First trip to Mal of America

Nate and I headed to Bloomington to the Mall of America last week to get some birthday gifts and visit Aunt Trisha at her work at Underwater Adventures - (the aquarium) Here's Nate in the Bloomingdales bathroom after a BIG number 2!

After the poo change, we headed down to the aquarium. We had to come back because after about 2 minutes Nate fell asleep. There are a lot of nature sounds in there and that is what Nate falls asleep to at night so he was quite comforted. Here he is after a nap staring at the waterfall.

Nate was not scared at all watching big sharks and sting rays swim over him. He especially liked looking at the bright coral.

Then we headed over to the Nemo exhibit

Watch out Nemo...Nate was hungry

Kidding, kidding, no Nemo's were injured during this trip. Nate was just relaxing with his Nemo NUK :) On to Monroe for the 4th! Hope to see a lot of you!

Last weekend

Whew, what a weekend Father's Day was. Nate is still doing much much better now that he is on this medication for his acid reflux. He's still a bit fussy, but nothing like before. He has now burped up through his nose a few times and I can tell you he is NOT a fan of that what-so-ever! Nate wanted to show Joe just how much he loved him so he got him an I love dad onesie and sported it all day...didn't even try to poop through it once, he loves him so much!


We later got to visit with our friends Mary and her mom Kathy and sister-in-law Kelley, and brother Dan. Nate was thrilled to lay with Kathy for a few hours straight. Something he would never have done without the medicine soothing his aching belly.


I actually got to sleep in on Friday and Saturday nights when I stayed with my friend Amanda who has recently been in the hospital. Aunt Trisha came up for the weekend and watched Nate on both nights which we very much appreciated! Saturday we hung out with friends and played some Lego Pictionary....definitely not my game but I tried. Joe built an amazing tractor and was pretty proud of himself for it. Here's Nate and Amanda.

On to Father's Day. Now I know most of you spend that day with your child but we decided to vary it up a bit! Joe and I went to church, then out to brunch, and went to see a movie. We were home by 3 and spent the rest of the day with Nate! We spend so much time with him we thought we'd have half the day to hang out the 2 of us and the rest for family time. At brunch I heard the words from Joe I've only ever heard a handful of times in our 8 years together which was, Megan, I'm so full I can't eat anymore! Ahh, buffets. At least he didn't unbutton his pants at the restaurant.


Nate is getting stronger and stronger every day. Nate is getting much more active and kicks like crazy, especially in the mornings, he loves looking in the mirror, and he's starting to gurgle/coo,giggle a lot more. It's hard to get a resting shot of him because he is usually moving around so much. Trisha said he almost was getting himself to roll over the other day. He gets himself to his side but than falls back down. Impressive for a 4 month old 2 month old! It's hard to imagine he's only supposed to be 2 months old just because he is so strong. Oh, and good news on the hernia front, it's mostly staying in! His belly button is starting to look more normal, and even when he cries it doesn't stick out nearly as far as it used to. Good news for Joe who was so grossed out by it! Here's Nate thinking deep thoughts while sleeping.

On Monday, Joe and I took Nate to my chiropractor. He works with a lot of babies and his wife also had a very preemie baby and he did much better after being adjusted by him. He explained a lot about what he saw...basically his nerves aren't aligned well that lead to his esophagus and his stomach- makes sense with the reflux. He does very light realignment with Nate and while at the clinic Nate instantly fell asleep after the adjustment. Plus, a first happened the other night.....6 straight hours of sleep!!! What?!?!? It was crazy, Joe and I both woke up, saying did you feed him...No...did you...No. He went down at 9 and didn't wake up till 3! Woo hoo!

Improvement

Here's Nate being cute and giving us proof as to why we should keep him :)


Good news is that the medicine seems to be helping out somewhat. Since Monday, Nate has been eating much better. He's eating at least! He's still fussy and cranky at times but not as much as he was this past weekend so that is great.
Our friends Kristi and Matt play kickball on Tuesdays so Nate made his first venture out to the field. Here's he and I...he's not so happy about me putting the hat on but it was pretty windy.

Lounging on the grass...

Joe bought Nate some new glasses since we've been outside a lot more lately. He likes to be out there and loves a good walk but is pretty squinty the whole time so hopefully these cool shades will help out.

As for these next photos, how could you not love the cute little bugger? Joe also bought him a baseball hat for when we head outside, I think he likes it!


