

Valentine's Day!

I like Valentine's Day, but it's not that big of a deal to me.  Noah and I made a picture for Justin, and Justin and Noah made a picture for me.  It's been kind of a long day with a fussy, tired, teething 4 month old (who still has lots of smiles in between the whines, of course).  I haven't been able to eat or drink much (I think I just kind of forgot except during the times that it was impossible to), and I have a headache from that.  Oops!  

We're having frozen pizza for dinner.  Well, we'll cook it first.  After the kids are in bed we'll spend half an hour cuddling on the couch eating cheesecake and watching something we PVR'd this week.  Then I'll fall into bed.  That's it, that's all.  I love my life.  (To be clear, I'm not complaining - I really do love my life!)

A couple of snapshots from my Valentine's Day...

The following 2 pictures are very representative of my day:

Note the drool and look of distress:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Weekend Tidbits

-Mastitis is 95% gone.  No more systemic symptoms and just a little bit of discomfort left.  I'm guessing I could kill a vampire just by walking past him with all the raw garlic I've been swallowing, but HEY, no antibiotics needed.  And antibiotics are awful, so that's good.  TAKE THAT Mastitis!

-Jack is still stable... he's off the ventilator which is awesome, but since then there have been few improvements except that he's been able to spend a bit of time actually nursing.  They tried taking him off the prostaglandin again but, again, it didn't go well.  Matt and Lynsey are in it for the long haul.  But man, he is freaking cute and has amazing frosted-tip hair.

-Am I the only person who thinks people who post full-body pictures of themselves in their bathing suits on Facebook are incredibly vain?  "Hey, look at me, I'm 24, single, and have never had children so I am a stick figure with amazing abs, and obviously I want all 457 of my friends to know it!"

-I love cosleeping.  You wanna know one big reason why?  Because one night your kid will sleep almost 9 hours straight, which is amazing, and the next night he will be up every 2-3 hours all night, and you know what?  It's not a big deal.  It's just not nearly as disruptive when you don't have to actually get up out of your bed.  Also, when he decides to spend 40 minutes awake at 4am, it doesn't really matter, because instead of sitting upright in a rocking chair holding him, wishing desperately that I could be horizontal, I can just lie in my comfortable bed with my eyes closed and hold his hand - and he doesn't cry because he's not alone.  And it also makes it so that he's used to falling asleep without nursing or rocking.  Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

-I have to go to bed now, because even though it's not nearly as big of a deal when your baby wakes up every 2-3 hours all night if you're cosleeping, it still makes me want to go to bed at 8.  And it's almost 9 now.

Mastitis

Jack update - he is still on a ventilator following the surgery on Wednesday.  One of the risks of the surgery was that he would have a stroke, but he has full movement in his body so thankfully this didn't happen.  After the surgery to open his pulmonary artery, they tried to take him off the prostglandins that are keeping the pathway that closes after birth open (the one that is still allowing him to live, since his pulmonary artery was blocked), but it didn't go so well so he was put back on.  They are just beginning to tube feed him breastmilk (up until now he has only had an IV glucose solution, except for his first day of life before anything was discovered and he was nursing).

***

So, as the pickle on top of the giant crap sandwich that is my week, I have mastitis.  I have no idea why this is happening, but it is.

At the end of last week I had clogged ducts in my left boob.  They went away after about 24 hours after me applying warm compresses and massaging and nursing as often as possible.

Then on Tuesday I woke up and my engorged left boob hurt more than it normally hurts in the morning (it's always incredibly full).  I nursed Noah (that's his side) and it still hurt and the lower part of my boob still felt about half full, but without a really obvious lump.

As the day progressed I had the chills, my skin hurt all over my body, and I was exhausted.  I was pretty sure I had mastitis, so I started swallowing raw garlic, taking extra Vitamin C and probiotics, ibuprofen, and trying to empty that side as frequently as possible.

On Wednesday my boob still hurt but I didn't feel like crap anymore, so I thought maybe it wasn't mastitis after all.  I stopped doing the garlic and vitamins thing.

On Thursday the pain and fullness in my boob started spreading along the outside of it, and my skin started hurting, I had the chills,whole body muscle aches, joint aches, a headache, and was exhausted again.  I started up the garlic and vitamins again.

Today my skin and muscles hurt again, I'm sooo tired, and my boob has finally gotten red over part of the painful full area.

I really don't get why this has happened, since my left side is Noah's side and it gets drained very well several times a day.  I shouldn't have gotten a clogged duct to begin with.  It's a mystery.

I really really REALLY don't want to take antibiotics, so I'm doing everything I can naturally to get rid of this - even if it takes longer.  Today is a snow day, and Justin has prep last period so he's hoping to come home around 1.  He's cancelling his 3:30-4:30 client, and then it's the weekend.  Hopefully I'll be able to get the rest I need to kick this stupid infection.

Update on Jack

Since there is no sense in me rewriting this, the following update on my nephew, Jack, is from an email written by Matt, my brother:

***

Just so that everyone knows some of the details. Jack was born on Monday, February 4th, at 8:39 a.m. weighing in at 7lbs exactly and 18 inches long. He appeared healthy until before our discharge when a pediatrician listened to his heart and heard an abnormality. So... 

