Cry Baby, Cry

That sweet little baby pictured above cries like a friggin maniac when he eats. Little by little we're improving the freak-outs. They used to start the minute he woke up and only stopped when he wore himself out and temporarily fell unconscious. I hesitate to call it "sleep" because "sleep" usually lasts longer than 45 minutes at a time. He's making improvement and now only really cries sometime during a feeding, and not for very long. Here are a few of the changes we've made so far to help lessen the torture of bottle time...

1. Reflux Meds - Our poor little baby has reflux. Most babies outgrow it but I'm afraid ours might be stuck with it for eternity. I remember having heartburn since I was seven. It runs in the family - Grandpa, Dad, me, Lennon. He's on zantac and omeprazole. Aww, just like mommy! The meds lessened the crying and helped him sleep through the night (God bless you, pump inhibitors) but they didn't completely take care of it so we moved on to...

2. MSPI Diagnosis - On top of reflux, our lucky little baby has milk/soy protein intolerance. It's exactly what it sounds like. The proteins in his formula were jacking with his intestines so now he's on a special formula that is mostly corn based. It costs $25.99 for a one pound can and makes Lennon's breath smell like Fritos. It makes his gas smell like something far worse. Far, far worse. But it took our baby from a constant state of misery to smile town so it's worth the money.

3. Gas Drops - I don't know if these really do any good. His belly gurgles a ton and as I mentioned already, his farts can clear a room, so we give him gas drops to help the fella out.

4. Change to a larger flow nipple - This is one of those things that we never would have figured out on our own. The magic of the internet suggested we bump him from a level 1 nipple to a level 2 nipple. This one was HUGE for us. A typical 3 oz bottle feeding went from 90 minutes down to 15. Changing out the stupid nipples saved our sanity. And now Lennon eats like there's no tomorrow. He wants more, more, more all the time.

He still cries. We burp him, feed him in small increments, feed him in large increments, feed him sitting still, feed him bouncing on a giant ball, feed him with the lights out, feed him while white noise playing... And yet he cries. But a lot less, so I guess I'll take it.

Big News

It has been FOREVER since I wrote on here for one very specific reason. The one and only complete thought that I have been capable of mustering for the past month is: Holy hell, I'm pregnant. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to blog about it. I am becoming less and less a fan of blogging. I love other people's blogs, I'm just tired of my own. Plus, after almost two years of doing this I'm not famous yet, so really, what's the point of continuing?

I decided though that I might as well write about it. If nothing else, it gives me an outlet where people can voluntarily read about the ongoing state of my uterus. I have an issue with posting constant ute updates on Facebook. No one cares. No one. I'm a pregnant woman and I don't even care about other random preggos' fetus updates. If I'm not a prime audience for that, then who is? I like the idea of putting it all in one place where people can see it, or not. Their choice.

Moving on...

So far I think my pregnancy is pretty typical. I've had a couple doctor's appointments so far and it all looks normal. The fetus was a grey blob last time I saw it, roughly the shape of a kidney bean. It had a flickering little heartbeat. Weird. I don't like calling it a baby yet. Because it's not. It's a kidney bean with a heartbeat, not a baby. We've nicknamed it Huckleberry Hound or sometimes just Hound for short. Much like the way we refer to the dog. (I already feel bad for the ways we are going to mentally damage this child.) We tell Ringo, "There's a new hound on the way, better get used to it." But I don't think he fully grasps the baby concept yet. What did I really expect from a creature who eats his own poop for snacks?

So far this process is at once extremely exciting and extremely terrifying. The pregnancy was a little, shall we say... unexpected. Turns out when you're drunk and you tell your husband, "I'm 99.9% sure I'm not going to get pregnant on this particular day, so go ahead and hit it without a condom," it is very unlikely that he will argue with you. And P.S. you can be very wrong about those odds.

Maddex

Maddex's six month pictures! More at my photography blog.

Meeting Jackie

I finally got to meet Jackie last night. She is the tiniest thing I have ever seen.



That picture is a couple of weeks old. And obviously from a phone. But you get the idea. She is a wee one. Her head is about the size of a baseball. Her weight is up to 3lb, 11oz and her preemie clothes are still too big for her. It's pretty cute. Her legs reach about half way down her pant legs. She's noisy though for how little she is. She makes little squeaks and has big huge yawns.

So. Freaking. Adorable.

Happy and Heartbroken

My newest little niece Jaqueline was born yesterday. Most unfortunately, her twin sister Julia passed away. It's such a hard thing to process. We're overjoyed to have Jaqueline in the family and in the world with us, but we're heartbroken over the loss of Julia. It's one of those things in life that don't seem fair, no matter how you might try to justify it.

My heart goes out to her parents. There are no words to console someone when a child passes away. We're trying hard to focus on the joy of a new baby in the family. She deserves for us to celebrate her new life. She's a sweet, tiny little girl, born at 3 lb, 4 oz. It's going to be rough for her for a while, but I've met her family. Fighting it out is in their genes. :)

That's really all I can muster up to type at the moment...

G-Man

Look who smiles now!

Almost. But not quite.

I tried to cheat and get a head start on my 2009 to do list, but the universe Metro Community College wouldn't let me just yet. I found a couple one day and one month classes at Metro that I wanted to take but enrollment isn't open yet. I have to wait until January 14th.

I did another little photo session with my friend's nephew last weekend. I'm hoping to get those pictures up tonight or tomorrow. Or Friday. It's a four day weekend. There's lots of time to get things done.

Speaking of taking pictures of peoples' kids...

Sissy's baby should be here any day now. That is going to be awesome. I was offering to photograph the actual birth in all it's terrifying glory, but in the event that she has a c-section I don't want to be anywhere near her hospital room. I just watched a c-section birth on National Geographic a few days ago and it was pretty alarming. Let me tell you something, pregnant chicks are tough cookies. I can't even get an IV without crying and here this woman was laying awake on a table with someone's arms in her gut. The lady on NatGeo kept pulling the little partition down so she could see what the doctor was doing. I was screaming, "PUT IT BACK UP!" at her the whole time. Oh, and she gave birth to twins so I got to see the freakfest twice.

And when I say "freakfest" I obviously mean "beautiful miracle."

Baby Shower

I forgot to post the pictures from Cat's shower last week. It turned out very cute and very un-babyish. Her and I are not "OOOH and AHHH" girly girls. Traditional showers are torturish.

I made her a blanket cake in lieu of a diaper cake. Diaper cakes are a sin in this family. I wouldn't be caught dead carrying one. I also repurposed some flowers I had made.



I also made a couple streamers out of train pictures I printed off.



And then there were the mangled cake bites I made with my mom.