Maddox's Present to Jeff

I had to help him out with the spelling...

Off to D.C.!

We are off to D.C. on Friday. It will be our very first family trip ever! Here are a few pics from the past couple days to hold over those of you who actually check my blog...The following is a series of pics of Maddox in his bouncer. This first one I couldn't help but post mainly because of his pot belly hanging over his jeans (6/9 months, I might add). When Maddox lays in his bouncer, it pretty much lays almost flat. What a chunk!Cute smile!

When his fingers are not stuck in his mouth, he holds his hands like this, folded across his chest. What a reverent little boy.
Today it was almost 70 degrees outside, so I dressed Maddox up in some overalls my sister bought him. Is it just me or are overalls kind of girly? I think he could go for being a girl in this pic, especially with those pretty blue eyes.
Don't know how that got out there so far...
Close up of his pretty eyes. Jeff would not like me describing them as pretty, but they just are...besides the fact that he is a big cross-eyed here too.
Maddox doesn't really like baths that much, and he has figured out that he can protest them by splashing all around. Then he gets out quicker and also makes a huge mess for me to clean up, but really it just makes me laugh. You can tell he is thrilled to be in the bath.

The closest to a smile I could get out of him.
Let me introduce you to Maddox's feet...these are his feet as a newborn, maybe he was one month old here, but you get the idea that they are HUGE!!!Today I put sandals on his huge feet for the first time. He kept looking at them..."Hmmm, what are those things?"
And here it is...the sleeping baby. So sweet!

My baby is growing so quickly, even though he hates eating! Check out all that cellulite and chub! This is right before a bath. I think it looks like he has an ape bum. So cute! And then there is me in the background. Ignore that if you can. I had just woken up as you can tell from my hair.

The other day I put Maddox on the couch like this and went to grab something in the other room. While in there, I had the urgent feeling that I needed to go and check on him, even though I had just walked out of the room seconds earlier. I bolted into the living room and saw him...
like this! I don't know how much longer he could have stayed there on the edge either cuz he is so top heavy! Our little guy is learning how to use his body. No more leaving him on the couch!
This Easter weekend my in-laws came down from Indianapolis to visit. This is Grandma Bird with grandsons Matthew and Maddox. They are best friends! If you look closely, they are almost holding hands.
I guess Garrett thought we were boring, so he took a nap in the living room. This is how he sleeps...interesting.
This is Maddox's cousin Amanda holding him. Notice the head sizes. I thought Maddox was going to smash her but although Amanda is small, she is strong and we can't forget very pretty too! Maddox loved being with her.

We also celebrated Jeff's 26th birthday even though it isn't actually until the 27th. Can you believe it!?!? We are getting so old! We had to buy TWO packages of candles just to have enough for his cake! His cake was yellow with chocolate frosting and sprinkles on top, courtesy of Amanda and Garrett. I was trying to decide which kind of cake to make. Jeff likes yellow w/chocolate frosting and also the confetti kind. It was the kids' idea to combine the two and put sprinkles on. Great idea guys! It turned out perfect!

It's a Boy!

No, I am not pregnant, but my sister is and she just found out she will be having a baby boy in July. I am so excited and so is Maddox! He has it made! Boy cousins on both sides! How much fun will that be as they get older!?!?

Speaking of pregnancy, no one ever informed me that after being pregnant I wouldn't be able run! I found that out on my own and it wasn't fun...I have just been doing elliptical in the gym up but a couple days ago I decided I wanted to go running. It was a beautiful spring day! So I put on my running shoes, went to the bathroom (like I always do before I workout), and took off! Well, sure enough, not more than five minutes into my jog, I started leaking pee with every step I took! Yes, it is embarrassing and uncomfortable and yes, I wonder if cars driving by can see a huge wet spot on my pants, but I will keep running anyway! Does it ever get better?

