On the road again....

Last weekend we traveled down to Charleston to visit Chris' older sister Kelly, her husband, Alejandro, and are nephew Nicolas. It was a short trip but it was nice to get to spend some time with them. They lived in Miami when Nicolas was born and we saw him briefly then and then by the time they moved to Charleston I was pretty far into my third trimester and then we had Cort so Chris and I have felt like we haven't gotten to them or Nicolas near as much as we would like.
Cort got to go to the pool for the first time and he went to the beach for the second time.
The jury is still out on the pool- he didnt fuss but he didn't love it. I think it is still a little too cold.


We had better luck at the beach. He really liked watching the little waves break.



Cort loves "horsing" around with Daddy. (This is a smile - you just have to turn the picture upside down!)



Ooh- nothing like little feet in the soft, cool sand.





Cousin Nicolas playing in the water!

Bumbo, Bumbo

Cort got a bumbo and he loves it! He has always perferred sitting straight up so this is right up his alley. He had tested it out at his friend Sophie's house and the report was good so Chris and I just had to get him one!!



We still have no teeth but he sure seems to be working on them again. He constantly has his fingers in his mouth.




Cort is loving his exersaucer. He hasn't figured it all out yet but he certainly enjoys all the funny noises it makes. He's so inquisitive about everything!





One of my favorite times of day with Cort is in the morning. He usually wakes up so happy to see us. I have to give him his prevacid (for the reflux) and then wait about thirty minutes before I feed him. He's so patient about it! We always just hang out in my bed together. Sometimes we play but a lot of times we doze and snuggle together. He always looks so sweet snuggled up in our big bed.

Wedding Weekend

Chris' twin sister got married this past weekend. We loaded up and headed down to Columbia for what turned out to be a great weekend of spending lots of time with family. Chris has a big family. There are a ton of aunts, uncles, cousins and a ton of them came in to town for the big day. Most of Chris' extended family lives elsewhere(not Columbia) in the US so it was awesome that everyone traveled in! The weeknd started with a Jimmy Buffet themed party at his aunt's house. All the "cousins" were there and we had a great time catching up. Cort got to wear his cute little beachy outfit to the party!!


Cort and Grandmommie


All the cousins(well, the ones already in town)

Cort did so well all weekend! We took him to a million different places and he didn't complain one bit! He seemed to enjoy all the attention! On saturday, we had Jessica's( Chris' twin sister) bridal luncheon and the boys went out for Bar-b-que. Chris took Cort with him and he had himself a little nap with his cousin Nicolas.



Saturday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Again, Cort did great being out of his element. The dinner was at an old home in down town Columbia and had a mediteranean theme. The food was yummy and hanging out with everyone again was a blast!


Cort with his Uncle Alejandro

My parents were thrilled Sunday because Cort and I were at their house all day we left Cort with themm all day and they got to keep him while we are the wedding.



Cort with Papa(my dad)


Chris and I had a great time at Jessie's weddding. Everything went really well and she was beautiful. The wedding was outside at the Corley Mill House. It even cooled down a little(as cool as Columbis gets in the summer). S0, now Chris and all his siblings are married off!!! The family just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

Sean(the groom), Chris, and Jessica




The first dance


Out without the baby!!!!


Me, Allison, Christine


Mike and Jeff


Chris and cousin Rachel

Yummy!

We started rice cereal! I wasn't sure how he was going to respond to it since he hasn't really been that interested in even eating his milk but you be the judge.....



I do not know about milk and cereal...


Do I like milk and cereal??



I do, I do like milk and cereal!!! Yea!!!

We now give it to him twice a day and in an another week or so I will start giving him fruits and vegetables. I am going to try to make some of my own baby foods - we'll see how that goes.

Where's the food, mom?



If you don't give me more, I'll just eat this big plastic tray!!!

Mother's Day, Doctor Day, and Other days

Mother's Day.....
I had a great first mother's day. First, Cort got dedicated at church sunday morning. It so nice to have such a wonderful family at church. I feel great knowing that Cort will grow up in a church that is dedicated to praying for and leading the children to become followers of Christ. I love knowing that he has so many people that love him and pray for him. Then, we went to the park and had a great picnic. It was a beautiful day and really nice to get out of the normal routine. Cort made me ;) the cutest little card with his little face all over it!!! It's so weird to me that this was my mother's day.










Doctor Day...