At that point a lot of things happened quickly and we was quickly diagnosed with a blocked pulmonary artery due to the fusion of the valve between it and the right ventricle. This prevents deoxygenated blood from getting to the lungs to be oxygenated. This also leads to an poorly developed right ventricle. Fortunately, there exists a connection between the aorta and pulmonary arteries that exists during pregnancy that they have been able to keep open with medication. This stabilized him and gave him that much needed oxygen that he was having difficulty getting, since the connection begins to close after he is born. 

 Today he is in SickKids in Toronto after a quick transfer from L____'s [their hometown] cardiac department. He is stable and very happy, warm and comfortable. He loves to have his full head of hair played with and will smile if you sing at him and do it. So, lots of fun there. Everything else with our little man is just right, and he's a awesome little dude we are excited for you to all meet and fall in love with him too! 

Today at around noon he will be having a procedure done to open up the valve between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery using a catheter. This is a minimally invasive procedure that we hope will successfully treat his condition so he can continue growing and become a member of the V's [my maiden name] baseball team we are forming. We really don't know anything beyond this procedure, and doctors cannot give us a timeline for anything. Since he is so small, how his little heart reacts to the opening of the valve is unpredictable. We will likely be at Sick Kids into next week, and depending on complications and success, perhaps weeks. 

The procedure has a very high success rate, but the risks are also great, as all things are around newborns and their little hearts. We pray that you can give extra prayer for little Jack, and keep him in your hearts as we move forward. He could be in the Catheter Lab for the procedure for 3 to 4 hours, so you got lots of opportunity to give a shout out to the Big Man. He is the great healer, and only through His saving and regenerative grace have we been able to make it this far. 

Also pray for Lynsey as she is recovering from a difficult delivery. We are trying to force her to sleep, but she is proving a difficult patient ;). But she is doing better and better every day, and is able to help Jack out in her own way. Pray for both of us to keep going with energy and optimism as we battle with frustration, exhaustion, and basically all the emotions that you can think of. 

***

Poor little man... this makes me cry. But even with all those tubes and wires, he's really adorable, isn't he? He rivals my own newborns (and blow's my older brother's not-cute-newborns out of the water :) I wish I could be with them, but since they are over 3 hours away and I have my own two kids to care for, it's just not possible...

Baby Jack

My brother, Matt, and his wife, Lynsey, had their baby boy, Jack, yesterday morning (2.5 weeks early).  They were planning to go home today, but this morning they found out that Jack has a blocked artery and is being transferred to SickKids in Toronto.  I can only imagine what a nightmare they're going through.  Please send some prayers and/or positive thoughts their way!

19 Weeks and Rolling

This doesn't really matter, buuuuut...

Isaiah did his first roll a few weeks ago, front to back... and then never really rolled again.  I don't "encourage" these things, as they'll happen on their own time.  Noah did everything early (which I was proud of, even though it seriously does. not. matter.), but I just haven't cared when Isaiah does things.

Anyway, today he is exactly 19 weeks old (I had to go to the calendar and count, because I had no idea how many weeks old he was) just shy of 4.5 months, and something suddenly clicked.  He was a rolling fool.  Not just front to back, but lots of back to front.  He's been on the verge of this for a week or so, because he rolled from his back to his side reeeally well.  Today was the day he completed the task.

He was so proud of himself.

On to things that do matter:

The most kissable cheeks in the world, I tell you.

Love that kid.

Oh, and today we discovered that Isaiah seems to be really tilting his head to the right.  I'm not worried about it (I could almost swear that when he was a newborn he always tilted his head to the opposite direction... I'm not positive on that though), but I am going to be taking him to the chiropractor again for it.  We haven't been to the chiro since October, I think.  Time for another few trips!  Like I said, I'm not worried about it because I'm looking back at other pictures I took, and as recently as January 27 he had no noticeable head tilt (every picture I've taken since then he was laying down, and he doesn't have a noticeable tilt when he's laying down).  So, it's fairly recent, but still worth some attention.  

The Joy

This is the joy he brings to our house every day...

"Alone Time"

Somebody asked how we have "alone time" if we are cosleeping.  I was trying to write a short reply, but this was the shortest I could make it so I decided to just put it in a post (so that anybody else who wonders the same thing can have their curiosity satisfied).

So, how do we have "alone time"??

-We have 6 bedrooms (all of which contain beds, only 2 of which contain children), 2 living rooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a laundry room... should I go on? :)

-We don't have to go to sleep at the same time as our children (and we rarely do) just because we sleep in the same bed as them.

-In our entire marriage we have gone to bed at the same time as each other maybe 5 times, so "alone time" has never been dependent on going to bed at the same time in the same bed.

-Because I am such a bad sleeper (insomniac central over here) and my husband is such a loud sleeper, even before factoring in cosleeping we have spent more nights in separate beds than we have in the same bed.  And trust me, our marriage was very happy while sleeping in separate beds or rooms, because he wasn't waking me up or keeping me awake at night (which makes me insanely angry).

-We spend all of our time together right up until the time that I go to sleep (I'm always the first one in bed).  To me, this is more valuable and intimate than the couples I know who hang out on their own, often in different rooms, doing different things all evening and then end up sleeping beside each other at some point that evening.  We spend our conscious time together... the unconscious time isn't nearly as important.

Now, all of that being said, at this point I am still going to bed within 45 minutes of my kids being asleep, so admittedly there is not a whole lot of "alone time" going on.  But that's just the stage of life we're in, and it's because I need to spend about 11 hours in bed to scrape together 5 or 6 hours of sleep.  It has absolutely nothing to do with cosleeping.

Does that answer any lingering questions??  :)