November 28, 2006

Well I took Jesse to the dr's today for a weight check since he still looks so little and he's only 7lbs even, so only 1 oz gain in a week, where as it should be at least 4 oz. I was so sad! I almost cried right there in the office but managed to hold it together.

The dr saw me right away even though I didn't have an appt, which was nice. He asked about wet and poopy diapers and sleeping/crying and latching/ sucking/swallowing but all that was fine. He checked him over for signs of dehydration or malnourishment but said he looks just great. I asked if I should start supplementing with formula, even though I really don't want to, but the dr said not to panic yet. Instead I'll bring him back in one more week and see if that turns out better and if not we can talk about supplementing at that point. So I guess meantime I just keep feeding him constantly and hope he starts gaining soon.

November 26, 2006

Before I give the weekend update - I keep forgetting to say that Jocelyn has taken to calling for Josh like I do - "JOSH! JOSH!" It's too funny.

Anyway, we had a fantastic weekend with the whole Rosenbaum clan. Joey did the cooking and Susan and Jonathan brought everything else, so we were quite stocked with food and I didn't have to lift a finger!

Jonathan wrestled with the kids after dinner on Friday which was too funny because at the beginning Jocelyn was just watching but not to be shown up she jumped right in and at one point had Jonathan in a head lock. Jesse sat this year out but I'm sure he'll be in the mix next year.

Saturday we basically hung out. I took a few minutes out of my day to trounce Jonathan and Timothy at Scrabble. After Shabbos Susan and Jonathan took Timothy to Build-a-Bear. They made a frog with superman pjs for Jesse - it is TOOOOOO CUTE! Of course all of last year's critters needed outfits while they were there (I swear the salespeople can smell grandparents a mile away - hee hee hee) so Steve got a Red Sox uniform and Cookie Monster got a Marine uniform and Jessie (Jocelyn's bear) got a princess dress that looks much like one that Jocelyn has. There were, of course, several other accessories.

Jocelyn concentrated on being the center of attention as much as she could. She danced, she jumped, she's such a girl!

Sunday was the annual picture shoot - my favorite!! I even showered and did Jocelyn's hair. I can't wait to see the pictures, I hope Susan sends a CD (hint hint!). From what I could tell on the viewfinder, they are even better than Passover, which is pretty amazing considering Jocelyn was less than cooperative. Jesse was much better and Susan got some good ones of me and Jesse that I'm looking forward to.

On the subject of Jesse, he's finally starting to look bigger to me and outgrew several of his preemie outfits. He's starting to get this eating thing down and I often have 30 whole minutes between feedings. Of course, the feeding itself takes about an hour, so it still feels like I'm feeding him all the time, but it's definitely improving. Today we ended up with some green poop, which I know means too much foremilk, but with all the excitement of the pictures he kept having to get on and off the breast and then I'd forget where I left off, so that must have done it. I'm sure that will resolve quickly. Last night he went close to 6 hours without eating (though woke and grunted a bit and at one point and I tried to feed him but he went back to sleep without eating), but then when he did get up to eat I had to change his whole outfit because, well, you can guess why. Needless to say that didn't thrill him and he pretty much woke up the whole house with the wailing (boy does he have some lungs on him!).

Jeremy and Jonathan and Timothy played a good game of football out on the front yard today. It was a close game - 36 to 30 I believe.

I guess that's about it. Not much on the agenda for this week. I need to get out to Target for a few things for the kids and a present for a birthday party Timothy got invited to as well as for Tim and Amy's son who turned 1 on Thanksgiving. I may also call the doctor and ask if I could just pop in for a weight check for Jesse just to make sure he's gaining properly. In theory I'm not supposed to be letting him sleep so much at night, but come on - it goes against my whole parenting premise to wake a sleeping baby! Plus, I don't want to. So I might just double check that it's not my imagination that he's getting bigger and if he's good, I'll continue to not wake him up.

Tomorrow is back to school for the boys - YAY! 

November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had such a great day! Jesse was kind enough to sleep from midnight until 5:30am - woo hoo! So that was a nice start to the day. Then he ate for an hour and let me shower and then he ate for another hour while I barked orders at Josh from the couch. I had laid out everyone’s clothes and made a pile of what we had to bring (forgetting, of course, my camera). Once Jesse was good and full we left and he managed to sleep the whole way up - yay!

