Andy is 2 months old!

Andy just had his 2 month check up this week!!!  WOW! I swear, time is FLYING by....

We have REALLY turned a corner with Andy and it is WONDERFUL!  He no longer has the nickname "the screamer" and has become a much much happier little nugget, thank you LORD!  When all of the screaming/spitting up/general unhappiness began, my pediatrician (and Jill!) suggested giving up dairy.  I didn't really think I consumed that much dairy, but I was happy to cut out milk and ice cream, etc... when that didn't seem to make a difference, I thought it had to be something else.

But, then I started to notice a correlation between what I ate and his tummy issues.  If I had a cheesy meal (lasagna, casseroles...), Andy had a horrible time with his stomach.  So then it dawned on me like a total dumb head that cheese and butter are both dairy products.... DUH.  Yes, I'm an idiot...I just wasn't thinking CHEESE..ugh.  I read somewhere that it takes about 2 weeks to get all of the dairy that is in your system out of your system.  While we were at the beach, I decided to give up all dairy to just see if it made a difference-- and it did!

Before, if Andy was awake, he was screaming and writhing in pain (literally every second he was awake, he was in pain and screaming bloody murder).  It was SO painful for me to witness and not be able to help him.  I just wished I could have taken all of his pain for me, instead of him.  He was also spitting up around 15-20 times a day-- not just a little spit up here and there, but massive projectile spit up, like I have never seen before. I was changing his clothes up to 6 times a morning and I was having to change my clothes as well. Bibs didn't work...the spit up was traveling further than a bib would reach.

Now, without dairy, if he's awake, he's laughing, cooing and smiling.  Seriously, it is like a new kid.  He VERY RARELY cries, and that's usually only when he's hungry, so it doesn't last very long.  He still dribbles some spit up now and then, but it is nowhere near as often, or with as much force as before.  I really can not get over the difference.  Andy is the happiest little guy now!  WOOHOO!

Some of my friends suggested we stop nursing and start him on "liquid gold" formula.  This special formula got its nickname because it is insanely expensive, but it is so broken down that babies can digest it really easily.  I nursed Cal for 10 months and I really was not ready to give up on Andy yet.  There is nothing against formula at all, but I really enjoy nursing, and I didn't want to quit without fully trying everything.  Thank goodness I didn't give in!

yo! I'm TWO months old now!

We had Andy's 2 month check up yesterday and he did great! Our pediatrician was thrilled to see him so much happier.  The last time she saw him, he was in a great deal of pain and screaming.  She said she's never felt so bad for a mother before.  I guess I was pretty worn down looking! HA!

Here are his stats:

Weight: 13 pounds, 3 ounces--- 75-90th% (Cal weighed 12.5 at his 2 month)
Height: 22.75 inches --- 25-50th% (Cal measured 23.5 inches at his 2 month)
Head circumference: 40 cm--- 50th% (Cal's head was 41.5 cm at his 2 month)
(I think it's neat to see where Cal was in relation to Andy-- Andy seems much longer than Cal and I can't believe he weighs more than Cal did!)

Sleeping:
We are working on this department! He is doing MUCH better than Cal ever did with sleep, thankfully.  Cal took his morning nap in the carseat and his afternoon nap in the swing.  The damn swing.  I have such a love/hate relationship with that thing.  Back on track-- Andy sleeps in his crib; something his brother did not do for months.  Andy takes a morning nap in his crib around 8:30 or 9 and usually sleeps for about an hour.  He takes his afternoon nap in his crib as well, from about 2:00 until about 4:00ish... (as I write this, he is still asleep and it's 4:45....).  He will take little cat naps in between those set naps, which he needs.  Those little naps are usually in the car as we run from place to place and they do not last very long.
Andy is sleeping on his stomach, like his big brother did.  He has a really strong neck, so I don't worry about him too much (however, I do still worry, obviously).
I am trying to rock him until he is almost out, then putting him in the crib drowsy so he can work himself to sleep.  Sometimes this tactic works better than other times. 
Andy has been waking around midnight, 3:00 and 6:00.  I do not change his diaper at the midnight feeding, but I do at the 3:00... I am thinking about not changing it then because it really wakes him up then.  At midnight, he eats and is back down in about 30 minutes.  At the 3am feeding, we are usually up for about an hour, sometimes an hour and a half.  At 6, I just go get him and bring him in bed with me.  He eats for about 10 minutes and then falls sound asleep in my arms, snuggled up.
Our pediatrician suggests that we start letting him cry it out for the 3:00 feeding.  I just don't know that I am able to do that yet.  Isn't he still too young?  Is that what we need to do to get him sleeping through the night earlier?  Cal was such an awful sleeper, I obviously don't know what is best, but I do know that he seems too little for that!

