{ ENT }

The past three and a half months have been hell.  It's been full of urgent care visits, ear drops, antibiotics, and an on going schedule for tynenol and ibprofen.  We haven't slept.  Our days and nights have been nothing but rocking a sick baby and trying to comfort him any way that we possibly can. 

Alexander has now had S.E.V.E.N. ear infections.  As soon as one would clear up, another one would pop up.  We've been through 4 different antibiotics. F.O.U.R.  Most babies maybe will have to take one before they are a year old, Alex's gone through 4.  And he's in pain.  Constant pain.  Yes, there are some moments where he's happy and agreeable, we just chalk those up to the fact that his pain medication is working.

Our home is in shambles.  All of our energy and time has gone into these ear infections.  And it's getting a little old. 

So finally we were referred to the ENT who we saw today.  I knew that this point that we would be talking tubes.  I made the mistake of posting about us finally going to the ENT on Facebook (I seriously think about just deleting my account once a day).  I got some well meaning advise for alternatives to tubes.  We have used homeopathic garlic oil in Alex's ears twice a day and it has seemed to help.  We have been urged by both family and friends to look into chiropractic care for Alex's ears.  After doing research and reading stories from some parenting boards, I haven't been sold that it will be a 100% cure all for Alex.

Personally I believe there needs to be a balance between both modern and holistic medicines.  And I believe that we'll have to do a combination of tubes and chiropractic care.  Not one single path is going to solve Alex's ear issues - but I think by finding that balance we'll finally have some peace in our home.

{ brothers :: a photo montague }

 Evan and Alex have an interesting relationship.  It's been fun to watch it grow.  Alex loves watching his big brother and is starting to get really get interested in whatever Evan is doing...whether or not Evan really wants him to.

 

But Evan is a really good big brother.  Always making sure Alex has a nuk, bottle or toy.

 

They just love each other and it just warms my heart!

 

 

{ look who's 6 months...well...a while ago }

Alexander actually turned 6 months on the 17th and I took pictures that day...however we've been a bit busy with everyone getting sick...first Evan had some stomach virus...then Alex got his 6th ear infection...and lastly MJ got sick.  Thankfullly I haven't...I've just had to clean up all the mess.  ick.

So before I forget....



 

Weight : 

15 pounds 14 oz (with clothes and diapers on)

 

 

Diapers : 

Size 3

 

 

Clothes :

6 months still fitting decently - but he'll probably grow out of them soon.

 

 

Food : 

 Because of said ear infections (seriously - he's had 3 this past month) he hasn't really nursed.  And since we've gone through the stash of breastmilk we had in the freezer faster than I wanted to - he's been drinking a "sensitive" formula.  But he's also recently gotten back into nursing so we're doing a little bit of everything.

 

He's also been eating solids like a champ.  Normally its oatmeal mixed with a fruit for breakfast and dinner and a veggie in the afternoon for lunch.  He pretty much eats whatever we throw at him but we've recently given him some avocado slices in a mesh bag and he sucks that stuff down like it's going out of style.

 

 

Sleeping : 

Holy buckets.  Seriously.  Sleep hasn't been going well in our home.  Especially him with the ear infections.  Sometimes he'll get some good night sleep only getting up once or twice.  Then other nights (especially when the ear infections are coming on) he's up every 90 minutes or so.  Naps are also a crap shoot.  Sometimes he will take two 2-hour long naps and other days he cat naps a couple of times through out the day.

 

 

Firsts:

mmm...not really sure...It's kinda been a whirl wind of a month so I'm sure there has been a thing or two

 

 

Life with Alex :

  Like I said it's been a heck of a month.  Especially with all his ear infections.  We're now looking at going to an ENT to rule out anything physical that would cause him to have so many ear infections.  If so we're might be looking at tubes in his ear and possibly removing his tonsils...however if he's just a kid who's prone to them...I'll probably look into alternatives like chiropractic care or olive oil in his ears daily (has anyone heard of this and does it work?)

 

Otherwise, Mr. Alex is so full of piss and vingar.  He really is a Carver male.  Loud and opinionated.  He army crawls/rolls to get things.  And watches his brother like a hawk.  Alex feels that whatever we have he surely needs it to...so his new favorite toy?  the XBOX controller. He's even accidently figured out how to turn it on.  (so I remove the battery pack before he gets his hands on it.)

