Overnight Baby Food Eating Machine

That’s a mouth full which is exactly what Kevin has when he is inhaling his baby food. I don’t know if it’s a growth spurt he’s going through or just the realization that he can eat baby food but holy cow…this child can eat. We were a little concerned that he’s yet to double his birth weight. I have a feeling he’ll be close to it by his 6 month check up on May 13th.

In the past his eating has consisted of maybe 5 or 6 bites of food before refusing to open his mouth. Now he eats an entire jar of baby food…yes, an entire jar in one sitting. It’s the funniest thing to see him swallow and open his mouth real big for the next bite. I remind him that this is not his last meal – he can slow down and enjoy the food.

I’m buying the frozen fruits and veggies and will be making his food this weekend. I am so excited!! Starting Monday, I am sending a jar of food with him to school to have at lunch time! My baby is eating big boy food at school now. Where did the time go? After his check up on the 13th when we’re given the thumbs up to start juice, we are buying sippy cups, too. Yay!!!!

He’s on his own little schedule of now waking me up at 4:00 instead of the other way around. It’s kind of nice that we’re waking up when daddy gets up. He gets to enjoy Kevin for a little bit in the mornings.

No more...I give up!

Why does it seem like everything falls apart at the same time? Our beagle,Jersey, is sick. We took her to the vet today and they think she has a herniated disk which can be treated with a steroid shot and anti-inflammatory. We're still trying to get her to eat..which she hasn't since Friday. Daddy gave her meat and cheese to take her medicine so I'm sure she's loving that!

Kevin throat is better but now he has a horrible cough. It keeps him awake and is making him miserable. Will this ever end? He was acting better over the weekend but daycare reported that he has been very fussy today. No fever yet so I'm hoping it's just a cough this time.

We had a great birthday party for my grandma on Saturday. I will post pictures later. My favorite conversations of the day....

Grandma talking to my aunt about Ben before the party:

Aunt: So what's Ben up these days?
Grandma: Oh, not much. You know he's a fireman now?
Aunt: Really? When did that happen? We just saw him at Christmas.

My crazy grandma thought that Ben was a fireman. She sees him ALL the time. We go to church with her for crying out loud. She's a mess!

And my absolute favorite:

My cousin Hannah told me "You know the next time you see me at Thanksgiving or Christmas...whichever comes first - I'll have glasses and braces. I laughed out loud when she said "whichever comes first!" She's too cute.

And not to leave out another cousin - who in all seriousness asked if "Kevin's squishy part on his head was still there". He was terrified of his soft spot at Christmas and wanted to make sure he was safe to touch. Sweet Joshua!

Kevin loved seeing everyone and was a great baby. He took a nice little nap on my uncle's shoulder who quickly let me know that he didn't want me to put him down - he wanted to snuggle with him a little longer : )

I have such a great family!

Clear ears but yucky throat

Kevin's doctor's appointment went well. She said his ears are perfect but he has 2 ulcers in his throat - resulting in the fever and fussy baby. His right eye is also red and the same virus he has in his throat is causing the pink eye. Basically it's the strep throat virus..which means antibiotics do nothing at this point. That's not a bad thing since his last medicine made him sick every morning. Poor little guy!

We are to mix 1/2 tsp of Maalox and 1/2 tsp of Benadryl for the ulcers. After that we start giving him allergy medicine because thanks to his family..he has allergies. Yuck! He's acting like he's feeling better and is eating very well. Just hoping for a good night with lots of sleep.

And apparently Ben was offended by my last post when I implied that he doesn't help me at night. That's far from the truth. Ben is a great help and usually only goes to bed 30 minutes before us. Most of his days are 12 hour shifts so I am the one sending him to bed..he doesn't abandon us. Thanks for all you do, Ben. We love you!!!

Glad it's the weekend and we get to rest while Kevin gets better.

When did sleep become optional?

This week has been crazy! Sunday night Kevin had me up and Monday night Ben was very sick. The rest of the week went great until last night. Kevin is sick AGAIN! We're going to the doctor this afternoon because I am not making another weekend trip to the Urgent Care Center. Kevin woke up with a yucky nose, red and swollen eye and a cough. Sound familiar?

It amazes me how the motherly instinct comes out and you forget about yourself (and your constant lack of sleep) and just move on. Staying up all hours of the night rocking my sick baby is so natural. I never once think about how tired I'll be the next day or how jealous I am that Ben is fast asleep in the next room (okay..maybe a little on that last one!!)

We're celebrating my grandmother's 76th birthday tomorrow. Kevin just loves her to pieces. I have to get the pictures off my camera tonight to make room for some more. Thank goodness for large memory cards. I haven't cleared my camera out in almost 4 months!!

