Wow, August is here already!! Didn't summer just start?? I feel like we have been pretty busy this summer even though I feel like I never get off the couch from breast feeding!
So here is what's been going on with us. My last update mentioned the trouble we have been having with Ben staying in bed. That very night of my last update, I decided to nip it in the bud and it only took a couple nights to do it. At Emma's 2 month doctor's appointment, I mentioned the issue to the doctor and she gave me two options: one was to sing to him and do all of his night rituals in another room and then put him in bed (this didn't sound right), and the second option was to make a commitment of not coming back in and sticking with it. The first night, I decided I would give him 20 minutes of crying for us to come back in each time. So for 20 minutes he cried and screamed and tried to open his door (he doesn't know how to turn doorknobs yet). After 20 minutes, I went back in there and laid him back down in bed. Then I proceeded to wait another 20 minutes but at 15 minutes I decided he had had enough and I went in to lay him back down and he went right to sleep with no fuss for the night. Night number two, I gave him the 20 minutes and at 19 minutes I headed upstairs to go lay him back down and all of the sudden it was silent. I looked in the monitor and he was back in bed. Down for the night. Night number three, it took him ten minutes of crying at the door before he laid himself back down. I believe by night number four, he stood at the door for maybe two minutes and fussed but didn't even pull at the door and then he jumped back in bed. We have had a few nights since then where he may have fussed and cried for a minute or two but we have stuck to our guns and not gone back in. He no longer gets up in the middle of the night for us to come in because he knows we are not coming. He will even get up sometimes after being put down, strip his bed of all of his pillows, and then lay back down. That's fine with me, if he stays in bed but doesn't want anything on it, I am all for it! So we have had some pretty decent nights of sleeping but now he tends to get up about an hour earlier than he used to. I can deal with that, as long as we are not up for hours with him during the night. We were at our wits end!!
The next thing we are dealing with with Ben is the screaming, whining, and demanding, which he mostly does with Daddy for "daddy attention!" I have had much better days with the two kids as Emma allows me to lay her in her swing for a couple hours while she naps and I hang out with Ben. He is loving his mommy alone time and I am loving not feeling attached to the couch as much!
Ben is warming up to Emma more and more but his favorite saying is still, "baby sister...baby sister cry!" The other day, our dog Bella wanted to play with her ball and while Emma was laying on the floor, Bella ran over her (she's a little Boston Terrier) and kind of ran over her leg. Emma cried and was very upset. Ben was not happy that Bella did this to baby sister. He followed Bella into the dining room and continued to "tell" her that she made baby sister cry! Tonight as I was holding Emma as she fell asleep in my arms, Ben wanted to snuggle by momma too so he crawled up on my other side and the two kids were side to side in front of my on my lap. Ben looked up and laid his head on Emma's back, it was so sweet. And later, while daddy was hanging out with Emma in her seat and Ben was hanging around, he leaned in and gave baby sister a kiss! I think that he is warming up to her being a part of our family, as long as she is not a threat. Once either Jared or I pick her up though, he runs up to us and wants to be held. As long as we are not holding her...he is ok. I just try to give him as much attention as I can.
Emma's reflux issues are still a work in progress. I went about 3 1/2 weeks of giving her Prevacid and it killed me each time I gave it to her. Emma would try her hardest to not swallow it and would go a few seconds without breathing to try to avoid it. Then she would do a hard swallow and sometimes it almost seemed like it went down the wrong tube. She would gasp and scream and try to catch her breath as if I had just choked or strangled her. I could not continue to do that to her night after night. I decided to stop it and see how she did. It has been about 4 days now and still no vomit, just little spit ups here and there which she did while she was on the Prevacid as well. I have been including more and more dairy into my diet but am not over doing it. I will have chocolate here and there, some butter, little bit of milk when cooking things, some cheese for pizza or grilled cheese, etc. She has not seemed to react much differently when I have eaten these things. This seems to have proved to me that an allergy was not really an issue with Emma. What has seemed to really make the difference though is me pumping before feeding her so she does not have to deal with the pressure of a hard let down. I believe this was the big issue. And having reflux with a hard let down is very uncomfortable. I am trying to feeding her at about 2 to 3 hour intervals, pumping before hand, burping more often, and holding her at more of an angle and it seems to be working well for us. I am going to try to make it a full two weeks without the Prevacid and see if she starts vomiting again. If she does, I might request a less harsh reflux medicine that Ben was also on, can't think of the name offhand but I will take it one day at a time.