Jeff has this tendency to not ever check Maddox's diaper until it is too late...here is a fine example that shows the consequences of not checking his diaper frequently. We had a good laugh out of this one, although you can't tell from the expression on Jeff's face. He really wasn't grumpy. I just told him to give me his serious, disciplinarian face. Be sure to notice the poop leaked through onto Jeff's shirt too! The leakage may have something to do with the fact that we are trying desperately to use up all our #2 diapers when Maddox should have been in #3 diapers a few weeks ago...Only 10 more to go! This is a pic of Maddox on his very first ever walk and time outside without being covered up. He wasn't a fan. Too bright. We ended up just walking around our complex parking lot before he got upset and wanted to go back inside where he could actually open his eyes. I thought it was funny that the minute we walked into our apartment he closed his eyes and went to sleep! Silly boy!
This picture's purpose is to show you his huge zit on his chin. That thing was enormous and wouldn't you know it showed up the day I took him to get his picture taken (again...because the last ones didn't turn out and I had a coupon for free pics at a local studio). I really hope they can Photoshop it out or something cuz he had some great smiles! He tends to get zits everytime I bathe him.
And here he is in his new jumparoo! With acid reflux, we were hoping for a toy that would keep him upright. We debated between this and a normal exersaucer, but figured he would like this better as it has toys AND he can jump. He still hasn't quite figured out the jumping part, but is getting close. Really he just touches a toy, it lights up, he gets excited and kicks his legs and flails his arms and then the jumparoo moves and he startles himself. It is pretty funny. He has no idea he is making himself move. Sometimes he give me this look like, "What is going on?"

Amazing!

Still no pics, but I promise the next post will have some. But I am so excited to report the results of our sleep training. Maddox took four 1-2 hour naps today without crying going down and went to bed at 7:30 p.m. tonight crying for maybe five minutes or so...He was definitely ready to learn and just wanted to sleep. We just needed to help him a bit. It was the most painful thing I have ever done (and knock on wood it is over with). Now Jeff and I are just sitting around looking at each other. It is kind of lonely...Time for another baby??? :)

Sleep Training

We did it. Jeff and I started "sleep training" last night. Saying it is the most difficult thing I have ever had to do in my whole entire life is an understatement. There is absolutely no way I could have done it if I hadn't felt that it was the right time and that it was the right thing. Maddox, from birth, has never ever slept well. Sure, he sleeps great at night time, but it is the naps (or the complete absence of them) that he struggles with. This makes him chronically tired and he has just been getting grumpier and grumpier and I spend all day trying to get him to sleep. Rocking, cuddling, snuggling, swaddling, singing, bouncies, swings, dryers, carseats, white noise, music. You name it, we have done it. I knew this had to happen at some point and after reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" (twice) and "Good Night, Sleep Tight" I was able to deduce the right way for us to help Maddox learn how to sleep. We miss our sweet little active and alert baby boy and want him back! We are so tired (literally too) of him rubbing his eyes all day and crying and fussing, and having red and swollen eyes and always being tired. I miss being able to get out of my pajamas during the day and actually putting on makeup and doing my hair and cooking and even cleaning the house. Which, by the way, I have still been doing, but I have to do things so quickly that I end up making an even bigger mess...like yesterday I vacuumed and ended up, for the second time in two weeks, running over something and busting the belt. First it was my cell phone charger and yesterday it was my skirt...I know skirts don't belong on the floor, but that is seriously how little time I have to do anything because Maddox is having such a hard time.

Anyway, yesterday was the final straw. We used to be able to get him to sleep if we held him the whole entire time he was sleeping. Yes, I was desperate enough for him to nap that I sat on the couch and held him for four hours some days. After doing this for a week though, even that tactic started to fail. Yesterday, even though I held him, he kept waking up and crying and screaming, even though I was right there to soothe him. He was so over tired that he kept flinching and startling himself awake after 10-15 seconds of his eyes being closed (I sat there and counted) and this happened over and over and over again!

Sooooo, after experiencing all this, Jeff and I decided we had better start it now, even though most books say not to start sleep training until babies are between 4-6 months old. I was hoping to hold out until then, but realized Maddox is suffering and we are all suffering. After talking and praying about it and talking to LOTS of people about their experiences with it (thanks to everyone for your advice), we put Maddox down last night at 7:53 p.m. after a feeding AND we put him down in his own crib in his own room. Prior to this he had been sleeping in a pack and play/bassinet right next to my bed. Jeff spend a few minutes cuddling Maddox and calming him down, then placed him in his crib and walked out, closing the door behind him. Maddox started crying immediately and we went and turned on the water in the kitchen and did the dishes for a loooong time and then I played guitar hero and turned it pretty loud. At 8:30 p.m. he stopped crying and I thought, "Wow! That wasn't so bad!" Within five minutes he was at it again though. Then he stopped again and then started again and then stopped again and started again and then stopped again finally at 9:38 p.m. He slept until 4:00 a.m., woke up to eat and went right back to bed until 7:30 a.m. Woke up and I tried to get him up for the day but he was still tired, so I put him back down at 7:53 a.m. and he went down with absolutely no crying! It is now 9:01 a.m. and I can hear him in his crib now talking and sucking his fingers.

