My future's so bright I gotta wear shades

Free at last!!

Kiernan has officially outgrown the Miracle Blanket, and since they don't make it for babies over for 4 months, we had to revert to our old swaddling techniques, which, unsurprisingly haven't been working very well since the fact that they didn't work is what brought us to the Miracle Blanket in the first places.

So, we decided to see if we could wean Kiernan from the swaddle. Skeptically we have been leaving him with one arm free this weekend, and it's being going really well! In fact, he got the other arm out and one point and he slept that way for a good hour. AND we moved him from the car seat to the crib completely unswaddled and he slept for 30 minutes!!

Our hope is that this will allow him to re-sootherize himself when he wakes up in the middle of the night and eliminate a few wake ups that are just about us giving him back his soother so he can fall back to sleep. Keep your fingers crossed that it keeps working!!

Although in theory feeding Kiernan in the exersaucer seemed like a good idea...

... the pull of a good toy often was stronger than the desire for rice cereal :)

I know I'm not pregnant anymore but...

... how fabulous and idea is this??!!

I SO could have used this. Geez, I think I still could use this! :)

What he's been up to

Kiernan is changing so quickly and doing so many new things lately. Here is another list of things he's been doing:

- bearing a tiny bit of weight on his arms (much to mommy's delight)
- passing things back and forth from one hand to another
- reaching for things out of sight
- catching himself from falling a lot when sitting
- he can put his soother back in his own mouth. He generally doesn't care if he's sucking on the side or the handle instead of having it in properly, but when he does care, he can turn it around and put it in properly. It is amusing to watch him examine it to decide what he needs to do to turn it around the right way.
- He likes to lie on the floor and bang his feet into the ground. Daddy worries he will break his feet and never walk if he keeps it up.
- his new talking sounds are ever changing. I'm sure I've heard some mamama and dadada in there. :)
-he's stopped his fabulous sleeping :P
- he rarely ever rolls even though we know he can
- That teething blister is still there. Last night he started drooling like crazy and crying like nuts so we think he could be teething again, but who the heck knows.
- He's going to be six months old in 4 days!!!!!!

Is it bad that when we found him like this we got the camera instead of helping him? :)

If I needed proof

I thought about entitling this post "Crap ass!" but then thought perhaps that would be a bit too negative of me. ;)

I started my new dietary restrictions around Valentine's day and have seen an enormous improvement in Kiernan. By me cutting out all dairy and soy from my diet, down the ingredients of everything, we have a much happier baby, who sleeps better, and who is getting chunkier, seemingly by the minute.

Sometimes I wonder if I really need to be as careful as I'm being. Am I right to be nervous to ever eat out anywhere in case there is something in what they give me that I can't have? I went to Lone Star last week for fajitas and even called ahead to make sure there would be no soy or dairy in anything that I would be having and they assured there wouldn't be. When we got there my waitress informed me that there was in fact a milk byproduct in the tortillas. CRAPASS! (oops, couldn't help myself) So they gave me some corn tortillas instead and I had those. I was tempted to just have the regular ones anyways, what harm could it do? But instead I ate the crappy corn ones. (I did complain though, since I had called, and the fajitas were free).

Anyhow, I wondered if I was making the right call being so stringent. Then I got a cookbook I ordered in the mail called the Milk and Soy Protein Intolerance Cookbook (no bells and whistles on this book ;) and it listed everything I shouldn't eat and I found out I can't even have the non-dairy creamer I was using in my coffee. CRAPASS! So I bought vanilla rice milk and tried that. (revolting btw) Then I tried chocolate flavoured almond milk and that's ok. I have vanilla flavoured almond milk that I'm going to be trying next so hopefully that will also be ok. I'm getting used to the restrictions.

I've been doing really well and finding all kinds of recipes online and cooking a lot more since there are almost no prepared foods I can have. It gets tiring though. Fortunately a lot of web sites have listings of all their ingredients, if you're going to go to a chain. Friday night we ordered pizza pizza because their dough and sauce is fine, and so is their pepperoni and italian sausage. No steak strips though. And cheeseless pizza just isn't as good as pizza WITH cheese ;)

Anyhow, the other day I was going to make this recipe for pork tenderloin where you put a can of cranberries and a packet of onion soup mix into the crockpot with the tenderloin and cook on low for 8 hours. Easy peasy. Then I read the onion soup mix - soy protein. boo. So then we looked online and figured out that I could use beef bouillon and onion and onion powder instead. So I did that yesterday morning. About 4 hours into cooking I realized that I had never checked the ingredients on the beef bouillon. Vegetable protein, including soy, was listed way down the list. GRRRR! As if!! It never occurred to me to check it!! BOOO!

I decided to eat it anyways. A bit of soy in the beef bouillon in this recipe couldn't be that big a deal - I was eating TONS of that stuff before and that tiny amount couldn't hurt once in awhile. Wrong! Although the pork was delish (and hopefully I can find a substitute so I can make it again) Kiernan woke up this morning at 5 farting and screaming and cranky like we haven't seen him in... well since Valentine's day. I can't believe that trace amount affected him so much. It could be a coincidence but we've gotten pretty good at detecting reactions and I'm pretty sure this was one. So... I wasn't wrong. I really do need to be that careful. And it makes me all the more nervous. I can't eat anywhere that can't give me a full list of ingredients it seems like. Or I need to talk to the actual cook. Eating at a mall is out. I had a soup the other day, it could have had bouillon in it with soy. K didn't react like there was, but what I thought was probably a safe bet, could have caused problems.

