Pics from today

Here are just some pics I took this afternoon of the kids just after naptime. Please ignore the bed head lol.

Just after my shower, hence the wet hair


all the kids together




Leah just hanging out


Erica and Leah


I let Graham "hold" Leah. It was hilarious because he went from this...


to this... in no time flat! Such a proud big brother!


He does this thing now where he touches his nose, then he touches her nose. It's so cute! I thought I had gotten a pic of him touching his nose first, but I didn't. :(


All the kids have really adjusted so well to having Leah around. I had a feeling the girls would be good since they are older and they've "been there done that" with Graham and they did so well with him. I really wasn't quite sure at all how Graham would do. But I have to say he has done far better than I ever imagined he would. He is always very gentle with the baby. He is definitely curious, and he does test his boundaries, but it's always so lovingly. He was over the moon today when I let him hold her and be so close. He LOVES to be near her, especially when she's laying on the floor. He'll lay right beside her and get as close to her as we'll let him. I am so excited to see him so excited about her!

dr. appt. updates

Erica had her allergy testing done yesterday. She is allergic to... NOTHING. Not a single reaction, not even slight. So now I'm even more ready to go see the dermatologist. Her appt. with them is in a couple weeks.

Leah and Graham both had well checks today. Leah weighs 9lbs 12oz and Graham weighs 24lbs 14oz. Both are doing great! The only slight concern she had was with Graham's speech. This was technically his 15 mos. check-up, but we're behind. He's now 17mos, and at 15 mos should be saying 4-6 words. He says mama and dada (and only sometimes in the correct context), and he has started saying "bah" which can be anything from ball, to balloon, to bubbles, to things that don't even start with the letter b. He mostly points and screeches and grunts. I'm not worried about it quite yet, and she wasn't really either, just something to take notice of and work with him on. Leah has a renal u/s scheduled for April 8 to check her kidneys since there was a cyst present there at my prenatal u/s with her.

1 month old

At one month old, Leah:

can still (just barely) fit into Newborn size clothes
can wear 0-3 mos clothes without drowning in them
wears a size 1 diaper
nurses throughout the day and takes pumped breastmilk from a bottle
wants nothing to do with a pacifier
loves to be swaddled
likes her swing and the aquarium mobile w/ lights on it
sleeps more at night than during the day
is a generally happy baby







Breastfeeding update (warning for those who want to skip past this part):
Leah latches on great, but is lazy at the breast, and doesn't actively eat. I was able to have a phone consultation with a LC today and she gave me some tips to try that will hopefully get her nursing more actively. We'll see how it goes! I'm still pumping, but I've noticed that my supply has dropped some. I was getting more than she was taking before, and now I'm pretty much even with her. Which is fine, but if it goes down anymore, I'll start dipping into my freezer stash and it will slowly be depleted. Not a good thing since she's only a month old.



I'm taking Erica to the allergist tomorrow for allergy testing. Her eczema has been really flared up lately and it looks about like it did when she had the allergic reaction to amoxicillin, so I'm hoping we can figure out what she's allergic to and eliminate it from her diet!

Graham and Leah both have checkups on Wednesday, so I'll be sure to update after that as well.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I didn't take pics specifically for St. Patty's Day, but here we all are sporting our green!

Me and Leah hanging out on the couch


These 3 have been playing so well together lately. Here, the girls are playing their Leapsters and Graham was happy just sitting and watching them.

Baby Huey

Graham is getting SO BIG! He just one big solid little boy now! The other night, after we got him down from his high chair after dinner, we stripped him down and then told him it was time for bed. Anytime we mention bedtime, he runs to find his paci and blankee. It cracked me up to see this big 'ol baby running around with a diaper, paci and blankee. So adorable!

