6 Months Old

So, he was 6 months old on Monday and I am just way behind on my blogs. Monday we spent the day at the doctor. The IBS medication was not working at all and things were actually getting worse. He is on a new formula now. A new hypersensitive (very expensive) formula. So far I see no improvement but we have to wait till the end of next week to see how it goes and go back to the doctor. In the mean time he is cranky through the day and up 6-8 times through the night. I am tired and miserable, but who wouldn't be.

SIX MONTHS: The Happy Times


I just can't believe he has grown so fast. One part of me is thankful that some of the grumpy times are behind us but the other part is sad. Every milestone he reaches is pure joy and excitement. I am glad I have taken a ridiculous amount of pictures of this little boy. The days that are really hard I can always look back and remember all the wonderful times too.

When Everett is in a good mood he is the most wonderful baby ever, full of smiles and laughter. When we go out and he gets attention from other people you would never know he is a grumpy baby. People often tell me that he is the happiest baby they have ever seen. Other parents at curling ask me things like, "does he ever cry?" this always make Rawley laugh and then tell them all about it.

Everett is a huge flirt and can melt any girls heart I am sure. He scans the room for any girl looking at him then smiles his big smile and bats his beautiful blue eyes.

He has also reached a few more milestone. He is reaching out for us now when he wants picked up or to go from one persons arms to the next. He can stand for a bit while holding on to the couch or stool. he fallows object that drop or roll behind something. It is fun so watch these new things happen and see how his brain is working.

We have let him drink water out of a cup a few times. A lot of it dribbles back out down his chin, but he swallows some of it and really enjoys doing it. We bought him a sippy cup today so that he can drink water from it. He also really likes this but needs some practice.

That is about all that is new with him. Here are some more cute pictures.

Baby It's Cold Outside

I don't have pictures of all the snow to show you but I can tell you...there is a lot. It has been between -12 and -19 without the windchill for the past few days. It really doesn't seem that bad out if the wind is not blowing. When the wind is blowing and it 'feels like -26' it is almost unbearable outside. Rawley had parent teacher interviews last Friday and we were all bundled up and ready to walk the block and a half to the school. However,, once we actually stepped outside I changed my mind. When the wind hits your face it is like a slap and then you can't breath. Welcome to Manitoba I guess.

Rawley has been playing out in the snow everyday. Sometime for almost 3 hours before coming in. I guess his new jacket is very warm.

Here are some of the deer that we see every time we pass this field. They are still out there now with all the snow digging through to find food underneath.


Everett and I were trying to make super for family games night last week. I think Everett ended up being more of a pain than a help. He can reach so far in his Bumbo chair and turns himself around in it. He got into everything on the counter.

Gnawing on cold carrots feels good on his gums.

This was moments before he knocked the entire spice rack over and made a huge mess.

Everett has been having some of the worst nights ever. I am not sure if the new medicine is not working and actually making things worse or if it IS working and this is the start of fixing the problem. I can tell you that I will be calling the doctor back today to find out how long the meds should take to work because the screaming through the night has got to stop. At 4 am this morning he was up and I tried everything to sooth him and nothing worked, by 4:30 I was in tears and had to go get Ryan to help me. I just can't stand to see him in so much pain and be able to do nothing for him.

I have a few ideas of what else might be bothering him so next time we see the doctor I am going to be very firm that I want testing done to rule out a few things. I have said that before and always backed down when the doctor says that he knows what it is....but I Am not going to back down this time.. This has got to come to an end.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

I was at the pediatrician with Everett again today. It was an appointment I made last week when Everett was having really rough nights and naps. I am glad I made it because he has had 2 really awful nights in a row again.
It just seems to be the oddest thing. Sometimes he is not even awake when he is screaming in the night. He in thrashing around and screaming then he farts a few times and calms down. Usually I can calm him by laying with him and just rocking our bodies back and forth together. This works okay for me because I usually fall asleep in between crying spouts. This does not always work though and sometimes we have to stand and walk with him or bounce him..
Anyway I am at the point of total exhaustion with him and frustration. I want sleep. I want to know that after I feed him and put him down I am going to get at least 3 hours of sleep. I told the doctor today that I had every intention of leaving Everett with him until they find a solution to this problem.
I felt like every time I went to the doctor they said, "oh well he is almost ready to grow out of it, it is just colic, give it till he is 3 months, then 4 months, then 5 months" He is now almost 6 months and the "colic" has not left.
So, today the doctor took a full history again, asked A LOT of question and came up with what he think is the answer.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
This is what he told me is happening to Everett. His bowels get sluggish and everything stops moving. When it sits idle in his bowels that creates a lot of gas.this explains the ridiculous amount of stinky farts he has. Then when the build up needs to be moved his body has to work extra hard to get everything started again. This is what causes all the cramping. Our bowels are suppose to move in a nice smooth constant motion. The doctor thinks Everett's are stop and go which can be incredibly painful.