So ya, I have proof that what I'm doing it worthwhile at least. And I'll get used to it. Oh, one last crapass.... we bought an electric breast pump yesterday. It works well. I pumped last night after dinner... guess where that milk has to go now? :P

I guess I should have just called this post crapass after all :)

He looks like WHOM? :) (UPDATED)

My choices of daddy pictures were unfortunately limited...

The miracle blanket and Kiernan - a photographic story

Step One:
Lay the blanket on a flat surface with the foot pouch at the bottom and lay baby between armflaps with tops of shoulders slightly above top of blanket.


Step Two:
Fold the armflaps over the outside of your baby's arms and tuck them snuggly under her back on each side. IMPORTANT: You should lift the baby's bottom to be sure the armflaps are flat and snug under baby's back.


Step Three:
Pull the footpocket up over the feet. NOTE: Some babys' feet may not reach the foot pocket yet. This is okay: It will be there for them as they grow.





Step Four:
Fold the right side of the blanket over your baby's belly and tuck it under the left arm pit (her right). This flap should wrap all the way under the baby's back.


Step Five:
Wrap the left side of the blanket over the top of her belly and all the way around her until you run out of blanket. This is where it is important to pull the blanket snug. THE BLANKET MUST BE PULLED SNUG.




Now just in case the Miracle Blanket people find this and get all up in arms, we think its funny that they show this happily swaddled baby in their instructions and that K is so obviously displeased by the results of this process every night. And yet, without it, we would never get even a semi-decent night's sleep so we highly recommend it for anyone with a highly flaily baby who wakes him/herself up whenever his/her hands are free to roam around and whack him/herself in the face ;)

Daddy thinks he's funny

Virtual baby book

I was thinking the other day that I don't record any of Kiernan's firsts, or any of the things that he does anywhere but in this blog. Is that going to cause problems one day? Is this blog really going to ALWAYS exist? I wonder if there are services that will print and bind old blog postings for you. I plan to investigate.

So here is a quick list of things Kiernan has been doing that we don't want to forget happened around this time:

- last night he slept for just over 6 hours straight! AND! They were hours I was asleep! AND! They were hours one would usually be asleep at. He woke up to eat at 11 (back down around 11:30 or so I think) and woke up just before 6 this morning. Eric and I both looked at each other unsure as to whether we believed that had actually happened? Had I woken up and fed him and forgotten? Did we ignore his cries? How could it be? But really, I think he just slept that long. SCORE!
- He's really rolling now! I know I announced he was rolling eons ago, but he seems to be doing it now without any coaxing from me. It's still a crapshoot, you never know when he's actually going to do it, but he does it! And both ways - back to front and front to back. I still don't think he really does it on purpose though, so that'll be the next step.
- He's talking more and making new sounds. wawawawa is the most common, but he also looks at me really thoughtfully and seems to try to make thhh sounds a lot. He also now smacks his lips now.
- He's turned serious. The boy who would smile at any lady in sight is stingy with the smiles lately. He looks at everyone with a strong "I'm not sure about you" look.
- Foot flicking boy. He rubs his feet together like a grasshopper all the time. This distracts him from falling asleep and he also manages to kick his robeez off all the time (much to his grandmother's amazement!)
- We tried some sweet potato this morning. I guess the cereal is bland enough that he accepts it without being shocked about it, other than that it isn't applesauce. He clamped his mouth shut after a few bites of sweet potato. We'll give him a few days to warm up to the new taste sensation though :)
- He cuddles! And sits quietly with us. It's amazing. I think in combination with his tummy not holder, he's older and calmer and is happy just to hang out sometimes. It's really nice.

Why isn't this applesauce?

It amuses me to no end that every mouthful of cereal seems to be a shock to Kiernan. Like why isn't THIS mouthful applesauce? Ok, maybe this one will be applesauce.. ahh... NO! BAH!

Ok, maybe this one will be applesauce. GRRR! Ok, how about this one? No? GEEZ!

I get through more than 3/4 of the the dish before he refuses to open his mouth anymore. hehe

Photo treasure hunt

I've decided it would be fun to set up a photo treasure hunt for Kiernan and I - with a deadline of late August when I go back to work and he starts daycare (ACK!)

Here's what I have so far. Any ideas to add to the list?

• Parliament buildings
• ByWard Market
• In front of graffiti
• at the park
• at the grocery store
• at the library
• at a petting zoo/with animals
• your baby looking at himself in the mirror
• black and white photo
• first tooth
• on the grass
• in the water
• on a bus
• in the country
• in the tunnel thing from mackenzie king estate
• in a canoe
• on a train
• amongst the tulips
• in a photobooth
• in one of those rides for kids at the mall
• in a crowd
  

Then, at the end I can post all the photos on my blog. And they'll be FABULOUS for scrapbooking! :)

Oooh - this is fun!

We need to go to the states and buy Kiernan a walker :)

Knock on wood

Last night, after a rough first few hours of sleep from 7-10, Kiernan ate and then went back to sleep until 3:30 (5 hours ladies and gentleman!) and then went back to sleep until SEVEN!

I only had to get up once last night AND I got sleep in until 7!!

Magical! :)

I am paranoid the rice cereal is hurting his tummy. I say paranoid because I realize I am probably hyper sensitive to his every moan and groan for fear we're having another intolerance. I'll wait a few more days to see if I should stop for a day or two and examine his continued moans and groans.

Delish!

So this morning we started rice cereal and it went really well! I expected the disgusted look - the one we get when we try to give him formula, but he just ate away. One teaspoon of cereal mixed with one tablespoon of liquid made a lot more food than he's used to though so he didn't quite finish it all. Still, I was really impressed!!

