X Marks the Spot

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Gardening

April 2, 2011

After a long, gloomy winter I was super excited to see my Daffodils poking their heads through the mulch. Since it was pretty nice out I decided Xavier and I could do a little gardening. I put Xavier in his spring jacket, which has super cute ears on the hood, and set him in his Bumbo (the blue chair thing that helps him sit). Xavier seemed to like being outside, and looking at all of the different things. He made a kind of puckered up face when a strong breeze blew across his face.

Our First Play-Date

April 1, 2011

One of the things I didn't anticipate about being a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM), was how much I'd miss the adult interaction that work provided. So even though Xavier is a little young, Cassie (my SAHM hero) and I decided to start a monthly play-group with some of our part-time SAHM friends. Since Cassie has almost 2 year old triplets, and a fully stocked play room to match, we decided to have it at her house. We decided mornings were best and all brought a snack to share. It was really fun and I'm looking forward to our next one!

Xavier at play-group

Cassie and her girls (Rose in pink, and Violet in green)

The third triplet Wesley

Jacee and her son Sebastian (4 1/2), and daughter Isabelle (19 mo)

Traci and her daughter Autumn (17 mo)

Wesley giving "Baby Ick-sssssssss (x)" a kiss

Wesley and Violet rocking Xavier to sleep

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Yay Spring!

We're so glad it's getting nice out! It was 70 degrees out today so Xavier and I decided to take an adventure and walk from our house to Crane coffee. It's about a mile each way and Mommy still has baby-weight (and other weight) that she wants to lose. On the walk there Xavier fell asleep 5 minutes into the walk. I'm glad we have the super awesome monster stroller, because the City of Omaha does not believe in making sidewalks accessible. When we got to Crane I had a coffee and Xavier watched the lights, and enjoyed attention from our favorite manager. On the way home Xavier didn't like it when the sun got to bright, but he did seem to like the feel of the wind on his face. Hopefully we'll be able to do this once or twice a week all spring.

Xavier ready to go to Crane, His shirt says "let go exploer the city"

Xavier at Crane. Don't worry, it's decaf.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Smiles and Coo's

Over the last week Xavier has started smiling and talking to us. It's really exciting to have him interact with us! This isn't a great video, but at least you can get the idea.

Three Posts in One

Wow, I can’t believe a month has gone by since my last post! It’s amazing to me how much time a baby demands. I thought Babies slept all the time so keeping up a blog would be easy, man was I ever wrong J To make up for it I’ll do three posts in one this time.

GERD

In the One Month Old post I mentioned that we were working on figuring out why Xavier was so unhappy so often. After many calls to the pediatrician and an appointment at the Boy’s Town Pediatric GI clinic Xavier has been diagnosed with GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease).

Long story short, the muscle between the esophagus and the stomach is not fully developed at birth which is why babies “spit-up”. However, in some babies the muscle is less developed or there is a lack of coordination in the digestive tract that causes excessive, painful, frequent/constant regurgitation called GERD. Luckily almost all Babies out-grow this somewhere between 4-12 months old. Until then there are a range of medical and non-medical treatments that we’re using to try and make Xavier more comfortable.

Some of the non-medical treatments are, having him sit up while being fed and for 30 min after feeding, burping him every ounce during feeding, feeding him smaller amounts more often, and having him sleep more up-right (in his bouncy seat). Medically we’re giving him baby prevacid twice a day and Mylanta if he seems really uncomfortable after a feeding.

Our First Road Trip

When Xavier was 6 weeks old we took a trip to go see our friends by Des Moines, and to go stay with Grammy and Papa (my parents) in St Louis for a week.

Dru drove us to Des Moines and dropped us of at our friends Kip and Gloria’s house. Xavier slept the whole way from Omaha to Des Moines so that was nice. Once we got there the whole Lepke/York/Kelling/Childers family had dinner together. Xavier was thrilled to have so many people to hold and bounce and cuddle him. Cousin Sadie seemed to have the magic touch; he stopped fussing as soon as she picked him up. It was so nice to stay there and to have so much great help!

Cousin Sadie

"Aunt" Emmie

Nanny Gloria

Xavier and I rode to St Louis with my parents the next day, which was about a 6 hour drive. Luckily for us Xavier likes the car and only fussed for about 45 minutes out of the whole ride. During our week in St Louis we mostly just stayed at home and let Xavier bond with Grammy and Papa, and let Mommy catch up on some much needed sleep. My Mom’s dogs were causally curious about what was making such strange sounds. They were very good around him, mostly just looking at him, and sniffing him. They were a little jealous of him getting all of my Mom’s attention.

