Potty Training, Crawling, and Diet

This week I'm working on potty training with Ava, wish me luck! I think she's ready. And as a bonus, she just got moved into the Nursery with the bathroom in it.

Ezra has pushed up on his knees several times in the last two days. I think he'll be crawling soon. He's pretty good at swiveling himself around now on his tummy to get what he wants, which is anything on the floor.

In a desperate attempt to help Ezra's reflux, I started an extreme elimination diet. The formula I was giving him results in runny diapers (he can handle 2-4 oz here and there, but not a full bottle). At first my new diet was pretty much potatoes, rice, rice milk, zucchini, and yellow squash. I didn't think it was working at first, but now after a couple of weeks I think he is spitting up much less and nursing a little more. Last Saturday I ate mexican food and Sunday I had manicotti, so the last 2 days we've regressed again. Which shows me that what I eat does make a difference. Right now, these are the things I'm avoiding, based on a lot of reading I've done:

tomatoes and tomato sauce (this is a confirmed offender)
dairy
chocolate
nuts
onions
garlic
beans/legumes
broccoli, cabbage, etc.
icecream (confirmed offender)
citrus fruits (almost confirmed)
aged cheeses--like feta, gorgonzola (this I discovered on my own)
spicy foods (confirmed offender)
mint flavored things

That cuts a whole lot of things out of my diet, and it's not fun. But it's better than a fussy baby spitting up volumes all the time. A lot of those are on common lists of no-no foods for reflux. I do take vitamins. And I eat a lot of Special K with strawberries and rice milk. He will nurse at night and sometimes first thing in the morning now, occasionally before going down for a nap. The rest of the time it's a no-go, even in a quiet room with no distractions. But I feel like we are making little baby steps of progress. I try feeding him rice cereal now too, and that is also going slowly. I probably need to try more often.

Ezra's 6 Month Report

17 lbs 12 oz (55%)

28 inches (95%)

Here he is sporting an oversized bib to catch his drool and spit-up. (He often goes through 2 a day).

Oh what a month we've had. On top of teething and acid reflux, Ezra has had a cold and thrush (again) all at the same time.  I'm very reluctant to give him tylenol because of his liver, and with so many things going on it's hard to know just what is making him miserable. I thought I had gotten rid of the thrush this time but at his last check-up the nurse said he still had a teeny bit in the back of his cheek, so we are back to purple lips and wearing dark clothes to prevent staining.


Now for the fun stuff. Ezra loves to grab everything in reach and put it directly in his mouth. We are going to really have to watch out for choking hazards with this one. He's just barely started on rice cereal and as soon as the spoon goes in his mouth, so do his hands. Feeding time is very messy!


He looooves the jumparoo and probably burns 1000 calories a day jumping in that thing. He loves Ava and often laughs heartily at her dancing and jumping, etc. He's also pretty ticklish. And I still can't keep my lips off those chubby little cheeks!

Ezra's 5 Month Report

Weight: 16lbs 7oz

Height: 27 inches

How can you not love those cheeks?! Ezra continues to thrive and eat and generally sleeps well, though exceptions aren't uncommon. Since all we care about for the first 6 or 8 months is sleep, he usually sleeps about 11-12 hours at night with one feeding in the middle (around 4am). Occasionally we get lucky and he sleeps through without waking (insert choir of angels singing). He rolls all over and tries to sit up a lot, and he looooves the jumparoo! He also loves when Ava dances for him—that really gets him laughing.

He will be going to the doctor again this week to check on his liver. It was the only thing that came up as a red flag after the lupus testing. And by the way, the neonatal lupus, as  I understand it, doesn't mean that he necessarily has systemic lupus. It is most likely that he just has it because of antibodies that he got from me during the pregnancy. It does mean, however, that any future babies I might have would be at a higher risk for heart problems, etc. So that will have to be watched carefully. As for Ezra, the facial rash should begin to disappear around 6 months of age.

Ezra's 4 Month Report

Weight: 15 lbs 2 oz (60th %)

Height: 26" (90th %)

Ezra is a happy, hefty baby. We've been going through a cold in our house (started with croup in Ava), so for about 4 nights he slept 10-11 hours without waking, and barely slept at all during the days. Last night he woke up again in the middle of the night though, so I'm not sure what the pattern going forward will be. He's so precious to me I can hardly stand it sometimes. Ava has started kissing his cheeks repeatedly the way she sees mommy do it.
He is loving to feel textures in his mouth. He grabs blankets and whatever else is in reach and chews/sucks on them. He also love to munch his hands.
He still has the redness around his eyes and forehead and we have an appointment tomorrow with the pediatric dermatologist to see if he can figure it out.
His eyes are still blue and he still has his white patches of hair.
I love my kids. I just can't say that enough.

Laughing Stock

Ezra likes to chuckle and laugh. Here's a mini video of him smiling and chuckling. It's not his biggest smiles, but still he's pretty happy.

He's quite the opposite of Ava. At 3 months he's wearing 6 month clothes, and I think at 6 months Ava was wearing 3 month clothes. He's a really sweet baby and we feel very blessed to have him. Ava loves to give him hugs and kisses too.
And here's one of Ezra in the stroller (wearing a pumpkin hat) smiling a really big smile.

Bubble, Bubble, Foam and Trouble

Last weekend Ryan still had a foam making machine in the truck from some events they've been putting on. So we decided to bring it out and let the kids have some fun. First we let Ava play in the morning (she loves bubbles when bathing or doing dishes, so we knew this would be a hit with her). Then we took it to Grandma's house in the evening and covered the trampoline with bubbles. They had a blast (despite the moment of whining in the video).

In other note-worthy news, Ava's food of the week is broccoli! She is loving it (and so am I)! We call it "baby broccoli" because it is "baby trees" and lots of fun to eat.

Ezra's 3-Month Report

Weight: 14.4 lbs (75th %)   Height: 25.4 inches (95th %)

He smiles and coos and sleeps well. He does have some acid reflux and has been spitting up a lot lately, but he's still a sweetheart. I just have to do laundry twice a week. He has started drooling a lot lately too—I think teeth are coming. His cheeks are oh-so-kissable!

I just love the little (big) guy! He's such a sweet baby, and very much a mama's boy. 

He has some red splotchiness around his eyes and forehead, so we are working on figuring out what that is all about. First we will try Benadryl (doctor's instructions) to determine if it's an allergy to something. If that helps, then we'll work on figuring out what the allergy is. If that does nothing, we will try an eczema medication, but I don't think it's eczema.