So now I'm confused. I have this guide from the city on how to feed a baby solids but I'm not sure how I up the amount. Do I give him cereal in the evenings next? Vegetables at lunch next and then cereal at dinner after that? I need precise instruction here!! gah!

Otherwise, things are still going pretty well. Kiernan is getting up a bit more in the night than he was for awhile, but averaging about 3 times a night which isn't bad. I still need to figure out how not to spend hours asleep in the glider every night, but that's a whole other issue. I've also started a bad habit of bringing K into bed with us in the mornings. Hopefully it won't bite us in the ass later on, but to be honest, I enjoy having him there with us, and it seems to sometimes give us a bit of extra sleep. He manages to sleep without being swaddled as tightly when he's with us too so if he's unswaddled himself I just bring him to bed instead of waking him up completely and having him scream his head off as we re-swaddle him.

We're getting a lot of comments about how much better he looks now! This is great! He's looking better - he's really filling out, and I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that he must have looked gaunt before ;)

Today we watch movies

Yummy yummy apple sauce

TheExersaucer spazz

Sleeping beauty - late entry

Look who slept yesterday in a place he could be photographed! Is this a contender or are the 4th and 5th photos from my first post still winning?

Our little vampire

So moms that know* agree that Kiernan does in fact seem to be teething. Funny thing is that it isn't one of the usual first teeth. It seems to be one or two over to the right on the top. Eric and I have joked that we hope that isn't supposed to be his front tooth - but we both have a lot of crooked teeth in our families so we probably should knock on wood or something. :) So it's that or he's a vampire and his fangs are coming in first. hehe

Kiernan has continued to be a good napper. This morning he napped for 50 minutes and anything over 45 minutes is a celebration!! He plays better on his own, he sleeps better, I'm a happy mama! It just figures that just as we figure out all these tummy issues that he starts teething and that he's in pain from that. We got these fun chewing on teething thingies that you put food into for them to chew on and it comes out of these mesh bags slowly, but since Kiernan isn't really on solids yet I don't have anything to put into it. I tried putting a small wet baby face cloth inside but it was too big. We do plan to start rice cereal tomorrow or Thursday though so maybe we aren't too far off having something to put into the bags. For future teeth :)

AND, we put together the high chair last night. We want to start having dinner all together soon... even if it's just his dinner, to get him used to meal time being at the table. I knew this time would come - the time when Eric and i didn't get to eat our dinner in front of the tv every night and we would have to get our crap off the table. haha.

*moms with children who have already been through teething :)

Sleeping beauty

The March theme for the photo contest is Sleeping Beauty. In hour of Kiernan's current nap that is currently going on two hours (HOLY CRAP!) I have been trying to find some cute sleeping photos of our little guy. They are all from his first month of life because he doesn't generally sleep in places we would risk taking photos of him anymore :)

Tell me what you like best!

Is this what it feels like to not feel like death in the morning?

Kiernan is doing so much better! We are consistently getting so much more sleep at night (all 3 of us) that I feel like we may actually be catching up a bit. Kiernan is still up several times a night, but it's been going pretty well. This morning he slept until 7!! YAY!

Other good news is that he seems to be eating more now that his tummy doesn't hurt anymore and we swear his cheeks have already started filling out from it. He still has a lot more calm moments than he used to have.

Some not so great news is that he is fighting REALLY hard against the formula. So far in the 3 times we've given it to him he hasn't been willing to take more than half an ounce. We'll keep trying since the possibility exists that he will have to stay away from milk and soy until he is 2 or 3 and me being the sole provider of his milk products until then does not sound like an option I would like to go with. The boy knows what he wants and what he doesn't want - that's for sure!

I also wonder if he might have started teething. He cries a bit more often now, instead of being his usual Sir Screams a Lot, and there is a big white lump where I would imagine the tooth to the right of his righthand big tooth would be. So we'll see.

I've started trying to learn how to use my fancy camera as more than a point and shoot. Composition, natural lighting and all that crap :) I do afterall have a lot of ideas for things to scrapbook. Here is a photo of Kiernan as I see him so often but wasn't the most obvious picture to try to get.

What do you mean I have to rock myself to sleep tonight?

Who ARE you child?

I think the medication and the change in diet is working!!

Yesterday I went to visit my parents around 3:30 (as we usually do) and instead of being pleasant for about 10 minutes and then being grumpy because it's late afternoon and Kiernan is always grumpy in late afternoon, he spent over an hour and a half being perfectly pleasant. So much so that Eric and I decided to go grocery shopping with him and not rush him home to bed! Then we go home and he happily had his medicine even though it was almost 7 and we were getting him to bed late. He was in such a good mood in fact that he wasn't sleepy. hrmm... We couldn't get him to sleep until 9. We gave up around 7:45 and just let him play until after we'd had dinner. hehe

He woke up quite a bit though once he'd gone down and seemed really hungry earlier than usual. I'm wondering if maybe now that his tummy doesn't hurt so much he wants to eat more?

The trend seems to be continuing in a positive way though - he just woke up from a 90 minute nap this morning. Even if we only get one good nap established for now, that in combination with good nights is making me one very happy mama! :)

Yummy!

rice and plain chicken

I think that might be all I'm allowed to eat pretty soon ;)

So great news! And some not so great, but not really all that bad news.

We had our appointment with the allergist this morning and Kiernan didn't test positive for any of the arm prick tests that he was given. Upon discussion with the allergist he said it sounds like it's all about the soy and the milk protein allergies. Apparently approximately 50% of babies with an intolerance to milk protein have an intolerance to soy protein! I think they should advertise this better - I don't think my family doctor knew that!

Anyhow, I told him I had cut dairy out, but not to the point of reading labels. He said it was time to read labels if Kiernan was still having issues. So, as of today, I can't have anything with milk products in it or soy products. Do you have any idea how many things that's going to eliminate?

