Mother's Day

We went to dinner last night with my parents to celebrate Mother's Day.  We were all able to go except for Matt's family...he was set to come down but ended up with a stomach bug :( 

After church, we headed to Café Max in Culver for some yummy food!  The kids got to be "big kids" and have a table of their own.  They thought they were big stuff!

The owner of the restaurant came by with her dog, and let the kiddos have a turn petting the cutie pie!  Only in small town Indiana would this happen...too cute and what a treat for the kids!

 

The kids were being so good, that the owner thought they deserved a special treat.  She surprised them with a brownie sundae.  Just one more reason why we love small town restaurants!

Some pretty good looking couples :)

 





Mom needed a little time with her newest grandson.  Another is on the way in September (don't get too excited, it's not me, it's Stacey)!  We can't wait to meet him or her, and Kyran is ready for a little cousin to play with!

 



It's a different ballgame with two!

Being a mother of two is definitely different from being a mother of one!  If this had been three years ago, I would have had a post on here each and every day, capturing every half-smile, blink, burp, and giggle of Ben. 

Unfortunately, poor Kyran is getting the raw end of the deal.  I DID however, manage to get a few minutes yesterday to snap some pictures of the little guy...

 

 

 

Brothers

I sure do have two cute little guys, and I love to see them interact.  At this point, it's mainly Ben trying to get Kyran's attention.  But, this morning I caught a smile on Kyran's face, courtesy of his big brother. 

A Little Visit

Kyran made a little visit to his babysitter's house yesterday.  He'd been there before, but was asleep in his carseat, and it was only for a few minutes.  Yesterday, he was asleep again, but we got him out and let Linda enjoy snuggling him.  All of the kiddos were excited to have a little visitor and Ben was SOOOO proud to show him off! 

We're going to try an afternoon this week at Linda's and I'm hoping it goes well because this mommy needs a haircut like none other, and I'm thinking it will be more enjoyable without the wee one :) 

Kyran update...

Well, it's been one week since we started the Neocate formula and I am happy to say it's been a good week!  Kyran gobbles up each bottle (despite the nasty smell of it), spends about an hour laying around cooing, talking and even half-smiling, and then goes down for a nap. 

We have discovered that he has a SUPER loud cry and he enjoys crying before each nap.  But, he has a favorite position that he likes to be held in, and that helps get him to sleep. 

I'm so happy that his tummy seems to be on the mend.  He hasn't had a screaming fit from tummy pain this week, but I do think this formula makes him very gassy.  We can deal with the burps and the toots if it keeps him happy, though!

Still keeping our fingers crossed that the formula continues to help, and thanking God each and every day for our little guy, and his big brother, and praying that he continues to be on the mend!

The first month...not so much fun

Well, here we are at the end of the first month of Kyran's life.  It's been a bit of a whirlwind!  He started his life with a super long labor, a hole in his lung, and a stay in the NICU!  After all of that, I thought we were going to go home and enjoy our little guy.  He started out so good...he actually nursed (something his brother never got the hang of) and he was on a four hour schedule from day one!  Wow, this is going good...or, so we thought.

Around two weeks, we started noticing that he was getting very upset after each feeding.  He was still sleeping well at night, so I just wondered if it was my milk or maybe colic.  Then, he started screaming after his night feedings.  I knew something was not right.  I have a very good friend that has a son that had the same issues when he was born, four years ago.  So, I immediately called her and started finding out what her son's symptoms were.  It started looking like Kyran was following the same path, which is a milk protein allergy. 

After an absolutely horrible weekend (not just the screaming, but the fact that we had to purchase a new refrigerator) I made an appointment with his pediatrician.  We started on Nutramigen formula that day.  Nutramigen breaks down the milk proteins so that babies do not have to work to digest them.  We started to see improvement, but he was still very fussy.  Still screaming, still spitting up, still arching his back and kicking his legs, still gassy, and still not happy.  While we waited for the formula to take hold, I made an appointment at a chiropractor for him.  She said that his little intestines were severely irritated and she showed us some massages we could do. 

He seemed to be making a little more progress, but my gut just said it could be better.  I called the doctor and was able to get Zantac for him, for reflux.  After another couple of bad nights, we finally got some relief.  But, I still had that gut feeling...back to the doctor we went.  We had his stool tested for blood, and sure enough, it tested positive.  So, as of today, we have an appointment scheduled with a GI doctor at Riley and we're set to start a new formula (Neocate) tomorrow as well.  Neocate has absolutely no milk proteins.  It's made up of amino acids, so we're hoping that will be the answer to his tummy troubles. 

We're keeping our fingers crossed and sending up lots of prayers that we can get this all figured out and get our little guy happy!

Happy Easter!

I've finally found a few minutes to sit down and post pictures of our Easter celebration at Mom and Dad's.  Once again, Andy's parents were able to celebrate with us.  I know I've said it before, but I'm so thankful that my parents and Andy's parents get along so well and have so much in common...it's such a neat treat for our kids (wow, that still sounds crazy when I say it) to celebrate holidays together, with all of their grandparents!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to make church this Easter.  I wasn't up to going to Easter vigil with a three year old and a newborn...somehow, three hours of trying to keep them both calm, quiet, and entertained seemed like too much of a task.  Even though we missed church, we were still able to celebrate the true meaning of Easter of our little ones.  Ben's starting to understand more and more who Jesus is and what he did for us.  It's a bit overwhelming, I'm sure, to a three year old but he's starting to grasp it.  It's pretty neat to ask him questions and listen to him as he tries to explain his thoughts to us.  My absolute favorite time of day is when he says the prayer before dinner.  He has such a sweet heart!  He led the blessing for us all on Easter, and I think his big AMEN (with a clap, of course) brought a smile to every one's face :)

Here are some photos from our Easter celebration.  What a fun-filled day!

Ben was VERY happy to wake up and find that the Easter bunny found his way to Grandma Debbie's

 

Hunting for eggs

 

 The Easter bunny remembered Kyran, too!

 

On your marks, get set, GO!

 

 

 Grannie Sue got in on the action (Ben needed some extra eyes to help him find the eggs)

 

Ben and Taylor are on the hunt!