Well, Emma will be 3 months old in about a week. She is smiling alot and just starting to giggle a little. She sleeps well but not on schedule during the day. She tends to crash around 8pm until I give her one last feed around 11:30 and then we will sleep on the couch together until about 5:30am. I was going to wait to put her in her crib until after she was 3 months but I got the urge tonight to attempt it. I laid her down in her crib around 9 while I was putting Ben to bed and when I came out from his room, she was sound asleep. It is now almost 2 hours later and she is still asleep in her crib! I am so excited! It may not last long but I am feeling a bit liberated! It will feel so different sleeping in my bed again!! I am enjoying my snuggle time with Emma but I am thinking about working some time soon and would like for her to take a bottle and sleep in her crib. It would be so much easier for Jared if he could just lay her down instead of holding her to have her fall asleep! I know others may not agree with her sleeping on me for so long but it's great bonding for us and I want it to help with her reflux. Let's hope this is the beginning of a little freedom! Wish us luck!!
We are enjoying our summer so far with our beautiful children. I am loving dressing my little girl up in lots of different outfits (wasn't as fun for a boy!) and I am loving doing new things with Ben and seeing his personality grow every day. We took him to Lake Michigan, Monkey Joe's, the Armenian picnic, and another visit to Grandma and Grandpa Kiser's (he sat at the dinner table and enjoyed trying every piece of food on the table. Gma Kiser said she had never seen him so content). Ben is really enjoying trying new foods and flavors and loves to dip almost anything in ranch, ketchup, or bbq sauce. The other day, he took a fork and finished off all the rest of my ranch dressing from my salad from one of those to go cups. And he also found a little container of restaurant butter in the little containers in our fridge, grabbed a plastic knife, and continued to sit and eat the entire pack of butter with a knife, leaving only a few licks for the dog! He is quite the character.
Emma is growing so quick! If you missed it on the last post, she is off the charts in growth and is even an inch taller than Ben was at this age! Most of the clothes she is wearing now is 6 months or 9 months even, depending on the brand. She will fit into some 3-6 month clothes if they are larger but otherwise, her torso is just too long for most of them. Thank goodness for hand me downs or I would be spending LOTS of money trying to keep up!
Enough for now. Enjoy your summer, thanks for checking in. Next time I write, I will have turned 36 years young!! Happy August!
Smiling at big brother!
So here is what's been going on with us. My last update mentioned the trouble we have been having with Ben staying in bed. That very night of my last update, I decided to nip it in the bud and it only took a couple nights to do it. At Emma's 2 month doctor's appointment, I mentioned the issue to the doctor and she gave me two options: one was to sing to him and do all of his night rituals in another room and then put him in bed (this didn't sound right), and the second option was to make a commitment of not coming back in and sticking with it. The first night, I decided I would give him 20 minutes of crying for us to come back in each time. So for 20 minutes he cried and screamed and tried to open his door (he doesn't know how to turn doorknobs yet). After 20 minutes, I went back in there and laid him back down in bed. Then I proceeded to wait another 20 minutes but at 15 minutes I decided he had had enough and I went in to lay him back down and he went right to sleep with no fuss for the night. Night number two, I gave him the 20 minutes and at 19 minutes I headed upstairs to go lay him back down and all of the sudden it was silent. I looked in the monitor and he was back in bed. Down for the night. Night number three, it took him ten minutes of crying at the door before he laid himself back down. I believe by night number four, he stood at the door for maybe two minutes and fussed but didn't even pull at the door and then he jumped back in bed. We have had a few nights since then where he may have fussed and cried for a minute or two but we have stuck to our guns and not gone back in. He no longer gets up in the middle of the night for us to come in because he knows we are not coming. He will even get up sometimes after being put down, strip his bed of all of his pillows, and then lay back down. That's fine with me, if he stays in bed but doesn't want anything on it, I am all for it! So we have had some pretty decent nights of sleeping but now he tends to get up about an hour earlier than he used to. I can deal with that, as long as we are not up for hours with him during the night. We were at our wits end!!
The next thing we are dealing with with Ben is the screaming, whining, and demanding, which he mostly does with Daddy for "daddy attention!" I have had much better days with the two kids as Emma allows me to lay her in her swing for a couple hours while she naps and I hang out with Ben. He is loving his mommy alone time and I am loving not feeling attached to the couch as much!