That's the not so great news. The fabulous news is that the medication for Kiernan's reflux seems to be working, and that the root of the problem seems to be these protein intolerances which for the most part are outgrown by 1 or 2 years of age. We don't have to introduce solids to him any differently than any other child. The allergist doesn't even want to see Kiernan again he feels so strongly that the entire explanation is the milk and soy thing. That's a very good thing. I'm glad it's nothing more or anything worse. This kind of sucks, but it could have been a lot more horrible and I know that.

In reading some of the information the doctor gave me about these intolerances it even described the reaction of violently throwing up 1-2 hours after having the milk or soy, or the fact that an infant will flat out refuse something that he/she is allergic to, like they know. Very interesting. And nice to have some real answers!

So everyone keep your fingers crossed that the good sleeping continues and that this medication continues to work. I'm really hoping to catch up on some sleep :)

Update post

The one thing I hate about blogging is trying to come up with a catchy title for my posts. I suck at it. Sorry ;)

So... medication update. Sunday night was horrible. Awful. Unbearable.
Kiernan was in agony... so much painful gas. He was crying, and crying hard, for a good portion of the night. Usually, as long as someone is holding him he can be calmed a fair amount, but not Sunday night. In the end, we had to let him get up and play on the floor. The squirming, bending, moving, etc seemed to help get the gas out. Regardless, the only sleep he got that night were a couple of hours in our bed and a couple of stints in the rocking chair in our arms, but even then we had to use the hair dryer to get him to sleep. Anyhow, it was awful and Eric and I felt like zombies the next day.

So Monday I called the pediatrician's office and was like "ok, is this right??" and her answer was "absolutely not!" yay. We don't have to wait this out for some 5-6 weeks of time until it works or some such horribleness. So after some discussion we decided to try Kiernan on two doses a day of this new medication, theory being that he seemed better during the day, but awful at night, and since he was getting the medicine in the morning maybe it was just wearing off by night? So we've been doing that for two evenings, and it's working! Last night he woke up only twice!! at 11 and 2:30. Unfortunately the mama was in bad shape and Eric had to wake me up several times while feeding to convince me I was not feeding Kiernan since I was holding him with his soother in his mouth and that I should come back to bed. Oh, and that if I did need to feed him more I should feed him with breastmilk (I apparently wasn't clear on what I should be feeding him). Ahhh total exhaustion rocks ;)

So that's the medicine situation. Yesterday Eric and I took K to CHEO to have the tests the pediatrician wanted done. First we went to XRAY. We were in and out in 10 minutes and overall it was a pretty good experience. He was put in a contraption just like the one my sister-in-law had warned me to expect. He was put on a bicycle seat looking thing and then we held his arms in the air while the technician brought this clear plastic cylinder around him and velcroed it shut. Kiernan didn't particularly enjoy it, but he's used to being swaddled and doesn't enjoy that on a multiple time a day basis so his whining/crying didn't upset us too much. Eric and I got to stay with him, wearing our xray proof aprons, so it was overall not too bad.
Then we spent almost 2 hours waiting to have blood tests done. BLAH! There was a backlog because they had been closed the previous day, and they take people by priority, not order so Kiernan got bumped a bunch of times. But in the end, it was well worth it I think. The nurse who drew his blood was fabulous and the experience was SO much less traumatic (for me) than I expected. He cried as she put in the needle, but just for a second, and then she talked to him and distracted him with a toy on the wall while she got enough blood. I was impressed with how easily it went!
This morning Kiernan, my mom and I are off to see the pediatric allergist and then we'll be stopping in to see his pediatrician again. I feel like we're hopefully getting somewhere - yay! My mother will be able to help give a lot of my background with food allergies too, could be very helpful. That and I'm glad not to have to go to all these appointments alone. As optimistic as I am about it all, it's been really tough to realize that Kiernan has a lot more going on than just being a fussy baby and the support helps me get through it all.

Oh! And Kiernan likes the applesauce now. Yay. He's too cute eating :)

Anyhoo... go vote for cutest baby in red. Today is the last day. :)

Baby contest

So... I went with majority for the baby contest and the waving picture won!

Please go here and vote everyday ;) He's been there since last Thursday and I forgot! Aie!

http://www.babiesonline.com/babycontest/votepage.asp?page=8007

He's on page 7 and he's baby W again, even though I swear I thought I had changed it to say Kiernan this time. Oh well :)

Vote!

They change so fast!

Kiernan does so many new things so quickly - it blows my mind. He is now sitting!! He can sit for almost 5 minutes straight and catches himself as he starts to tip. Sometimes when he's more tired he doesn't last as long- but still - he's doing so well! And he doesn't get particularly upset when he falls which is good - hopefully that will continue when he learns to crawl and walk.
He's also reaching for things as of this weekend. He would grab things close to him before, but now he'll try to lean over to get something that he wants.
And he's also started sucking his thumb sometimes. Instead of trying to cram his entire fist down his throat, gagging himself with fingers pointed right to the back of his throat, he gets just his thumb in there. He gnaws on it about half the time instead of sucking, but it's still very cute :)

As for medication updates... he's starting to be a bit better about taking the applesauce, although not significantly so. He's fartier and not sleeping well at night, but he's spitting up less again and maybe seems less tired? I don't know. OVerall, it seems worse than he was before. But we're going to wait it out until Monday or Tuesday to assess and if it still seems worse we might call the pediatrician for advice.

Friday I was at the mall with Kiernan and a bit bored, so i took him into the photo booth for a mini photo shoot. He was... confused. ;)

What the hell!?

