The circle dance!

Theo'sDancing
Originally uploaded by MelissaandSusan

This is a video of Theo dancing. Usually he is singing a song while he does it, but he was too busy eating to sing. He has done this a lot, but the other day I was watching him and had a flashback to my childhood. My sister, Sam, used to dance JUST like this and we called it "the circle dance." Made me laugh to think that with my love of dance and all my lessons and performances over the years, he inherited his dance skills from his Aunt Sammy. Could be worse - you should see his other mom dance. :)

Thankful.

We had a great Thanksgiving and hope you did, too. As always, we are thankful for our family. Our house may be small and sometimes messy, but it's filled with love and the sounds of kids and that's exactly what we both always wanted.

I'm also thankful for my friends. Also let me take this time to say if I owe you an email, a Facebook message, a thank you note or a phone call, PLEASE don't think I've forgotten. I haven't and I feel terribly guilty. As it turns out, Miss Lucy continues to give us a run for our money. She's pretty difficult and that coupled with an energetic two year old leaves little time for much else. We barely manage to eat and bathe these days. After talking with some friends, it seems Lucy may have some silent reflux which is causing her to scream whenever she is awake and not nursing. I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow and make an appointment. I'm kind of tired of appointments.

Even in the midst of two year old chaos, tripping over Matchbox cars, choosing between a meal or a shower, walking around with a screaming newborn and feeling like it always looks like our house exploded, I am thankful. Or as Theo would say "thank you, welcome."

Let's take stock here.

Melissa and Lucy's Big Breastfeeding Adventure

10.21.10 - Lucy is born! Seems to sort of latch ok in the hospital, but Melissa is largely too tired to notice. Lactation consultant (LC) comes when Lucy is sleeping, never to be heard from again.

5 days old - Visit the pediatrician, Lucy is down 9 ounces from birthweight, despite nursing nearly every second of every day. Discuss latch issues. Purchase nipple shield on the way home.

6 days old - Melissa realizes she has Raynaud's (AGAIN) and trundles down to the local CVS to fill a Rx for nifedipine. This makes her face flush, knees hot and creates a constant low level headache. Meanwhile, Lucy's latch is shallow and she won't latch on the left at all. Nipple shield continues. Nipples bleeding. Melissa finally admits nothing in her bag of tricks is working and sees a local LC. Lucy is diagnosed as being classically tongue tied to the gumline. Very painful for me, frustrating for her, and dangerous because she can't transfer milk to grow. Referral to ENT for frenotomy.

8 days old - Lucy's tongue is clipped. Breastfeeding is now possible. Lucy transfers milk and begins to gain weight. The heavens rejoice. Melissa must massage under Lucy's tongue at every feeding. The angry, fuzzy turnip screams at me every time.

12 days old - Pain resumes. Spent the last 4 days re-teaching her to latch correctly but something isn't right.

14 days old - Back to ENT. Frenotomy has scarred down, retethering her tongue. Must repeat procedure and commence tongue massage for next 5 days.

3 weeks old - Something is still wrong. Latch looks good, but Melissa still in pain and crying during feedings. Boppy cover is stained with mascara drippings from crying while feeding. Visit a LLL meeting. Leader says latch looks good, thinks it's thrush, but neither of us have symptoms. Melissa goes home defeated, but continues to work on deep latch techniques and lots of nipple sandwiches.

3.5 weeks old - Ok, maybe it is thrush. Get probiotics. Begin taking them myself and coating Lucy's mouth with them. Woken up by feeling like glass is being driven through my nipples.

4 weeks old - Page UNC midwife in tears. She advises to page the UNC LC's "warm line" who will have me come into the hospital, provide a breastmilk sample which they will culture and then give me an Rx. Oh, but it's Sunday, so she doesn't know how responsive they will be. Page the UNC LCs, who never call me back. Call in a favor from a friend and Lucy is prescribed a Nystatin wash for her mouth.

Yesterday - Give up on UNC midwives, call the birth center and speak to a helpful nurse. She gets a midwife to call in an Rx for Diflucan for me, but says I must be seen in 24 hours. Begin taking Diflucan, continue with Nystatin for Lucy and the probiotics for us both. Latching is still awful, especially on left.