Eating:
Andy is doing great nursing!  He avoided the right side yesterday and the day before for whatever reason.  I had to pump a little to relieve the pressure.  I think that side flows fast than the other side and he was choking on it, and decided that he just wouldn't take that side!  He has been better about it today, thankfully.
He is eating during the day almost every 2-3 hours.  From time off to time back on again, it's at least 2 hours-- never less than.
Andy belches like a man in between sides (and it cracks me up).

Tummy Time:
We haven't been doing Tummy Time as much as we probably should, but we are going to start it this week! Our doctor was impressed with the strength in his neck, but I know we need to continue building that strength by doing tummy time.
Andy has flipped from his belly to back twice.  He does NOT enjoy this at all, but we still cheered for him as he did it!  I want to see him doing this more often so that I am more comfortable with him sleeping on his belly.

Likes/Dislikes:
Andy loves watching Cal and often will just sit in his chair cooing/laughing at his brother.  To be honest, I think it is about the sweetest thing I've ever seen. 
He does not like loud noises that startle him.  That gets him really upset...
Andy has ONE paci he will take.  Just one.  Not one BRAND, but one PACI.  If we lose this thing, we are screwed.  Do any of you have any suggestions for breaking in a paci?  The one he takes was an old one of Cal's (I disinfected it by boiling it, don't worry), so it's really broken in and the nipple is super soft.  All of the other pacis are harder and he won't take it at all.  He will chomp on the "lucky paci" though, and we are very grateful for that! It helps him get to sleep!

All in all, we are really getting used to being a family of 4 and I LOVE IT.  I can not imagine my life without these wild and crazy boys.  I am looking forward to watching Cal and Andy grow up together, play together, and inevitably, get into trouble together! I feel so blessed to have a healthy little boy who is growing like a weed!

Last call!

Just a reminder that I am going private tomorrow... send me your email address if you'd like to continue reading the blog! I'd love to have you stick around! :D

I'm working on the 2 month/22 month post right now and will publish it tomorrow....!

xoxo,

Pics/videos from the iPhone

I always have my phone on me so it is easy to grab quick pictures or videos of the boys... here is what's been going on lately, according to my iPhone!

Every morning, Eddie gets up with Cal and takes him downstairs for breakfast.  Andy and I try to catch a few Zs in bed together (I do love some snuggle time!) before they come back up at 8:00.  When they come back up, Cal joins us in bed.  I LOVE this time with them. Both boys, and usually Hank too, and me, all piled into the bed together.  Cal gets under the covers and is super sweet...

We joke in the family that Cal is going to be a hoarder.  He LOVES his cars (and balls, and golf clubs and...), and he tries to carry as many of them as he possibly can at one time.  It is so cute to see his little chubby hands gripping all of them at once, like he's terrified that they will disappear if he puts one down!

 And here we have one of Cal's "spots" for his hoarding... we call this spot the garage.  It's in the couch, behind the back cushions.  I have found as many as 16 cars stuffed in there before.  Not joking. 

This picture was taken after nap time...we had gone to the pool in the morning, so Cal has some kind of pool/bed head.  I was changing Andy's diaper and Cal wanted to get on the changing table too...ooookkkaaayyyyyyy!

And here's Andy!  He is two months old now (update on that tomorrow!), and he is smiling more and more...like, all the time.  I don't even want to write it, but I think we have turned the corner with his tummy issues.  I will write more on that tomorrow though... we have his 2 month check up in the morning and I am anxious to see the doctor! But, here is my little nugget, smiling away!  Side note: Cal HATED this chair and spent maybe a total of 8 minutes in it his whole life.  Andy LOVES it.  He can rock himself by kicking his little legs and it just cracks him up!

