Dog Water Binky, Couch-Jumping, Missing Papa & Nanny, Cows, Worm-Eating, Nursing Strike, Spoon Feeding & Pee Bed

Wes:  10 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years, 3 Months & 2 Weeks Old

Last Friday (yes, Corey I am pretty much caught up) we had our usual grocery day and I keep wondering when it will ever get better with Tyson.  It really makes me want to go by myself, but I can’t go at night with supper, bath, stories, and bedtime - it just won’t work.  I also don’t want to go on Sunday because I want Heath to get as much done around the house as possible (right now nothing will get done because it is ice-fishing season, but I digress) and also because Sundays at Market Basket are hazardous to your health.  I’m not joking.  You totally get pushed around.  Anyways, despite his usual baloney at the grocery store, Ty did some interesting things on Friday.  A gross thing was dipping his binky in the dog water and licking the water off the binky.  Gross.  A mean thing that he did was push Reeses off the back of the couch.  Yeah, that put him into time-out.  I have a bunch of blankets behind the couch, so she landed on them and was fine, but still… His new daredevil stunt that he loves to do now is jump off the couch.  He just climbs on top of the couch (where you sit, not at the top where he pushed Reeses) and then yells, “jump!” and jumps onto the ground.  He falls pretty awkwardly, I’m afraid that he could hurt something.  But I pick my battles with this kid and I put a bunch of pillows on the floor for him to land on instead.  An amazing thing he did on Friday was say, out of the blue, “Nanny, Papa, come back please.”  It was definitely Nanny & Papa and not Noni & Poppy…he does know the difference.  I just don’t know how he came up with that all of a sudden.  He wasn’t even near where we have their picture…he obviously was thinking of them!  It’s incredible what goes on in the mind of a 2 year old!  On the Westin front, nothing too much to report, except, you guessed it, I fell asleep nursing him until 4 AM on Friday night.  It is becoming a Friday night tradition.

Friday night horsing around with Daddy

Last Sabbath we went to Laconia church.  We got Ty to Sabbath School and I took him for a change.  He was so well-behaved than the last time I took him alone.  Heath usually takes him, but it was nice for me to have that time too.  Heath got his time with Ty while I had to nurse Westin during much of the church service.  On the way home from church, Ty let us know where he wanted to go.  “Cow, Cow, Cow…Moo…Moo…Moo!”  He said this non-stop!  Heath has taken him a few times to this farm up the road where the cows are right beside the road.  Ty is getting obsessed with them now.  So we took him there and he was in heaven.  We relaxed on Sabbath afternoon and then we had our big Saturday night out and the 4 of us went to Walmart! (=  When we got there I grinned at Heath and said, “it’s your turn!”  I abandoned the boys to Heath and I wanted to shop by myself for a change!  It was very nice (for me).  When I caught back up with them, Heath says, “Ty is really getting to be a problem in the stores.”  I had to laugh.  You think?  When we got back home, I was getting supper going and Heath was on the phone with Joel.  All of sudden, I heard Heath scream, “Tyson, NO!”  Tyson was eating a worm.  Yes, a live worm that Heath had just bought for ice-fishing.  Heath managed to get most of it out of his mouth, but he still had a piece that he had chewed and swallowed.  And in true Tyson fashion, he said, “Yummy tummy!”  I just about died.  We should have known.  In Walmart when Heath put the worms in the cart, Tyson said, “Oohh…treat.”  Heath said, “No, it’s not a treat.”  But obviously Ty did not believe him.  Wes was really sleepy all day on Sabbath, to the point where I thought he might have a fever, but he didn’t.  I’m not really sure what that was about, but he still slept all night without any problems.  On Saturday night, I had Heath watch the first episode of Downton Abbey to see if he would like to watch the series with me.  I got my answer when he proceeded to insist on watching the next 2 episodes. So we are both hooked and we are not watching any TV at all right now until we are caught up with the current season.  Again, for anyone out there that is not watching.  Please do.

