Moosey Frog

Moose was a frog for Halloween. I actually got his costume way before he was even conceived. Dan teased me about it because we didn't even have a child that could wear it but I felt redeemed when we put it on Brennan tonight and it fit and looked really cute. It's a size 6-12 months and I hope he can wear it again next year but I think he'll be way too big if he continues on the path he's on.

We took him out in the stroller for a few blocks while Sara knocked on doors. He wasn't very happy to be wearing it but at least it kept him warm. I thought the feet on the costume were the best part.

Lego's

Brennan likes to lay on his tummy and watch Sara play lego's. I think he likes all the colors of the blocks and maybe even the noises they make. Whatever it is, he's fascinated. It's funny that Sara gives him a few lego's to play with too. Her only request is that he doesn't throw up on them too much. It's so cute the way he watches her play and looks at the lego blocks. Moose is super sharp and really aware of everything that goes on around him too. I think it's funny Sara calls him "moosa" here's a video of them playing


followed by some silly self portraits.

cute Moosey pics

New Pics

Just because he's cute..

What the big boys do

I'm always telling Brennan to do what the big boys do. Do the big boy burps, big boy poops, and now he eats like the big boys. He has a new high char thanks to his Great-Gran-Nanny in Alabama.

The chair is wonderful and I'm so glad I finally got one. It has a 5 point harness for squirmy fellows, it tilts back 3 levels to accommodate those that can't hold their heads steady, and it's on wheels. Hopefully too it'll make him feel like one of the peeps now that he can sit up with us. I think he was feeling like sitting on the floor was uncivilized because he seems way happier to sit in his char so far. It also comes with a huge tray (not pictured here) that is easily removable and dishwasher safe.

We got him some rice cereal last night to try to help him be less hungry and he's eating it like an old pro. He eats a lot of it too and even held his mouth open for it instead of his bottle today. I've also noticed it's making his milk stretch further so he will hopefully have to eat less formula.

Beer!!!

Here are some pics of Brennan after his walk the other day, fast asleep.

Moose finally got the all-clear from his doctor on Wednesday for his ear infection. He still has fluid on his ear which might be causing some discomfort. I told the doctor that he still cries quite a bit and the doctor checked his throat and couldn't find any other obvious medical reason why he is still crying.

He is also jamming his fists in his mouth ferociously and sucking loudly on them all the time. He's either teething (which the doctor also checked and said he didn't seen any evidence of) or hungry/starving. Since we're making him bottle after bottle as fast as he can drink it, I think he's hungry. We're going to start adding rice cereal into his bottles today and see if it helps him feel more full and hopefully he can tolerate it.

The medical community recommends not giving them solids until they're at least 4 months to prevent allergies (he is currently just turning three months) but Brennan seems really miserable and he's the size of a 4-6 month old already, so his body probably needs those extra calories in my opinion. For all we know his body is developmentally on par with an older child and he's ready, so the medical community can stuff it, it's worth a try if it makes him more comfortable and cry less.

Since I've been sick recently my milk supply has dwindled to nothing and I was about to just give up on it entirely. I was taking brewer's yeast supplements by adding the powder to my oatmeal and it tastes nasty, drinking fenugreek tea and taking capsules, and eating oatmeal with out much luck. Finally I had a beer yesterday and last night I pumped the most milk I've ever pumped, 4 oz which lasted Brennan all of 10 seconds. There is something about beer that works. It supposed to be the brewers yeast in it according to the internet and maybe because it relaxes you and I've been mega-high on stress lately. Stress and breast milk don't co-exist. So I hate the taste of beer but I'm perfectly willing to drink it for Brennan to have milk. It seems to be that I need to drink a bottle every other day, it takes me almost a day to choke it down.

I'm really trying to tell myself to enjoy his baby-hood but it's been very stressful. He cries a lot during the day and hates being put down. I have been really thankful that he hasn't caught any of the illnesses yet that we've had, except for a bad ear infection. I really hope he doesn't have chronic ear infections. I bought him a different type of bottle that is vented that is supposed to help prevent ear infections but he does not like to drink out of it. I've got to try and get him to use it though because if it works, it'll be totally worth it.

Brennan is really cute and he smiles so big now. He holds his mouth open so wide just like Sara did, I think Dan taught both of our kids to do that. It makes my day better to see him laugh and when he "talks". His other favorite things are cheek and neck kisses, baths, being held, and looking at all of us and laughing. He also loves his walks, he sits in the stroller peacefully and watches the trees and sky. We take walks 2 times a day just to have a relaxing time.

Ear troubles

Brennan has had an ear infection for the last three weeks. He's been through the ringer at the doctor's office. I took him today and they said it might be looking a little better but they still gave him 2 antibiotic shots and said we have to keep giving him his medicine.