Cal and I went to a birthday party on Sunday for a set of twins in Cal's playgroup.  It was a "pool" party-- they had some kiddie pools in their backyard and the kids all ran and splashed in the water.  Cal was attached to my legs for a good part of it.  He got nice and wet in the pool and then insisted I hold him.  I looked like I wet myself and leaked milk all at the same time. Pretty picture, huh?  Here is Cal sitting next to the birthday girl eating some snacks.  He looks so old to me...

Ummm.... are we in trouble???

Yesterday after naptime, Andy was still down and I was just exhausted for some reason.  I was making cookies for a friend and just wanted some quiet time.  Cal went down at one, and I tried to get Andy down, but he didn't go until 3 and then Cal woke up at 3:20... so 20 minutes of quiet time wasn't enough for this momma!  Anyway, I have written before about Cal's dislike for the TV.  He won't watch it.  He would rather be running around breaking something, swinging something, or hoarding something (haha).  Well, I think he woke up a little premature on this day, so I put in a video of Mater, from the Cars movie.  It's some short film about Mater "tales"... on sale a Target....had to get it.  Cal LOVED it.  I gave him his snack and some juice and he was a happy little guy!  Hank had to help out and I had to take this picture-- a boy and his best bud! They literally sat like that for almost 45 minutes!

And earlier today, I had Andy in the famous aforementioned chair and he was smiling, cooing, and just cracking himself up... I was taking pictures with my phone and then someone else wanted in too...(see second shot)

Here are two videos from the week...

The first was an encounter with a bug--

And the second, I was reading my friend Rachel's blog (hi Rach!) and she did a post about her son playing basketball... Cal came in to watch it and started clapping and cheering.  After watching the video 70 times, I decided to film him watching it.  He now says "basketball" non-stop. 

going private

So yesterday afternoon, I was doing a little blog perusing and I was on a friend's blog, and clicked on a random blog on her "blog roll" on the side.  From that blog, I clicked on another blog. Before I knew it, I was reading about some stranger's birthing experience.  I felt extremely creepy, like I was violating her privacy...even though she put it out there on the world wide web...

It dawned on me...in a public setting like this, anyone can read my blog.  Not that most people would even care, but it does kind of make my skin crawl to have no idea who reads this thing.  There are some creepy people in this world and I want to protect my family as much as possible.  (hello, Jaycee Duggard story rocking my world a little bit...)

I have decided to make my blog private.  I will continue updating it as much as usual (I might even do it more!).  If you would like to continue reading my blog, and I sincerely hope you will!, just send me your email address so I can add it into the system. 

It's going to go private this Friday, so just let me know if you want to keep up with us!! 

Thanks for understanding... :)

Andy's One Month Pictures

When Cal was a month old, we had Tamara Lackey take pictures of him and we wanted to do the same for Andy. It was a MUCH different experience this time around!

It was a HOT day.  Not just hot...HOT.  Like 99 degrees out with 150% humidity hot.  Like your makeup will sweat off, so why even bother wearing any kind of day... and forget about your hair!

Cal came to this photoshoot.  That in itself just oozes chaos.  Need I say more?

Eddie came, but only had a short time because it was in between appointments, so we had to hustle to get him in pictures before he had to leave.

Oh, and then there is the whole Andy screaming non-stop and spitting up constantly thing.  And he did not disappoint during the session.  I think he spit up no less than 30 times.  I was working non-stop to get him to stop crying long enough for a picture. 

So, when Tamara sent me the slideshow of pictures, I was pleased that any of them turned out, and some were actually really good! 

I posted the link on facebook, but for those of you that might have missed it, here it is!  Now we just have to decide which ones to order....

http://www.tamaralackey.com/TheWilliamsonFamily2011/

Oh, and the funny faced pictures at the end were how we ended the shoot.  Cal was over it, Andy was over it, and I was just flat SPENT.  Worn. OUT!

Let me know what you think! 