I will keep you updated on how the rest of the day goes...Really it is the napping he hates and I am all by myself today. Jeff has his phone on so I can call when I need to though. I am so excited to have my baby boy back! Hopefully this continues to work and hopefully Maddox and I don't shed so many tears today.

So being that Maddox is now three months old, I have started exercising again. I usually try to get down to our clubhouse in the mornings, but sometimes it doesn't happen until early afternoon. I put Maddox in his carseat with a few toys and he usually just sits there and plays or looks at the lights or machines in fascination. Not so anymore. Apparently Maddox doesn't like exercising. He has recently decided that his carseat is boring and sitting in it for 30 minutes or longer is unacceptable! So he devised a plan to get himself out of his carseat-pooping his pants. Without fail, Maddox times his poopy diapers to Mommy's working out time. I could wait around all morning for a poopy diaper and it won't come until I hit the treadmill. Within minutes, I hear some major grunting and straining and look down to see a bright red face and a then a huge grin! How can I be mad at that!?!? I really think Heavenly Father tied the whole pooping thing to smiling so we, as mothers and fathers, would still love our babies even though we are about wipe a stinky bum and get poo all over us. Anyway, within minutes of pooping, Maddox gets fussy, my workout ends, and we trudge back to our apartment to change his diaper. You would think that after a week or so of this happening that it would occur to me to bring diapers and wipes, but it never did until just yesterday...
Jeff was changing Maddox's diaper the other day and was observing his chunkiness when I captured this look on his face. It is one of those, "What do you think you are doing Mommy!?!? I am naked! No pictures!" looks. You would think that I would be good at changing diapers now that I have changed a couple thousand by now, but I have this tendancy to sag Maddox's diapers...bad idea, as you can see from the poo all up his back and on his clothing. But isn't that the cutest little bum you've ever seen?

Maddox also really likes to nap, but ONLY if we are holding him. Seriously, within 30 minutes of me laying him down in his crib, he will wake up and that is it, but if I hold him, he will sleep for hours on end. I am trying out some white noise today to see if that helps. So far he has been in his crib for 30 minutes with the fan on...Anyway, this is a pic of me (and my shiny face) after sitting on the couch for THREE HOURS holding an exhausted baby. Did I mention that my legs were aching and I really had to go to the bathroom by the time he finally woke up? Honestly, this is the first time I have held him so he could get some rest. I finally just started to feel bad for him. He was so tired and rubbing his eyes and yawning. I really don't want him to get in the habit of me holding him while he is sleeping, but he really needs sleep. Any suggestions?

GERD

Maddox has GERD, which is basically bad heart burn or acid reflux. That is why he has been so fussy lately. He has probably had it since birth, but just finally figured out that if he doesn't eat he doesn't hurt, so that is why he arches his back when I try to feed him and screams. Also, anytime we laid him on his side he would scream. The only way we could console him was by holding him upright over our shoulder. He would also scream anytime we tried to feed him, whether I try to nurse or Jeff tries a bottle. After a couple days of him not eating much of anything, I finally took him to the doctor to get a prescription: Zantac. So far, it is working a little bit, but because this has been going on for awhile, the doctor said it might take a week for his throat to heal. We finally realized this is probably why he has had so much trouble taking naps and sleeping. Now we prop him up to sleep and nap and he actually slept for two hours yesterday! A miracle! A note on babies/children not eating. It totally freaked me out. I don't think I have ever been quite so frazzled and actually considered this being my only child, although I am sure every mom has been there. It scared me to death, even more so than when Maddox was in the hospital with a heart problem. I guess I just got overwhelmed that that this condition doesn't get better until between 6-12 months of age. The thought of having to deal with a screaming child who won't eat and has to be held upright for months on end (yes, my back has never hurt more) is very daunting. BUT I still love him and the Zantac seems to be helping out considering the fact that I started this post this morning around 8:30 a.m. and it is now just after noon and during those hours Maddox was eating about half of them and sleeping the other half. Even if he does go through a couple days of not eating, he will probably be fine. He weighs in at nearly 16 pounds and he has yet to reach the 3 month mark, which will put him in the 100th percentile for weight (according to a baby book I have with a chart which may be inaccurate). He is also about 25 1/2 inches long and in 6-9 month outfits. Big boy!