Andrew's Emergency Surgery

These last few months with Andrew have been such a roller coaster ride. Four months ago I noticed a change in Andrew's stools. His stools became very watery for a number of weeks and so I decided it was time to take him in to the doctor to make sure that everything was OK. The doctors first response was to test to see if Andrew was having a reaction to dairy, so he asked us to use a dairy free formula for a couple weeks to see if his stools would go back to normal. Following the 14th day of trying a new formula...with no change in his stools, we went back to the doctor. As the doctor checked out Andrew, he discovered that Andrew happened to have an ear infection...so needed to start him on antibiotics which would have an effect on his stools. This meant that, for the time being, we would have to ignore the problem with the stools as we moved forward to take care of the ear infection.
The frustration was that...we would have to take 10 days for the antibiotics and then wait another couple of weeks afterwards to wait for the meds to pass through him to see if there was still an issue with his stools. We are now about 6 weeks past our first visit regarding his stool issue. There was still no change with Andrew's stool at this point...so back to the doctor's office. The doctor checked him out again...and couldn't figure out what was going on, so he suggested we wait another week to make sure the antibiotics were out of his system. At this point, I was super frustrated.
Don't get me wrong...I LOVE our pediatrician. My frustration was not with him. Andrew has always been a difficult baby. He still struggled with sleeping (we were still just getting about 3 hours of sleep in a row), Craig and I would take turns in the middle of the night attempting to soothe him, babysitters had to have a thick skin to watch him for just a few hours...as he would cry the entire time. I remember taking him in to his doctor (a different doctor...we switched due to unprofessionalism) because I KNEW that something was not right with Andrew. He had spent most of the night crying...and not just any cry, it was a painful cry. The doctor just told me that he was a very difficult and colicky baby. I left in tears because I knew something was wrong.
Flash forward, back to Andrew's stool issue and my extreme frustration with the lack of answers. After 4 months of no answers...the SCARIEST DAY OF MY LIFE happened...

Grandma's Quilt

 

My mom has made a quilt for each one of her grandkids...and Andrew's has finally arrived. I found the tutorial on Jaybirds Quilt Blog. It's called the Radio Way Quilt. Since I sewed Andrew's crib set and matching curtains and changing table cover, my mom used the same fabrics to make his quilt. I love how it turned out! She then handed the completed quilt to a "quilter" to stitch a fun design throughout the quilt...she even sewed his name in it. 

Etsy Shop GIVEAWAY!!!

This is an example of our giveaway

My husband, like many, is NOT an easy person to find presents for. To make matters worse, he is SO GOOD at giving gifts!! He is always so thoughtful and can come up with the most creative gifts, big and small, for any occasion. The two things that makes Craig so difficult to buy for is that: 1. he is such a tech nerd and I know nothing about that world, and 2. he just buys whatever he wants anyways.
Well, Valentines day was coming and I knew he was going to do something sweet and sentimental for me...and I was at a loss with what I could do for Craig. I knew that Craig absolutely LOVED getting handmade gifts from our 3 year old daughter and he also loved receiving pictures of the kids throughout the day or videos of them playing...so it got me thinking...Emily says a few things that just crack Craig and I up, and we don't correct her verbiage because we just enjoy how our little girl talks and we are OK with her not growing up super fast. One of our favorite lines of hers is when she asks, "What does dis doos?" (What does this do?) We just love it!!! So it made me think about a bracelet I saw on Pinterest. It was a soundwave bracelet that represented the soundwave of a phrase being said.

Andrew's 7 Months Old

 

You are now 7 months old, and you are growing so fast. This month alone you have accomplished three major milestones. On March 6th, you began to cut your first tooth...and then two days later we noticed that you were cutting your second tooth right next to the first one. YIKES...you were not a fan of that at all...but you now have a super duper cute smile with two tiny teeth sitting on the bottom of your mouth.

Andrew's 6 Months Old

You are now 6 months old. I can't believe how much you have grown is such a short time...though when I look back, I can't imagine that you have only been in our lives for 6 months because I can't imagine our lives without you. Things are finally starting to settle and fall into place with you. Your night time sleeping is improving...slowly but surely.

Andrew's Half Birthday Celebration

Happy half birthday Andrew!!!

Andrew's 5 Months Old

Look at this little man!!! What a cutie pie! As you can see, you have such a gorgeous smile which we now have the privilege of enjoying throughout the day. This 5th month has been a bit rough for us all...though more for you, Andrew. You went under the weather for the first time shortly after turning 5 months. It hit you when we started to sleep train.
There are a few things that I wanted to work on with your sleep habits: your lack in the ability to self soothe and being able to sleep longer than three hours at a time throughout the night. I have been reading the book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and started to implement some of the strategies. After a couple of days, I was seeing absolutely no progress and decided to make an appointment with your doctor to go over the strategies I was using. Our pediatrician is absolutely amazing and totally supported the strategies and agreed that it was time for you to learn how to sleep on your own...without mom and dad trying to soothe him for, at the very least, 30 minutes before you would fall asleep in our arms...but this is a whole other discussion/post, so we can come back to this later.