Adam at 4 months.

I realize I did a horrible job at documenting what Layla was doing as a baby. I have blog posts, but no real details. Since I have blocked out most of her first year of life, I really have no memory of her schedule. So more for myself than you - here is what Adam is up to.
Adam eats twice a night still - around 2 and 5ish. We are hoping this will resolve after his tubes on Tuesday. He is around 17 lbs and has his checkup Monday. Once he is up (anytime after 6am! yuck) he has about a 2 hour awake limit. He gets very cranky and needs to be rocked or bounced to sleep. He eats around 8, 11, 2, 5 and 8. I try to get him to bed by 9 and am recently moving this to 8:30. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Adam takes 4 naps a day. 3 half hours and 1 hard fought hour and a half. This totals only 3 hours a day which is low for a baby, but whatever. When he is not tired, he plays in one of his many seats or entertainers. These have about a 5-10 minute life each so we rotate often. He does not mind playing on the floor - in fact he likes it most times.

Adam rarely spits up anymore which is nice. I credit him getting older, prevacid and a no dairy diet. He is still breastfed, but will move to formula as soon as I get a job. He fits nicely into 6-9 month clothes already. He is content to just be held and look around.

He is a good baby and will only get better as he feels better. Tuesday is a big day for us, so keep us in your thoughts.

Snow

Aunt Shelly took the girls outside to sled for a bit today. They loved it!

What's new

Adam is getting his ear tubes in on the 3rd (Tuesday). We saw the ENT on Monday and he said that his ears were still so bad, he would do the surgery immediately if he could. He does surgery on Tuesdays and it was 3:30pm and he could not get us on the O.R. schedule that late. Not to mention we were getting a snow and ice storm. So next Tuesday it is. Adam should feel immediate relief after the tubes and they can culture the infection to find out why it is not responding to the 4 different antibiotics we have tried. It is just so sad to see him still struggling. I hate to put him under this young, but know that we cannot let this go on or we risk him loosing his hearing or getting septic.

I did get a one night reprieve last night as Colleen took the baby for me so I could sleep. I have been dealing with little sleep for so long and it was so nice to actually get some decent stretches of rest. I feel better and am more equiped to handle the next 6 days until the surgery.

Not deterred

we have extracted her at least 6 times today.

Layla is still my baby

She climbed in herself and was stuck. Too funny.

Ears suck.

We just don't have good luck with ears at our house. My ears are fine, but everyone else's suck.

Hannah had 9 ear infections before she got tubes when she was 2. She has been fine since save 1 swimmers ear infection.

Layla had 3 ear infections before we scheduled her tubes. The night before the surgery, she got RSV (so no tubes for 30 days). She had 2 more infections in those 30 days. She has had 7 ear infections since including a busted ear drum 2 weeks ago (tube is out and was healed before this infection).

Matt had an ear infection that burst his drum last fall. That is the closest I ever saw my husband to crying from pain.

Now Adam. He has had an ear infection for 21 days and is on his 4th antibiotic. We see the ENT on Monday, but we don't know why this infection won't clear up. He has seen 3 doctors who all tell us his ears are "bulging with puss". We haven't slept, poor baby can't eat well. It just sucks.

So that is where I've been - taking care of a sick baby.

Laughing

Adam can laugh.I love baby laughing!

He also weighed in at 16 lbs 6 oz - naked today at the GI. Growing like a weed.

Big boy diapers!

Not that it is exciting to most people, but Adam has moved up to his big boy diapers. No more pampers swaddlers in our house. He is over 16 lbs, so he is officially a cruiser even though I don't expect him to be cruising anywhere for a few more months.

Maybe he will not have so many outfit changes in these bigger diapers :) A mommy can dream.

Adam is on his third antibiotic for an ear infection that we cannot clear up. This is making him an even worse sleeper than normal. It is very frustrating for mom and dad and I'm sure painful for Adam. We go back for an ear check in a week or sooner if we don't think he is getting better. If he is not 100%, he will get a round of IV antibiotics. Yuck.

15 weeks

Well, Mr.Adam is 15 weeks old and the poor baby is still sick. We went back to the doctor yesterday to find out that he now has a raging double ear infection since the antibiotic did not work. We started our second antibiotic and are hoping he feels better soon. He can't sleep well and is generally pretty cranky. He did weigh in at 16lbs 5oz even though he hasn't been eating well. The nurse called him a "tank" which seems to fit him well :)

Everyone else is just trying to get rid of the last of the cough. Layla got the rest of her shots so she is caught up finally. She barely cried once she found out there was a candy cane in it for her when she was done :)

Here is Adam and his biggest sis playing. Just vegging out in the swing - looking skinny.

Sitting in his big boy chair (looks like he is thinking about something very serious)

Talking to the handsome guy in the mirror.

Still here.Just sick.

We are all battling an upper respiratory infection here at the Shockley's. For my youngest two this also brought ear infections. So we have antibiotics for them and lots of cough syrup for Hannah and me. Matt has been out fo town so he is not affected - yet. Thank goodness for Grandma, who took Adam one night for me so I could sleep as he has been keeping me up quite a bit. Little babies don't do well with congestion (no one does really, but babies especially). We are probably in the middle of it, so I'll post an update when we are all better.

Things I have learned this week:

1)Keep kleenex in your shirt if you don't have pockets - you will need them when noses are snotty faucets. This will keep one year olds from wiping boogers on everything - yuck!

2)Never trust a 4 year old with a glass of water. Hannah apparently decided to dump cups of water on her sister. Judging by how soaked she and the playroom were, she must have gone back and forth at least 5 times in the 3 minutes I was putting the baby to sleep.

3)If you start getting ready for bed at 4pm when you have 3 kids, you can be in bed by 10. Awesome.

So much to say