Picnic, carrots and bluebonnets

Here are some updated pictures of Kevin. He had a picnic at school on Friday so my mom met me up there to see Kevin's room and teachers. He was thrilled to see us!

Last night I was feeding Kevin his carrots and he decided that he was very curious about the food on the spoon. So I let him explore.... The pictures and video speak for themselves. (Excuse the dryer noise in the video!!)

And last but not least, we took advantage of the 80 degree weather today and took pictures in the bluebonnets with my mom and grandmother. Kevin did great and was very curious about the flowers.

Enjoy!!!


Why eat carrots if you can play with them?

Kevin eats squash....yuck!

When I picked Kevin up from daycare last night they quickly reported that he should be all rested up for the night. He took a 3 hour nap yesterday afternoon. That's on top of the hour and a half nap in the morning. Holy Cow - this kid can sleep! We're right back on schedule now that he's feeling better. He was asleep by 9:45 last night and daddy was waking him up at 4:45 so I could feed him. Thanks, daddy! We were sleeping good.

Last night we tried squash for the first time. He wasn't a big fan of it but I think it is just something to get used to. I do not like squash at all! I am very particular about the foods I eat. They have to be a certain color, smell a certain way and the name really does play a role. Seriously...squash?? That's what you do to a bug. Why am I going to eat that? Cauliflower looks like broccoli that's sat out too long. Peas are slimy and again..the name! Carrots I just don't like. I could go on for hours....but back to Kevin. He is loving his baby food. Green beans are his favorite!! He likes them more than his sweet fruits. That shocked us both. One more round of buying food and then we're going to start making it. He's eating so little right now that it doesn't do any good to make a huge batch when it takes him 3 days to go through a small jar of food now.

I'll post new pictures of our squash experience and cute pictures we got of Kevin in the bath the other night.

Much better

Quick update... Kevin has been on his antibiotic for 24 hours and is feeling much better. Fever free and eating up a storm - finally!! Ben is feeling better and is returning to work tomorrow. And last but not least, I am better and very ready to return to work and our normal schedule. Kevin had me up every 2 hours last night so I am really hoping tonight is better. He's feeling better so that's all that matters!!!!

Another 1st for Kevin...An Ear Infection

Kevin has experienced yet another first in his short 5 months. He has his first ear infection. I knew something was wrong with him other than the URI but was told that a fever for several days was normal. Ben stayed home with him on Thursday and I stayed home yesterday. I kept thinking he'd get better since he was home away from daycare germs. After his afternoon nap he woke up crying..pretty normal for him..but this cry didn't stop. After 30 minutes, I woke up Ben and called the hospital triage nurse. She said to take him to the ER and thought he could have an ear infection. I knew it!! He had been pulling at that left ear for over a week now and he's just not getting any better. I decided that spending my entire Saturday in the ER with lots of very sick children was not my cup of tea so I headed to the Urgent Care Center instead. I arrived a 3:30, was back in a room by 4:15 and out the door by 4:30. Diagnosis: Left ear infection. We have an antibiotic and ear drops for the pain. We came home and Kevin ate some green beans and downed a 6 oz bottle. He hasn't done that in a week. We're on the road to recovery. Thank goodness!

We're ALL sick!

It's official - our entire family is sick. Ben woke up this morning feeling worse so he made his way to CareNow. He has a double ear infection and a sinus infection. Kevin is still sick and we can't seem to get his fever down. We're also having problems getting him to eat. He's doing great with his baby food and has loved his green beans this week but when it comes to formula - he can't breath well enough to eat. I am feeling better...just very tired. Will this ever end????

We're all spending the weekend at home trying to get better. Please pray for us...especially that Kevin will start eating again. Our biggest concern is getting him better. We may be visiting the doctor again on Monday if our weekend doesn't get better.

Updated pics and Emilie's 1st birthday

Finally have a moment to post our updated pictures!

I said I would never...

There are a lot of things I said I would NEVER do when I became a mom. Please tell me there are others out there that said the same thing? In an effort to become Mother of the Year or at least be nominated - I said I would never:

* Allow my child to be a "paci baby". 5 months later - he loves his paci. He can't go to sleep without it and when he's fussy, we pop it in immediately.

* Allow my child to sleep with me. 5 months later - he has slept with me so many times I've lost count. There was that wonderful 2 weeks when I was breastfeeding that he didn't leave my side (day or night) and several naps here and there. Now that he's sick, he's ended up in bed with me the past 2 nights just so I can get some sleep.