At Elisabeth's we met Mandy, the girls, Elisabeth, Rob, and my mom and made gingerbread houses and decorated cookies. Well, mostly Timothy decorated while Morgan watched TV upstairs, Jocelyn ran around playing peek-a-boo, and Jesse ate (being ravenous from not eating in the car and all).

Then we went to Mandy's where Jeff had been slaving over a hot stove. Dad was there and Grammy, Bob, Kaye, and Andrey arrived shortly after (poor Stevie was under the weather). A most delicious meal!! Morgan made fast friends with Uncle Bob and pretty much climbed on him the whole time. Andrey was so cute - he played with everyone but was especially cute with Jocelyn. Then he came over when I was changing Jesse. "oh, is he a boy?" Andrey says to me. Yes, I answer. "Boys and girls have different private parts you know". Yes, I know, I said. And then he was off to play again too funny!

Joceiyn wrote on her face with a marker and used the chalk as lip stick and served tea to Kaye. Jesse ate. Morgan managed to pull apart most of a box of wipes. Jesse ate. Timothy had everyone playing some kind of grocery game and then quizzed Ruby with some kid trivia cards. Jesse ate. Once Jesse was good an full, we made what for us is a quick exit - in other words we made a loud and extended rush through the house gathering children and putting their shoes and coats on. Jesse cried while I used the bathroom on the way out but once in the car slept all the way home and is still sleeping! Jocelyn was asleep with her mouth open by the time we got to the highway. Morgan ate the bag of cut up turkey we had taken with us. We all listened to Alice's Restaurant and then Jeff Foxworthy (which I'm almost proud to say Timothy has memorized) and before we knew it we were home.

So not bad at all - we got 4 kids up and back with limited crying (Jocelyn's only meltdown was while we were eating, of course). Now that's something to be thankful for!

But on the subject of being thankful, I have even more than usual to be thankful for this year - 4 healthy kids that I'd happily take a bullet for is at the top of the list. A wonderful husband that I love even more today than the day I married him. A caring family including nieces and a nephew-to-be to keep get-togethers fun. A house big enough to hold us all and maternity leave over the holidays. And, of course, chocolate mousse pie and a sister that packs me leftovers.

Well Jesse's awake and ready to eat - hope you are all having a great holiday. 

November 21, 2006

Well he's tiny indeed - just 6 lbs 15 oz but doctor said that was close enough.

Dr. Friedman has a 3rd year med student - must be all the rage these days! So she was drilling me for a while. Actually, she started out explaining a bunch of stuff and eventually I cut her off and let her know this was my 4th and I knew the drill. Nicely of course! So she gave Jesse the full once over and asked me a million questions (including whether we had fire arms in the house) and tested all his reflexes and such. She was awkward at best and said ummm every third word, but I managed to smile through it, She asked what was on his face - I said baby acne. Shouldn't I have been the one to ask her?? (Later she told me that she is working at the hospital I delivered at - there's a shocker). She also asked how long I was planning to breastfeed and I said a year if we can and she said exclusively? So I said we usually start solids around 4-6 months. Again, shouldn't I be asking her that?? Anyway, she asked what my concerns were so I said his weight, his yellowness, and also I had a diaper area concern.

Then she went out and waited for the doctor and explained to him everything I had said (quite loudly I might add as I could hear it all from several doors away) and then they both came back in. I love our doctor - he's a family practitioner so he's the primary doctor for all of us. I mostly like him because he's laid back and doesn't freak out about stuff but is very thorough when there are actual concerns. Anyway, he was fine with his weight (Jesse nursed during most of the appt so he could see he was eating) and said he would guess his billirubin is down to 6 or 7 (not that that means much to me) and also looked in the diaper and said everything looks a-o-k. He did a couple of the reflex things again and said he has great tone, so that's good.

So he got a clean bill of health (and a script for thrush just in case) and we don't go back until January. 

November 18, 2006

Well let's see let's see, I guess we start with chomper huh? He's a good baby, as long as he gets to eat CONSTANTLY - sigh. Both Wednesday night and Thursday night he slept 5 hours in a row - woo hoo! But then last night not so much - though he did 3 and then 4 with only an hour in between to eat and be changed, so not so bad because when he did 5 it was only followed by 2, and even then it takes 2 hours of feeding to get that. He's quite a hungry guy!