 

I love that Alex is such a momma-baby.  Seriously nothing is better than coming home to Alex smiling, panting (out of excitement) and waving his arms at me to pick him up when I first walk through the door after work.  Since he's half-weaned himself off of nursing I still miss that connection at times - but I'm lucky that we've gotten this far and that we are still somewhat continuing this breastfeeding journey.

 

Overall next month I'm looking forward to watching him continuing to grow...personality and all.

{ catchin' up insta-gram style }

Holy cow it's been a while since I've linked up to insta-friday!  But here we are...catchin' up

Have you happened upon this in your local Target?  Mike sent me a picture after spying it on a recent trip.

This is my grandfather's company.  So very proud of him and all he's accomplished!  Want to learn more...check in out here

Ever since Nancy came home from Bethseda, Alex and I spend Fridays running Nancy around to her appointments.  While she was at one appointment, we killed sometime at Target...and trying on headbands I found in the dollar section...how cute!

Alex is now on his 4th and 5th ear infections.  Thankfully they are clearing up.  However, we've discussed the possibility of going to see an ENT doctor.  I'm pretty sure we will in any case.  Here's hoping that in reality, he's just had an awful winter and he won't need tubes in his poor little ears.

430 am.  Our new wake up time.  Not impressed.

Dinner!  After a crappy week of eating, thanks to ear infections, this little one is once again all about eating!

Alex's new way of napping in his car seat.  Seriously.

Evan's home!  He just loves riding the bus to and from school.  To think just a year ago he was still in preschool.  He's growing up too fast!

Tab citations.  On a weekend.  When I can't do a darn thing about it.

Awesome.

After the snow storm we had earlier in the week - MJ took Evan out sledding.  They had a blast.  I was more than happy to be at home warm with the baby.

Look who is holding his own cup?!  I don't think we will have an issue when it comes to weaning off Alex from bottles.  Especially when he sees his cup - he just goes crazy.

Reading with Evan has gotten...kinda better.  He's either realized I will stop reading if he gets to jumpy or I've gained a bunch of patience when it comes to him hoppin' around.  In either case we've been reading a lot more.  

{ Alex is 5 months...a lot late }

Nicknames:

Billy goat, fuss bucket, drool bucket, chunk-a-monk, little one, roll-e-poll-e

Evan calls him either bug or bud.

Weight:

15 lbs 7 oz

Clothes:

Finally packed away the last of the 3 mo clothes.  Totally in 6 mo clothes.

Diaper Size:

2

Eating:

Alex still prefers breast above all else, however he will drink expressed breast milk if I am not around.  We have also started solids.  Which I think was an awesome choice.  His tummy problems seem to be a bit better than they were before.  He will pretty much eat anything we throw at him which is awesome.  As of right now he has fruit mixed with rice cereal for breakfast and dinner.  He gets a vegetable at lunch.  Alex is also still taking his prilosec.

Sleep:

What's that?

In the beginning of the month, Alex was doing really well at night time.  Going down about 730 and sleeping until 330, nursing, and then waking up for good about 530/6 am.  But then we had a really bad week where he was up every hour or so.  I finally figured out that he was rolling all over the place and waking himself up.  So I hit Target and bought some larger "SwaddleMe" blankets.  That has seemed to solve our problem.

Naps are another story.  Most days he takes 3 to 4 short naps.  Other days he will take some really good long naps.  

Milestones:

rolling from back to tummy, rolling from tummy to back, grasping everything within reach, recognizes Mike, Evan, and I.

Firsts:

Valentine's Day (spent at doctor appointments...yay!), cousin Harper sleeping over, playing with Betty (uncle Joe's dog who I forever want to call Molly)

Life with Alex:

Oh boy!  Mr. Alex is one loud, demanding, active little thing.  When he is happy, he is fabulous.  Generous with his smiles, giggles, and coos.  When he's not happy, nothing will make him happy.  Seriously.  I don't know how many days, Mike and I have spent hours upon hours trying to calm a very distraught Alex.  I'm holding out hope that one day, he'll make a turn and become an easy baby.  (but honestly, I'm not holding my breath)

Alex does love his brother.  He watches Evan all the time.  If he could crawl already, he would be chasing Evan around.  It's so fun to watch the relationship between Evan and Alex develop.  We attempted to put them in the same room - but then we started having the sleep issues with Alex so for now he remains in our room.  I'll probably attempt to put them in the same room again in a week or two.

