April Update

The kiddos continue to grow like weeds! Timmy turned 3 months old on April 12th. It is just amazing how quickly he is changing! He can hold his head up on his own now and loves his Bumbo seat so he can observe the world around him.Hannah sleeps with "Stripey" every night. She got to pick him out from our Santa visit to the mall in December with all of our friends from church. She has been in love with that little kitty ever since.
Hannah's friend, Mason, turned FIVE this month! It's amazing how quickly all of these children are growing up and becoming so independent. Many of our friends' children will be attending kindergarten in the fall. So hard to believe!
Timbo is such a happy baby these days. Thank God for blessing us with Prevacid! I think having that month of constant crying and screaming has made us appreciate Timmy's smiles even more. Each one is a gift from God and we certainly don't take them for granted now!

Hannah won't let Timmy steal the show. She wanted to show everyone how she can twirl in her Easter dress.

Timmy loves to watch Hannah. He can track her a mile away. She's been a big help with the cooking lately. Well, kinda. Everything takes longer to make and there tends to be a bigger mess to clean up afterwards, but it's fun bonding time. I've also found that involving her more in making the meals makes her more excited about trying new things and she tends to eat a little more of it.

Happy Easter!!

Hannah Update

Seriously, when did this girl get so big?! Everyone warned me that Hannah would grow so fast once Timmy was born and they were right. All of a sudden she seems so old to me.
Hannah continues to be a wonderful big sister. She loves to give Timmy his binky when he's crying, but I think her favorite thing to do is poke his chubby cheeks. I'm constantly reminding her to be gentle, but she just adores her little brother. She affectionately calls him Timbo or Timbotronic (both nicknames given by daddy).

We made an "All About Me" poster for a preschool homework assignment. Hannah picked the pictures she wanted (from a selection), all of the colors, and even helped me glue the items down. She had so much fun and her teacher reported that she did a fabulous job explaining the poster to her classmates. It was proudly displayed on the wall outside of her room for several days.We had a few beautiful days last week so I had Caleb get Hannah's bike down and we've already used it several times. Timmy just loves to be in the front carrier so I strap him on me with a blanket hanging over his head and Hannah pedals along with a little assistance from Mommy every now and then (OK, a lot of assistance from Mommy). Unfortunately, we're supposed to get sleet and freezing rain tonight but hopefully we'll have a warm up again soon to enjoy the outdoors.Hannah likes to know the "plan" for the day and days to come. We've been having lots of playdates with her new friends from preschool and we're working on filling her social calendar each week. She's a social butterfly and always wants to be on the go. Now, if mommy can just keep up :)

Two Months Old!

How on earth is Timmy already two months old?! I took him in for a check up last Friday and he's growing like crazy.Weight: 11 lb 11 oz (45th percentile)
Height: 22.5 inches (28th percentile)
Head Circumference: 15.7 inches (43rd percentile)We still have a spitter, but he's a happy spitter now. What a difference the medication is making for our sweet boy. It's so much fun to see his little personality starting to emerge. I love this sneaky look on his face!

Reflux!

Timmy has been struggling with bad refux issues since he was about a month old. The poor little guy was just so uncomfortable after feedings and throughout the day you could hear him gulping down the acid and sometimes gagging on it. He was crying so much, generally starting at his second feeding of the day (around noon) until 10 at night when he would crash for his long night sleep. I mean top of the lungs, screaming, face bright red and sometimes purple, crying. :(I just love the look on Hannah's face in this picture! It's priceless and totally sums up how we'd all been feeling.
After a few trips to the doctor we think we have him figured out. We started him on Zantac on February 22nd. After trying that out for 2 weeks, it just seemed like he was getting worse and worse and crying more and more. He was just inconsolable. We tried everything! The only thing that seemed to make him happy was putting him in the front carrier and constantly bouncing him.

We visited the doctor again on March 9th and switched him to Prevacid. He was noticeably better after only a day! He still cried a lot, but he was more easily pacified and just seemed to be a fussy baby. We've had a few really bad days since then and I feared that we were going backwards rather than forwards.

However, over the last few days Timmy has seemed so incredibly happy. He hardly fusses unless he needs something! Today he was so smiley I could hardly stand it and tears of joy just streamed down my face this evening as I looked at my happy baby. Even Hannah commented that Timmy doesn't cry as much as he used to.

It's been an emotional roller coaster, but I'm praising God that he has helped us figure out what was bothering Timmy so much. We hope that he continues to thrive on the new medication and formula (Enfamil AR--has rice starch to help hold it down in his tummy).

Family of Four!!

Wow! I still can't get used to the idea that we are officially a family of four!

It's even stranger sounding to say "the kids" instead of just "Hannah." But we LOVE it!!!

Mommy with her two babies :)

February Update

 February has been a crazy month for us.  Timmy is just growing like a weed!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Unfortunately, I had a sore throat for about 2 weeks that turned into bronchitis and a touch of pneumonia.  I felt so crummy that Caleb had to take off 2 days of work to help me with the kids and we eventually called in the big guns....

 

GRANDMA!!!  Thankfully, grandma offered to come help out for a while!  We needed it desperately!  And I don't think she minded too much :)

 Our church family has graciously brought over meal after meal for us.  It has been such a blessing! 

This little guy has had some fussiness issues this month.  I took him in to see the pediatrician on the 22nd and we determined that he has reflux.  (He weighed in at 10 lbs 5 oz, by the way!) Hannah was definitely the spittiest baby that I have ever seen/met, but she never really seemed like she was in pain.  Timmy, on the other hand, isn't nearly as spitty as she was, but seems to be so uncomfortable after feedings.  He loves Mylicon drops but they only help so much.  So, he is now on a medication twice a day to help with his reflux.  Some days I think it's working miracles and other days he seems to be back to his fussiness.  I know that babies just have their good days and bad days so we'll give the medicine another week or so to consider if it's really working or not.  He seems to be doing better on it at least.

We're still working out our days and nights over here.  Timmy does great during the night, only waking for a feeding and then going right back to bed; however, he's still doing his longer sleeps (5-6 hours at a time) during the day and shorter sleeps (4 hours) at night.  There have been a few times when he has "topped off" at about midnight and slept until about 5 in the morning.  We're hoping that starts to happen more often.  :)

Overall, we're enjoying our little boy so much.  Couldn't imagine life without him!!!  He LOVES to snuggle and so does mommy!!