Today - See NP at the birth center. She agrees it's thrush. Continue all protocol above, but add grapefruit seed extract and lotrimin to nipples after every feeding. If it's not remarkably better next week, then we still have a latch issue and we need to be seen by their LC (who is wonderful). Agree to call on Monday with an update. Continue to fight through every feeding. Latch, relatch, latch, relatch.

So, here's the lineup:

Nifedipine - 3x/day, for Raynaud's, take indefinitely

Probiotics - 1x/day, Melissa and Lucy for a month

Diflucan - 1x/day for 2 weeks

GSE - wash nipples with this after every feed

Lotrimin - apply to nipples after GSE

Prenatal - 1x/day

Vit. D - 1x/day, Melissa and Lucy

Nystatin - apply to Lucy's mouth 4x/day

Advil - 600mg as needed for pain

Every night, boil all pacifiers, pump parts and Nystatin syringes. Throw everything away after 2 weeks. Wash all clothing in hot water with vinegar for two weeks.

And oh yeah, don't forget to breastfeed every 2-3 hours around the clock, care for your newborn, care for your toddler and be some semblance of a spouse. Showering optional.

I'm so hoping this is the last issue I have to deal with while nursing. We haven't tried a bottle yet, but it's been super tempting. And I know, it would still be breastmilk, but I just don't want to introduce any other players into this train wreck yet. Good news is, Lucy is growing like a piglet. I'm the only one struggling, she's none the wiser.

Mostly this is for my record in case someone else faces something similar. But, if you are reading this - the take home message is to be kind to a nursing mom. If you see one, smile at her. Not a weird, hoping to catch a glimpse of some nip smile, but a kind smile. If it's your sister, friend, aunt, cousin, whatever, ask her if she needs anything. Offer her a drink of water. Sit with her while she nurses. Squeeze her shoulder. Encourage her. She may look like an experienced, confident mom but she may well be going through complete and total hell.

Happy birthday, baby boy.

Two weeks.

One year.

Two years.

Dear Theo,

Today you are two years old! I can't even believe it's already been two years since the day we finally met you after so long. You have gone from a sweet, snuggly newborn to a laughing, smart, funny, adorable and loving little boy. I am so incredibly lucky to be your mama. I always tell people that after years of taking care of lots of children, the universe saved the very best one just for me. You are talking in sentences, repeating EVERYTHING we say, running, climbing, playing pretend, working puzzles and you love going to school. I'm sorry you were sick for your birthday and we couldn't go out and do anything fun, but we tried to have fun at home. You had "panbakes" for breakfast and requested "oat-meow" for lunch, which Mom made you. Mama made you baked ziti for dinner and you ate more than we did! I spent the day looking at the clock and remembering where we were this time two years ago. It's all gone by so fast.

You are my best buddy and I couldn't love you more. We are better people and better parents because of you. People tell us all the time how happy you are and that makes us feel so good. We want nothing more than for you to walk through life happy and confident. We are lucky to have you as a son and Lucy is lucky to have such a good big brother.

You are my sunshine and I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Love you, love you, love you.

Mama

Theo's 2nd Birthday Party!

Although our baby boy isn't two until tomorrow, we had his little family celebration yesterday. I knew I wouldn't be up for a big party with a newborn, so we just invited his grandparents and his older cousin, Maddie, to come down for the day. It turned out just perfect! All his favorite people were here and it was nice and low key with lots of love and fun. Poor boy is battling a cold (just like last year), but he got in an early nap and after some warm up time, was ready to party.

We had pizza for lunch, which is a rare treat for him and he ate two whole pieces. I decided to make his cake and wanted to make it in the shape of an airplane, but couldn't find a pan shaped that way. So, I decided to just make it to reflect some of his most favorite things: flags and planes. It ended up looking a bit like a GI Joe cake, but he loved it. Susan and I felt vindicated when in front of his grandparents (who think we deprive him by not giving him sugar!) I had to feed him a bite of his cake and after one bite he said "all done" and wouldn't eat any more.

