wordless wednesday

Oh no, we have an escapee.

above the pearls, below the crown

Asher was practicing his "queen wave" with Sophie the Giraffe the other day.

They are totally ready for a parade any day now.

where's asher?

Asher has a new favorite game.  Recently, every time I give him a blanket he puts it over his face until I ask "Where's Asher?" then he whips it down to reveal himself!  At first I thought it was a random coincidence, but now he does it all the time. 

I love it!

the yeast of my problems

I went to see my doctor today about the little issue that I mentioned last week.  As it turns out I have one nasty infection caused by some yeast that my nipples, A's mouth, my pumping equipment, and A's bottle nipples have all been sharing.

I know, Asher, I was surprised too.

Asher hasn't shown any symptoms of thrush {the baby version of a mouth yeast infection} so apparently I've taken the brunt of the punishment.

As has become typical for my family, my symptoms are completely strange.  Most people have lots of burning pain with this type of infection and I have none.  Or, according to my OB, I have the pain, but also super hero amounts of pain tolerance.  I like that idea -- Super Mommy!  :o)

The only pain I had was from the cracks that bled everytime suction of any kind was applied.  To hopefully speed along the healing of this problem, my OB sent me to a compounding pharmacy to pick up some "magical" nipple ointment.  Let's pray it works! 

In addition to some antibotics to clear up the yeast from my end of things, Asher needs to go on some as well to clear up anything that he is harboring.  Plus I need to boil all of my pumping equipment and bottle nipples daily until the course of antibiotics are over, then replace the whole shabang when this thing is over.

It's not as bad as it sounds Mr A...don't worry.

Thanks everyone for all of your advice and ideas.  We won't be giving up breastfeeding any time soon!  Yay!

baby friends!

Asher met a new baby friend this weekend....our friend {and yours} baby Jack and his mommy, Rene!

We met up at a local park and had a great time visiting.  It was so fun to actually meet them in person.  I felt like we already knew each other since Rene and I have been commenting on each others blogs since we were both pregnant last year.  I've watched Jack grow from a little bump to, well, this adorable guy!

The park we went to has a miniature train that took us on a ride all through the wooded park.  It was a nice, breezy break from the hot HOT day!  The babies seemed a little stunned by the whole experience, but didn't complain at all.  I count that as a victory!

After the train ride we walked over to the playground and let the boys swing a little.  Did you know that 2 babies can fit in these swings?  Too cute!

Asher looks like he's screaming here, but it's actually a very happy face.  He didn't make any noise, just opened his mouth into a huge smile!  They both lasted quite awhile on the swing and didn't even really notice each other until the very end.

We wandered around the park for a little while after swinging and ended up putting a blanket down on the grass so the boys could actually play a little and stretch out.  They both gnawed on their Sophies for a few minutes before the bugs got too bad and drove us out.  Unfortunately, Asher got really hungry, so we had to cut our fun day a little short.

Hopefully this fall we'll be able to plan a zoo trip when it's a little cooler!

It was so fun to meet you both in real life!  Any other blogging friends in the greater DC area?  We'd love to plan a get together for even more babies and mommies!

six years ago today

I married my best friend.

sitting high and feeling fine

Asher is now using his highchair!

I had been feeding him in the Bumbo chair, but noticed he seemed to have a hard time holding his head up well.  It also looked like he was really folded over which didn't seem conducive to comfortable eating.  I thought the Bumbo was a good support for early sitters, but Asher just never seemed to love it for longer than a couple minutes.

We decided to try out the highchair that's been sitting in our basement for the past 6 months and little A loves it!  He looks like such a big boy sitting up like this!  Small tear from mommy, but mostly big smiles.  :o)

Yesterday I made him some carrots for the first time.  He wasn't sure what to think at first.  They look like sweet potatoes, but certainly don't smell or taste the same.  After the first bite, he just closed his mouth and looked away.  No big fits, but a very definitive, thanks, but no.

To ease the transition I gave him a bite of bananas next.  This boy LOVES bananas.  What's not to love...sweet and delicious.  That worked like a charm.  He took the bite of bananas, then opened up and took the carrots without complaint.  I think that's how we'll do it until he's used to the new flavor.

So far, Mr. A has had sweet potatoes, bananas, carrots, and 1 round of oatmeal.  After the oatmeal he had some blood in his poo, so I decided to skip all grains for awhile.  I'm just not convinced that his digestive system is up to the challenge of grains yet.

Next will be another fruit --- maybe pears? 

Asher has quickly come around to eating baby food.  He's now eating 2 ice-cube sized portions in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.  Besides that he drinks 4, 8.5 oz bottles a day.

Hungry, growing boy!

{By the way, thanks for all of your advice yesterday!  I made an appointment with my OB/Gyn to ask her advice on Monday.  I really don't want to stop breastfeeding yet, so hopefully we'll be able to come up with a game plan to make this work!}

lady stuff ahead -- grandfathers be warned

I usually try to keep this blog light-hearted, but real, and above all family friendly.  I know that many of my relatives use it as a way to check in on the three of us Asher and I want them to feel comfortable and have fun seeing what the little bugger is up to.