Cort had his four month well check this week. He weighs 11 lbs 12 oz(8th percentile) And is 25 inches long(50% percentile). Weight gain is still slow and he still hasn't wanted to each much. The past two days have been a little better. We switched bottles - from Dr. Brown's to Playtex Drop-ins with the old school latex nipple - he seems to like them better. I also think maybe his double dose of prevacid might finally be helping a little. He still doesn't want formula so I continue to pump. It's a little annoying but I don't really want him on formula anyway. We will slowly introduce it back as he begins to eat better and takes the bottle okay. The doctor wants to see him back at 5 months to check his weight. She said if he starts to fall off his curve from here that we may see a specialist for blood work but she does not expect us to get to that point. We are going to go ahead and start solids. I was not anticipating this as we had talked about starting solids very slowly with him due to his digestive issues and his sensitivities to things( ie rashes, etc.) but she wants to see if it sort of spikes his interest in eating and maybe it will help with the reflux as well. He checked out great on everything else and handled his shots like a champ - a screaming champ- but a champ none the less.


Other days.....

On days that it is the normal routine- here are some of the things Cort does.....

I like to....

Smile at my mommy doing silly things




Play with my toes














Check out all my cool toys













Sit in my mammoth rocking chair and eat my
yummy medicine( it's all over my face)












Ham it up for the camera


Help mommy do the laundry

Good News

Cort's upper GI came back clear. It was so interesting to see all his little insides working. He was quite the little trooper and hardly fussed at all. He looked absolutely adorable in the tiny little hospital gown with white barium all over his face. We wished we had our camera! There were no blockages or other complications but we were able to see the reflux. We already knew he had it but it was so disheartening to see the food go right back up his esophagus.
So, we have increased his prevacid and our waiting to see if that helps. Thus far, it hasn't made much of a difference. We continue to pray for direction.

Cort turned 4 months old today!!! Yea!! Happy Birthday Cort.

G.I. Joe

I really must get more regular about posting on the blog because it's much more overwhelming to update when I have waited so long. So, here are some little tidbits about what's currently going on with Cort.

Cort still doesn't have any teeth and has seemed to slow down with all the teething symptoms so maybe he'll get them at a little more normal time.

He is perhaps one of the noisiest baby's i have ever known. He babbles and makes noises constantly. He has discovered his voice and apparently loves the sound of it.

Cort and I took our first road trip by ourselves. We went down to Columbia for the day for Jack's(my cousin's little boy) 1 year birthday party. Cort liked the party...hated the drive.




He will be four months old on Thursday( the 11th)

We got our first little cackle of a laugh when Cort was three months old. Since then he has been quite stingy with the laughs. We'd get a few here and there but they were always brief. Well, yesterday he had a full blown laughing fit. It was almost like he was delirious. Chris' parents were here and were telling him by and he just burst out laughing. Everytime Chris' mom would talk to him or touch him he would let out the cutest little giggles. Needless to say, it made it hard for them to leave. Thankkfully, Chris grabbed the video camera and we caught a little of it!!

A few of the things he currently loves:
1. He loves smiling. He does it all the time.
2. He loves playing airplane with his daddy.
3. He still loves his mobile.
4. He loves gettnig lathered up with his lotion( he has horrible dry skin)
5. He loves his new crinkle ball his grandmommie gave him for Easter
6. He loves looking in the mirror

He hates to eat. Yes, eating is still a massive issue. The past three weeks have been very trying. It started up again around 3 months and has all gone down hill from there. We have been going to the doctor for weight checks and he is slowly gaining. He weighs about 11.5 lbs right now. He does not like to eat. He fights it every time. For multiple reasons and through lots of prayer and agonizing we have started the process of putting him on formula. This has been very difficult for me as I was planning to continue to nurse him and so desperatlely want to do what is best for him. We know that formula itself is not better for him and I am having the hardest time with that fact but what we do know is that whether I am nursing him or we or bottle feeding him he does not want to eat and he does not eat enough. The bottle is better because this way we can monitor his intake better and I can have help. I am struggling with wanting to make sure that we don't make this decision too hastely and that it is not at all for selfish reasons. What I do know is that something has to change because feeding times have become quite miserable for me and especially for Cort. He will typically start to eat fine but after an ounce or two( if bottle feeding) or after a few minutes(if nursing) he stops eating and lets us know quite forcefully that he will not have any more. He gets a little more worked up with the bottle because we can force it on him a little more than when nursing. At first we thought it might be a bit of a bottle strike as well and while that might be a small part of the problem, nursing sessions are really no better. This past Friday we took him back to the doctor for yet another weight check - again slow progress but we are greatful that it's progress. My doctor, who I just have to say is wonderful, tried giving him a bottle to see if he would take it from her and so she could get a feel of what was going on. He immediatley took the bottle but seconds later was screaming and would not eat anymore. She then had me nurse him to see if it made a difference - a small one - but not much. She thinks he is reacting because something is making him uncomfortable and believes his reflux is flaring up again so we are increasing his prevacid. He will get it in the morning and at night now. Thankfully, he likes the medicine so this won't be too much of a problem. Unfortunatley, there is no generic so this isn't the cheapest fix. Also, because she doesn't want to just assume anything, we are going on Tuesday morning at 9:00 am for an upper GI. She does not expect anything serious but wants to rule out any other possible problems. While I am not excited about Cort having to have this procedure, I am glad for the peace of mind it might give me that nothing else more serious is wrong. At the same time, if it comes back clear we are just back to waiting it all out and hoping it gets better.

