Conversation with a 2 year old

Conversations with Brody are often hilarious and more than anything, it always opens my eyes to how he sees thing so differently than I do.  Most of all, he’s very literal.  Today’s conversation:

“Brody, do you want to go to a birthday part for Jesus next weekend?”

“Will Jesus be there?”

No honey, Jesus won’t be there.

“Where is Jesus”

Usually I say Jesus is in Heaven, but today I went with: “Jesus is in your heart, whenever you want to talk to Him, he’s there”

“But I’m not a mommy!”

“Huh?!?!”

“Jesus is a baby, and only mommies can carry babies in their tummies”

Today’s Jesus talk = FAIL!

8 Weeks – Update

Aedan:

Almost 2 months old and as adorable as ever.  I’ll post about our vacation last weekend separately, but he did great on his first weekend away.  Babies at this age are just so adaptable.  He’s great at sleeping anywhere, anytime, so it’s easy to take him along places.

He is still growing and I love his chubby legs and belly.  He will have his 2 month appointment next Monday, so we’ll know for sure how much weight he’s gained.  I believe he’s still on pace to be bigger than his brother was at this age.  He wears 3-6 month clothes as well and 0-3 month clothes.  We’re wondering how much longer he’ll be in size 1 diapers.  I love that he’s keeping more of his hair than Brody did, and it hasn’t started to lighten up yet.  Could he be keeping my hair-color?  Let’s hope!

Oh and my favorite part right now?  He’s right on track with Brody and sleeping 8-9 hours at night.  We’re on a streak of wonderful full nights of sleep.  Now, I just have to try to move up his bedtime so he goes to bed earlier and wakes up at the same time as his brother.  That would make my life so much easier!  But beggars can’t be choosers.

Brody:

Brody is a great big-brother.  He loves Aedan and constantly gives him hugs and kisses.  He can be a little rough at times, but not on purpose, and rarely.  At least we’re to the point that I can leave them alone in another room and not worry about it.

Last week, I ran upstairs to get dressed while Brody was watching TV and Aedan was sleeping in his swing.  A few minutes later I heard Aedan fussing and started to head downstairs.  Brody was on his way upstairs to get me and tell me that Aedan was crying.  Such a sweet brother.

He still strives for attention, so we’re working on some behavior problems.  We started a behavior sticker chart about 3-4 weeks ago.  He gets a sticker for good behavior.  It’s working pretty well for some items (staying in his room during bedtime/naptime) and not as well for others (going #2 on the potty).

He’s no longer at daycare during the day, so I am loving some of the fun things he says and that we’re doing together.  I am constantly trying to make sure we have enough to do so he’s not bored, but it allows us to do different things.  Right now, he’s doing a lot of Thanksgiving crafts.  As much as it makes sense for him to be home and as much as he loves us, he actually loves daycare.  After the first week, he started asking when he gets to see his “Sunday School” friends.  Unfortunately, he hasn’t been to Sunday school in awhile because of Aedan’s baptism, vacation and a trip to Madison.  And he won’t be going this week because of his cousin’s baptism.  Then, he started talking more about his daycare friends.  He thought he was going back to “school” this week (by accident), so when he woke up and I told him he was staying home, he was very sad.  Then he started telling me how he wants his school friends to come over to his house.  We’ve had a few playdates, but his school friends he’s used to seeing every day.  I think we may look into sending him a couple times before I return to work, just to see his friends again.

Me:

I’m adjusting to life at home with two boys, but I know it’s a time I may never get with them again.  With only 4 more weeks to go, it’s bittersweet.  I can’t wait to get back to my job, to feel useful, to talk to someone other than a 2 year old all day and to make decisions other than what’s for lunch each day.  However, I know after a week or two, I’ll be dying to stay home with my boys…just not every single day.

Officially dairy-free for 10 weeks now…except for those couple days I enjoyed some cheese.  It’s helping Aedan, though I suspect he may still have a sensitivity to more hidden dairy items.  I’ve been trying to eliminate all of those as well, hoping it gets better.  Next step may be eliminating soy, but we’ll talk to the pediatrician next week.  I’m happy though that Aedan has only had breastmilk for 8 weeks, much longer than Brody.  However, unless I can start pumping more milk, in 4 weeks, Aedan will have to start some formula.

New Home

Welcome to my new home!  I was feeling a bit limited with blogger, so I am trying out wordpress.  Bear with me as I figure out the best features of my new site, but I am hoping it will be better.  And it was super easy to transfer over all my old posts.

But don’t worry, there will still be lots of cuteness here!

Why I Breastfeed

6 1/2 weeks into Aedan’s life and I still have to remind myself on a daily basis why breastfeeding him is the right thing for us.  So I thought I would blog about it to help me with my goal of doing it as long as I can.  Every week or so I set a new goal.  My current short-term goal is 2 months.  My long-term goal is to do it until I go back to work.

