yesterday

5  am party with Mama today.  But we had zero middle of the night parties,  so Mama wasn't too mad. He looks so big. 

And he just kept going back to this label.  Play a bit,  look at the label and blab at me. Over and over. 

By 630 he was feeling a bit tired.  Put him down for a nap and he was awake by the time I got out of the shower.  Frustrating!

He will only take pictures if he can see the baby. Even he thinks he's cute. 

Brotherly love. 

Selah wasn't going to be outdone. 

Selah made ice cream and raspberry cordial for book club tonight. We read Anne of Green Gables this month,  and those items are rather significant in the book. Elijah was the official taste tester. Good thing since he got no ice cream... the girls ate it all!

Raspberry cordial was good. It tasted like a Raspberry kool-aid  to me. A little too sweet and not quite enough flavor to me, but I think that could be modified. Maybe someday. 

Backsliding

Please pray for wisdom for us, and for Judah to feel better and keep making improvements. Today started with a refusal of bottles,  progressed to a refusal of nursing and bottles, continued with vomiting,  and ended with a couple of bottles. Throw in some screaming  (belly pain?) It wasn't the best day.

First post-op excursion. I feared I may forget to take a photo. Which I did. Here's Judah napping.  Yay for baby carseat and white noise maker! He slept for a while! 

Guess he was hungry after the little bit he'd eaten came back up.  Puppy for the win.

Playing with Selah and the ball pit.  He looks so skinny!

Fabulous morning over here - that was a 4 ounce bottle! Even better his probiotic was in there.  

And we managed a second this afternoon!

I was pumping,  Judah was playing on the floor. I look over and he's looking over the side of the couch! 

He and his cars climbed right on up there.  So glad he's feeling well enough to climb!

And since when was he big enough to drive matchbox cars around?!

He also read himself a story. Out loud.  So sweet.

I uploaded some videos to you tube and haven't posted links yet.  I apologize. But in one,  he's poking a baby dolls eyes. He likes his new phone's eyes,  too! 

I pinned him down downstairs to take pain meds. Came upstairs to give him his antibiotic and got this.  He's definitely trying the 'I can't see you so you can't see me" trick. Sadly,  it didn't work, but it sure was cute.

Good day for Judah overall.  3 bottles with another one waiting for him to wake tonight.  Broccoli,  Brussel sprouts, and hummus all eaten well. No pain meds except at bedtime.  No more diaper rash. So reassuring to be more and more normal.

Making Progress

It was just Judah and I up for a while this morning,  and he was clearly looking for playmates other than Mom. I guess he thought maybe they were hiding from him again,  and went to check out the ottoman. 

Mom. Where are all my friends?!

Today was a pretty good day. He took some milk from a bottle, nursed some, and even ate some! (A little broccoli, almost a whole hummus cup, a few blueberries.) Getting much closer to normal in all of those areas. 

He also had a bath midday again,  this time because his diaper exploded all over his incision and I really hope that was enough to prevent an infection. It's already red around a good amount of it and i asked if neosporin was okay and was told to just leave it. 

I'm certainly ready to be done with all the crazy and back to normal life. No more pain meds (that require pinning him down and leaving us both sticky.) No fights to drink or eat. Just a sweet little one year old who is always looking to escape up the stairs or under a table when no one is paying quite enough attention!

*just a sweet picture of Micah reading to Elijah at bedtime.  

We made some progress with fluids today. He's still not wanting much to do with his bottles but he's nursing a lot more.  8 don't know that he's getting enough milk to be sufficient calorie wise (he's lost so much weight already) but I think he's getting enough to be hydrated. Of course, he's now having severe issues with the GI tract needing to slow down (We're talking 15 diapers in a day) so losing fluids there,  too.

This send to be the main issue today.  He woke up in the middle of the night with a high pitched scream. I've never heard that scream before,  and it terrified me. I took him downstairs,  took off his boots, changed his diaper,  looked under his clothes, checked the incision fearful something was not right.  Everything looked good so I tried nursing and he started making diapers.  Seems it was just pain from that.

This has been the whole day. He is on edge, doesn't relax, can't be set down even asleep. It's a particularly difficult thing for me,  as it took SO long to get where we were last week.  He had 5 good nights before surgery. I really felt like I could move him into his own room, just need to get a bed together. 

Now we're back to where we were last summer. Pure misery.  I did manage to get his probiotic into him today, and a half dose yesterday.  It took about 2 months to finally make progress once we got him on the probiotic. I'm really hoping it isn't so long this time. But not only was he on iv broad spectrum antibiotics in the hospital, his daily antibiotic more than doubled. 

In happier news, he are some food today! Hummus, of course. A good amount. And a few bites of coconut yogurt. I have him a spoon and a container this afternoon in desperation to wash my pump parts and maybe load the dishwasher.  Dishwasher didn't get loaded,  but Judah got a bath! 

It was a much needed bath,  he hadn't had one in over a week.  He smelled so nice and fresh tonight,  and his hair was so soft and curly. 

Missing that belly, he looks so much older without it. Probably because he lost weight,  too. 

I was trying to load that dishwasher again (and succeeded!), so I asked the kids to entertain him for a few.  They played his and seek with him.  Elijah is in the ottoman and Judah is peeking through the gap to see him. He loved it.