 Loving the cows

On Sunday for some reason my house was a real mess and I spent the morning and early afternoon picking up.  Then the boys & I went up to the Fairway to spend some time with my parents while Heath went ice-fishing.  Ty had helped me pick up his toys and then as we were going out the door, he just had to take his huge toy basket and dump the entire thing out on the floor.  That did a number on my OCD.  We were going to see German Shepherd puppies at a co-worker’s of my dad.  I knew that Ty would go crazy for them.  When we were driving to the Fairway, I had been talking on the phone and didn’t have the radio on as I usually do…and Tyson reminded me of that fact.  All of a sudden I hear from the back, “Mama…Mama…song!”  Unfortunately my dad got called in as we were driving over there, so no puppies and so we just hung out instead.  Heath came over after ice-fishing and Mom made a killer meal for us.  Then she watched Westin while Heath, Ty  & I went swimming at the clubhouse.  Ty had a great time and we decided we need to take him swimming there more. 

Playing catch with golf balls with Noni

Noni & Wes time

Having a blast

It looks like he is swimming, but he isn't...yet

Trying to float...and lovin' every minute of it!

Playing in the arcade at the clubhouse

On Monday it was snowing so I didn’t go to the pharmacies.  It wasn’t snowing hard but I didn’t want Tyson having to sit in the carriage out in the snow while I got Westin in the Bjorn etc…Not too much happened that day except for Tyson insisting on putting his baby doll down for a nap in his crib and then wanting to go lie down with his baby – and not at his normal naptime!  It was very sweet.  Ty has also been doing something for awhile that I have forgotten to mention.  Every time he gets a bump or falls down, he cries, “kix…kix” (which is his version of ‘kiss’) and needs me to kiss it for him.  As soon as my lips hit his wounded area, he is miraculously cured!  The healing power of a mother’s touch!  A major thing started on Monday and that was Westin starting to give me problems nursing.  He is starting the same behavior that Tyson did with me…except Tyson started this when I had gone back to work and he preferred the bottles to breastfeeding.  Westin had been an A+ nurser from the beginning and his entire 10 weeks.  Then out of nowhere, he will only nurse for 5 minutes (like exactly) on each side and then begin screaming bloody murder.  Sometimes I will burp him and he will go back on for another minute or so…but then the screaming starts again.  Sometimes he will not go back on at all.  Seriously there is not a more frustrating thing.  I know he is getting more efficient with nursing and he is getting a ton of milk in that 5 minutes, but it just can’t be enough.  But he is having just as many wet diapers and about 3 large poops a day.  I just don’t know what to make of this.  If he is really sleepy like first thing in the morning and late at night, then he usually will nurse perfectly.  It’s not a milk supply problem because I will pump after he is refusing…and I will have about 2 oz more on each side.  Corey told me that Brady did this for months and they couldn’t come up with a cause.  I really hope that it doesn’t last that long!  Please pray for us.  This is stressing me out.

Cuddling up

How could this sweet guy give me problems?

On Tuesday I couldn’t go to the pharmacies again because we got freezing rain.  So homebodies we were again.  Ty did a couple of cute things on Tuesday.  He needed to have a time-out because he was not listening to me when I told him that he needed to come have his diaper changed.  He ran from me, carrying on, and I had to chase him (even when I told him that I was not joking and he needed to listen to me).  After his time-out, I asked him why he was put in time-out.  He said, “Diaper…come…chair.”  Translation:  since he would not come to have his diaper changed, he had to sit in the time-out chair.  I was pretty impressed! (=  Then I got more impressed when Snickers peed on the floor.  Not at that…and I’m not sure what is going on with her.  She peed right in front of me and she had gone out about a hour before.  I’m not sure if she is trying to mark her territory because of the new baby and the breastmilk…but anyways…  As I was cleaning it up, Tyson said, “Snickers…potty…treat!”  Translation:  Snickers you would have gotten a treat if you had gone on the potty!  I laughed and laughed at that one.  Westin’s semi-“nursing strike” continued in a major way on Tuesday.  He would not nurse AT ALL at his 7 PM feeding.  Wouldn’t even open his mouth and just screamed.  I tried everything that I had read up on the internet…trying to nurse while walking, doing skin-to-skin, trying to nurse in a dark, quiet room…but nothing worked.  I ended up pumping and feeding him with a spoon - which he did SO well.  I haven’t started a bottle yet.  I was planning on starting it that week (since I am going back to work next week) but with this issue, I don’t want to confuse him with another nipple.  But no matter what, I have to start the bottle this week.

