Perfect(ly Frustrating)

So today we had Elliot's 6 month well check.I went in to it with the hopes that maybe we would find out there is a reason for his sudden aversion to taking bottles.  When the nurse took us back to the exam room to start everything she asked if we had any concerns. Normally I don't have anything, but this time I chimed right in with "He won't eat."  I elaborated that he nurses just fine, but he has started to refuse bottles and is not eating much during the day.

She took her notes and then went about getting all of Elliot's measurements:

Weight: 17 lbs 3.6 oz - 43rd percentile
Height: 27.5" - 84th percentile
Head - 17" - 44th percentile

So he is growing just fine and there is nothing to be concerned about there.

My rolly poly little guy

Then Dr. Graham came in to do his exam and we started to talk about my concerns with the not eating.  He felt and listened to his belly, felt and looked at his gums, looked in his ears and did some general observing.  The good news?  He's perfect and there is nothing physically wrong that he can see that's causing Elliot to refuse to eat.  The bad news?  There is nothing that he can see that's causing Elliot to refuse to eat. So he's perfect and it's perfectly frustrating.

We talked about how we've been trying some solids and Elliot is not receptive in the least. I admitted that I haven't been very consistent because it's frustrating when he refuses to even let me get the spoon to his mouth.  I have tried multiple times and he has not taken to it AT ALL.  I'm not sure if he's even swallowed one bit of food.

This wouldn't be a concern to me IF he was getting enough milk during the day, but he's not.  I know first foods are "practice" and he should be continuing to get his nutrition from breastmilk, but therein lies the problem. He's refusing to drink the milk during the day.  I'm at a loss. I just don't get how he goes from taking a bottle with no issue whatsoever to just downright refusing to even let us get it near him.  I've googled, I've talked to other moms, I've asked thoughts and opinions and advice.

On the way home from the appt we stopped at Target and I bought two different training cups/sippys and every baby food on the shelf (carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples, pears, and prunes).  Elliot was asleep when we got home so I let him nap, but when he woke up I nursed him (he hadn't eaten since 7:00 AM and it was 2:00 already) and then decided to try some pears with him.  He wouldn't even take one bite. I got some in his mouth and he made a face and spit them out.  I put a little water in a sippy just to see if he would take a little fluid from it and he just flung it around the tray.   I pretty much just got this look from him:

So right now I'm at a loss. I don't know how to get him to drink more milk during the day and I don't know how to get him to be receptive to food. I thought by now he'd be putting everything in sight in his mouth, but he doesn't.

I don't know, I'm just rambling. Exhaustion does that to me.

And now he's crying so I'm going to go nurse him so he at least gets some nutrition today...

6 Months!

That's right. Somehow it has been 6 months since Elliot made his dramatic  (and fast!) entrance into our lives. His 6 month well check is on Wednesday, so I won't have his stats until then, but one thing I know for certain is that we don't have to worry about him not getting enough to eat. My roly poly little guy is just that - roly poly  :)

One thing I AM worried about is his current bottle strike that he's been on. He's done this a few other times but it's normally only lasted a couple days. We are on a week of him fighting bottles and downright refusing to take one half the time.  Our normal bedtime routine has consisted of him getting a bottle of pumped milk and then nursing. This past week he has cried when he sees the bottle and I've just nursed him instead..

My mom is watching the boys today while our daycare is closed for vacation and I am beyond stressed that he is going to give her a hard time.  I made sure to top him off before I left this morning, but he'll still need to eat at some point. I haven't gotten any messages from her besides saying he went down for a nap, but I'm about to check on him to make sure  he's doing ok. That and I need to make sure Andrew isn't being too much to handle.

My mom will be helping me out tonight while J is out of town for his grandmother's funeral (more on that later) and I'm hoping he's back tomorrow night so I'll have some help Wednesday morning.

Anyway, Elliot is growing like a weed, is as sweet as ever, and is a beautiful little baby that I am so blessed to call my own.  I love this little guy:

Happy Valentine's Day

I've never been a huge fan of valentine's day since there is just way too much pressure to come up with some great romantic gesture.  Now that we have kids I find it a little more enjoyable because now I get to dress up the boys and get cute videos like this:

I dressed Elliot up in the same little outfit that I had Andrew in for his first v-day:

I didn't have the funny striped hat for Andrew, though.  :)

I got a cute little rosebush, some candies and the traditional homemade card from J and the boys:

And I got him those Valentine's cakes, the Reese's hearts and some bubble bath and champagne.  ;)

I'm guessing we'll have a nice low key night in and have our little celebration after the boys go to bed.  No fancy restaurant and high priced flowers needed.  Next weekend we'll have a date night when my mother-in-law is in town to watch the boys.  I'm kind of happy to delay it so we don't have to deal with the crowds this weekend.  Plus I'm finally getting a haircut next Saturday so at least I'll look nice.