Why I breastfeed:
1.  We already know Aedan has a sensitive stomach, breastmilk is formulated to be the best thing for him, as long as I avoid dairy.  I worry that even hypoallergenic formula will be tough on his stomach.

2. It’s free!  (sort-of)  Formula, especially hypoallergenic, is expensive.  I’m cheap.  I say it’s only sort-of free because I’ve invested in nursing bras, tank-tops, remedies for soreness early on…and a pump.  But at least the pump was an investment I made 3 years ago.

3. Attempt to keep Aedan healthier.  Theoretically since my breastmilk has my immunities, it should give Aedan a stronger immune system.  Brody was constantly sick (as are most daycare kids) the first couple years, so I am trying to give Aedan the best shot possible.  Do I really think that formula-fed kids can’t be just as healthy?  No.  But it’s worth a shot!

4. It is easier, when we’re at home.  No bottles, no powder to mix, and it’s always in stock!  Especially in the middle of the night when I’m too sleep deprived to make bottles.

Why I struggle with breastfeeding:
1.  It’s not easy, when I’m not at home.  I can walk through Target feeding Aedan a bottle, I can’t however walk and breastfeed.  I know some moms can (by using a sling), but I’m not that coordinated (ha!).  I’ve gotten over my fear of nursing in public and I just use a cover to keep everything hidden.  If I didn’t do this, I’d never get out of the house and then I’d really go crazy.  But it still requires me to sit down for anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on how slow Aedan wants to eat that day.

2.  The pump.  I hate the pump.  At the end of the day, I’m going back to work and ideally I would pump to keep up his breastmilk.  So I started pumping to get him used to the bottle and to start building extra.  Unfortunately, I’m learning that I can only pump about half of what he eats.  So, while I’m still building an extra stash, when I give him a bottle, I lose out.  He eats 3-4oz, I pump 1.5-2oz.  So as much as giving him a bottle is great and gives me a break, I lose out.  Which means less time away from the baby, which means less time with Brody and less alone time with the hubs.

3. DAIRY!  Have I ever mentioned how much I love milk, and cheese, and milk chocolate and ice cream?  Yum…

Above all, I LOVE those cute squishy cheeks!

Aedan is 6 Weeks

On our way to 2 months!  Aedan is more alert, has better neck control and is smiling! 

He’s eating and growing like crazy.  I don’t know how much he weighs, but he’s wearing some 3-6 month sleepers and looks pretty chunky in a lot of his 3 month clothes.  I can’t believe how big he’s getting!  He’s growing so much faster than Brody, just another one of the differences we’re going to see with these two. 

He’s an amazing sleeper.  We are so lucky, as he averages 5-8 hours each night.  After the 8 hours nights, I feel great!  It’s so nice.  Then a 5 hour night sneaks up on us…but I really can’t complain. 

We haven’t introduced any formula at this point but he’s getting about 1 bottle of pumped milk each night to get him used to the bottle.  He’s doing it pretty well with it, but still doesn’t love his pacifier.

The past two weeks, Aedan had his first Halloween, met a few of my friends he hasn’t seen yet, and spent his first few hours away from his parents.

Here’s a photo recap since his 1 month checkup:

Happy Halloween!

 

1 month dr appointment

Aedan’s 1 month check-up was yesterday and overall it was good, but we did have a list of things of things to review with him.

As I mentioned in his 1 month post, he weighs 10lbs 11.5oz and is almost 23 inches.  That’s almost 1 pound gained since his 2 week appointment.  He also weighs more than Brody did at a month by 10oz.  My little chunker!

Other items covered:

1. Dairy Allergy – We went over all the symptoms we saw from Aedan once I introduced a little cheese into my diet.  The pediatrician agreed that it sounded like dairy allergy, though he was as surprised as us that Aedan reacted as quickly as he did.  He was sympathetic to how annoying not eating dairy is, but re-iterated that as long as I can hang in there, breastfeeding is the best thing for Aedan right now.  However, when/if we need formula, Nutramigen is our next step.  It’s hypoallergenic formula that worked great for Brody, so hopefully it would work just as well for Aedan when the time comes.

2. Reflux – It’s pretty typical for babies to have reflux because they’re systems are still immature.  I described the reflux-type symptoms I was seeing from Aedan to get his advice if we should do anything.  Aedan arches his back almost everytime he’s done eating, he grunts when he lays down after eating and it often sounds like it is bothering him, though he doesn’t scream his head off or anything.  I also hear him spitting-up, but it just sits in the back of his throat and he gags on it a little.  This always freaks me out, so while I know he’s okay, it worries me.  So he prescibed zantac and we’ll give it a try for a month and see how it goes.