Who knew a teaspoon has so much food in it?! :) We think we got at least 2/3 of the medicine down. Hopefully Kiernan will start to enjoy applesauce more soon :)

Appointments appointments appointments

So... for all you followers on the life o' Kiernan - her is an update after our appointment with the pediatrician this afternoon.

She thinks that he does have reflux. SHe also thinks that he has a lot of allergies. She thinks that the combination of these two things is what is causing the problems.

What to do about it? She started out by prescribing a new kind of medication for him. It's adult medication though, and it comes in capsules. So we're going to have to break open these capsules and mix the powder into apple sauce. So guess who gets to start solids tomorrow morning?? It's not how I thought we would choose what to give him as his first solid, or when, but c'est la vie.

She is also concerned about his eczema and his allergies. So we are going to go for an appointment with a pediatric allergist. She is going to make it a rush thing, so it hopefully won't be long until we have our appointment. Then we'll know what he's allergic to. It will be good information for when we start solids and I think it may end up affecting what I'm allowed to eat. That being said, I have a feeling that I might be able to start eating foods I was cutting myself off from like broccoli and cauliflower and the other possible gassy foods.

She didn't seem remotely surprised or concerned when we told her about K's throwing up from the soy formula. She just said it's not that uncommon for babies who can't tolerate milk to not be able to tolerate soy either. So she gave us a sample of a formula that has neither. She also said it's ridiculously expensive and tastes horrible. So... we'll see if Kiernan will deign to drink it

She also said that the fussiness he's been having while eating is typical of a baby with reflux. I just said he was fussy and she described how so that made me feel a) sad that he's probably fussing because he has heartburn b) happy because it will probably improve as we figure out the problem.

On top of the appointment with the allergist, she wants him to go to CHEO to have a chest xray to rule out anything else going on in there, and for some blood work. That should be a joy ;)

So I think that's it. Stay tuned for photos of Kiernan having his first solids tomorrow, and keep your fingers crossed that the new medication helps.

Oh what a night!

Last night Kiernan went down at 7 and fussed a bit but we didn't hear ANYTHING from him again until midnight! No soother replacements - nothing! Then he woke up again at 3 to eat, fine. I fed him, he went back down NO PROBLEM. Then he was up around 6:15 and was up. Also ok. He ate, played, Eric hung out with him, and put him back down just before 8. He woke up from his nap at 9:30 almost. WIthout us having to put him back down 3 times, without a soother replacement. He just slept! And now screaming painful gas last night!
Wow! I loves it!!
So. The question is... is it because we propped up the bed even further after a particularly awful night the night before last? Is it because he was so tired from not sleeping the night before last? Is it because I ate things that agreed with his system better? Is it because we put a blanket under him to make his bed softer because his grandmother tried that during naps yesterday and he slept well so we decided to try it at home? Or is it the most likely? We have the appointment with the pediatrician today so of course all symptoms will disappear until after the appointment so that she will have no idea how to help him. ;)

My engagement ring now fits! Woohoo! Woohoo! Bets will now be taken on how long it will take until I end up scratching Kiernan with it and have to take it off because of that ;) Still... feels fabulous to have it back on! My real wedding ring doesn't fit yet... but one step at a time :)

Kiernan's impression of a schmarmy game show host

Wassuuuuuup?!

Me bee sitting

Vicky recently got Kiernan a fabulous new friend - his name is Strawbee and he's perfect for practicing sitting on :)

Sir drools a lot

Kiernan drools. A lot. Not to mention he spits up a fair amount. He is also rashy. Being wet makes him even rashier (is that a word?) so we're putting bibs on him a fair amount now to catch the incredible amount of wetness that dribbles out of our young man.

Unfortunately bibs can get in the way when he's on the floor ;)



As previously mentioned... the bib is particularly important in the jolly jumper :)

We're done!

So yesterday morning we made formula again. We bought the stuff that Eric had given Kiernan when I had the stomach flu since he didn't throw up when he had that. Eric tried to give him the bottle - he wouldn't even suck once. A bit fell into his mouth so he spit it out. 2.5 hours later, he started throwing up. It's incredible... how many drops must have actually gotten into his stomach? Barely any! So... we're not giving him formula again. We may discuss it with the pediatrician and see if she has a suggestion on something, but I'm not giving him soy again. He obviously can't have regular formula since his system flat out rejected me having even a bit of dairy last weekend, so that leaves only the super expensive goat's milk type formulas and I just think - never mind! :P
I will just pump when I can and store up enough so that I can go out for one or two feedings a week. My poor sensitive tummied boy.

Speaking of which, we now have to put a bib on Kiernan in the jolly jumper because he jumps so violently and makes himself spit up. He loves it so much that we figure it's worth a bit of spit up. hehe

Hi!.

I swear Kiernan says hi, and has been for months :) It's his first word - I've decided!

The other thing he does, which isn't quite as endearing, is that he is constantly gagging himself when he is sucking on his hands and fingers. When is he going to put those two together?? Or is it simply that he doesn't care. Ya, I know it does that. Who cares?

Things have been relatively well since K got his shots on Thursday. Yesterday morning he took a nap for over two hours! And then another one for 45 minutes! So the naps were definitely longer. But he's also been crankier, and last night he was up a lot.