In the meantime, we are praying that God will just take this away from him and give us the wisdom to know what we should be doing as his parents. I am trying to find a peace about weaning Cort and trusting that God is in control of all of this. I try to find some solice in knowing that tomorrow morning we are waking up to an upper GI but that a few years from now this will be past us and I will be waking up on a Tuesday morning to play GI Joes.

Correction

We went back to the doctor today and I had her show me teeth again - it is actually the two bottom middle teeth- which makes a lot more sense to me - not sure where the mix up came in.

He gained 3 oz. Yea!

Firsts, Firsts and more Firsts!

It's been a while since I posted- sorry to all of you who anxiously await new pics. We were on vacation last week- Cort's first trip to the beach.... that begins his long lists of firsts(some good, some not so good) that have happen over the past two weeks...in no particular order..

1. First long road trip(he did great)
2. First vacation
3. First time on a beach( a regular little beach bum)
4. First laugh(very quick but we'll take it)
5. First grab and hold purposely(other than my hair)
6. First rash(all over his body :( )
7. First ear infection :(
8. First antibiotic
9. First acknowledgment of our cat, Mowgli
10. First time to refuse his paci for nap
11. First teeth cutting
12. First professional pics
13. First Easter

No you did not read number 11 wrong. My 3 month old is cutting two teeth- one on the top, one on the bottom. It has been a really interesting week or two - i guess I should start from the top. Two weeks ago Cort started having a rash on his body. I thought it was due to a new lotion that I used but then it spread -the morning we were leaving to go to the beach! Thankfully, my doctor was open so we ran to the doctor before leaving to go out of town. She agreed that it was just some type of contact irritation(what we don't know). However, I mentioned that he hadn't been wanting to eat much and was having a hard time going down at night -she checked his ears- first ear infection. I think the rash was God's way of getting me to the doctor before we went to the beach.

We went on the beach with our little trooper. He was so good and here he had this itchy rash and an ear infection( and cutting two teeth unknown to us). He liked the beach and hanging out with his Grammie, Papa, Aunt Michelle and cousin Chandler( who could always get a smile). It was nice to have extra hands and to just get out of the same old routine a little bit. We also got to stop by on the way back and visit Grandmommie and Grandpa(Chris' parents) so he got a full fix of family.

He continued to refuse to eat much all week. I got worried about his weight gain and took him back to the doctor when we got back to see if the ear infection had not cleared. He had not gained any weight but his ear infection was clear. :)And while she was examining him she checked his mouth and wouldn't you know it - he's cutting two teeth!! I wasn't surprised, Chris and I had started suspecting it two weeks ago but dismissed it because he is so young. My doc said it's one of the youngest she's ever seen - lucky us. He's in a little pain - I'm in a lot. It's difficult with hime being so young because he can't just pick up a teether and put it is mouth when he hurts.

He had started to want to eat again but was taking an hour where he use to take 15 -20 minutes. Long story short, my milk supply is low because he wasn't eating last week. We are diligently trying to increase it but no luck so far. This has been very frustrating because nursing has always gone so well. And here we are when it is suppose to be even easier and it just got a whole lot harder. I am praying that things will fall back into place soon or for some wisdom about what to do next.

In spite of all the craziness, Cort has been great and quite content. We got some pictures taken of him and they turned out great (some posted). Chris will appreciate me mentioning that we did not request the pictures with the feathers and in fact protested a little but then his expressions were so good we couldn't pass them up. Cort is really enjoying his new found abiltiy to reach and grab toys. Chris and I love watching him grow up. There are a lot of pics- enjoy.

Miracles do Happen!!!

Cort took a two hour nap!!!!!! You have to understand how monumental this is - I even took a picture of him waking up( I was to afraid to take one while he was sleeping). Last week was a big milestone for Cort, he almost always takes a 45 minute nap and usually once a day I'll get an hour to an hour and half. This is huge considering for the past 5 or 6 weeks we never got more then 30 minutes at a time. He also does not cry every time he goes down - I think he is finally learning to put himself to sleep more easily!