Thanks for all the support this week and after my last blog. I'm fine, really! Just needed to vent for a minute after a very stressful 4 days. We're hoping things are looking up here with his seeming to be eating better. Oh, and he also weighs 11 pounds 11 ounces so our shoving the food in him is still working!

Truth & Perspective

Ok, so maybe I should buy a diary, but I haven't so I'll let it out here quick...skip this writing to cute pictures of my baby to bypass my woes :)
  I realize that Joe and I are completely blessed that I'm alive and healthy, and that Nate is alive and doing so well....that being said....argh.  I'm not gonna lie, it's been difficult with Nate and his feedings/fussiness.  It could just be the fact that I haven't slept for 4 months straight or that I'm tired of seeing my baby in pain and struggling.  Anyways, it was a LONG weekend with little sleep and Nate refusing to eat...flat out refusing.  Now he can always be a pain and always looks like he's in pain but this was a whole new ballgame.  He just kept gumming his bottle, or throwing it out of his face, or screaming in my face, and screaming in my face, and screaming in my face...oh wait, did I mention he was screaming in my face?! 
  Basically, the baby has a difficult time with eating, and then later being fussy.  Aftter this weekend of not so much fun I called the doctor.  Of course our doctors schedule was full so Joe went in to another one in a different clinic.  She spent an hour with Nate and Joe since I was working (apparently she thought Nate was adorable and flirted with Joe for an hour...keep in mind this is all by Joe's report) and thinks he has GERD basically baby acid reflux.  The stomach acid is flowing back in his esophagus causing him pain.  Nate coughs a lot, chokes and gags during his feedings, has abdominal pain (hernia as well), has colicky behavior, crying/fussiness - all symptoms which our lovely little boy has.  When you feed a baby 8 or so times a day and these things happen every day at most feedings and in between it can drain you, drive you crazy, and make you cry watching him struggle.  Sometimes I throw a pity party and get annoyed that he won't just simply eat a bottle, burp, and be done with it.  I would rather he wake up every night until he was a year old as long as he would simply eat without pain or struggle.  It develops for babies often if they have an immature digestive system, but most grow out of it by a year.  Another yayyyy for being a preemie.   Joe and I are gearing up on our, "Here's everything we've done for you speeches" for when Nate is a moody teenager :)
   We have a medication that will hopefully help with the reflux.  It can either help out a bit or do mostly nothing.  Oh, how promising!  Cross your fingers for the helping out part.  It may also cause diarrhea or constipation, go figure.  It can also cause headaches so I'm sure Nate will alert me with sign language that his head is pounding if that's the case. He may also just say, Hey ma, I've got a headache.  Maybe I should go to bed right now :)
  Don't get me wrong, I'm head over heels for this little man and would do anything for him which is why I keep taking him to the doctor, something I probably wouldn't do for myself.  I think it's just been a long weekend, and I need to get a diary :)  Someone told me my blog is always positive so here's my chance to make it a downer!!  Kidding, kidding, but sometimes I need to take my own advice to my clients like acknowledge what I'm going through is hard and don't always put a positive spin on it.  I'm trying not to complain, but still address the truth of the matter. 
   However, here is where the perspective comes in.  Joe and I had the opportunity to sit in a hospital for 5 weeks straight and see many babies and families deal with much worse issues, and we know there is SOOO much more out there that could be wrong with Nate so this is what helps with perspective.  We saw babies much smaller, much sicker, and a mother die who had the same issues as I did....we're incredibly lucky.    However, I no longer feel guilty about saying that sometimes it's hard right now, so there... it's hard. 
    Thank you to my lovely husband, friends, and family who help out, let me take a break, and encourage me!  There are also tons of times when Nate is happy, laughing, inquisitive, and sweet...not always a cranky monster :)       I'm done, thanks for your time, let me know what you all charge by the hour, and now you can look at a funny montage of my cute little baby trying to pose with my big baby after his first dose of medicine. 

Holy side effects

Well Nate went in for his 4 month well-check and to receive his next round of shots.  He got three shots and some sort of rotavirus thingy in a liquid form.  Let me just say, he did good when we were there but the past 30 hours have been slightly horrible!
Here's Nate getting a bath before heading to the doctor.  We can't get enough of the tigger towel photos!

Now, me trying to pose with Nate but he's obviously not really having it.  He loves bath time but despises drying/toweling off time.