Weekend Recap

Another weekend that went way too fast.  Since I have a lot of work to do today I'm just going to do a quick photo dump.

Friday we went to dinner with some friends and got home later than the boy's normal bathtime, so we combined both of them into one tub:

That night we were pleasantly surprised to have Elliot sleep over 10 hours.  Saturday morning he had me up at 7:00 so we hung out watching some Olympics.

Andrew had an afternoon with his daddy and they went to the Fireman's Museum and the park:

We took Andrew to get his 3rd professional haircut he he was an absolute rockstar and didn't shed a single tear:

We met some friends out for dinner on Saturday and I was so glad Andi was able to meet Elliot:

Saturday night Elliot again slept 10+ hours and then yesterday he took a 3 hour nap (which is unheard of - Saturday the longest he ever napped was 40 mins).  I took Andrew to Walmart with me while Elliot napped and then the four of us went over to the park - Andrew on the back of J's bike and Elliot in the stroller.  They played on the swings for a while:

and Elliot and I had some bonding time:

Last night Elliot slept just over 9 hours, so not as good as the previous two nights, but still pretty damn good.  He woke up right when my alarm went off so it was perfect timing.

Now here we are back at Monday and trying to make it through another week. I am so looking forward to next Monday when I have the day off (President's Day) and the boys will be in daycare so I can actually get some stuff done around the house.  Just have to make it through these five days...

Am I In There?

I've been taking a picture a day of both Elliot and Andrew and collecting them in separate albums on facebook. My goal is to capture a picture a day for the entire year.  I know some people I'm friends with on there might get sick of seeing pictures every day of my kids, but oh well.

Anyway, yesterday I posted this picture of Elliot:

Soon after, my mom commented "I am seeing more & more of you in Elliot as time goes on."

Since he was born we have been trying to decide who he looks like. With Andrew it was a no-brainer - he came out looking like a miniature version of his daddy.  As he's grown some people have said they are starting to see some of me in him, but to me Andrew is still all daddy (except those blue eyes).

Elliot has been a different story.  As soon as I saw him one of my first thoughts was "Who do you look like?".  When he was an itty bitty I saw some resemblance between him and Andrew, especially when his eyes were closed. As he's grown I feel like he is changing.  They have some of the same features, but his big brown eyes and his fuzzy brown hair are so different from Andrew's blue eyes and blond duck fluff that he had at this age.  They do have the same little round head, though.  :)

I would like to think that Elliot is starting to look more like me. I mean, after 18 combined months of pregnancy I would like to at least have one kid that looks like me!

I'll have to go home and see if I have any baby pictures of me. Being that I'm the third child in my family there were not nearly as many baby pictures taken of me as there were of my older sisters.  And since that wasn't the digital age pictures weren't as easy as they are today.  But here I am at 37:

What do you think?  Is my second little munchkin going to take after his mommy?  I guess only time will tell.

Brothers

When I was 12 weeks pregnant with Elliot and we found out we were having another boy I got so excited.  I know it is possible that boy and girl siblings can be extremely close.  I have many friends with brothers who are very close and I have several friends with boys and girls and I see them being close as well. I just figured that two little boys would be the best of friends.

When we brought Elliot home my hopes were somewhat dashed by Andrew's reaction.  He didn't want to touch him and you can be damn sure that he didn't want to sit with him or hold him.  It made me a little sad and I got a little emotional when I saw how adamant he was about not being anywhere near his baby brother.

As time went on he got more comfortable with Elliot. We still had trouble getting him to sit with Elliot for pictures (our Christmas pictures were a pretty big fail) but he would always ask where Elliot was if he couldn't readily see him and he loved to pat his head.

Fast forward to now and I'm starting to see the love that he has for his baby brother. When Elliot wakes up from a nap and starts fussing in the crib Andrew will exclaim "Elliot's crying!  Let's go find him!".  Then he'll go running into Elliot's room and yell "There he is!".

Yesterday I put Elliot in his crib so I could fold his laundry and put it away while still talking to him.  After a minute Andrew came into the room to find his brother.  He climbed up on the side of the crib to look at him and said "I get in there.".  So I picked him up and set him in there, telling him that he had to just sit and not jump because his baby brother was there.  For the rest of the time that I was folding laundry he sat in there giving toys to Elliot and being sweet:

When Andrew is nearby Elliot can't take his eyes off of him.

He'll stare at him and start laughing when Andrew does something silly. It warms my heart to see the big smiles and hear the little giggles that Andrew gets out of him.

There's a part of me that can't wait for Elliot to grow up more so he can actually play with Andrew.  The other part of me doesn't want him to grow too quickly since he is my baby and I don't want it to pass by too fast.  I'm enjoying this time with my little guys.  Yesterday afternoon when I was sitting on the floor holding Elliot and Andrew walked over and gave him a big hug before crawling into my lap as well, I couldn't help but smile.  I just hope that as the years go by they remain close and always have this kind of love for each other.

My sweet boys.