So tomorrow he starts on some medication that will hopefully smooth out the movements in his bowels and keep everything moving at a regular pace. This should eliminate the gas pains and the cramps and help him sleep at night.

Here are some totally unrelated pictures just because...he is so darn cute.
BC Lions cutest fan, by far.

Just a typical day around our house. We wake up to see deer in the yard across the street. Sometimes we see them in the middle of the night instead. They usually get a drink from his bird feeding and eat his plants.
This particular morning the mail man came and scared them away.

Then there is always a nap or two involved. Sometimes he sleeps in his crib, sometimes in our bed, sometimes on the couch and that day he slept in the clean laundry. Eventually the laundry does get folded and on a good day it even gets put away.

Then there is some time spent in the exersaucer so Mommy can wash dishes, make lunches or prepare bottles. Everett really likes the exersaucer now that he has better hand control. He can reach out for toys, spin himself around and pull the toys to him mouth.

Just the other day I changed his swing from the reclining position to a sitting up position and added the toy bar on the front. Everett was pretty happy about these changes. These are new toys he has never seen before. I wonder how long it will be till he gets bored of them too. Everett has about a 10 minute attention span. He does not like to do anything longer than about 10 minutes. Even if he is having fun...it gets old.

I have to point out that Everett looks a lot like a baby Uncle Dustin in this picture. I know when I look at him I see Ryan and Grandpa Gary, but there must be some Jenkins in there somewhere because here it is.

It has Arrived

The snow found us the other day. Last Wednesday night; we went to bed with a green yard and woke up to a very white world. There was only about 2 inches but that was enough to get Rawley excited. He was up at 7 and outside playing by 8:15. It was remembrance day so he was excited that he had all day to play in the snow.
I didn't let him go find any friends until 9 because I didn't want him to wake anyone up on their day off. So, he just played in front of our house.

He had so much fun outside that I didn't see him till 1pm. He came home for soup and went back outside to play.

Along with winter, snow and cold winds comes illness I suppose. Everett has an ear infection which requires antibiotics, then I got strep throat which also requires antibiotics. Of course this all had to happen within 2 weeks of my benefits running out with work. Then there was Ryan who tried to cut off his finger. Luckily he only lost about an inch long chunk off the side. It got infected and he needed antibiotics. And then just for good measure I decided to put Everett's Amoxicillin in the freezer instead of the fridge thus rendering it useless and I had to go buy new stuff for him.

Sometimes I wonder where my brain is. I lose my keys almost everyday even though I have a hook to hang them on everytime I come in the house. I have managed to lock myself out of my own house twice already. Both times leaving me with a hungry baby and no bottles or formula. The first time I was able to drive to the store and get him stuff and feed him at Grandma's. The last time I had to call Ryan to rescue us because I didn't even have the keys to my car. I do stuff like put the cereal in the fridge and the milk in the cupboard. How long are you allowed to blame all this on mommy brain?

Last week while Ryan was working 2 jobs I did almost anything to keep my sanity. Lucky for me all 6 days were sunny are warm. Everett is generally happier when we are outside so we had many walks. Shoppers Drug Mart is only about 11 blocks away and that is where our mail box is so we would walk there. Everett does not usually fall asleep while we our out on our walks so it is nice when we get home he is usually tired enough to have a nap. This day was a little more chilly than others so Everett opted for his snowsuit.
Thursday we went to watch Rawley curl. This was the first day they actually played games with their teams. Rawley was so excited. Everett on the other hand not so excited. I do think he makes a pretty cute centre piece though.

The weather here has been amazing. Everyone is so shocked we dont' have snow yet. I think Manitoba is just being nice to us newcomers and easing us into Winter. The skies have been blue as far as you can see and it has been fairly warm.

I have to admit Everett does not look the cutest in this picture, it is more just to show he has hair. His hair lays very flat and he still looks baldish. When I comb his hair up after his bath he actually has quite long hair it is just very fine. Poor tired baby, mommy is being so mean taking pictures of you.

Halloween at Our House

I saw one of these skeletons at another house just off our street so I decided to copy it. It was a lot of fun but because I have very little free time it took almost 4 days to do.
Rawley was a robot for Halloween. Ryan took him trick-or-treating, but from what I hear he got a lot of compliments on it. I always feel so good when we make his costumes as opposed to buying them. Last year I had zero energy and I bought him a Ninja outfit and I just did not get the same satisfaction. I feel we may never out do the Astronaut costume but it is still fun.