We got to the doctor's office and Nate had not pooped for over a day which is not normal for him.  Once we got in the car, I noticed quite a foul smell.  Once I determined it wasn't Joe, I assumed Nate had finally relieved himself :)  Here's Nate arriving at the doctors, happy as a clam with some doody in his shorts.

Little does he know what's coming his way.  Notice his nice little blue polo shirt.  He was also wearing his little green shorts.  He's now able to fit in a few of his outfits rather than just onesies.  He doesn't fit well in his pants because he has no waist.  He's very long but not chunky, except for the cheeks.  All of his pants are really long on him because his legs are short but his torso is really long.  He wears 3 month old shirts but newborn pants.  The little outfits are kind of cute because he looks like a little boy/man so it's just funny to see him in those clothes, however, this does not last long for this little man.  If you recall the last time Nate went to the doctor, he destroyed the whole table by pooping and peeing more than 3-4 times all over the doctor and anything in his general vicinity.  Well.....he did it again!!
Here's the little bugger, contemplating multiple ways he can embarrass us.

So when we got in the office and stripped him down for his weigh in, we came to find out that he had pooped all the way up his back almost to his neck!  I had Joe change him at first and started to hear the now infamous "Joe gag" begin and knew it couldn't be good.  I got up and just started laughing.  The nurse ran to get another one of those sealable bags for hazardous waste!  Well the beastly little guy started rolling and struggling around while being changed so he got his poopy little body rolled all over the table and she had to keep pulling and ripping the dirty sheet off.  Good job Nathan James!  I guess that's what holding your poo in will do to ya.  That poor polo shirt was absolutely covered in poop!
Well, once he was clean and in a new diaper he got weighed in at 11 pounds 5 ounces.  He's also 23 inches long and his head circumference is 15.5 inches.  He's now in the 10th percentile of term babies for his 4 month age!  Then came the shots...ohh those lovely shots.  The nurse seemed a little panicked yet again and did the first 2, which of course made him holler away.  She then grabbed the 3rd one and about jammed it in his leg like she was going to jump start his heart.  I was VERY close to saying something unkind to her but thought better of it.  Nate screamed as loud as he could and calmed down in about 10 seconds with his pacifier.  The real fun happened over the next 30 hours.
Here's the champ with his war wounds.

Here's daddy Joe comforting him with a bottle once we got home.

When we got home after the doctors Nate pretty much cried on and off from 3 pm till 10 pm.  He finally went to bed around 10:30 and slept till 2:30 am then got up again around 5:30 am and 7 am.  By 7 he was a little happy for about half an hour and then irate for the rest of the day if he wasn't completely zonked out.  It's now 9 pm as I write this and he is down in his crib and asleep.  Hopefully for a good few hours but who knows?  Anyways, those side effects of crankiness/tiredness/lack of hunger are quite true!  Oh well, hopefully tomorrow he will be less cranky and hungrier so he can improve his mood.
  The doctor said he looks great!  At one point she was holding him and he was standing for a solid 20 seconds with her holding him and she got really excited and said, Whoa, look at this you guys, look at this.  We told her he'd been doing that awhile now because she thought it was the first time.  She was quite impressed with him and his strength!  She keeps guessing that he's going to be rolling/crawling/walking along with other 4 month olds instead of 2 month olds.  I'm not so sure about that and couldn't care either way really.  His hernia isn't sticking out of his belly button as much but it has kind of spread out.  I don't know how to explain it but she said there still isn't really anything they can do about it for months yet, so he just has to continue to deal with it. Not always easy because it's uncomfortable for him but it should heal soon...keep your fingers crossed.  Till next time!

Memorial Day Weekend, Breakfast on the Farm, Family gatherings, and more...

Sorry, sorry, sorry about the no blogging for a few weeks.  Some of you have kindly reminded me through email/text/phone calls to let me know of my slacking!  Due to this I will post many many pictures this blog to hopefully make up for my lack of blogs.  We went down to Monroe for Memorial Day so Nate could meet the rest of his family members and spend some time with his grandparents.  Here's Nate set and ready for his trip to Monroe...notice Joe's lovely camo decoration of Nate's handle on his car seat...classy!