Ben is warming up to Emma more and more but his favorite saying is still, "baby sister...baby sister cry!" The other day, our dog Bella wanted to play with her ball and while Emma was laying on the floor, Bella ran over her (she's a little Boston Terrier) and kind of ran over her leg. Emma cried and was very upset. Ben was not happy that Bella did this to baby sister. He followed Bella into the dining room and continued to "tell" her that she made baby sister cry! Tonight as I was holding Emma as she fell asleep in my arms, Ben wanted to snuggle by momma too so he crawled up on my other side and the two kids were side to side in front of my on my lap. Ben looked up and laid his head on Emma's back, it was so sweet. And later, while daddy was hanging out with Emma in her seat and Ben was hanging around, he leaned in and gave baby sister a kiss! I think that he is warming up to her being a part of our family, as long as she is not a threat. Once either Jared or I pick her up though, he runs up to us and wants to be held. As long as we are not holding her...he is ok. I just try to give him as much attention as I can.
Emma's reflux issues are still a work in progress. I went about 3 1/2 weeks of giving her Prevacid and it killed me each time I gave it to her. Emma would try her hardest to not swallow it and would go a few seconds without breathing to try to avoid it. Then she would do a hard swallow and sometimes it almost seemed like it went down the wrong tube. She would gasp and scream and try to catch her breath as if I had just choked or strangled her. I could not continue to do that to her night after night. I decided to stop it and see how she did. It has been about 4 days now and still no vomit, just little spit ups here and there which she did while she was on the Prevacid as well. I have been including more and more dairy into my diet but am not over doing it. I will have chocolate here and there, some butter, little bit of milk when cooking things, some cheese for pizza or grilled cheese, etc. She has not seemed to react much differently when I have eaten these things. This seems to have proved to me that an allergy was not really an issue with Emma. What has seemed to really make the difference though is me pumping before feeding her so she does not have to deal with the pressure of a hard let down. I believe this was the big issue. And having reflux with a hard let down is very uncomfortable. I am trying to feeding her at about 2 to 3 hour intervals, pumping before hand, burping more often, and holding her at more of an angle and it seems to be working well for us. I am going to try to make it a full two weeks without the Prevacid and see if she starts vomiting again. If she does, I might request a less harsh reflux medicine that Ben was also on, can't think of the name offhand but I will take it one day at a time.
Well, Emma will be 3 months old in about a week. She is smiling alot and just starting to giggle a little. She sleeps well but not on schedule during the day. She tends to crash around 8pm until I give her one last feed around 11:30 and then we will sleep on the couch together until about 5:30am. I was going to wait to put her in her crib until after she was 3 months but I got the urge tonight to attempt it. I laid her down in her crib around 9 while I was putting Ben to bed and when I came out from his room, she was sound asleep. It is now almost 2 hours later and she is still asleep in her crib! I am so excited! It may not last long but I am feeling a bit liberated! It will feel so different sleeping in my bed again!! I am enjoying my snuggle time with Emma but I am thinking about working some time soon and would like for her to take a bottle and sleep in her crib. It would be so much easier for Jared if he could just lay her down instead of holding her to have her fall asleep! I know others may not agree with her sleeping on me for so long but it's great bonding for us and I want it to help with her reflux. Let's hope this is the beginning of a little freedom! Wish us luck!!
We are enjoying our summer so far with our beautiful children. I am loving dressing my little girl up in lots of different outfits (wasn't as fun for a boy!) and I am loving doing new things with Ben and seeing his personality grow every day. We took him to Lake Michigan, Monkey Joe's, the Armenian picnic, and another visit to Grandma and Grandpa Kiser's (he sat at the dinner table and enjoyed trying every piece of food on the table. Gma Kiser said she had never seen him so content). Ben is really enjoying trying new foods and flavors and loves to dip almost anything in ranch, ketchup, or bbq sauce. The other day, he took a fork and finished off all the rest of my ranch dressing from my salad from one of those to go cups. And he also found a little container of restaurant butter in the little containers in our fridge, grabbed a plastic knife, and continued to sit and eat the entire pack of butter with a knife, leaving only a few licks for the dog! He is quite the character.
Emma is growing so quick! If you missed it on the last post, she is off the charts in growth and is even an inch taller than Ben was at this age! Most of the clothes she is wearing now is 6 months or 9 months even, depending on the brand. She will fit into some 3-6 month clothes if they are larger but otherwise, her torso is just too long for most of them. Thank goodness for hand me downs or I would be spending LOTS of money trying to keep up!
Enough for now. Enjoy your summer, thanks for checking in. Next time I write, I will have turned 36 years young!! Happy August!
Smiling at big brother!
Brother and Sister
Sitting with Grandma Kiser
Taking over daddy's work chair!
Pretty in Pink
Daddy and Ben at Monkey Joe's
Lovin' my leg warmers!
Laying around with cousin Alaina
Love Me
