Sweet Potato update

Tommy had a decent night last night! He doesn't seem to have any negative side effects from the sweet potatoes! 4 more spoonfuls today. Fingers crossed!

Tommy's Tummy

My poor baby has a sensitive tummy. We found out at 8 weeks that he has a dairy sensitivity so I cut all dairy out of my diet. Then, right before he turned 4 months old, our pediatrician asked us to try rice cereal so we would know how he reacted before his 4 month appointment. After a few attempts, he liked it but it really upset his stomach. We decided that we were in no rush so we waited a month before trying again.

A month later, right after Christmas, we tried again and again, he had stomach pains. He was up at night crying in pain. I tried oatmeal after 2 nights of pain and it was even worse. He cried all day and then woke up at 10:30 screaming louder and with more force than I've ever heard from him. It was 15 minutes of inconsolable screaming. I was about to call the doctor when he just stopped. I kept him in the PNP next to my side of the bed because I was so freaked up.

Luckily, we had an appointment scheduled for the next day to re-check his breathing (back to normal!) after his chest cold so I knew I could discuss it with her then.

I told the pedi all about what happened and she was perplexed. She said that she wasn't thrilled that he reacted that way but it didn't seem like an allergy, just a sensitive belly. She suggested that we skip cereal for now and move on to veggies. As long as he tolerates veggies for a bit, we can try and mix in a tiny bit of cereal and see how he responds. She does want him on cereal for the iron content but isn't too worried about it until he's 6 months old.

So we skipped all solids yesterday and HE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! Woohoo!!! I needed that after 3 straight nights of little sleep. Today, I fed him 4 little spoonfuls of sweet potatoes. I figure that if his tummy is sensitive, it's best to do a little at a time. He LOVED sweet potatoes! No tummy trouble so far. We'll see how he does tonight. If all goes well, I'll give him some more tomorrow. Fingers crossed that this goes over well.

Optimistically, I started making baby food today. I had no desire to make my own until I started looking at the pre-packaged stuff. Some brands have all kinds of other ingredients in them. Not something I want being put into my son, especially with his tummy. Then the organic kind is SO EXPENSIVE! We had some Babies R Us gift cards so I bought a Baby Brezza baby food maker and tried it out this morning. I'm in love! It makes it all so easy! I bought a package of carrots for $1.25 and made up 2 batches in less than an hour!

I put the puree in the BPA-free ice cube trays I have here and froze them and popped them into a freezer-safe ziplock bag. The most work for me was peeling and chopping. The Baby Brezza is awesome because you just put the food in, turn on the steam and blend and let it go. Tommy started crying and needed a nap while I was doing the second batch so I took him out of his highchair where he was playing and put him down for a nap. By the time I came back, it had finished steaming and blending and was just sitting there waiting for me!

I realized that I can probably use frozen veggies and prep time would be practically nothing! A bag of frozen carrots is $0.99 at my grocery store without any sales or coupons. Tons of baby food for $0.99 with no additives. Sounds good to me! Once spring rolls around, I can buy fresh, local produce at the farmers market! I'm excited to try other veggies and fruits. Hopefully Tommy's tummy will hold up!

Merry Christmas!

Tommy did so well this Christmas! I was very worried that the change in his schedule would throw him off but he really did great! Saturday morning we went and saw Santa since he had been sick the previous two weekends. We actually got a great picture too! The guy taking the pictures kept trying to get a better picture because Tommy wasn't looking straight on but I loved this one!Then we went home and wrapped presents and spent time, just the three of us. After that we went to 4:30 mass with my family. It's a mass that's geared toward kids so there's lots of music and it's not super long. Tommy was awake the whole time but did really well.

After mass, we went to my uncle's house for dinner with my dad's side of the family. Tommy had a slight melt down at 7 but after some soothing, he was wide awake and happy to be passed around to my family members. Around 8:30, he was exhausted and went to sleep. We decided to go home at that point and Tommy slept pretty well that night.

Sunday morning, we opened presents at our house and Tommy had a ball ripping the wrapping paper off of the presents! Then we got dressed and went up to my parents' house and opened presents there with my sister and Granma. From there, we went up to my Granma's house to spend time with my mom's side of the family.

Then we went to Bill's mom's house where we spend a few hours with Bill's mom and her husband, Bill's dad, brother, his girlfriend, and sister. Tommy only took a few catnaps and was a little fussy at this stop but nothing too terrible.

We left Bill's moms at 5:30 and Bill went home to go to bed since he had to work at 4am on Monday and off Tommy and I went to another one of my uncles' house to spend time with my dad's side of the family again. We only stayed there until about 7:30 and brought Tommy home to get him to bed close to his normal bedtime. He went to bed very easily and slept through the night! He must have been exhausted.

Overall, the two days were wonderful. It was so nice to spend so much time with all of our family and to celebrate Tommy's first Christmas.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful as well!

Breathing Re-check

We brought Tommy back to the doctor on Wednesday for his breathing re-check He's doing MUCH better but still has a slight wheeze so we're going to continue to give him the nebulizer treatments for another week and bring him back to be checked yet again.