* Allow my child to sleep on his tummy. Kevin was 2 days old when he began sleeping on his tummy. Before that, we laid him on his back and he would sleep for maybe 30 minutes. On his tummy...he'd sleep for 3 hours. Wasn't that hard of a decision. He loved sleeping like that and I couldn't bare to make him sleep on his back. I lost lots of sleep the first several months worrying about SIDS but he sure did sleep good!

* Allow my child to ride in a car with someone other than myself or Ben. I still haven't broken this one! He has been in the car with someone else driving, but one of us is with him.


Kevin is still not feeling good. He had me up all night coughing and running fever again. This time when I got up at 2:00 - his eyes were swollen shut. Poor baby was trying everything to open his eyes but eventually gave up. I am so ready for this junk to be over with!

Monkey see….Monkey do

Kevin has had the wonderful opportunity of watching other kids in his class eat their baby food during the day. With 10 or 11 kids, someone is eating at any given time. And don’t you know that my baby is so nosy, he sits at the table and watches them. Well, all this watching has paid off! We tried giving him baby food again yesterday mainly because he’s not eating because he’s sick so I wanted to put something in his tummy. I put the applesauce on the spoon, he looked at the spoon and opened his mouth wide. He ate it all! I tried again last night before he went to bed and he ate it again. No gagging, no crying – just a wide open mouth!

We’ll continue to give him applesauce for next couple of days and then we move on to green beans…yummy! Kevin is feeling a little better. Went over to check on him at lunch and he was eating after waking up from his 2 hour nap. Man, my child can sleep like no other.

Ears are Clear

Kevin's ears are infection free...yay!!! He has an upper respiratory infection and a cough - that's all. Go Kevin - 5 months of no ear infections. I contribute that to his wonderful Dr. Brown's bottles. He never had colic and now no ear infections!

He is feeling better after a long 3 hour nap. I've run our humidifier since we've been home. No matter what room we're in...the humidifier is there. We're hoping for a good night's sleep!

Sick baby...tired mommy!

Kevin and I are getting ready to go to the doctor this morning. He has had a fever of 102 all weekend and has been coughing his little head off. Poor little guy has gotten very little sleep because of it. He had me up at 4:00 this morning after not going to bed until 11:00 last night. We're both exhausted. After saying all that - I must confess that I am typing this from work. Yes, I've been at work since 6:45 and Kevin is at daycare. The nice lady at the front said to keep it quiet that he hasn't been fever free for 24 hours and I could leave him there until his appointment this morning. Bless their hearts!

I'll post his diagnosis this afternoon and some fun pictures from Miss Emilie's 1 yr birthday party.

Two Teeth for Kevin!

Kevin's 2nd tooth finally came in yesterday. He now has his two bottom teeth. The first one that arrived a few weeks ago is now really beginning to show. You can almost see it perfect when he smiles or opens his mouth.

I forgot to mention that Kevin had another fun "first". To recap other events that happened first in his short life so far.... On his first Thanksgiving it snowed. His first Easter, he got his first tooth. And on his first day of school, he had his first almost tornado! We had, what the hospital calls, a Code Gray - which means Tornado in Vicinity. We've been having some pretty yucky weather here lately and living in Tornado Alley makes for such a fun Spring! Sure enough, his first day of school, the tornado alarms go off. He was in the hallway with all the other babies taking cover from what never turned out to be a tornado. A few minutes later the sun was out and it was a beautiful day! Living in Texas is great.

One exhausted baby!

Kevin could barely keep his eyes open last night. He fell asleep on me and I let him sleep about 45 minutes. I attempted several times to wake him up and all he would do is lift is head, open his eyes and lay right back down on my arm. He was asleep by 10:00 and I was waking him up at 5:00 this morning...he was not a happy camper (just like his mommy!)

He took his bottle and went right back to sleep. He was wide awake when we arrived at daycare and gave all the ladies a huge smile. He's such a flirt!

I dropped him off to play with his little friends...who are all adorable by the way! I check on him at lunch and if he's awake I get a little bit of playing time in.

More daycare fun

Have I mentioned that I love Kevin's daycare? I, being a first time mom, went over to check on Kevin at lunch yesterday and he was fast asleep. His teachers talked with me for about 10 minutes and filled me in on what a good day he was having. I love his teachers, too!!

We had a great night last night! Kevin was in such a great mood and spent most of the night laughing and playing. He crashed about 10:00 last night and slept until 5:00 this morning. He was exhausted.

I got him to daycare at 7:30 this morning and it worked out great. I was able to change his diaper, get his bottles together and play with him for about 20 minutes before heading to work. He is so happy when he's there and has so much to do and so much space to do it in. Life as a 5 month old doesn't get much better than this.