We did go to my Mom’s bible study group so she could show off her first Grandbaby to all of her friends. Everyone said how cute Xavier was. We also went to the school where my sister was student teaching a first grade class. It was fun to see her 6-7 year olds interact with Xavier. They all crowded around her and Xavier, and kind of “petted” him. The funniest thing was one of the little kids, after touching Xavie’rs hair, exclaimed “It almost feels like human hair!”

"Miss Kelling" Introducing Xavier to her class

Ashley and Xavier

It was really nice to have a week that I didn’t have to think about what to make for dinner, and to have lots of help with laundry, washing bottles and feedings, but we were ready to come home too. I was surprised at how much I had developed a routine at home and how much being somewhere else changed that. Dru met my parents, Xavier and I in Kansas City to bring us home. Xavier was good during both legs of that drive too, only waking up when we stopped for dinner.

Two Month Check-Up

March 4^th, Xavier had his two month check-up at the doctor’s office. He was so good while we were at the appointment; he didn’t fuss or cry even when I had to strip him down to his diaper for the check-up. He is officially 11lb 9oz which puts him in the 50^th percentile for weight, 23 inches long which is the 60^th percentile for height, and his head circumference is in the 45^th percentile. He also got his first set of vaccinations at this appointment. He drank the whole liquid one and didn’t spit any up, then he got three shots. When he got the first shot he looked at me for a second like, “why did you let them do that?” and then let out a great big scream, and cried big fat crocodile tears. I thought he might be fussy after his shots, or get a fever, but he didn’t; he just slept the whole next day.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Busy Weekend

Xavier was very busy this so we wanted to share pictures of him out and about.

Friday was bath day. Mommy's getting much better at baths in the baby tub, and Xavier likes to sit in the warm water and have mommy pour water over his tummy. After bath time Mommy put him in a cute outfit that Grandma Pam had sent.

Since he was clean and happy and dressed so cute, we decided to go visit Daddy's work. All of Daddy's co-workers thought he was very cute, and a perfect Angel. He didn't get crabby until we got back in the car, but it doesn't look like he wants to be a programmer.

Dru's family was meeting at his favorite restaurant, Maria's, for dinner so we decided to try our lucky going out for dinner as a family. We were a little worried, because Xavier tends to be most fussy around dinner time, but apparently Grandma Susie is magic.

When he started to fuss, she was able to calm him down. We even got a picture with Grandma and Grandpa, Daddy, cousin Grant and "the" Maria.

Our friends Greg and Paula, and their 18 month old little girl Hannah came over Saturday night. It was good to hang out with friends for a while. It much more difficult now that they all have kids, and we have a baby. I thought we could order pizza and watch a movie, silly me. I didn't realise how much 18 month olds move, and how little they sit still, even for a cartoon movie. But It was great, Paula cuddled, and fed, and burped Xavier and didn't even complain when she got spit-up on. We'll have to be careful though, Xavier already seems to be a ladies man, and has even gotten his first kiss.

Then on Sunday we had another first. We left Xavier with Dru's parents while we went to our friends house to watch some of the Super Bowl. It was the first time we've left him with a "sitter" and we were both kind of a mess. Dru's hoping that Xavier would behave, and me wondering how he was doing the whole time. I guess that never really goes away, since I know our parents wonder how we're doing all the time, even though we're all grown up. The good news is that Xavier, and Dru's parents, did great, and after a while we were both able to relax and enjoy some baby-free time.
Today it's back to our daily routine, Xavier seems pooped after our busy weekend.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

One Month Old

Just a quick update on life at our house. Over the past week we've been working on figuring out why Xavier is so unhappy most of the time. It's difficult to have a baby that's only ever asleep, eating, or cry/screaming. The Doctor thinks it's Acid Reflux. This is actually pretty common in newborns since the muscle between their esophagus and stomach isn't fully developed when they're born. So we're trying Zantac 3 times a day to see if that helps.

Sleep is still touch and go. We alternate between up every 3 hrs for 1.5 hrs, and sleeping for 4-5 hrs, awake to eat, and then back to sleep for 4-5 hours. Luckily I have a great husband who tries to get me as much sleep as possible before he goes to bed and on the weekends.

Xavier's current favorite spot is strapped to Mommy in his baby-sling. I have no idea how it can be comfortable for him, since he seems so squished, but he goes right to sleep as soon as I put him on. He also likes to be on his tummy on Daddy's chest wrapped in a fuzzy blanket.

That’s pretty much all for now. Since Xavier is a month old now I wanted to make sure I get some pictures up so you can see how he’s growing.