He weighted 13.7 today. He's still growing quite a bit. He's already outgrown his 3 months size clothes and is now wearing the 6 months stuff. Crazy how fast that happens. I want him to be big so I don't have to worry about him as much but also it will be sad when he's no longer a little baby, especially because he's our last (we hope).

He's been doing his tummy time as prescribed by the doctor. I got him a mirror so he could look at himself on the floor, he seems fascinated by that. He loves looking at pictures on the wall. Today at the doctor's office they had the room decorated with characters from the movie Cars and he was very interested in it. He kept staring at "Mater". Sometimes I put his bouncer under the fish tank too and he loves to look up and watch the fish.

He is really into eye contact and face time and talking and laughing with Dan and I. He keeps tabs on where we are at all times. He loves to have his cheeks and neck kissed and raspberried. I call him my "Kissy boy" and he likes it (as Sara says, although she does say that I give him too many kisses and then he don't likes it).

Nursing has been going so-so. I'm taking every supplement known to man to keep my milk going, it seems to want to die. I started taking brewer's yeast (yuck) and am drinking fenugreek tea. He's about half formula half breast milk at this point.

Today I stopped by a garage sale in the neighborhood. I was looking for Sara a cheap tricycle since hers was stolen. No luck there but the family had a lot of boy children and there was huge box after box of boy's clothes. I'm usually not patient enough to sift through things for a deal but I could tell right away that they had really nice clothes for sale for fifty cents each. I spent about 20 minutes going through all the boxes and came away with about $600 worth of clothes for $20. I was really happy with it. There are about 20 pairs of pants, 20 shirts, 5 pairs of shorts, and 5 jackets. What I also liked was they had lots of nature type t-shirts and not just all sports themed stuff like you see everywhere.

It was really good quality clothing too. They didn't have infant sizes, it was size 1 year to 5 toddler. I'm putting them in the basement and it will be nice not to have to worry about buying him clothes and especially paying full price. Especially since he'll probably outgrow them fast. I was really proud of myself for buying second hand clothes. I spent way too much money on Sara's clothes buying them new. Having a boy is fun!!



Dan thinks I'm imagining it but I think Brennan gets more and more hair every day. Maybe just wishful thinking. His eyes are still a steel gray blue color that I love. I hope they stay that way. His cheeks are still chunky as are his thighs. He's really cute! Today we saw the neighbors baby, born 20 days after Brennan, her name is Bren oddly enough. She is barely 7 pounds and looked like a premie next to Brennan. I'm glad he's big and robust.

Some cute Moose sleeping pics

A sad Moose

I hate that little babies and kids get ear infections so easily. Sara had her fair share of them and now Brennan has had his first one. He was on amoxicillian but after 10 days it had done very little so they put him on a stronger medicine. The new medicine has more of a chance of upsetting his stomach so we are giving him pro-biotics to try and help ward off diarrhea.

He has been doing a ton of crying over the last 10 days and has stopped being able to take naps in his bed. He takes his afternoon nap in his swing now. I'm hoping when his ear is better he can lay down in his bed again and sleep peacefully. Also I'm hoping we can get him well so he goes back to being a happy baby again and not so cranky, I just hope he feels better. I've been giving him tylenol during the day too to try and help.

We will know Thursday after seeing the doctor if the antibiotcis are working. If not, I'm afraid they might have to take a fluid sample from behind his ear drum and culture it. That will not be fun so I hope it does not come to that.

We are leaving for Moab on Thursday. I hope he sleeps the whole way down. He should since it's during his nap time that we will be driving. I'm a little nervous about this trip. It's our first trip with him. He really needs to be feeling better. Sara always got sick on trips, hopefully he won't be. Also I'm not sure I want to hike with him very much or at all. I just hope he can sleep and be in a good mood so we can all enjoy our trip.

Last night was the first night he's slept all the way through the night. He slept from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., quite a long stretch. I still got up at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and checked on him with a flashlight. It makes me nervous when he doesn't wake up that something might be wrong. It's too early to say if he'll be sleeping through the night for good or if it is just because he's sick right now. It was nice to get a lot of sleep last night though.

Moose visits the 'rents

Today we went up to Grandpa and Granny KP's. We haven't seen them in a while and we wanted to show off how cute and interactive Brennan is. He really showed off his winning personality today and how social he is.


*thanks to Dad for these photos, your camera takes way better indoor pics than mine.*

He is very cute and sweet and I can't wait until he gets a little older so he can romp and run through the 'rents garden and fill up on grapes.

In other news, Brennan has started sleeping 5-7 hours at night. If he goes to bed at 9 or 10 p.m. sometimes he makes it all the way through the night until 5 a.m. If he wakes up it's usually at 2 or 3 a.m. and he eats and stays up for only an hour and is ready for bed again. I really haven't minded getting up with him just once a night. I think by 3 or 4 months old he'll be sleeping through the night just fine.