In the past week, Tommy's eating habits have been odd. I've kind of chalked them up to him being sick. He was leaving more at feedings at daycare and for 4 nights straight, he refused to nurse before bed. He'd take a bottle, but would not nurse which is strange because he'd nurse in the evening and throughout the night just fine. Then two nights ago, he woke up every hour starting at midnight to eat and yesterday at daycare he ate 3, 8oz bottles! He's been eating 6oz bottles with an occasional extra oz or two added to one bottle. Poor guy must have been really hungry!

Today is my last day of work before holiday break and I absolutely can't wait to have some time off to spend with family, especially my little guy!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sick Baby

Tommy is sick. We really try to keep our hands clean and always clean and sterilize his bottles and pacifiers but I'm a teacher and around germy kids. Bill is a delivery driver and around dirt and germs. And of course, Tommy goes to daycare which, while they do a great job cleaning, is full of germs.

About a week ago, Tommy started being congested in the morning and coughing from time to time. By Tuesday, he had a pretty nasty cough going and I was worried but he had no fever and was eating and sleeping fine. By Wednesday night, he had a bit of a wheeze. He slept terrible that night and I ended up holding him semi-upright on my chest for most of the night. Thursday morning, I called into work and called the pediatrician's office as soon as they opened.

We got an appointment for 10:30 and by then, I was really freaked out by the amount of wheezing Tommy was doing. They weighed Tommy and he's up to 15lbs 1oz! The doctor listened to his chest and agreed that he had a nasty wheeze. She did a swab to test for RSV. Luckily, that came back negative.

They determined that he had a cold virus but his little body wasn't tolerating it like most people would. They decided to give him a nebulizer treatment of Alubterol to see if that help his wheezing. He HATED the treatment. He tolerated it for about a minute and a half but then he was done and screamed his little head off for the rest of the 10 minute treatment. The doctor came back in and listened to his lungs and they were much clearer. The doctor prescribed a treatment of Albuterol 3-4 times a day for a week to help clear him out. We bring him back to the be rechecked next Wednesday. So a company delivered the nebulizer to our house and we've been doing the treatments as best as we can. Daycare is able to take care of 2 treatments a day so yesterday I only had to do 2 at home. Tommy hates it. It's like we're torturing him.

My poor little guy.

Today, we waited until he was napping and did the treatment then. It worked but he isn't always going to be sleeping when he's due for a treatment. As long as it makes him better, I'll do it. An interesting comment the doctor made was that she has noticed that infants who react to cold viruses in this way, often end up with some form of asthma later in life. I have exercise induced asthma that I've pretty much outgrown but both Bill and I have aunts with severe asthma. I really hope Tommy doesn't have to deal this. I'm not going to worry about it yet though, even the doctor said to just keep it in mind for later. She said she isn't going to make any predictions and we'll deal with whatever Tommy throws us later on. Until then, I'm hoping my poor little guy is 100% better soon. He sounds much better today!

4 Months Old!

Tommy is 4 months old! He is 14lbs 4oz and 25 inches long. He is in size 2 diapers during the day and size 3s at night since he has been wetting through. He is still wearing some 3 month size clothes but we are starting to put him in 6 month size in some things. He is still drinking 6 oz bottles while at daycare and breastfeeding at night and on the weekends. We tried rice cereal as directed by the pediatrician and while he liked the taste, it gave him terrible gas pains. We are putting cereal on hold for another month. He is still teething and although you can see his little top teeth right below the gums, none have popped out yet. He is batting at toys and just yesterday realized that he can pull down the vibrating toys and does it constantly! He getting so aware of his surroundings!

I am so thankful that we have such a happy, healthy boy!

My Big Boy!

We took Tommy to his 4 month doctor's appointment (a weed before he turned 4 months) on Wednesday. He weighed in at 14lbs 4oz and is 25 inches long. This keeps him in the 50th percentile for weight and length. I don't remember what his head circumference was but I know that he was in the 50th percentile for that too. Perfect!

The pediatrician said he looked great and asked if we had introduced rice cereal yet. We had since she instructed us to do so at the 2 month appointment. We told her that he was very disinterested one day, loved it for about 7 spoonfuls the next, and disinterested again the third day. She said to keep trying it from time to time and when he starts taking to it, give it to him daily. She told us we are welcome to start vegetable or fruit purees once he is comfortable with rice but to keep feeding him rice too. She said the most important thing is the breastmilk, followed by rice for the iron, then purees.

This is interesting to me since there are a bunch of girls on the bump who claim that rice is just empty calories. I think I'm going to do a bit of research on this. We have decided that we won't start purees until at least Christmas but probably not until 5 months or later. We haven't decided if we're going to make our own or buy the pre-made stuff. I'd like to make my own but I'm not totally sure I'd keep up with it. We kind of suck at making food for ourselves. We also don't have a food processor so we'd have to buy one of them or a baby food maker. We'll think about it in the next few weeks. If we decide to make our own, the baby food maker/food processor could be a Christmas present for Tommy!

Oh, by the way, Tommy took his shots like a champ! He cried for a minute but was fine. His appointment was at 3:45 but he didn't get the shots until around 4:30. We came home and he slept on and off until bedtime then slept from 7:30-5 and went back to sleep until I got him up at 7:15 to take him to daycare!