Can you say colic?

Now that we know Zach has a crazy amount of snot and we know what to do about it, he seems to be getting better. However, over the past week, he has been more and more cranky. He cries and cries and cries (and keeps crying) day or night for no reason. Dancing seems to calm him as well as eating. Of course if I let him, he will overeat then spit up half his stomach contents. So we never sit or we get puked on! I was talking to a friend of mine today who asked if it was colic. I know colic is a lot of crying, but I didn't know that much about it and always thought it was just a night time issue. The internet is a wonderful tool. After reading several sites, I think Zach has colic.

It peaks at 6 weeks. He is 6 weeks today. One site actually says car rides and vacuum cleaners may calm fussiness. Its like they were studying Zach when they wrote that. It also says the sucking or jiggly rocking are calming. Yep. Side or stomach holding are also good soothers. Yep again. Treatment: try cutting out pop, dairy and chocolate for 2-7 days and look for improvement. Hello. I live on pop, dairy and chocolate! Colic goes away at 3-4months, but can last for 12months. If this works, I think my snotty boy owes me one and better not have it for 12 months!!!

On top of constant crying, Ellie woke up with a cold on Sunday. She is also full of snot and slobber, has a fever, cough, red eyes and is miserable.

Can you see that tiny speck of white on the bottom left side of her gums. No, its not a reflection, its her first tooth. It started coming in about a week or two ago. It only took 10months!

Tree time

In keeping with tradition, we put up our Christmas tree on Friday. We had some snacks for dinner, cranked the Christmas music and got to work. The boys wanted to be a part of every step from setting up the tree to clumping 20 ornaments on one branch (Sam) to turning on the lights when it was done. I was a bit worried about Ellie with the tree. She is into everything and everything goes in her mouth. So far, she's just been admiring and not touching it. Here are some highlights:

She didn't know what to think

Hard at work

Break time

Zach hasn't been happy with anything the past few days. Tree trimming is no exception!

Getting ready to turn on the lights

Admiring our hard work

Happy Turkey

My parents spent their first holiday in North Carolina so Jon and I headed to Aaron and Prastis house for Thanksgiving. The whole family was there. The food was amazing and the kids had a great time wearing themselves out with their cousins. The only downside to going somewhere is the lack of leftovers. For the third year in a row, Jon made us a second Thanksgiving. We actually had ours on Wednesday. Jons mom and sister came over to eat with us and once again it was delicious. We are now on day 3 of turkey and I'm sure we'll be eating it for the next few weeks.

We got another treat today. My brother and his new wife were in town to spend the holiday with Maries family. They stopped over today to meet Zach and have some play time with the kids. The boys loved showing them the play room and back yard. Ben is looking forward to his first trip to N Carolina so he can hang out at uncle Tonys house.

Wordless Wednesday: 4 kids

It still hasn't sunk in that we have 4 kids!

Snot

We headed down to the Cleveland Clinic main campus today for Zachs appointments. We saw a plastic surgeon and an ENT. Our pediatrician recommended we see both regarding his high palate to see if we should be concerned about future speech/eating/breathing problems or anything else we haven't thought about yet. He has some breathing issues already. He starts off sounding very stuffy and it progresses to a snort. It happens more at night and makes it very hard for both of us to get a good nights sleep.

We started with the plastic surgeon. He said while the palate is high, he feels its with in normal limits and doesn't foresee any issues.

The ENT checked him and even put a scope in his nose. Jon and I thought it was cool to see, but Zach was NOT a fan of the scope. The result: snot. Everything looked normal, everything is the correct size, was formed correctly and functions properly. He just has a crazy amount of snot blocking the nasal passages. It was so thick the doctor had to pull the scope out and reposition because she couldn't get past it. We have to put saline in his nose every 3 hours, before feedings and before bed. We have to get some prescription drops and put a humidifier by him at night. His nose should start clearing up in a couple weeks to a couple months, but he will be fine!

Our boy is full of snot!

1 month

The little man turned 1 month this week. He is a typical 1 month old. He sleeps...during the day, not so much at night. He eats every 2 hours. He poops all the time. He cries when Ellie hits him. We're still working on her! He gets a freaked out look on his face when Ben and Sam get in his face and just like Ben, he loves to stare at lights. He keeps me on my toes and I love every second!