The night wakings seem to all blend together. I can tell you if he was up a lot, or not so much, but rarely how many times or at what time. :P

We still don't have an appointment with the pediatrician which is really upsetting me. I really want to see this woman as soon as possible because all of Kiernan's tummy issues stress me out. That being said, we bought the kind of formula that Eric gave K when I had the stomach flu months ago, and that he didn't throw up. So I think we're going to try that today. It's formula from concentrate as opposed to the powder stuff so hopefully he'll tolerate it. It sucks when you could be about to make your baby really sick for the rest of the day :(

4-month checkup

Kiernan had his four month checkup this morning and got his shots. Ick. So awful.
On the good side, Kiernan is healthy (aside from his tummy troubles) and is 25-50th percentile for weight (just over 14lbs) and 50-75th percentile for height (just over 25 inches long).
Kiernan is now sleeping in the swing, having turned very zombie like almost immediately after having his shots. Hopefully the next 48 hours won't be too rough!

Baby sign

Last night Eric and I went to a workshop on baby sign - it was really great!

We learned a bunch of basic signs like eat, drink, more, stop, etc and we also learned a bunch of songs that have signs to go along with them. We'll be using American Sign Language so in theory, Kiernan would be learning another language he could in theory use in the future. The teacher was saying her 4 year old still uses it because he has a younger sibling who also uses it so that reinforces the learning for more years.

The only hurdle could be that some kids really don't take to signing. It offends their sensibilities that you should require them to sign to you when you obviously understand what they're trying to tell you. hehe. I can imagine Kiernan could possibly that type of child ;)

This morning we were singing some of the songs to him and signing and he seems really fascinated so we'll start with that. I sing to him all the time anyways to try to entertain him, so I'll just do ones with signs. This is the introductory stage though, we won't actually ask him to sign back to us until he's at least 7-8 months old.

Mommy, can I have a snack?

Kiernan is making me mental with his eating habits lately. He just won't eat well. He starts to eat, comes off, screams, goes on, comes off, screams. Sometimes I can only calm him down by letting him suck on his soother for a couple of sucks in between mouthfuls of milk. Someone wondered if he was actually hungry and I would wonder the same thing, but it really seems like he is. I think part of the problem is he gets inpatient waiting for the letdown because once it really gets flowing he generally doesn't come off anymore... unless it's to catch his breath. So it's a fight at almost every feeding except the ones in the middle of the night. But what choice do I have? So far we haven't found a formula that works for him, and as hard as I try to pump (I even rented an electric pump for a week to see if that would help) I can't get enough out to even give him one bottle a day, let alone several. It's really starting to get to me. Maybe I'll start to refuse to feed him until he hasn't eaten for at least 3 or 4 hours to see if he'll eat better. I don't know. I think that ideally, he wants the milk to come RIGHT away, and I also think that he'd be happy having a few ounces every hour instead a nice good feed every 3-4. He just wants to snack all day.
He's fabulous, but man is he difficult sometimes. :P

Baby in red

Next month's baby photo contest is baby in red. Which of these photos do you think I should submit? :)
(I will open the comments section for the post :)

Note in response to comments: if photo #2 is chosen I can get a higher resolution copy so it won't be grainy.

ZRRRBBPPPZZZ

Kiernan started razzing yesterday. How cute! And if I thought he was the king of spit before(!) then I had no idea what I was in for. The buzzing has created an almost constant flow of spit bubbles to come pouring out of his mouth. hehe. But he's having fun.

We've also had a couple of really good nights with him only waking up 3-4 times (I know for some that wouldn't be so great, but for us, it's good) He's sleeping longer than 3 hours in a row, sometimes up to 4.5 hours. Hopefully it'll keep getting better and better.

Turns out you don't have to sign in to vote for those baby photo contests so I'll put him in for next month's contest (baby in red) and remind you all to vote again (daily!) for the entire week he's eligible :)

Look what I found!

Kicky mckickerson

We got the miracle blanket last week and have been using it at night. He's a tad long for it so we went with the suggestion that if the baby is too long we simply leave the baby's legs unswaddled and swaddle his arms. We hope that Kiernan won't need to be swaddled for the rest of his life (!) so we thought leaving some of his limbs out wouldn't be a bad idea. So now he's waking him self up stomping on his mattress as opposed to waking himself smacking himself in the face. AIE! ;)
Eric thinks he's dreaming about jumping in the jolly jumper :)

Oh, and for everyone I told to vote for the baby photo on babies online. I didn't know you had to sign in to vote, so ya, forget that! :)

Annnnd rollin!

Guess who just rolled over? TWICE!
That's right - we're rolling now. Or hopefully it wasn't a fluke. I admit I was helping him to try to show him how it's done, but then he did it all on his own twice... not quickly, but he started on his back and ended on his tummy. Yay!

We're going to have to start babyproofing the house, won't be long until he's really moving, and we're messy :)

The quest for sleep continues

This afternoon I took Kiernan to the doctor's to follow up on the fact that he has been extremely gassy since Sunday and also not sleeping well again. She's not sure what the problem is, so we're going to go see a pediatrician. She won't become his pediatrician, she's just going to check on K with regards to this issue. So hopefully she'll figure out what is going on with his super sensitive tummy - only problem is that we probably won't get to see the doctor for several weeks. Until then she upped his dosage of reflux medication so we'll see if that helps. She also doesn't think we should give Kiernan any more soy powder formula so if anyone wants an unopened can of nestle soy formula... that or I'll try to return it :)
He weighed just over 13.5 lbs... almost doubled his weight!

Are you having fun???