All 4

I couldn't wait to get a pic of all 4 of my kids together ever since I got home from the hospital with Leah. But each time I'd think about it, I'd look at the kids, and at least one of them (usually all of them) looked really grungy and at times, just down right gross. They had on mismatched clothes, food on their faces, stringy unkept hair, and just not even close to what would be considered photoworthy. Well, one day this week (it's sad I can't even remember WHICH day it was) I looked over and they were all dressed and looked presentable. Leah was awake and in a good mood, so I thought I'd try to get a pic! It was pretty quick because Graham was not happy I kept trying to take away his paci lol. I kept making funny animal noises to try to get him to smile, but all it did was make him give me a "are you crazy?" look and make the girls crack up laughing!

2 weeks

I took Leah to her 2 week appointment on Monday. Everything is great! She has surpassed her birth weight - a big deal for me because NONE of my other 3 had gotten back to their birth weight by 2 weeks, and she's had nothing but breastmilk! She is even starting to fill out a little, something that never happened with my other 3 until they started getting formula. I used to joke that I made skim milk lol. I guess it's not my milk that was the problem, but the babies' ability to get it out of me! lol I still have her nurse at least once a day, in hopes that eventually she will nurse more and I can pump less. She still latches great, she just seems to have a problem getting a full feeding from nursing alone. Pumping is going really well for now though, so I'm just going to keep doing what we're doing for as long as it's working for us.

Eric took Erica to the speech therapist at the elementary school this morning for her assessment. She passed the vision and hearing tests (which I figured she would since she was tested in November at her 4 year check up and passed then). Then they had her look at a bunch of pictures and say what they were so they could hear how she pronounced things. We won't get the official results (of whether or not she qualifies for services) until our next meeting in April, but the therapist told Eric that her initial assessment is that she likely will qualify because of some things she is doing with her speech (like skipping some sounds altogether, and replacing some uncommon sounds with others). If she does qualify, then she'll probably go twice a week for 30 minutes. The best part is, it will all be free! I'm glad I went this route. I hesitated at first because I'd heard it can be a really long wait. But this is a brand new school in it's first year, so I guess they don't have as many participants yet.

Illness Update

Poor little Leah has caught this nasty crud that's going through our house. I finally went to the dr. yesterday to see if they could give me anything to help me feel better and to get her checked out too. I got a shot in the office that should help clear up the rest of my congestion, an antibiotic, and a new inhaler. I'm also taking an otc cough med. I'm already feeling a difference but can't wait til I'm all better! For now Leah's junk is still all in her head, so there's not much we can do for her except suction her out with the bulb syringe. I'm just glad it's not down in her chest, that is what worried me. The other kids all seem to be pretty much over it. A few lingering sniffles and small coughs, but much better! Eric is still dealing with it too though I think he is starting to feel a little better too.

Things are really going well for us. Eric went back to work on Tuesday and I think I've done a pretty good job of juggling things around here. It's a challenge to find time to pump, feed everyone, try to shower and get anything else done, but I think I'm doing ok. I haven't missed a shower yet! That's a big accomplishment for me! I think it has helped a ton that Eric and I have a pretty good shiftwork going at night. I put the girls to bed around 8:00 and then I try to do some things that need to be done before bed, then I pump and try to get in bed between 9-10. He keeps Leah downstairs until around 1-2, feeding her as needed. That's when I get up and pump again and then take her for the rest of the night. She's a pretty good sleeper, so we each get some sleep during our shift with her, but get a good chunk of sleep when the other has her. The other kids get up between 7-7:30, and I get up with them and get them breakfast and we start our day. This is working really well for us so far.

Eric is working this weekend, so I'm not sure that we'll make it to church on Sunday, but I'm so ready to get back to our normal activities. I have major cabin fever. Going to the dr. yesterday was the first time I'd left the house since we got home from the hospital.

Sorry for no pictures today, I haven't taken any since I last posted.

Sleeping Beauty

Leah is doing really great. She eats well (I'm pumping and she's had nothing but breastmilk so far!), sleeps well, and has moments of content awakeness (or however that should be correctly said). I know she's just a week old, but so far things are going great!