After Easton's first week of screaming and irritability we thought things were calming down. Easton was settling into eating, sleeping etc. and seemed more content. We all were getting to know him and he was getting to know us.
When Easton was a week old, Jamie went back to work so we were ready to settle into our new normal. The girls, especially Layla, were ready to know what the new routines and expectation's were going to be. I survived the first days of getting all 4 kids up and off to school but was so happy to make it to Friday. We needed a weekend. Davis was so excited to show everyone in car rider line her new baby brother. She is so proud of him and so excited to show him off.
When Easton was 9 days old he umbilical cord stump began looking yuck so we took him to the pediatrician. It was just a granuloma, which is pink scar tissue so she put medicine on it which in effect cauterizes it so that was good news that it wasn't getting infected. It would be good as new in a few days. The bad news was that he had lost an ounce so we were once again going the wrong direction with weight gain. Very frustration, especially because he was happy and content after nursing. This also meant that we were back to frequent weight checks. Yuck!
The next day Davis has a presentation at school where her class performed Three Cool Mice. She was just out of control cute. She pretends to be shy but Lordy when you see her preforming on a stage you soon realize that the shy girl thing is all a act. She loved to be the center of attention. After the presentation, Davis got to introduce Easton to her teacher which she was dying to do so that was a really special moment. Her teacher is so great and oowwwwed and ahhhhed at Easton and Davis just ate it up.
The Saturday before Easter, I took the kids to the Easter Carnival at church. We were so excited to share Easton with our church family. The kids were happy to be out and about and always look forward to the Easter Carnival. They love the Easter bunny yet every year refuse to go and get their picture taken with him. This year I didn't even try to get them to go and stand by him for a picture. Later in the day the Easter bunny left on a motorcycle no less and low and behold they were just devastated that they didn’t get their picture taken with him. Go figure. It was so nice to venture out and to see lots of people who as so important to us.
The next day was Easter and we enjoyed the morning at home with the kids. Over the last few years Jamie or I have ended up having to work on Easter so it was great to share this special day together with everyone as a family. The kids just loved hunting for the Easter eggs and who couldn't love getting an Easter basket full of candy. We went in the afternoon to Jamie's parents and the kids had so much fun playing outside and running around. We had been looking forward to warmer weather for weeks and they were loving it.
We had to go home that night and get packed for our big trip to Florida the next day. It was going to be a crazy week. We had Easton's 2 week appointment at 9:30 then were hitting the road. You just never know how a 2 week old baby is going to travel so it could be really good... or really bad.
We went the next morning to Easton's 2 week checkup and he had gained up to 7 pounds, 13 and a half ounces so he wasn't back to his birth weight but going in the right direction. It wasn't as much as the pediatrician would have wanted him to gain but enough that we were given a week until the next weight check. Otherwise he was looking perfect and in the 97th percentile for his length. He has those long legs like Layla. The kids keep trying to compare Easton to how they were as a baby. Layla is loving that Easton has a head full of hair like her so his long long legs are just another thing that Layla can add to her list of similarities. It's so hard to say who he looks like. Overall I think he looks most like Layla but when I look at him, those big blue eyes are unmistakable just like Davis' when she was a baby. Then again, his personally is very much like Dylan's was when he was little. Hopefully, he will have the best of all of them.
It took us 8 hours to get to the house outside of Orlando but we overall had a good trip and Easton was an angel. Layla on the other hand was her usual grouchy self. Someone is touching me, he's in my space, I'm bored. She is just not a good traveler. Davis got to sit by Easton and she was so excited to be the one that was by him, refusing to give up her seat. She then realized that as the person by Easton, she had to help with his binky and try to calm him as we drove. She had her moments but overall she would sit there forever helping hold his binky in until we could get to a place to stop for him to eat.
We had noticed on the way down that Easton's tongue was white but overall just passed it off as milk on his tongue. A few days later, white patches appeared on his cheeks and around his mouth. It took this mama a bit but I did eventually realize that he and I both had thrush. It was tough, 8 hours from home with no medical professionals or reliable pharmacy. We were lucky enough to have our pediatrician call in a prescription for Easton. My doctor called me in one 24 hours later after a few phone calls and low and behold they called in something with a steroid in it. After lots of discussion and my doctor refusing to admit that I shouldn't nurse Easton with the potential of him ingesting a steroid, they conceded to call in something different but pretty much said that the other would have been fine so it took almost 2 days to get treatment started which was very frustrating. It makes me realize how thankful I am for our great pharmacy at home who would have been able to help us from the beginning. Anyway, it took a couple days but we were on the mend. Easton wasn't nursing great for those couple of days but overall was happy.