Kiernan is a super bouncer now. He loves to bounce/jump so much that if you are holding him upright in your arms he tries to jump. It's very cute! But sometimes, when he's in the jolly jumper, I'm just not sure if he's having fun or not. It would seem he's not having fun, because he's crying. But then again, he's STILL JUMPING!! Do I take him out or don't I? :)

We're going back to the doctor's today. Since he threw up on Sunday we've gone way back downhill in the sleeping department. He was back to being away almost every half hour after 3am last night. And the extreme gas has continued ever since then. I hope he didn't do damage or something? I don't know. Maybe we need to up his reflux medication? I guess I'll let the doctor figure it out :)

He's currently in the swing after wake up from another 15 minute nap

Sir Farts a lot

I don't know if it's a continuation of his reaction to the formula but Kiernan is SOO gassy lately. It wakes him up! He's not napping for more than 20-30 minutes because he wakes up farting. Blah! He wakes up tired. What do you do with a baby who is always tired and never seems rested and will only sleep when he's out of his mind over tired? Advice? Anyone?

I entered Kiernan into a baby photo contest. Unfortunately, once I got the photo down the correct size it's super small so I doubt he's going to win. But people get to vote, so everyone go to the following web site and vote for Baby W (on page 5) - you can vote every day all week :)

http://www.babiesonline.com/babycontest/votepage.asp?page=5005

The most wonderful thing about Tiggers

The most wonderful thing about Tiggers,
is Tiggers are wonderful things.
Their tops are made out of rubber,
their bottoms are made out of springs.
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy,
Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!
But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is,
I'm the only one.
Oh, III'm the only one!
(click on text to see the cutest video ever!)

I SAID!! don't give me that crap!!

So, remember how we gave Kiernan some formula on Dec 30 and he got really sick? We weren't 100% sure it was the formula, especially since he'd only had about an ounce of the stuff so we decided to try it again. So yesterday morning we prepared just a few ounces of the same stuff... we didn't want to push it. As soon as we tried to give it to him, Kiernan started crying frantically and wouldn't drink it. He sucked MAYBE twice and had a bit dribble into his mouth. 2 hours later, like last time, Kiernan started throwing up. THis time he threw up 6 times!! Until his stomach was MORE than empty. And I now know for sure what sick Kiernan is like (they asked me at the hospital when he had his fever if he seemed himself and I said yes but didn't really know how he would be different). He spent about an hour just lying in my arms awake staring off into space. Poor baby. And it's all the worse because we did it to him!
So, now the challenge is to figure out what formula might work since pumping hurts me and I want to be able to go out. But now we're going to be scared to give him anything for fear this will start again. :(

Morningtime babysitter

I feel kind of guilty, but when Kiernan wakes up at 6am, I tend to put him in front of the tv to entertain him. I find it really hard to be really animated with him and think of games that early in the morning. What did people do before tv?!? Maybe they were just lazy than me ;)

Feeling good!

*A combination of Kiernan's new medication and our straightjacketing/double swaddling methods seem to be working *knock on wood* since Kiernan only woke up at midnight, 4 and 6:30 today (at which point he was ready to be up for the day). What an amazing change from being up so much in the night!!!

It almost seems as thought more he sleeps the more he wants to sleep too. He wakes up and is ready to go down for a nap again shortly after (not that he sleeps for long when he's down). It's like he's trying to catch up for all that lack of sleep before. hehe

*We went to the grocery store and although Kiernan was a bit of a pain in that we had to carry him for most of the trip since he was completely uninterested in staying in his car seat or even sitting in the front section of the shopping cart, it was fun because we got so many baby admirer coming up to us and telling us how fabulously cute and adorable Kiernan is. *beam* Not that I didn't already know it. Sometimes it amazes me that despite all the sleepless nights and dealing with constantly having to entertain and deal with a screamy baby, I still feel completely confident in the fact that my baby is like, the most amazingly fabulous and cute baby in the world (sorry fellow mommies, but I'm sure you feel the same way :) He's a lot of work, but he really knows how to make up for it when he's not yelling :)

* Tonight Eric and I are going out on a date and my parents are coming here to watch Kiernan and put him to bed. Yay!

In training for the Cirque du Soleil

Sorry, no time to talk, we're busy watching tv

isn't that always the way

I'm hoping to make it to the movies with Kiernan this morning, but also trying to be consistent with naps. Knowing that if we went with his usual time schedule, Kiernan decided to change it up for me this morning so that I have to sit on the edge of my seat to see if it's all going to work out! :) He woke up at 7:30, this from the boy we want to have wake up at 7 but most often thinks 6:30 is appropriate. So he slept until 7:30 and didn't really need to go down for a nap until 9:15. So now we'll see if he does his regular 45 minute power nap (which means we can go to the movies) or if he decides today will be one of the days he'll have a good long 90 minute nap. Knowing babies and their spidy senses for when we would prefer they not sleep, he'll sleep right through the movie. hehe. Oh well, it'll be worth it.
The medication continues to seem to be helping. Kiernan almost never spits up anymore, and is sleeping longer stretches at night. He still doesn't often go more than 3 hours without a feeding and I feel like he does a lot of snacking instead of full feeds, but I also don't want to push things with him since his issues seem to have to do with a sensitive stomach. I want to try formula again but I keep putting it off for fear of another puking session and trying to figure out when that would be most convenient for us ;)

Freakout boy!

For the last two nights, around 5:30 or so, Kiernan has FREAKED OUT! I'm talking, inconsolable crying as hard as he can for no apparent reason. I have no idea what the heck it's all about, other than that he could be tired because it's the end of the day and he just loses his mind? It's crazy! Both nights we strip him down naked to make sure nothing is digging into him, that he has no mysterious wounds, but nothing. And both times he's just suddenly calmed down. THe first night the getting naked thing help, last night we gave him a bath and he calmed down but then he freakout out again when we tried to get him dressed again and then suddenly he just calmed back down again when Eric held him and bounced him. It's most distressing!