3. Other – Second Hepatitis shot (cried for a second and then quickly got over it), next appointment at 2 months (where he’ll get a lot more shots), and quick reminder that Brody needs his flu shot.  Overall a good appointment and hoping that the medicine will make Aedan more comfortable. 

Aedan is 1 month old

Aedan is 1 month old today! Can you say, time flies when you’re having fun? Or when you’re too sleep-deprived to know what day it is…

Aedan’s first month was actually a lot easier than Brody’s.  It helps that I knew what to expect, what to worry about and was a lot more patient with breastfeeding.  It doesn’t hurt that Aedan is sleeping better than Brody already.

He’s a great sleeper.  Once we let him sleep on his own he started off with 3-4 hour stretches.  In the last week, he’s slept 7 hours for 3 nights and 8 hours last night.  I am getting so spoiled!  Brody was a great sleeper and even he didn’t sleep for 7 hours until 6-7 weeks old.  He’s amazing.

Aedan weighs 10lbs 11.5oz and is almost 23 inches.  He always seems so much longer than they say he is, but I think it’s just the way he’s built.  His torso is very long.  He’s in the 90th percentile for height, 75th for weight and 50-75th for his head.  Definitely a big kid, which is a huge relief that we’re not constantly worrying about his size.  He’s fitting best in size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes.  Some of them are getting tight though, so we may end up in 3-6 month clothes sooner than we did with Brody.

In the last week or so, Aedan has found his voice. He’s practicing oohing and aahing. It’s adorable. Much better than the grunting I normally hear from him. He has great facial expressions, that are practically identical to Brody’s baby faces, so that’s pretty cute. I’m enjoying him being awake more often during the day and we’re using it to do some tummy-time. It can be kind of quiet when the baby sleeps all day!

Aedan gets out of the house fairly often, since I have a hard time staying home.  On the fun side, he’s been to a few birthday parties and a pumpkin farm.  He’s also been out shopping more times than I can count.  When my very tolerant husband started asking what I was going to Target for, again, I realized I probably go a little too much.  But there’s always something you need, right?!?

Who Does Aedan Look Like?

My personal opinion? Newborns look nothing like what they’ll look like as they get older. Brody looks so different from when he was a baby. So whenever anyone analyzes Aedan, saying, “oh he looks just like Jason!” or ‘Wow, he really looks like you!” I just take it with a grain of salt, because who knows how he will look when he gets older. But, one thing is for certain…

He is definitely a spitting image of his brother. I didn’t realize it at first, but now I totally think he is identical to Brody as a baby.  Which of course makes me think that they’ll end up looking very similar as toddlers as well.



Aedan 5 days

Brody 3 days old

Aedan 5 days



Brody 4 days

Brody 3 weeks



Aedan 3 weeks



3 Weeks

Aedan:

Sleeping: He’s a pretty good sleeper, but still wakes up every 3 – 3.5 hours throughout the night. Once, he slept for 5.5 hours, of which, I got 4.5 hours of sleep because I was dumb enough to stay up for an hour reading a book. I’m hoping to get another one of those soon!

Eating: This totally depends on the day, but on a good day, he eats every 2-3 hours during the day and 3-4 hours at night. Some days though he eats every hour. It’s Aedan’s world and I’m just living in it.

So, now that Aedan is up to his birth weight and growing so well, I thought I would introduce small amounts of dairy into my diet. I thought I would start with a piece of cheese here and there. Then I had pizza one day for lunch. First, he got fussier, but I wasn’t sure if that was due to growth spurts. Then, we noticed changes in his diaper. But that could have been due to his cold. Then I found blood in the diaper. This is exactly what tipped us off to the dairy allergy with Brody, so alas, I’m finding history repeating itself. The good thing is that we figured it out a little earlier this time. The bad thing is, I’ve been dairy free for almost 5 weeks and I hate it. Apparently we eat a lot more cheese and dairy in this house than I thought! However, the switch to formula will be even more annoying, since we’ll likely have to start with hypoallergenic. So back to dairy-free I go!

Development: Aedan is more and more attentive every day. Jason swears that he “smiles” at him / recognizes him. I don’t doubt that, I know he recognizes his voice from even before he was born, but I’m thinking he’s exaggerating the smiling part. 🙂



Exciting night in the Johnson household

We haven’t spent a ton of time on tummy-time, but his neck is pretty strong when we lay him on our chests. We’ll be working on getting him in his playmat more and more.

Brody:
 Big-Brother is still adjusting.  I don’t expect him to accept the change quickly (I know I don’t react well to change), so we’ll continue to give him more time.  But we’ve had good days and bad days.  Still working on getting more good days than bad, but the rainy weekend didn’t really help with that either.