The day after we got the Florida, the kids went to the Magic Kingdom. It was nice for Easton and I to have a day to recover but I missed being able to go with them. I think the kids were more excited about the heated pool and the hot tub than they were about going to Disney. They are such little fish and I think we could have just given them the pool and they would have loved the trip. Dylan was so excited that he could swim without swimmies (which he learned to do last summer. I'm not sure if he thought that he would forget or what over the winter but it was like he was doing it for the first time.) They had a blast in the pool all week and Easton even got to get in the hot tub for a bit with Jamie which he actually really seemed to like. I think he will be a fish just like the other kids.
We went out and about 2 nights to down town Disney and got to have a great dinner and do a little shopping. The day before we came home we went to Sea World which we all had looked forward to the whole week. It was great. We got to do up close and personal with the dolphins, getting to pet them and "help" with the trainers. It was tons of fun.
We topped off the night with the night show with the killer whales and Layla thought it was great. She's such an animal lover that she thought the whole day was great. Dylan was so tired he fell asleep as the night show was starting.
We packed up that night and the next morning and headed home. It was a long trip, 10 hours to get back, and we were all tired but the trip was so worth it. We survived out first family of 6 road trip! The bad part was the kids had school the next day, soccer, baseball etc. that week. They were grouchy and tired but we survived it.
That Thursday we were back for a weight check and Easton was up to 8 pounds, half an ounce. We were happy he had gained but that really wasn't enough. It was tough because there are so many questions when you are nursing. He's a lazy nurser so there are questions of whether he's just content to not work to get enough milk, was there just not enough milk for him, was it just because it was uncomfortable with the thrush the week before that he didn't gain as much as we would have liked. GRRRR! We had been through it before with Layla but that really just doesn't make it less frustrating.
We continued with soccer and baseball 4 nights a week which was rough. We were saved by our fabulous Sunday school class who brought us dinners. Without it I don't know how we would have gotten through school, homework, sports, ballet, baths, etc. without starving to death. It was so nice to have one less thing to worry about during the week and the kids were so happy to have real food not Mac and Cheese. We are so thankful to our church family and I can't wait to get back to church with Easton.
We went on Easton's one month birthday for a weight check and were up to 8 pounds, 4.2 ounces so again up but just not enough. Frustrating but we are trying to supplement some with him and hopefully can pack a few pounds... or at least ounces on him in the next week. After meeting with a lactation consultant this week, we found out that he was tongue tied, which means that the frenulum (the band of tissue that connects the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth) is too short and tight, causing the movement of the tongue to be restricted. It wasn't bad but when combined with his content (i.e. lazy) nature it seemed to have been affecting his willingness to continue for longer times when nursing. Pretty much as he nursed he had to work too hard to get enough milk because he had to work to stretch against the band of tissue under his tongue. He would fatigue out and really by this last week he was getting tired while nursing and not getting enough to eat. The lactation consultant can't do anything about it but strongly suggested that we discuss it with our pediatrician and specifically ask to have it clipped so when we were at the pediatrician's we asked about it. Initially the pediatrician said it was fine but after looking closely at it he realized that there was a really tight band of tissue so he clipped the tight band to free up the movement of his tongue. It was a nervous few minutes, no one ever wants to see the doctor with a pair of scissors going into your baby's mouth, but even the first time Easton nursed after his tongue was clipped, it seemed to make a huge difference. Hopefully we will be able to get some weight on him, get him stronger and be on our way finally with his feeding. I wish we would have known this weeks ago but since it wasn't severe we just didn't know. I'm so thankful that the lactation consultation encouraged us to pursue it with the pediatrician. By this time he also had thrush again so we are trying Gentine Violet which is a purple dye so the poor baby looked like he was a purple blood sucking vampire on his one month birthday.
What a busy month it has been but I wouldn't change it for the world. I love our crazy, out of control, wild family. We are so blessed to have been given the responsibility to raise these 4 precious children of God and look forward to the next days, weeks, months and years ahead!
What an amazing journey.
