April 2011

April was a bit of a hectic month for us. Having a newborn, a 3 year old, a husband that is in Iraq, and being in school full time is a LOT of work! Thank GOODNESS for my Mom!!! She came to stay with me for a week because I was NOT handling the stress of a new baby and everything else well. Moms are great. I highly recommend having one.

Anyway, Jackson as a newborn is very involved. He is ALWAYS gassy! After speaking with his doctor, she suspects an allergy to Casin, a protein in milk and recommends switching to soy. After switching, he appears to be doing much better, but is still a very gassy baby. We suspect a touch of colic as it seems that he is very cranky between 4 and 8pm. The other possible condition is acid reflux and so we started prevacid. That medication is TERRIBLE! Jackson HATES taking it, and after tasting it myself, I do NOT blame him!!! It's strong, and NOT pleasant at ALL. He is also on nystatin for thrush and weighed in at 10 pounds on April 6th! Big boy! :) On April 10, he slept from 11pm to 5:45am!!! It was AWESOME, but ended up being a fluke. It didn't last, and was probably just a growth spurt. Little booger. He does seems to favor being swaddled to sleep and actually slept in his crib for the first time on April 22! He's growing quickly!!

Brandon is adjusting.....sometimes not so well, to his new little brother. He has some difficulty understanding that he cannot play with Jackson yet, and is often a little rougher than I'd like. We often remind him to use gentle touches, and try to distract him with other things. Occasionally, there have been some aggressive behaviors displayed and we are very quick to correct the problem. In other areas, B is VERY observant and is a little sponge. He is continuing to repeat things that we say, which sometimes comes back to bite us in the butt. He is so intelligent and he often surprises me with his questions. He asked me about the difference between boy/girl private parts, which was NOT a question I was prepared to answer! I DID answer, and managed to use correct medical terminology and keep a straight face and that seemed to suffice. We'll see......I definitely wished that Daddy was home to help field some of that, but he will be back soon enough.

Easter was a great time! The boys were spoiled rotten by the Easter bunny and had a great time exploring their Easter baskets. Our wonderful friends the Elix family (well, Sarah and Elijah) came over for a yummy Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt for the boys. They had a great time and Sarah got some quality Jackson snuggles in. All in all, it was a successful Easter despite having a cranky baby and a deployed husband. :)