*The Williamson Way*: 6/13/11

Monday, June 13, 2011

A BIG FAT update!

WHEW! i am long over due for a post! Things over in our neck of the woods have been going well....it's just tough trying to find a time to sit down and write anything.

I'll start with ANDY:

We had a bit of a rough spell with Mr. Andy last week. Okay, it was really really really hard. It started last weekend. We went to Fridays on the Front Porch (a big outdoor party-type in downtown Chapel Hill), and Andy was good, but when he woke up, he was angry mad. He spit up all down the front of my dress and I had to take him to the bathroom to nurse him-- not a big deal. That Saturday, I was noticing more and more spitting up- like after every single feeding, and often in between feedings, causing him to be hungry all over again- and if he was awake, he was screaming...not just crying like you would expect a baby to do, but screaming like he was in pain. He was squirming around trying to get comfortable and his little tummy was just hard as a rock. I emailed my pediatrician to see if there was something I should be doing that I wasn't, and she sent me a few suggestions to try. My mom came over to help me out some and she also agreed that something just wasn't right with the little guy.

After several realllllly bad nights of him just screaming and spitting up non-stop, and a few email exchanges with my pediatrician, I decided to take him in to see her. My mom said that I was describing his problems too kindly in the emails and that she didn't realize his level of discomfort until seeing him in person. So, I took him in on Tuesday, while Cal had camp. He woke up when we pulled into the parking lot, which means scream fest. I carried him into the office and he caused quite a stir screaming like you would not believe. I checked in over him screaming, and quickly got him out of the carseat and I left it in the corner of the waiting room, while I went in the private area to try to nurse him to calm down. I got all emotional in there, of course... I can totally handle not sleeping at night-- that's what new borns do! But what I cannot handle is watching my baby in so much pain. It was killing me.

The nurse came back to get me and we went to get weighed, etc... when we got back into the room where we would see the doctor, Andy spit up down the right side of me. I switched him to the other side to try to wipe myself down, and he spit up all down my left side. I put him on my chest (with a burp cloth!) to try to pat his back, which sometimes helps, and he spit up down the front of my shirt, through my boobs and it ran down and pooled in my belly button. Just imagine what the front of my shirt looked like. I stood up with him to try to calm him down and he spit up AGAIN, this time over my shoulder, down my back and all over the floor. Seriously. By this point, I am sweating something fierce and I cannot calm my baby down.

My sweet doctor comes in and takes one look at me and knows I need help. She starts in about how they don't like to give babies medicine for reflux because there is no real proof that it works....then she held Andy and he spit up AGAIN all down the front of her pretty linen dress. She tried to calm him down for a while and then said, "Oh, Carrie...I had no idea it was this bad. Bless your heart!" I just kept thinking it was a little gas and he'd grow out of it. Well, I am glad I took him in because we got a prescription for zantac and it seems to be helping. We were trying mylicon and that didn't really work, but the zantac in combination with Gripe Water seems to help a bit. Fingers are crossed that we have it figured out.

All of that being said, it has been really hard to get any pictures of Andy lately. If he's awake, he's screaming, and if he's asleep, I am trying to run around like crazy getting things done, or playing with Cal because I know when he's awake, I am going to need to be holding him.

Here are a few (all of these pictures are taken from my iPhone. I never have time to grab my real camera...)

Sleeping on my chest

After the meds-- MUCH happier! He is SUCH a sweet sweet little guy... I hate for him to be hurting!

Cal had to see what I was taking a picture of...

Once again, Cal is obsessed. He kept taking the blanket and tucking Andy in...

My little nugget-- love him

So, that's what's been going on with Andy! I can not believe he will be one month old soon!!! I am going to have to figure out what to do with my pictures on the side of the blog... the whole blog needs a makeover...when am I going to find time to do that?!?!

Now, onto Mr. Cal!

In one of my recent posts, I said that Cal has become interested in the potty and he even went so far as to pee pee in a bowl... I asked for suggestions and my friend Jill, who happens to be my grandbig in my sorority at Elon, who ALSO happens just found out she is preggers with TWINS!, suggested that I try the little frog toilet from Target. So, we set off to Target and bought us a little potty, just to see what would happen.

Here is the potty:

That is the only time he has really sat on the potty.

The boy peepees on the potty like there is no tomorrow. He will pee on command and he LOVES to go on the potty! WHO KNEW???

I must say, though, that I am still not ready for this! I know, I know, you can't fight it once they are ready, and I am not fighting it, and I am encouraging him to go, but it is SO hard with another one to focus on Cal! The day we got the potty, we were letting him go "free" on the bottom. I was nursing Andy and Cal decided to go peepee- yay! Well, as soon as he was done, he reached down and started playing in the pee! I was screaming NO NO NO! Which then got Andy crying, which just started a train wreck of events.

My parents went to Target and got Cal some big boy undies:

And he LOVES LOVES LOVES them, but he loves ripping them off and running naked even more. The challenge now is trying to get a diaper on him for times when training isn't going well. He screams, "no, I potty! I potty!" And really puts up a fight. It is exhausting. He is really good and ripping off his diaper now too. Saturday afternoon, he kept taking his shorts off and would pull off his diaper. So I decided that we would just focus on potty training that whole day. He would peepee on the potty and we would celebrate and then he would go over to another place in the house and peepee some more...on the floor.

After reading about my struggles with Andy lately, I am sure you can imagine how exhausting that alone is, but to hold a screaming baby while bouncing him to calm him down and squatting down to clean up puddles, is pretty tiring. I am not giving up, of course, and I really need to devote more time and energy to the whole cause. I think once we get Andy a little more under control, it will all be easier.

To focus on the positive, Cal will peepee on big people toilets as well- he loves going potty on the toilet! And he has gone number 2 twice on his little potty. Both times were kind of on accident, in that I saw what was happening and I ran and put him on the potty, but nevertheless, homie went number 2 on the potty! He will pee on command, which is pretty impressive. If you tell him to peepee on the potty, he runs to the potty, strips down, and goes...every time. Sometimes it's not a whole lot (which usually means there will be a mess for momma to clean up shortly...).

Above is a typical scene in our house-- a bare bum, checking on Andy in the carseat...oh, and Cal has his cowboy boots on too...I mean, why not? (and y'all sensing the level of chaos in my house right now?? haha!)

As a reward for pottying, I have tried a bunch of different things...usually, he will go just fine without a "tweet" as he calls them. The other day it was a million degrees outside, so I let him have a Popsicle. This was his first one ever and he devoured it! It was so cute to watch him enjoy it. Right before the "tweet" he rubbed his face on the underside of the screened porch (gotta love little boys!), and got filthy...