Our pumpkins

Rawley got a good haul. He will never eat it all. We still have last year Halloween candy that i need to throw out. Everett was a wee bit jealous I think. He kept trying to nab the chips.

Everett did not come home empty handed though. He got a new burrito blanket, A bib, a tag blanket and a receiving blanket. All mad with love from Grandma. This is him loving his new fleecy burrito blanket.

He was festive and wore his Halloween jammies. "Mommy's little Mummy"

All By Myself

All this week Ryan is working two jobs and I am home with the kids. He leaves in the morning and maybe I will see him for dinner then he is gone again for the evening. Me, one eight year old with ADHD & one miserable baby. Yay! Today will be day 3 and so far we are all still alive. I think that is pretty good.

Last night I took the kids to the gym with me and left them in the daycare while I went to the Bums & Bellies class. It was totally worth the $5. Everett was miserable so they had him at the front desk with them. It was a nice break for me. So nice that i am going back at 5:30 tonight to a Zumba class.

On Monday Everett was miserable and crying pretty much the whole time Rawley was home for lunch. A minute or 2 before he went back to school I finally got Everett to calm down. When it was time to leave, Rawley came to kiss us goodbye and we had the following conversation:
Rawley: "Eww. Mom, Everett's eyes are dripping"
Me: "Yes Rawley they are tears, remember he was crying for the past 15 minutes?"
Rawley: "Oh, right."
This kid is so smart. He comes up with inventions and theories all day long, he outsmarts Ryan and I so often I begin to question my own intelligence, yet he can not recognise post crying tears on his baby brothers face?

Oh and Monday night I was video taping Everett rolling over. (by the way he can roll from his back to his tummy now and I have it on video. I would share it with you but as mentioned in previous blogs I can't figure out how to upload it to blogger) Rawley was sitting beside him and telling him how to do it. He even tried to move Everett's arm out of the way. I told him not to help or else the video would not prove anything. Then a second later Everett rolled over and i said to Rawley, "see he can do it himself". Rawley moved to the other side of Everett and was still encouraging him and cheering him on to keep going. Then he stopped, looked at me and said, "Oh mom he already rolled over. He was on his back now he is on his tummy" (I have uploaded the video to facebook)
He watched Everett roll over and then forgot he did it? I have no idea. Sometimes i wonder about that boy of mine.

Well Everett is asleep in his swing so I better get bottles done and everything ready for tonight. During the evenings I am lucky if I get to put him down for 10 minutes. Usually in the evening Ryan will hold him and entertain him while I do up dishes, make bottles, get ready for the next day and any other chores that need to be done. With him gone I am finding it really hard. I wonder how I ever accomplished anything on my own when Rawley was a baby?

Everett

Everett is sleeping in my arms so I am going to type a whole blog with one hand.
Almost every morning as long as we are home Everett has a 2 hour nap. There have been a few times that he has not and the rest of the day is ruined. Today he was having trouble staying asleep so I am holding him in hopes that he will make it the last 20 minutes. We already have pretty rough afternoons so this nap is important. Even though all the books say that i should not hold him while he sleeps when he is this old. I prefer to follow the 'do what works' rules sometimes.

Everett was 5 months old on Oct.22nd. I can't believe how much he has grown.

The past 9 nights or so have gone much better with Everett. For the most part he wakes up twice to eat and falls right back asleep. A few times while he is up eating he decides he is not tired enough to go back to sleep though. Last night was one of those nights. I was a long 2am feeding. I still prefer him being awake and just laying in my arms than up and screaming for hours so yay for him.

Our new challenge with him is keeping him happy through the day. He gets bored so easily. When they say some children are more suited for daycare..they are talking about Everett. He always wants to be around people. When he has other kids to watch and be with he is happier. At home he is miserable unless I entertain him or hold him. Both things I don't want to do all day.

He loves his exersaucer, jolly jumper, bouncy chair, piano, and swing, but gets bored of each after 10 minutes. It is exhausting trying to keep him happy. Anyone have any ideas? He can't sit up yet on his own so it is hard to give him any real toys to play with. I know I have to leave him on his own more or he is going to become used to being held and entertained..but he is also very defiant. Unlike most babies who cry then realize it is not working and stop he just keeps going. He will scream forever I swear.

On the positive side. When he is happy, he is such a joy, he loves music and usually sings along in his own way. He is the cutest thing in the world and his love for Rawley is unbelievable. No matter how upset he is Rawley can make him smile.

This is him one morning while sitting at the table with Rawley at breakfast. Rawley was making faces and noises at him and he was laughing so hard.

So, that is what is new in the life of Everett.