Thursday I had Timothy's parent-teacher conference and took Jesse with me. Of course he decided he was STARVING the second we got there even though he had JUST eaten. So I put him in the sling and got him latched on and in we went. The only problem was that 2 teachers asked to see him and without thinking much about it I flashed them my boob. Gotta work on that! But anyway, he ate while Timothy's teacher said how great Timothy was doing, and then we went home.

I broke out the pump on Thursday and pumped for 15 min on Thursday and then 15 min first thing Friday morning and managed to get 1.5oz - yay! So I left baby and bottle home with Josh and took Jocelyn to play group. The good news was that Jesse didn't end up eating while I was gone so I topped the bottle up to 2oz later in the day and have it for our car trip on Thanksgiving. The bad news was that Jocelyn clung to me the whole play group and wouldn't let me put her down. So I sat on the floor with her in my lap and chatted with another mom. The teacher gave her a big sister sticker, which she liked. As we were cleaning up another mom asked me if she was just clingy with me because she was fine when my husband was there. At least it was nice to hear that she usually did better! But I smiled and said we just had a new baby and the mom seemed to say "ahhhh" with understanding (and since she had an infant in her arms, I'm thinking she did understand).

Morgan's teachers say he's started lying down on the floor pretending to cry. They think he's pretending to be Jesse. I'm not sure what I think! But with any luck that won't last long!

We've had a variety of visitors this week. Tim, Amy, and Ethan came for dinner Wednesday night. A coworker and her husband and son (who is one month younger than Jocelyn) came by Thursday morning. Another coworker and her husband stopped by Friday after work for just an hour. A third coworker and her husband and 3-month old came over for the UConn game today. And tomorrow Elisabeth and Rob are coming. Quite a full week! Josh has done a great job keeping everything picked up and generally clean. Today my friend said "wow - I can't believe your house is this clean with 4 kids!" That's something we don't hear very often - hahahaha.

Tuesday Jesse has his first doctor's appt. He's still a little yellow so I'll ask about that and am anxious to know if he's back up to his birth weight as he seems so little still! The newborn diapers are still big - the tabs touch in front! I don't know how he could gain weight any faster though - he certainly couldn't eat more often!!!

I'm behind on holiday cards and need to get the picture taken. I bought matching shirts for all 3 boys but haven't figured out what Jocelyn is going to wear. Also no idea how I'm going to get them all to look at the camera at once! I need to do Jesse's birth announcements as I figured I would send them out at the same time.

I feel like I'm forgetting something but it's not coming to me so I'll just click send. 

November 15, 2006

I can't believe Jesse is a week old already! Time is going too fast - someone slow it down ...

** warning - breast feeding discussion to follow **

Jesse's nickname this week has been chomper. He's got quite the good suction! He's a good nurser though and we've made it through the first week with no bottles - yay! Between forcing fluids down and my mother's milk tea my supply seems to be keeping up with his incredibly frequent feedings, and that makes me happy and proud. I haven't had to resort to the fenugreek but I have it here just in case.

He basically eats all day, sometimes taking one big nap for 2-3 hours in the middle of the day. He's actually pretty good at night as long as he's touching me in some way while sleeping. He usually goes 3-3.5 hours when we finally go to sleep around 10:30 or so, then when he gets up at 2ish it can take a little while to change him and get enough milk into him to get him back down. Once he nurses on both sides though he's good for another couple hours, repeat. I must have fallen asleep mid-feed last night because I woke up a couple hours later to chomper trying to get my nipple in his mouth. smack smack smack - It was pretty cute!

I've had a little more pain than I care for with my right nipple (not sure why just the right) and resorted to a nipple shield yesterday which is awkward but definitely cuts the pain way down, pretty much to zero. So I've been using that for a few feeds during the day, but it's not his favorite and also it's too awkward to try to figure out at night. I'm just hoping it doesn't set me back as far as toughening up so to speak.

** warning - poop discussion to follow**

We're finally getting the mustard yellow poops today. I must say, despite this being my fourth (such that you'd think I'd know what I was doing by now) I was getting a little concerned that the poops were still pretty dark brown. Not the black sticky meconium like the first couple days, but not the mustard yellow that I was expecting from a booby-baby. So anyway, today we're there and that's good. His skin is looking much less yellow - almost a normal color for the most part now.