The trade off seems to be that he does not take a long afternoon nap anymore. I've been putting him in his swing while Sara naps because that seems to be the only way he can sleep. I tried leaving him in his room and rocking him back to sleep and letting him sleep in our room but he just wakes up every 20 minutes or so. He does really need his afternoon nap though. If he stays up he's so drowsy and cranky and he just ends up crying a lot.

Mr. Moose eats so much we can't believe it. He is most certainly 13 pounds already he has a really solid waistline. I discovered that Dan has been double scooping his formula on accident which might be contributing to it. He usually eats 2 oz of breast milk and then 2-4 oz of formula every hour or two. I'm thinking of starting him on baby rice cereal, if his stomach can take it, at 3 months just to get him some extra food.

He has given me a hard time during the day. He's really demanding of me and he expects me to be feeding him constantly and if I don't he cries. Also he hates it when I put him down so he'll scream then too especially if I'm anywhere in eyesight. It makes it really hard for me to get anything done or to spend any time with Sara. Sometimes we let him cry a while while I take care of Sara. I'm hoping as he gets older he can entertain himself more. He seems so fixated on me that he does not even look at his toys. His eyes are always glued to me to see where I am.

I think he's just really intelligent and he knows what he wants, he's not content to look at toys that don't feed him or hold him. I think he's really sensitive too. I often wonder and probably always will wonder, if not being able to hold him the first 5 hours after he was born has made him needy and afraid. I still feel a little upset about that and probably always will. Also not being able to room in with him and him spending 4 days by himself in the nursery. If I had it to do over again I would raise hell until they let me have him the whole time.

At night when Dan gets home he holds him and it's a relief for me. I get to take a shower and eat and clean the house and sometimes even read to Sara and play with her some. Dan and Brennan love to sit in Dan's chair and stare at each other, mimicking sounds and cooing at each other. It's really cute and I love watching them together.

Overall, I feel so happy with Brennan and more relaxed even though there are challenges. I can remind myself that Sara made it through her baby-hood just fine and so will Brennan and it takes some of the stress out. I also feel like Brennan is easy to figure out and his needs are pretty simple so that makes it easier for me too. Also it seems to be that he does not get sick very easily and that has been a huge relief. It really stressed me big time when Sara was sick. Hopefully our luck won't run out on that. We've had 2 major illness with no more than a snotty nose from him.

Something cute that Sara does is she tells this all day about Brennan, either "Mom he likes it" or "Mom he don't likes it". If Brennan is crying she says, "Mom he don't likes it". It really cracks me up. She's always letting me know what he likes and what he doesn't, sometimes she even makes stuff up that he don't like. She also alerts us instantly when Brennan cries and if I can't get to him right away she will stand by him and talk to him or get his pacifier to calm him down.

She has been such a great big sister. I think the thing I'm most impressed with is that she's able to watch us spend so much time with him and watch her Daddy hug and coo with Brennan and not get terribly jealous. She is being very generous to share her Daddy. She has a big heart and she genuinely does seem to love her little brother.

Laughing in your sleep

Mr. Moose did a hilarious thing. Once when I was holding him and once when Dan was holding him he laughed in his sleep and it was so funny. He laughed really hard and kept doing it on and off for about a minute. His dream must have been really really funny.

Brennan gets more and more animated and interactive every day. He loves looking at all three of us and almost instantly when he makes eye contact with us he starts cooing, making faces, laughing, and squeaking. I can tell he's going to be really social, friendly, and keyed into us. Sara still likes to sit next to him and tell him stories and give him kisses. I love how nice she is to him, she also likes to pet his head and feel his hair.

here are some pics of his different expressions. Also I put a youtube video up of him laughing.





Also he's getting really good with his hands. They are still balled up in fists but he can move his pacifier and bottle in and out of his mouth with his hands.

He also loves his baths. He likes to have the water splashing on his feet. He kicks and giggles and waves his arms and moves his whole body. I've got a new video up on Youtube for that too. If you can't see the Youtube videos, e-mail me. I put more security on it so it may not be accessible without a password.


He seems to be toughening up on what he can eat. I'm back to drinking my green shakes which makes me really happy. I grew a massive amount of parsley and kale this year and I wanted to eat it.

Today we drove the Nebo Loop and went stopped at Payson lakes. I had never been. We walked around the lake and found a nice spot to sit. Sara and Dan tossed rocks in the water and I fed Brennan under my nursing cover. There were lots of people around and the wind started to kick up as a storm approached. The nursing cover was blowing all over the place, oh well. I guess you have to get over feeling exposed, sometimes it happens. Brennan also hates the nursing cover, so I feel like I'm wrestling with him to get him to eat. I had brought him two bottles of pumped milk but I forgot the nipples for the bottle so he had no choice but to nurse. It's good to have either option though.