He loves music and especially when I sing to him so we spend most of our days listening to music while I sing to him.  He prefers to have us hold him so he is standing versus us propping him up so he can sit.  I think he just likes the vantage point he gets from being up higher.  He's fallen in love with some creepy singing dog he got for Christmas and is constantly chewing on it or his fingers or toes.

Oh how I love him...

{ glad it's over }

Today seemed never ending.  Maybe it’s because I still haven’t really gotten any sleep or because it’s Valentine’s Day or because we spent a good portion of the morning getting children ready to walk out the door at 8 am.  In any case, I’m glad today is coming to an end.

This morning my boys surprised me with candies and a new travel mug – since mine had been tossed for one reason or another, as well as the first 2 seasons of Boy Meets World. (ps.  I’m totally pumped that they are bringing it back…although it will be called Girl Meets World).  But we quickly had to make our way out the door.  Evan had school and Alexander had an ultrasound and follow up appointment with his Urologist.

We got caught in traffic.  We always seem to, especially when I don’t leave much time for us to get there after we get Evan on the bus.  But Alex did so well during his ultrasound and we quickly made our way across the complex to the specialty clinic.  The good news – Alex’s kidney hasn’t gotten any worse.  The bad news – Alex’s kidney hasn't gotten any better.  So?  Well in May we’ll go back for another ultrasound.  Mike and I have decided that if we’re in the same place we are now – we’re going to go ahead and schedule the surgery that will (hopefully) correct his blockage once and for all.

After spending the better part of our morning in St Paul, we headed back home and went out on a lunch date.  We figured it would be easier since Mike had to work tonight and being down one child might mean it would go a lot easier than if we had both.  It was so nice to be able to sit down and eat out with my husband today.  We agreed that we needed to find a time when we can go out sans kids to eat or something.

After eating we did some shopping before coming home.  I think we pushed our luck with Alex – because he was certainly cranky.  Alex hadn't really napped while we were out and when he did – they were very short.  So I spent the better part of the afternoon and early evening rocking, nursing, singing, swaddling a very overly tired and cranky baby that would. Not. Go. To. Sleep.  Although finally he did.

The rest of the evening just seemed to pass right on by.  No major surprises and Evan and I got back into our nightly routine since it had been a few days since Mike had been home, sick with the flu.  However, I am having the hardest time reading to Evan at night.  He never sits still or relaxes.  He seems to spend the entire time jumping from one spot to the next, laying all over me or his brother, or just plainly interrupting me while I’m reading with nothing that has to do with what we are reading or him really needing anything.  I just don’t get it.  But I just keep trying.  Hopefully one day we can get through our bedtime stories without much hassle (although I’m not holding my breath)

And although Mike is safely off to work and the boys (for now) are tucked into bed, I know that my day isn't over.  Alex will probably wake soon since he’s been asleep since 5 this afternoon.  There are dishes to be done.  Bills to be paid.  And other random things that need to get pulled together before tomorrow.  But that gets me thinking about tomorrow and that’s going to be another long day full of appointments, errands, and cranky babies.  Oye.  

Alex and his new Giraffe - Gary - He's just a little obsessed with it

{ survival mode }

The past few weeks we've been on survival mode.  It seems like are just now finally coming out of the fog we have been in.

All of us have been sick.  Alexander had 2 ear infections, both Evan and I had some nasty virus that felt like a combination of strep throat and the flu - but it wasn't, and Mike actually came down with the flu.  I am crossing my fingers that Alexander will be lucky enough to not catch the flu, but I'm not really holding my breath.

Work has been crazy busy.  Which is good - but has meant I have taken on more clients and longer hours and I still haven't found the perfect balance between working longer hours and getting everything else done that needs to be done.

Nanci (my sister who was in the car accident) is still doing well in her recovery - but since my parents have both returned to their respective homes, Maggi and I have been trying to help her in anyway possible.  This normally means giving her rides to her appointments and making sure she has everything that she needs.  I have spent most of my Fridays with her and this week it will be no different.

Alexander hasn't been sleeping.  A few weeks ago he had started to go down at 8 pm and wake up again about 3 to nurse and then sleeping until 6 or 630.  The past two weeks he has been up every 2 hours again, except he decides he needs to start partying in his crib at 430 in the morning and normally doesn't go back down until 6 or so, when I have get up to get ready for work.  Lets just say I have been dragging.