Every now and then, however, I need to abandon those goals and use this blog solely for its other main purpose -- delving into the experience and knowledge of other moms for personal gain growth!

Most of the time all of these goals flow seamlessly together.  Unfortunately, this time I need to venture into an uncomfortable realm that smacks smartly of TMI.

Sorry everyone.  Particularly those with a Y chromosome.

For the brave of heart, read on!  And please help, if you can!

As everyone and their sister knows by now, I've been breastfeeding Asher since he was born.  We had a great start, then hit some rocky ground when his milk protein allergy manifested itself a few months back.  After I cleaned all of the dairy out of my diet his symptoms disappeared and we seemed to be right back on track!

{Mom, I can't believe you're sharing this with the whole world.  I'll never be able to show my face in Bugs class again.  How humiliating.}

Then, just a week or so ago, I started getting some really serious cracks in my nipples.  The kind that cause bleeding and lots of *ouches* from the mama bear.  It certainly wasn't fun, but I could endure it and started using copious amounts of lanolin ointment after each pumping or nursing session.

Until this morning.

This morning I started pumping, yelped slightly in pain, and looked down to see gushing blood.  I mean Old Faithful type gushing that filled the pumping cup and attached bottled.  I've never seen such red milk.  Yuck and double yuck.

{Still with me?  Thanks.}

Obviously, I can't feed that to Asher and dumped it down the sink.  I was left with about 2 ounces of usable milk from the other side and had to supplement the rest of his bottle with formula.

So, here are my questions:

1) Is there anything I can do to help heal these cracks?  I'll take medical advice or old wives tales at this point.  No remedy is too far out there.

2) Will blood in the milk hurt a baby?  I'm afraid to even let him nurse at this point -- what if it bleeds like that again?

3) Should I just give up breastfeeding entirely?  I mean, let's be reasonable.  He got a great 6 months in, but as far as I can tell my milk {under normal dietary circumstances} hurts his body and, apparently, kills mine as well.  I've worked hard at this, but am about to throw in the towel.  I don't want to give up, but it's all starting to become too much.

Encouragment or reality checks are both welcome.

By the way, little mister got a tooth in and is working on a second one.  I haven't felt any bites, though, so I don't think any of this is his fault.  It's extremely hard to get a photo of baby teeth.  See the little white on the bottom right?...

Now for a cute photo to purge our systems of my TMI.  

Grandpas welcome back tomorrow.

for safety's sake

You all may remember a few months ago when I posted about pulling the bumpers out of Asher's crib.

Little man was just starting to roll onto his side and I'd caught him one too many times with his face pressed against the plush {but adorable} bumpers that adorned his crib.  Once I took them out he decided it was a fine time to stick his arm through the crib slats.  We couldn't have that either, so I went to Babies 'R Us and found a great alternative...the Breathable Bumpers!

These mesh bumpers are completely air permeable, so if a little face does get pressed up against them he can still breath, no problem.  Plus, they completely cover the crib slats, so no arms get stuck.

Or so I thought...

I came in to get a certain someone from his nap today only to find this scene:

Why did I spend $30 on special safety bumpers again?

Tricky little guy.  Leave it to him to completely work around all of my safely precautions!

Don't worry, no babies were harmed in the taking of these photos.  He managed to disengage himself quite easily.

:o)

little swimmer

This weekend Drew, Asher, and I headed down the road to celebrate the graduation of Drew's cousin, Peter.  The thing we love most about living in our new hometown is being close enough to family to celebrate these special occasions!

Drew's Aunt Carol and Uncle Ron were kind enough to invite us to Peter's graduation party, so we grabbed our swimsuits and hit the road.  It was such a hot day we were really looking forward to cooling off in the pool.  Since it was going to be Asher's first time in a pool he and I went shopping on Friday for a hat to keep the sun off.

After a lot of searching we found this great sun hat on super sale at Janie and Jack.  Asher wasn't thrilled with being a model at this point, but that's ok.  He wore it like a champ the next day!

On Saturday afternoon we had a great time eating way too much food and catching up with all of Drew's cousins.  After Asher's nap we got him lathered up with sunblock and put him in his little swimsuit for a dip in the big pool.  This guy loves his bath time, so I assumed he'd like swimming just fine.  I planned to hold him the whole time and just float around a little.

Well, he hated it.

Really, really hated it.

Like cried the whole time kind of hated it.

In his defense, I don't think it was the actual swimming that he despised.  Carol and Ron have 8 children, who almost all have kids of their own by this point, so the pool was really busy and noisy with little kids having tons of fun.  Asher lives with me in our relatively quiet home most of the time, so I think he got really overwhelmed by all of the action. 

This same thing happened at the Little Gym last week.  Asher did well at first, but once the class filled up and started to get noisy with all the other kiddos he freaked out and wouldn't stop crying.  My sensitive little guy.

After I got out of the pool and held him so he couldn't see the other kids he calmed right down.  In fact, he clung to me like a drowning man.  Poor little guy!

Drew and I decided to get out his little pool yesterday to see if we could convince him that swimming is fun.  We got him back in his suit and let him splash around for awhile.  Just like on Saturday, he cried at first, but then settled down to play.  It became much more like bath time and he loved splashing around.