Making supper...he is trying to cut garlic with a wooden spoon!

He did great with the spoon!

Wednesday was a pretty full day.  We got up fairly early and rushed to go to the pharmacies in the AM.  Out of the blue, Tyson was fantastic.  I’m sure it was a fluke, but we will have to wait to see!   I was running low on M&M’s (my late night treat) and got 4 big bags for $1.25 each, got Advil 50 count (also out of) for $1.99 and Chex mix for $0.39!  In the afternoon we took my parents to the airport.  They were headed to Florida for a few days and then Shannon & Devin & their families would be joining them and they are going on their cruise.  Lucky ducks.  We couldn’t go because Westin is too young – babies have to be 6 months old to go on a cruise.  Speaking of my Westy baby, his nursing was still going hard, but at least he wasn’t straight-out refusing.

My sweetie-pie

Thursday was even busier.  Shannon & Fin came to visit and the kids had fun playing.  Well, that was after Tyson needed a time-out after pushing Finley down just about as soon as she walked through the door.  Don’t ask me why he does it.  But he was fine after that.  The major news of the day was that Tyson peed on the potty twice!  He asked to go and he went!  I was so, so proud of him!  I am starting our hardcore training this week, so stayed tuned to hear how that goes!  The crazy thing that happened in the afternoon was when Tyson was trying to take a nap.  He absolutely would not go to sleep, probably because Shan & Fin were here.  Shannon & I were watching him on the monitor, when he started to take off his pajamas.  I’m like, “Oh no…I know what is coming next.”  Of course I was right and he took off his diaper and he was in the crib stark naked.  I ran up there and yup, there was a puddle in the bed.  This occurred RIGHT after he had gone pee in the potty.  I said, “Tyson!  You go pee in the potty!”  Tyson grinned at me and said, “Pee…bed.”  Unbelievable.  What was also unbelievable is Tyson’s vision.  He was eating soup for lunch when he said, “Mama…hair.”  I looked in his soup and couldn’t see anything.  So I tried to ignore it and distract him and keep him eating.  Next thing I know, he had dumped his soup onto his tray…and that’s when I saw it.  The hair in his soup!  I can’t believe he could have seen that in his vegetable soup!  Back on the Westin front, he had another bad day of nursing, so I called the doctor’s office.  I had touched base with them on Wednesday and they said to call to have him seen if he was still giving me problems the next day.  They wanted to rule out any ear infection, mouth infection etc.  Of course they ruled that right out.  The doctor really has no idea of what it could be.  He wants me to stretch out his feedings a little longer, to see if he really isn’t as hungry as he could be…so that is why he does not want to eat longer.  So instead of feeding every 3 hours, he wants me to try every 3.5 or 4 hours.  He also gave me a prescription for an acid reflux medication to try if the stretching out of his feedings does not help.  If in 2 weeks he is still giving me problems nursing, then I will bring him back in for a weight check.  So I feel better with a plan.  I just need a plan!  After the appointment, we met Sonia at Goodwill in Concord and we shopped.  She took Ty and I was able to have Westin all to myself.  It was very nice.  Then we went to the OG and I tried a new entrée (actually all of us had the same one), a 3 cheese Ravioli in a garlic-cream sauce and it was great!  Tyson was pretty well-behaved and Westin was great as always.  Have a good week!   

 Fin & Ty watching one of Ty's "bear" videos

A little blurry...but doesn't it look like he is so cool - posing with his tractor?

You can't really tell...but he put on one of Heath's hats to eat breakfast!