Brotherly Love

Cal is still pretty smitten by his new little brother.  He takes his role as big brother VERRRRY seriously.  When Andy cries, Cal screams: "OH NO, Andy!!!" And then he looks at me and points at Andy while saying, "Andy paci, momma, paci!"  He knows that a paci will help calm him down! 

When we are in the car and the paci falls out of Andy's mouth, Cal will make sure that I am aware:

Cal: "Momma?! Mommmmmma?!?!?!  MOMMA!!!!!" (getting increasingly louder and louder)
Me: "What, buddy?"
Cal: "Paci!  Andy paci, oh no! Ohhh NO!"

And if we are home, Cal loves to put the paci in for me.  He runs to Andy and tries to shove it in, usually upside down.

Cal also thinks it is his job to wipe up Andy's spit up/drool.  If he looks across the room and sees that Andy has spit up, he charges at him with a burp cloth and wipes his entire face.  It is reallllly sweet to see...

This may seem so stupid to anyone reading this, but these are the kind of things I want to remember down the road. 

Here are some pictures from a 2 minute window earlier today.  You can see below why
1. I can NEVER leave Andy unattended when Cal is around
2. How much Cal loves Andy
3. How full my hands are! haha

whatcha doing, andy??

just a little smooch

and now I will pick you up by your head.

I might change the name of my blog to "just another day in paradise"! Eddie and I are loving every minute of it, but it is certainly CRAZY around here!  Last night, we were trying to eat dinner and I had Cal climbing on top of me screaming "up, baby!, up!" (whatever that means, he says it all the time...), Andy was screaming bloody murder while Eddie tried to quiet him, and Hank was wrestling with a stuffed animal and from the sounds of it, the stuffed animal was winning.....

4th of July at the beach

Happy 4th of July!!!

I hope each of you had wonderful holiday weekends!

The boys and I headed down to my parents beach house with my mom the Thursday before the 4th... on Friday, my dad, Aunt Libby, Eddie, and Eddie's mom and sister all arrived at the beach.  Eddie's mom and sister decided last minute to make the trip and we are so glad they did!  Mom and I stayed for the full week with the boys and I was in HEAVEN!  My mom just knows what I need, when I need it... for example, she knew that Andy was waking up at 4:30 every morning and NOT going back to sleep.  She walked in the room, took him from my arms, told me to go to sleep and not come out of the room.  It was AWESOME.  She also came in one day, told me to get outside on the dock and go read my book while she watched the boys.  Again, it was AWESOME.  I did not want to leave the beach, obviously! Momma, if you are reading this: THANK YOU!  You are the absolute best! 

I took a ton of pictures during our week there, and I will try to share some of them here... I have a lot of catching up to do, blog-wise!

Cal was pretty good in the car on the way down (shout out to Nemo!), but when we got to the house, he was a WILD MAN.  He ran through the house like a crazy person.  While we unloaded the car, fed the babe, etc, he pulled every cushion off of every chair and couch and made a massive pile on the middle of the floor.  He thought this was hysterical.  I just loved seeing his smile while he was doing it!

 Again, my mom was wonderful the entire week...the boys loved having her around!  This picture below on the left CRACKS me up.  Andy is obviously a boob guy--haha!  He buried his head and passed out on in her chest!  We were worried he couldn't breath, but he was snoring away all snuggled up!
The picture on the right was typical in the house.  Cal loved to help Grandma brush her teeth.  He would take the toothbrush and brush his own teeth too-- we are all family, right??  (if you are grossed out by that, quit reading my blog.).  Mom-- the boys love you!

We spent a TON of time outside and Cal was in heaven playing in the little kiddie pool.  We have a deck that is on a canal (not on the beach) so we could watch the boats go by as he played.  Cal discovered he LOVES the boats and he would run to the railing and scream, "LOOK! A BOAT!" and everyone on the boat would look up and laugh and Cal would wave and say "HI!".  It was pretty funny to watch... Andy got a little Bjorn time and was happy too!

