The Incredible Shrinking Baby!

Yesterday I took Jude in for his 15 months appointment (though he is almost 16 months already!) and while he is doing great developmentally, he is shrinking.  I of course can’t find the sheet of paper with his exact stats on it but I remember he weighed in at 22lbs putting him in the 31% for weight and for height he was in the 35% and for head size he was in the 13%.  And not that these stats are terrible, but according to their records he hasn’t grown at all since his last check up height wise (they said he shrunk actually and is shorter, but I don’t believe that, I think it must be a mistake on someones part), his head size hasn’t changed and he weighed a pound and a half more last month when he came in sick with an ear infection.  So he is for sure loosing weight at this point.  Ugh.

We talked a lot about his diet and our concerns that he is pretty much only eating fruit and won’t really drink milk out of the sippy cup and obviously isn’t eating enough.  So we are doing a few things to combat this, first our pediatrician is having us give him a bottle of Pediasure at bedtime to be sure he is getting all of the iron and protein he needs along with some extra calories.  I know, we get him off bottles finally only to be told to go back to giving him a bottle.  But she wanted to be sure he’d actually drink it and we are only going to be doing this for a month (assuming when we go in a month that he has gained weight and is eating better).  Also we are changing how we are feeding him.  Before we would be worried that he was hungry and so we’d offer him fruit and snacks all day long to try to get him to eat something.  And I think after talking about it that our method was keeping him from ever really getting hungry, which is why he wouldn’t ever really sit down to a meal.  So now he is on a stricter schedule of eating two snacks and three meals a day. Also, for his meals he isn’t going to be offered any fruit, though we will still give him fruit for snacks and go back to giving it at meals once he gets used to eating other stuff.  And so far it has really worked!  Yesterday before his appointment he would only eat his yogurt smoothie and some blueberries for breakfast and at lunch all he would eat is a cutie. But that afternoon I held off on giving him anything other than one tiny snack so at dinner he scarfed down some grilled chicken, edamame, cheese and a cup of milk!  I seriously have never seen him eat a bite of chicken or drink more than a sip of milk out of a cup, so it was awesome!  He only drank about 4 ounces of the Pediasure at bedtime but I think that was because the flavor was not what he was used to in a bottle and he just wasn’t super hungry because of his big dinner.  And then today he had his morning breakfast smoothie but then we held off until right before his 11:00 nap to do anything else and he totally ate scrambled eggs and breakfast sausage and a cutie!  Again, I’ve never been able to get him to eat eggs before and I’ve only seen him eat like two bites of sausage.  So awesome!  And he is in such a better mood too now that he is finally getting some real food in his tummy!

So we are going to keep working at it and hopefully next month we will see some progress when we go back in!  I hate being worried that my baby isn’t doing well!
-Liz

Fun weekend with pics

We just had my dad and his wife and their two kids come in.  That also meant that my brother and his girlfriend came in, which meant that his best friend and kiddo and her parents came in.  whew, it was a house full Sat night when everyone came by.  It was a really good visit.  I have to say my fav part was the photos.  Here are a few from the photo shoot. And this week, Liz gets Jude back full time!!! I am sure he is going to wear her out, but we are really excited for her to be fully recovered and back to stay at home mama :)
-S

Love that smile!

                           My little family

 My brother and me being weird, which Jude thinks is hilarious!

 Like father, like daughter and son:)

                            The whole crew

Sayonara Bottles!

Over the weekend we finally finally weaned Jude off bottles.  We have been putting it off and putting it off even though at our 12 month check up our pediatrician was pretty clear that it needed to happen very soon.  And as we have our 15 month check up next week, it was time.  Before weaning off bottles Jude was drinking on average two a day, one 4-6 ounce bottle (of organic whole milk) first thing in the morning and one 4-6 ounce bottle before bed.  But we were on weekends when he was home with us all day probably giving him one more bottle at some point during the day.  There is just something about having a bottle that calms him down in a way few things do.  So that combined with the fact that we didn’t really understand why he couldn’t/shouldn’t have bottles anymore kept us from fulling weaning.  I did some research online and based on how Jude chugs the bottles down in one sitting and isn’t drinking on them all day, it didn’t seem like too big of a deal.  The main problem with kids having bottles long term seems to be the rotted teeth they get from the constant sugar on their teeth from drinking milk all day long.  And from what I read, sippy cups arn’t any better for this, it’s whats in the bottle/sippy cup that is the problem.  Plus they need to learn to drink from cups, which Jude totally does all day long, just mostly he drinks water out of them.  But the problem that we did have that is a factor is that toddlers who still drink bottles end up drinking too much milk and then don’t eat as well.  And if you read this blog regularly at all you know that Jude isn’t a big eater.  So, bye bye bottles it was.

And it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be.  On Saturday morning instead of giving him a bottle I gave him a sippy cup of milk and turned on Sesame Street.  And he drank about half of the milk before he realized he had been tricked.  And even though he spent all weekend signing that he was wanting a bottle, we kept firm despite a few fits that if he wanted milk it was in a sippy cup only. So now, on Tuesday after a few days of this I think he is starting to get the message and while he doesn’t wake up and get a bottle and pretty much refuses the sippy cup of milk, he does get up and eat breakfast and has generally been a happy camper.  I worry that he isn’t drinking enough now in general and I worry that he isn’t getting as much milk as he needs (he has probably averaged about 6 ounces total a day between multiple sippy cups through the day), I know it will all even out.  Today so far he has been doing a great job drinking water out of his sippy cup and he loves yogurt, yogurt smoothies and cheese sticks, so surly he is getting enough dairy.  I’m so glad we have made this progress before his big appointment.  Sayonara bottles!
-Liz

The Sweetest Kisses

Every night we have the same bedtime routine with Jude, at 8:00 we settle into our bed with a bottle (which we are going to try to wean off of this weekend, ugh) and a big pile of books.  And we read and read until Jude is either no longer interested or we run out of books.  Then he plays crazy bounce on the bed time with S while I cheer and tickle him at opportune moments.  After we get all of the sillies out he brushes his teeth, gives me a kiss and then S takes him into his room that is all ready for bed, sings him three songs and off he goes.