Hopefully we'll be able to head back down soon to try out the "big pool" again when things are a little quieter.  I really want him to embrace swimming before we go to the beach at the end of August!  The house we're renting has a pool and I think Asher could really have some fun floating around!

We'll take it slow and see what happens!

happy father's day!

Happy 1st Father's Day, Drew!

Asher and I have been having such a fun time celebrating Drew today.  We started the day by putting on our father's day best.

Then we gave Daddy his special card

and gifts

Asher helped him open things every step of the way.

Then we went to church.

Asher had such a fun time he passed out on the way home.

We love you, Daddy!  Thanks for being so loving and taking care of us both.

2 doctors, 1 week

Asher is finally done with all of his doctor appointments for the week!

This has been an especially busy week for us, especially in the doctor department.

On Wednesday Mr A had his 6 month check-up and flew through with flying colors!  The doctor was very impressed by his growth, considering all of the food trouble we had over the past few months.

The new stats:

weight - 17 pounds (50%)
length - 26.5 inches (50%)

Our baby is perfectly average.  I'm going to put emphasis on the perfectly part of that.  :o)

Asher's pediatrician said that he should keep getting new foods every 3-4 days, but to go through all of the yellow/orange fruits and veggies first.  Apparently these are a little easier to digest and since Ash has some digestive issues that would be best for him.  We're going to skip rice cereal completely for that reason, but she did recommend that he try some oatmeal. 

So, what should be next??  I'm leaning towards the oatmeal, then maybe some butternut squash.  We'll save green beans and peas for a little later.

He needed 2 shots {boo} but handled them really well.  There was some crying, of course, but he was a pretty good trooper overall.  He needs some credit for his battle wounds. 

All in all he's a super healthy baby -- yay!

Then this morning Asher had his long awaited appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist.  We made this appointment way back in May when his bloody stools were happening every day.  Since I changed my diet the blood has stopped entirely and Ash is back on straight breastmilk. 

The GI looked him over and said that it sounds like we're on the right track.  As long as the blood has stopped then we're good to go.  There's no reason to think there will be any long term effects from this bout with ulcerative colitis.

Around 9 months we're going to try slowly introducing milk back in my diet to see what happens.  The GI felt confident that Asher will outgrow this allergy, perhaps by 12 months, maybe longer.  There's always a chance that he won't outgrow it, but for now we're being optimistic.

Personally, I'm really looking forward having a little dairy again someday soon.  What should I have?...ice cream, cheese, buttery garlic bread?  Oh my, the possibilities!  My system is probably going to rebel big time.  Better take it slow.

Happy Friday everyone!

roll over if you love your g-parents

This past weekend Drew, Asher, and I made the 4 hour trip northeast to New Jersey to visit Drew's parents. 

Drew and his brothers planned a surprise get together to celebrate an early Father's Day and watch the USA - England game of the World Cup.  Surprises are so hard to pull off -- especially when people are driving long distances or flying in to be there -- but they did it!  Drew's dad practically had a heart attack when Drew came around the corner of the living room carrying Asher's car seat at 11 at night.

Drew really wanted to set his car seat on their front porch, ring the bell, and hide, but there were way too many bugs swarming around the porch light.  Too bad -- that would have been  pretty hilarious.  :o)

We had a great weekend visiting with them.  There was a ton of great food {everyone went above and beyond making me special dishes that were dairy-free!} and apparently, some soccer was on.  I'm not a huge sports fan, but I can appreciate the mob mentality and get swept up with everyone else. 

It was perfect that we arrived Friday night, but the game wasn't until Saturday afternoon because it gave us a chance to go visit Drew's grandparents.  They recently moved to an assisted living facility and have a great little apartment of their own.  Asher had met them briefly when he was at Uncle Chris and Aunt Lisa's wedding, but that was several months ago.  We wanted to introduce them properly and get some photos.  How many kids get to meet their great-grandparents anymore?  He's such a lucky boy!

At first we had a little rocky start.  Asher was a little overwhelmed by all the new faces and had a minor crying meltdown, but he rallied pretty fast.  Once we got him on the floor with Sophie everything seemed better.

Then something amazing happened....

Asher rolled over from his back to his front!!

Grandma Stella walked by and he turned to follow her.  His momentum ended up bringing him the whole way over and he didn't even complain!  It took awhile for Asher to get his arm that was pinned out, but once that was worked free he was good to go.  He really doesn't like being on his belly, so he quickly rolled back over onto his back.

I thought this rolling from back to belly was a fluke, but then he did it again a few minutes later!

Since then he's gotten much better at retracting his "pinned arm."  Yesterday he surprised himself by rolling over in his crib.  Even though he could roll onto his back, if he wanted, I think the whole thing surprised him so much that he couldn't recover and ended up screaming for Mommy to save him.

Which I did.

All in all, we had a terrific weekend and can't wait to go see them again!

Maybe next time Great-grandma Stella could teach him to feed himself or use the potty.  That would be awesome.

{By the way, we go in for A's 6 month check-up today, which includes a few shots...wish us luck!}