 

 We have a wagon at the beach that Cal loves loves loves!  We broke out some flags to celebrate the 4th and Cal was obsessed with putting them in the little holes in his wagon.  He was very patriotic the whole weekend :) If you look at the bottom picture on the right, his aunt CB is holding him while they look at boats and he is clutching all of the flags behind her back-- such a sweet picture!

Andy, although still very patriotic, didn't really care where we put the flags!  He found a great resting spot: right in the middle of the living room on the couch!  I know he shouldn't be on his tummy...we went through this with Cal, remember??  BUT, I do think it helps his tummy issues (more on that in a later post) and he sleeps much better on his belly... he also likes the carseat, but we are finding we get longer stretches of sleep when he's on his tum. Check out those lips....couldn't you just smooch him??

We spent a lot of time on the water too.  The paddle board is so much fun and we all enjoy doing it.  I was the first one out... both boys were napping and I was fully clothed and could not wait, so I jumped right on...thankfully I didn't fall... it's much easier than it looks...not to mention a great workout!

Cal wanted to join his daddy in the activities, so Eddie took him paddle boarding as well!  Cal is wearing a life jacket as the main rule at the beach house is you have to wear a life jacket as soon as you step off the deck towards the water-- Grandpa is very strict on this rule and the kids are all really good about following it!

 After he was done, he did a little swimming in the pool:

After dinner one night, Cal climbed up on Grandpa's lap to point out some boats.  How sweet is that picture? Melts my heart...

Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about Andy!  On the left, he's taking another great snooze (you might find it odd that I took pictures of him sleeping, but it's been kinda rare that he snoozes that long, and I was excited.  Like a lot...)
And on the right...you guessed it: A SMILE!!!  He is smiling more and more now and it seriously is the cutest thing ever!  He must think I am pretty funny looking because he cracks up at my face all the time.  This picture just caught the half smile.  With the camera's delay, I missed the full on smile, but you get the idea.  Pretty cute, huh??  I'm allowed to say that, right?

Our neighborhood down there has a great 4th of July parade and we were super excited to participate in it this year!  We decided we would pull Cal in the wagon, so we had to decorate it up a bit... I took it to a whoooole "nutha" level....

We woke up on the morning of the 4th and got everyone dressed and ready to head to the parade!

Cal saying CHEESE with his grandparents:

 The boys' outfits... I got a few better ones of Andy, but you can't really see the outfit :)

 Carrie Beth, Grammy and Andy waiting to go...

 Cal in the wagon!!  When we first got there, he was excited to be in the wagon and see it all...

 It was a hot hot hot morning, but we were happy to be there!

 Once Cal realized he could get out of the wagon and walk, it was all over.  He wanted nothing to do with the wagon again!  He was all about walking!

 We started out towards the back of the parade anyway, but with Cal trotting along at a snail's not-so-fast pace, we were soon the caboose of the parade...Cal didn't care though!  He was taking this very seriously!

 When the parade wound back around, we waited and joined back in in the middle, so we really only did half of the parade route, and it exhausted our boy!  We came home for some swimming! 

This is my favorite picture from the weekend:

 Eddie and Hank out in the canal:

We had really great weather most of the time we were there, and one day it was slightly cloudy (hardly at all), so we came in for a little bit and Cal was into everything...literally:

 We went to dinner in Beaufort that night and ate on the water where Cal could see all of the boats... he was so excited to point them all out to us!

This picture of Andy is so funny to me... he loves to sit up like a big boy!

 And finally, playing with the hose in the pool!  Eddie's mom gave Cal this "Cars" hat and he loves it.  He loves all things from that movie and screams "McQueen!" every time he sees anything related to it- haha! He loved getting sprayed in the face with the hose-- seriously... and at the bottom picture, he was yelling at a boat that just went by our house...haha

 I got some great pictures of Eddie's mom and sister from this week, but for some reason, they aren't loading on the blog... I tried two different ones of them and they aren't loading.  They must be too gorgeous for my site :) but I do love y'all!!  There are a ton more pictures up on MobileMe.

It was a wonderful week and I was not excited about coming home, but I must say...it feels quite nice to be back again. We've been gone a lot and it is nice to just be HERE.... remind me I said that this week when everyone is melting down at the same time....!!!