SO tired

Kiernan has been having much better nights lately. He seems to sleep in 2.5-4 hour chunks quite consistently, which isn't where we want to be but so much better than the 30 minute to 2 hour chunks we were getting only a week or so ago that I'm thrilled to bits. Not to mention all the napping he does, even if he doesn't go down everytime and even if he only goes down for 25 minutes sometimes. But I have SUCH a hard time waking up now. And when I do wake up, I'm only half awake and don't always remember if I fed him or not. This morning I couldn't be budged out of bed... I felt like I hadn't slept in months. That's why I don't nap when K does during the day, because falling asleep again makes me feel like that, but I just stay awake I feel fine. I can't wait for this part to be over... I don't want to feel like a zombie anymore!

4 generations

Balding family

So Kiernan's hair is thinning, I think I may have posted this at some earlier point wondering if was actually falling out or if his head is just getting bigger? Well, that might be the case but there is definitely one spot on the back of his head where its falling out... he's rubbing it out from looking around (as many babies are prone to doing). I hope it all grows back in soon.
MY hair is finally falling out. After a glorious year of not having any hair fall out, it is coming out in clumps. After a shower I have a serious handfull to throw out, the wookies are back in the drain. I find hair EVERYWHERE. I have to pull it out of Kiernan's mouth all the time and I feel awful. The other day his back was covered in hair. Like, how did that happen!?? Ugh! Hopefully this time of shedding won't last too much longer.
Last night K slept pretty well - yay! He slept 3 3-hour blocks or so, until he decided he wanted to be up for the day at 5:30. This was more problematic for Eric than me though since I keep sleeping through his crying lately (bad!) It's almost as if the more sleep I get, the more tired I am. I think it's just that my body is like "oooh oooh, I remember that, give give!" I keep having that feeling of pain in the back of my eyes you get when you're so tired. It's awful.
Oh, but back to K and his sleeping... now that we have the possible reflux diagnosis I am noticing things that really do point to that as one of our culprits of lack of sleep. The main one is the coughing. K seems to wake himself up coughing a couple of times in the night, so if he didn't have these coughing fits he might very well sleep in longer. The coughing could be coming from the irritation of the acid in his stomach, so we'll see if this medication seems to be working. He also seems to have terrible gas when he wakes up at 2am and we end up giving him ovol and he immediately quiets down - which is somewhat weird since it doesn't work THAT well- maybe he's figured out he will feel better after having had that taste? I wonder if the medication from the doctor starts to work but wears off by 2am (since he takes it before 7?) but Eric thinks we just need to give it a bit more time for the full effects to kick in.
Anyhow, I'm glad we saw the doctor and that there really might be some medical way to fix this non-sleeping thing instead of just trying to force him to sleep longer.
Ok, sir screeechy pants wants out of the swing!

First time in the snow

Another possible explanation

So all the books I've been reading about babies not sleeping start by saying "make sure nothing is medically wrong before undertaking any of these methods" and since some of the time when Kiernan wakes up in the night he seems to frantically upset I thought I'd better take him to the doctor just to check. She thinks he has reflux - which sort of makes sense given Eric had it as a baby and even gave himself a hernia from screaming so hard from it, and still sort of has it now. So, we're giving him medication, the equivalent to baby zantax and we'll see if it helps... last night he slept quite well from 7pm until 2 am but then was up every half an hour to an hour for the next 3-4 hours so.. it certainly wasn't an instant fix.
On an up note, he weighed 13lbs 8oz so I feel much better about him and him getting enough to eat.

Under house arrest

When I had a baby I never wanted to be tied to my house, being super strict with my kids having to nap at certain times without fail, and never being flexible. I hope that in the long run I won't have to be that way, but I've come to realize that I'm going to need to be that way for a least a few weeks to establish a routine with Kiernan.
I've been reading all kinds of books to try to figure out what to do with the amazing non sleeping child. The no-cry sleep solution and the baby whisperer solves all your problems has convinced me that a routine is absolutely imperative to make this work. The better babies nap, the better they sleep at night - or so they say ;)
So for now, I'm working on a routine and we're putting kiernan to bed lightly asleep (instead of waiting until he's deep asleep as we used to) and we're trying to figure out when we can start putting him down awake because it's time - we need to teach this kid to put himself to sleep and soon before both his parents lose their minds. Last night we were lucky to get 2 hours in a row of sleep - he often was up every 20 minutes.
So wish me luck. And send me advice by email if you have any. And remind me to be strong ;)

"I TOLD you I didn't like it!"

Pumping has been really hurting my breasts so now that we have found a bottle that Kiernan will take I decided it was time to try giving him formula. Powder seemed the most economical so we went out and bought a can. The next morning, the can of free Nestle formula that I signed up to get (along with a diaper bag and a bunch of other goodies) arrived. Great timing - I had just actually opened the can of the other stuff about 10 minutes before the mailman rang the doorbell. Hehe - oh well.
So we went out for Eric's 30th birthday and when we were at his parents' house we tried to give Kiernan the bottle. He made some NASTY faces - like "what the HELL!!??" Eventually he drank about an oz and a half of the stuff but that was it. He did nurse a bit as well. THen we had to head home to get ready to have people over for Eric's birthday.

We were almost home the first time Kiernan threw up (we're not talking spit up here). Uh oh, maybe that formula didn't sit well? When we got home he proceeded to throw up two more times until his stomach was completely empty - it was very upsetting and seemed a bit excessive as a reaction to just a bit of formula. After that he was never sick again though and continued to nurse well, so it would SEEM that that's actually what it was... that his body completely rejected this formula. So if you, or anyone you know are interested in a can of soy formula from enfamil, let me know because I doubt we'll be using it ;)

I think this is where I went to get the free can of formula btw: http://www.nestle-baby.ca/en/register/index