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.