** ok, I think the rest is safe **

Jocelyn is adjusting pretty well think. She sees me get the baby out of the swing and rushes over to sit beside me while I nurse. Sometimes she'll sit in front of me and we'll play patt-a-cake while Jesse eats. We found a baby pooh bear in the pile of stuffed animals in the dining room and she pretends that is her baby and holds him and kisses him and tucks him into the bouncy seat. She's just talking so much these days. She likes to take all the cards out of the boggle junior game and bring them to me one at a time, naming what's on the card. It's sort of like flash cards for toddlers!

Morgan and Jocelyn have been fighting over Josh a bit. Morgan will go to crawl all over him and Jocelyn will get possessive and try to push him off, which Morgan doesn't care for. Josh has done well to try to play something that can involve them both or else involve turn-taking (which Morgan is much better at than Jocelyn!).

Josh went on a cleaning spree today and the house looks fantastic. He's gotten a full night's sleep the last 2 nights (he's still sleeping in Timothy's room) and so he's feeling much better. The house had gotten a little behind but now it looks like we actually hired a full cleaning crew! The only thing we're not caught up on is laundry, but that's because we're generating it as fast as we can do it!

Tomorrow I have Timothy's parent-teacher conference so Jesse and I will be venturing out of the house for the first time since we've been home. I'll put him in the sling for the conference and hope he can go 30 minutes without eating but if not, Timothy's teacher will just have to deal.

Well Tim and Amy should be here soon for dinner so I best wrap this up. Stay tuned for more exciting updates! 

November 12, 2006

Well the inmates are running the asylum. It's a mad house around here! Jocelyn woke up in the night Friday night and then at 5:30 Saturday morning and was clearly in pain but it took us a good chunk of the day and a call to the doctor to figure out why. Doctor thinks she has a torticollis (neck spasm) and says to give her ibuprofen every 6 hours and try to apply heat if she'll let us and with any luck it'll clear up in a couple days. Poor kid can barely move her head. She woke up in better spirits today though still very stiff so we're continuing the drugs.

Jesse didn't actually sleep at all Friday night and finally fell asleep at 5:30am as Jocelyn was waking up screaming. Of course! He then proceeded to sleep most of the morning. Last night was much better. He nursed from about 6-10 and then slept from 10:30-2, so that's was the most sleep I'd gotten since he was born, He was up from 2:30 - 4:30, pretty much eating the whole time, but then slept until 7:30 so I was happy with that.

I had to kick Josh out of our room. He's got a bit of congestion right now and so the snoring is ungodly and I just couldn't manage. Timothy sleeps like a log, so it doesn't bother him at all. Thank goodness Timothy has a king-sized bed!

Mandy and Patience came to visit yesterday and it was so nice to have them here. Patience is soooooo cute and Mandy sat there and listened to all my whining about my labor and delivery, exactly the therapy I needed. Plus she brought tons of food and helped clean up my house, which looked to be the victim of an unnatural disaster. Josh took a couple pictures of me and Mandy with the babies, so I'll have to get those downloaded and posted.

**warning - men, look away for a paragraph**

My nipples were bleeding so much yesterday that Jesse ended up spitting up some blood. Yuck! So I put lanolin on at each feeding and things seem to have improved today. My milk has come in which makes Jesse happy, so that's good, and I'm surprisingly not that uncomfortable. I've tripled up my liquid intake to try to get a good supply going and it seems to be successful so far. Of course what that means is that I nurse for 20 minutes, then pee, get more fluids, repeat.

** warning over **

When Morgan came home Thursday he was so excited to meet his new brother. He wanted to hold him and kiss him right away, it was so cute. Timothy was excited too. Jocelyn was a little unsure but now she's warmed up to him and thinks he's pretty neat. We'll see how long that continues! She likes to stand on her tip-toes and peer at him sleeping in the port-a-crib, which is adorable.

Jesse is such a sweet little man and we just adore him. He has a strong preference for mommy at this point, so I have to enjoy that while it lasts! He barely weighs anything and even the preemie sized clothing I bought is huge on him. Well, not lengthwise, but widthwise for sure. I try to keep him swaddled up but he's a little wiggler. He also burps like Barney on the Simpson's - Josh even accused me of blaming my own burp on the baby!

Well someone's ready to eat again and I already took 3 breaks from this email as it is so I’ll just end. More next week!