Last night we did our normal routine and then while S was singing him songs he kept blowing kisses and pointing at the door.  She put him down to see what he wanted and he ran right into our room, got hoisted onto the bed where I was laying and got himself snuggled into my arms wanting more kisses.  It was the sweetest thing he has ever done.  I must have kissed his little face ten thousand times right then and he giggled and smiled through it all, then went off happily to bed.  I went to bed with such a happy, full heart.  This is the magic of parenting that makes everything so worth it.  
-Liz

Being 31 Is Lovely

I am a bad blogger these days.  I have so much time on my hands right now to blog and at the same time nothing to say.  There just isn’t much going on of interest without my little Jude here.  But this last weekend was a great one.  My birthday fell on Mother’s day this year which won’t happen again until 2019.  And so we celebrated all weekend long.  On Saturday we got up and went to the downtown mecca Whole Foods for breakfast tacos and to pick out a birthday cake for me.  I love wandering around Whole Foods, which started in Austin, so the downtown store is pretty amazing.  Of course we went for just breakfast and cake but ended up spending too much money, grabbing fancy chocolate bars, the best organic strawberries I have ever had in my life, fresh raspberries which Jude loves putting on the tips of his fingers before eating them, fresh cherries and a few other goodies.  Then that night one of my best friends Lauren threw me a garden birthday party.  It was so much fun, hanging in the backyard, playing games, eating yummy food, a fire when it got dark and of course lovely drinks.  And a friend I hadn’t seen since high school was randomly in town and came over along with her darling little boy who is 4 and had a blast playing with Jude.

The lovely Lauren and I 

Jude being a little explorer

On Sunday S got up and made us breakfast, scrambled eggs, croissants, brown sugar bacon and mimosas.  And when Jude went down for a nap a friend came over and babysat while we went to the movies.  We went and saw The Great and Powerful Oz, which I really enjoyed but S did not.  But it was so nice to go do something just the two of us, between a lack of babysitters and my general inability to go do things when the pain was bad, we hadn’t been out together since Christmas.  

Last year for my birthday I posted 30 Things I didn’t Know When I was 20.  And that was fun but I don’t think that being 31 has lead to many new insights.  It feels the same as 30.  But it is super lovely.  So instead, 31 things that I love:

1. My new Micheal Kors purse

2. Fresh cherries

3. When I manage to look nice in a picture

4. Wearing a size smaller clothing than I did last year

5. Having a toddler who (mostly) sleeps through the night

6.  Having a wonderful wife

7.  Being such good friend with my mom

8. Our Roku 

9. Steak

10. Swimming

11. Dark chocolate with sea salt

12. Pandora , specifically my Madonna station

13. Pedicures

14. Fresh herbs- basil and cilantro are my favorites these days

15. All of my wonderful best friends.  Not many people have as many best friends as I do.  So lucky.

16. My kindle , especially now that I have it set up to get free ebooks from the library.  Genius.

17. Just Jude in general

18. Prairie Artisan Ales

19. The Bloggess

20.  Young House Love

21.  My Pinterest Boards 

22. Going to the movies

23. Buffalo Wings

24. Being able to take a shower again

25. Life after surgery

26. My Keurig

27. Barton Springs Pool

28. Jude saying Mama

29. Bacon

30. Being a SAHM and getting my Jude back soon!

31. Shopping at Target

A random list, but still fun.

-Liz

Ear Infections for Everyone!

Jude and S both have slight ear infections right now.  Poor things.  S woke up this morning super dizzy to the point of throwing up and Jude has been a snotty, congested, coughing mess for the last two days. I think he has a cold/allergies (S and I are both going crazy right now with allergies) and he keeps messing with his ear so they both went to the doctor today.  S for sure has an ear infection and got some meds and Jude is possibly getting one, so we are going to just keep an eye on it and see which way it goes.  I hope he doesn’t end up getting one, he already feels bad enough as it is.  This will be his 3rd sickness in 4 weeks.  I hate it when my babies arn’t feeling good!

Surprisingly enough though Jude has been in such a good mood.  This last week or so has felt like having my boy back.  He seems so much happier and has started wanting to sit on my lap and hug me and be with me, where before he was really only interested in and clung to S.  So me being more and more involved has been good for all of us.  Yesterday and most of today he was home with me (I had help, still can’t pick him up for another two weeks) and though it was tiring even with help, it was so nice to have him here.  I miss him and I can’t wait to take him back.  I was looking at a calendar this week and because his nanny has an appointment for her son out of town on the 21st, that will be the first full day I will have him back all by myself  but he will be back at the nanny’s for the rest of the week.  Then the following week I will take him back full time with the exception of the 2-3 times a week I do physical therapy, but that will only put him back at her house for about two hours each time.  I can’t wait.  Though after almost two days in a row with him and him being sick so he was a bit of extra work, I am looking forward to spending tomorrow relaxing!
-Liz