He got some really thoughtful gifts, which he spent the evening enjoying! Gran and Grandad got him the Tag Junior system and his cousins sent along a bunch of the accompanying books. Gramma and Papa got us a family plus membership to Marbles (kids museum). We can't wait to use it and since it's a plus membership, Theo can take a friend for free! So, hit us up for a Marbles play date. Aunt Sammy gave him a book about poop which he is fascinated by, much to Susan's chagrin. :) We gave him a big race track, a little book from the dollar spot at Target and a photo album we made him of pictures of his favorite things. The dollar book was the big hit and he cried when he couldn't take it in the bath with him.

Thank you to the grandparents and Maddie for making the trip, it made his birthday celebration perfect! We are so lucky that our baby is so loved. Tomorrow we will make him "panbakes" and ziti and celebrate the biggest day of our lives when we became parents. Amazing.

We heart Shutterfly!

As you have noticed, our children are shamelessly overdocumented and we love Shutterfly for printing pictures, making photo books of their first year, birth announcements, holiday cards and calendars! I have found Shutterfly to be very easy to use to print all of my digital scrapbook creations, including Lucy's birth announcement. I'm going to use them to print Lucy's newborn pictures and plan to turn our favorite into a canvas wall art creation.

This year's holiday card collection is beautiful and I don't know how I will choose! Shutterfly never disappoints, the colors are vibrant, the print quality is excellent and the shipping is fast. They also have SO many designs to choose from so you don't have to worry that you are sending the same card everyone else is. We use them every year.

If you are a digital scrapper, click here to see how you can print all your own layouts, turn them into cards, or do what I did and make books of your kids' lives! Theo's first year book turned out so awesome and we get many compliments on it!

I've made a calendar from Shutterfly every year and I do them as sort of a year in review, where I use pictures from that month of the previous year. It's really fun to turn the page on a new month and see what we were doing this time last year and how much Theo has grown! The quality is great and you can even save special dates like birthdays, etc. so you don't have to re-enter them every year - they print right on the calendar!

So, there you have it - lots of good ideas for getting your holiday cards made and gifts for family members on your list this year. And if you are a blogger, get in on this deal:

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

New Theo-isms.

Mostly for me, so I won't forget!

(as shouted up the stairs to me) "Hey, babe?!" - think he hears this often??

"Oh, peanuts!" (compliments of his other mom)

"Aw, shucks!"

I think I am forgetting one. See, this is why I should not neglect the blog!

Little man will be TWO YEARS OLD next week. And, I weep.

Hello, stranger.

It's back. Not an old friend, but an old foe. When I was nursing Theo, I developed Raynaud's Syndrome and was put on nifedipine. I was so hoping to avoid it this time, but alas, it's returned. I tried to ignore it, but that is like trying to ignore someone taking a blowtorch to your nipples. So, yesterday I picked up my prescription and am back to having hot knees and a flushed face. Good news is, the meds work and I am not in pain now when nursing. Hopefully I will be able to wean off the meds in a few months.

Lucy is doing very well. Now that her tongue is fixed, she eats like a little piglet. She eats every three hours, which took Theo nearly a year to get to! At night, she goes 4 hours which is heavenly. At 7 is when she is more or less in sleeping mode, but I usually stay up until 10:30 and rouse her to feed. She then wakes around 2am and 6am, which is completely manageable. She also seems to enjoy a pacifier, which we never could get Theo to take. That helps her drift off to sleep after she's wrapped in her Miracle Blanket. Let's hope this continues!

Theo is hanging in there. He's definitely been challenging the last two weeks and melts down often and over nothing. He's also become very whiney. I think the combo of nearing his second birthday and adding a new sister has his poor little brain on overload. It's requiring a lot of work from Susan and I as it would be very easy these days to lose our cool with him. Instead, we are holding him to all the same rules, but practicing lots of patience and compassion. I also try to time Lucy's feedings so that I can get out and do something with just him every day. His teachers are well aware of what's going on, so they are being extra patient too. For all his tantrums, he does seem to like Lucy. He asks for her in the morning and pets her head very gently. He asks to hold her occasionally and looks to us to do something if she cries. He's a great big brother.