Wordless Wednesday: Love

I love those smiling faces!

Cuties

He loves his sister!

Chaos

I'm a person that loves organization, lists, routine or at least an idea of whats in store for an outing, the next day or an event. When you have a newborn, all that goes out the window. Before Zach, we had a basic routine. Ben knew when it was time for school. They knew we went to play group every Thursday. They knew lunch time was at noon. Now, we wake up later mostly because Zach seems to sleep best from 6-8am. After a night of crying, feeding and bad tv, I don't want to get up early! School gets pushed back a little or a lot if we want to leave the house, which actually isn't often. Play group is very random and lunch happens sometime between breakfast and nap time. Chaos is our new routine. It absolutely drives me crazy! I feel like the little things are slipping. I can't stand having a disaster for a house, but I hate ignoring the kids to clean. I don't like not getting school done first thing in the morning, but we would never leave the house if that didn't get pushed aside every now and then. I want to get back into walking/running, but I want to see my husband before I fall asleep on the couch at 8:30pm. I know it will get better. I know it doesn't matter if the house is dirty. I know Ben wont turn into a moron because we skipped a few days of school. I know once Zach starts sleeping better at night, things will fall into place. I'd just like to know when that will be so I can come up with a plan for us until then!

Wordless Wednesday: plaid

Even Zach got the plaid memo.

Post partum

Zach is two weeks old today. Its been a rough two weeks, not awful, just not as smooth as I'd like. Zach and I both had follow up doctor appointments today. Here's where we're at:

Zach: He is back up to his birth weight, 8lbs 12oz (50%) and is 21.5in (80%). Even though he is only two weeks old, I think as he gets older he looks less and less like Sam. I'm excited to see who he'll end up looking like.

Zach has some nose issues. He goes back and forth between really stuffy and perfectly clear. At this point we don't know if its related to his high palate, but we got the numbers for a plastic surgeon and an ENT and have been advised to go talk to them and see what they think. In the mean time, we need to shoot lots of saline up his nose and try to keep him somewhat elevated when he sleeps. Issue 2 is his sleeping (and its not really even a big issue). If we put him in bed with us, he sleeps great. He'll go anywhere from 3-6hrs next to me. Even though I've got some great advice/reassurance/information from Prasti and Melissa about co-sleeping, I'm a worrier and it makes me nervous. Although, the way we sleep keeps his head slightly elevated so I think that will be the norm for a while! The final issue, which is also minor, is it looks like Zach has a blocked tear duct. The doctor said this is so common she is shocked none of our other kids had this problem. Twice a day we need to basically rub the side of his nose and pop open the duct. If it doesn't work we'll have to take him to have the duct poked open, which is also minor.

Me: My biggest issue is headaches. I basically have one all the time and it goes back and forth between worst headache ever and pretty tolerable. It got really bad on Saturday. Add in some nausea and vomiting and you end up with a really big hospital bill from an ER visit. After ruling out a blood clot with an MRI, I was told I have spinal headaches which could last a couple months and while medicine will help, it wont take it completely away. Awesome when you have 4 loud kids!! My doctor doesn't think its a spinal headache. She thinks its a-typical migraines. She gave me more medicine to try and said if this works, we will confirm the migraine diagnoses which means I will need to see a neurologist and possibly start maintenance medication because once you get one, you will get them all the time and they will get progressively worse. The triggers---lack of sleep and stress. Hello, I have a newborn and 3 other children. Lack of sleep and stress is a normal part of my daily life! My next issue is right sided incision pain. It comes on randomly. Mostly after being on my feet for a while or I could just be standing still. She said its the nerves regenerating and should only take up to three months to correct itself! My final issue is numbness in my back. I still have a small section that is constantly numb. This is a less common side effect of the spinal, but obviously, it happens. The cure---no cure. Its another one of those suck it up and deal with it issues. Oh, and it only takes 6 months to a year to go away!

I wouldn't trade these guys for anything, but I'm so glad I wont have to go through this with any more babies!