Nate traveled a smidge rougher than his first time down to Monroe. He still did pretty good, he just didn't sleep the entire time.  He's awake a lot more during the day and I think he got a bit sick of sitting in his car seat for hours on end.  He still only tacked on an extra hour and a half to the trip, so not too bad.
   Nate attended his first breakfast on the farm near Juda that weekend.  For those city folks, breakfast on the farm is quite self explanatory...it's a breakfast on a farm!  I've loved it for years...not sure why because mom used to make me get up early to go but for some reason it was a blast.  A ton of people in the county go to the farm and eat the breakfast, get some ice cream, pet some animals, and that's about it.  I think since so many people in town were on farms and I never was, it was quite the new experience for me....a little different from my growing up in the Ludlow Tavern business :)
  Here's Aunt Trish, Nate, mom, dad, and I at the farm...
Nate actually was awake for some of the trip but wasn't as excited as I was...probably cause he couldn't eat the food :)
Below is a bunch of Monroe family shots.  My mom had a cookout for us on Sunday and the whole fam made it over....sorry to my aunts and all those who hung out with Nate but I did not get photos with...next time I promise!
Above is cousin Stacy and her fiancee Curt...Stacy may love her beverage more than holding Nate....kidding, kidding!
Below is cousin Nikki and daddy Joe definitely loving their baby beverages more than holding Nate.  No, actually Nikki held and fed Nathan but the picture of her with him had me in it and was not flattering so I chose not to post it...sorry Nikki, I'm just that vain.
Next is cousin-to-be Lindsay with Nate.  She will be a permanent member of the family this July and we can't wait for the big day...Nate will be staying with his Grandma and Grandpa Olson for that wedding so mom and dad can enjoy the day baby free!
And now for Lindsays hubby to be...cousin Ryan.  Now, poor Ry was set up by me for a bad picture.  I knew Nate was getting grumpy so passed him off to him, sorry Ryan!  That's Grandma Shirl in the background not wanting anything to do with angry Nate.



Poor cousin Andrea didn't get a chance to grab Nate till the end of the party due to many family members fighting for his attention, he's such a popular man!

 
Uncle Jonny came to the Ruf/Dahmen cookout and got a little Nate time in.


  
My friend Sarah came over with her daughter Taylor, Tay was not so thrilled but she was a bit excited to go hang out with friends so I can't blame her for wanting to head out!
Joe also took Nate over to see Gar, he had the magic touch with him.
  
Nate also got to meet his Great Grandma Olson and spend some time with her.  He also spent a big chunk of time with his Olson/Komprood family but all of the photos I have of that time are in my possession and I'm not be able to post because they aren't on my digital camera.  Trisha came with me to the Komprood farm to do something Joe has been trying to get us to do for years...shoot some of his guns.  I have long refused this activity but finally caved in.  I might say that we were some sharpshooters out there hitting the bullseye, a mini-gopher - it was just plastic Minnesotans, don't get angry!, and some clay pigeons.  I shot one, Trisha shot two...big deal Trisha, big deal, I did better on my bullseye so there!

Below are just some shots of Nate hanging out around the house.  First one is a bath shot...we covered him up so as to respect his privacy :)  Nate loves his bath/spa time.

  
Nate now enjoys laying on his back and being entertained by his toys that sing songs and make all kinds of noise.  Aunt Trish likes playing classical music for him...piano seems to be his favorite as he perks up for that the most.

  Tummy time is not Nate's favorite activity as you can see from the photos below.  You have to time it right...not after a full belly, or if a poop needs to happen, or just any general irritation is happening for him!


  Nate does lift his head up pretty well though from his mat.  He kicks his legs like a maniac and sometimes manages to squirm his way off of the mat.  He's close to rolling over and gets on his sides pretty easily but hasn't made it all the way over.  I think it's attributed to his amazing core strength and tendency to stretch and grow every time you move him.
Below is a trio montage of Nate's growing personality...the first is his inquisitiveness...he often gives us these bug eyes or my favorite, the one eyebrow raise.

Next, is his love for all things food related...

And finally, his little laughing/giggling/grunting/happy self

This Friday the 11th is Nate's 4 month check up with our Doctor and he'll get his 4 month shots.  He'll do another weigh in and length check so we're excited to see how he's grown. 1. Because we're happy to have a healthy/happy growing boy, and 2. Because Joe and I place bets against each other each time to see who's closer to guessing the correct weight :)  I told you I can make a game/competition out of anything.  Nate has not given us a solid night of sleeping but he is doing a better job of sleeping for more than 2/3 hours and has moved to sometimes 4/5 hours of solid sleep.  We usually get up around 1 and 5, and then he's up around 7 and ready to take on the day.
  I'll try to let you know all of those new details once we get em.  I hope this extra long blog pleases you all!