the turkey’s cousin did a birthday photo shoot but they’re still in editing.  my pic will have to do for now.

After last night’s post about how well the turkey was doing with his shots, the nonstop vomiting began. For some reason, so far, nothing has bothered me more than vomiting. I guess it’s because my only real responsibility right now is to feed him and make sure he gets enough to eat. When he loses a meal, my heart just breaks for him and I usually end up crying. Last night was far worse than anything we’ve seen yet. The poor thing ended up with dry heaves once. He also started running a fever. We broke out the tylenol at 100.1 degrees. We ended up doing our first family camp-out. I “slept” on the love seat, hubby slept on the sofa, and the turkey slept on the ottoman where we could both reach him. It was a long night.

the family that lays together...

He did much better today. He kept his meals down and even started to get back to his normal appetite by this evening. He was still sporadically howling and super lethargic. The only real awake time he had all day was shower time. I took his bandaids off and washed/massaged the injection sites and he never even flinched. He was fever-free all day until just a bit ago when he spiked to 101.1 and had his first real diarrhea diaper. It’s so hard to see him feeling bad even though he’s staying in great spirits. He smiles through all his diaper changes and laughs and chatters while we’re trying to get tylenol in him. But he’s just not himself and I know he doesn’t feel good. I think he may already be figuring out that he can make us feel bad for him or worry about him to score some living room naps throughout the day.  i just hope that he’s feeling better in the morning when we take him on his first road trip.

tummy naps around momma and daddy are so much better than napping alone in my crib

today was the turkey’s 8 week shots.  they started with the oral rota vaccine which seemed to be quite the treat.  unfortunately, his enjoyment was short-lived as the nurse moved on to the needles.  she quickly jabbed two shots in one thigh and one shot in the other thigh.  it’s good that she was quick about it but the poor turkey’s response was immediate with the first stick.  he didn’t even cry… he instantly went to the silent scream – and momma’s heart just broke!  my poor little guy.  after the third stick, daddy swooped in and cuddled him back to calmness.  to me, that says an awful lot.  the nurses were talking about how a lot of babies need to be nursed after shots to calm down but he has such a good and trusting relationship with his daddy that he didn’t need momma’s bribery.  i don’t know that a lot of babies see enough of their daddies to be calmed by them like that.  we stayed in the office just a bit to make sure he was okay and wasn’t going to need some of momma’s special comforting.  the little trooper fell asleep and we moved onto the errand portion of the day.  we purposely planned a bunch of errands so that we could stay close to the dr’s office for a few hours in case he had any kind of reaction.  after a bite of lunch, we went into the mall to find a comfy seat for me to feed him.  he woke up and ate without any fuss but he did have his first public diaper blowout and costume change.  we finished his feeding, finished our errands, and headed home.  i thought he would be super fussy but he’s mostly just been lethargic.  he’s had a few bouts of unusual shrieking but they’ve been brief.  i’m so proud of my little man.

In other news, he’s weighing in at 11lbs, 12.5oz and 22.75 inches. Growing like a little chunky monkey!

chicks dig scars... and bugs bunny bandaids

my little turkey pulled his first 8 hour night last night.  i almost made him stretch even longer.  we had some pretty severe storms last night that kept me up a lot.  i noticed that the fan in my bedroom died again around 01:00.  when i first saw that it wasn’t on, i thought the power was out but one look around the room revealed a working alarm clock and power light on the tv so i didn’t think anymore about it and went back to sleep.  i woke up again at 02:00 when the storm got particularly loud and stayed awake for most of that hour listening to the howling and shaking of our balcony furniture.  i was woken again a little after 03:00 by more crashing thunder.  finally, i was woken around 04:30 by the little guy crying.  as usual, i let him cry it out for a bit to see if he would go back to sleep but i also didn’t want to push him too far and have it get too close to his 07:30 start-the-day feeding… who knew that something as simple as feeding your baby requires so much strategy?  anyhow, when he was still crying after 15 minutes and showing obvious hunger signs, i went ahead and got up to feed him.  it was then that i actually looked at my phone and discovered that it was actually 07:00!  apparently, the power had gone out at some point during the night and the alarm clock was lying to me.  it only took a moment to dawn on me that he had SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!  commence woot woot party dance and more urgent scramble to get to my hungry boy and get him some num-nums.  here’s hoping this wasn’t just a one-time fluke 🙂

good night sleep = happy baby

my dad’s been in the hospital again this weekend.  even though it seems to be the same issues that kept him in the hospital for 2.5 weeks earlier this year – fluid on the lungs, fatigue, shortness of breath – they are calling it congestive heart failure now and that just seems so much more urgent to me.  hubby has been pushing to make a trip to see all of the family before i start working again but i’ve been hesitant to go anywhere without the turkey’s shots, which he gets friday, and i’ve already committed to going back to work next monday.  it just seems too much to deal with figuring out a new schedule while traveling.  this morning, i went ahead and pushed my start date another week at work and rescheduled the shots for wednesday.  that should give him a couple of days for the effects to wear off and then we can hit the road first thing friday.  we’re going to spend the weekend visiting the alabama grandparents and then head to orlando on sunday for some time with my family.  hopefully my dad will be home from the hospital by then so that he can spend some time with his grandbaby.

the turkey is over 12 pounds and is almost too chunky for size 1 diapers.  how is he growing so fast???  i don’t even want to blink any more because i might miss something amazing.

9 Oct 2014

he has started to really play with the toys on his play mat by himself.  he’ll amuse himself with them for about ten minutes at a time without any interaction from momma or daddy.  he’s also started worrying his hands together.

playing on my own like a big boy

after a mixup with ordering on the hospital’s part, i finally got my pump this week.  that means that daddy was finally able to feed the turkey and give momma a break.

wow, who knew that num-nums came in bottles? - 27 sept 2014

this means that i got to enjoy a night out last night without worrying about starving my baby.  i joined some friends for some punkin pub painting and had a great time but i sure missed my boys.  of course, that didn’t stop me from going back out again today to finally get my hair repurpled 🙂

so i'm not an artist

several days late but within the 5 week range, nonetheless…

29 Sept 2014

today was the turkey’s first time going out with just one of his parents.  i took him over to chef’s house to visit with her and her daughter, ash, and grand-peanut-to-be.  they were kind enough to allow us to borrow their mamaroo soother/swing/thing so that we can test it out with daily fussy time.  they won’t need it for another six months anyhow.  we had a great visit and momma had no trouble getting around with the turkey by herself.  he is enamored with ash.  i’m not sure if it’s because she’s a black-haired beauty and he’s a flirt or if he can sense that she’s got one of his playmates in her belly.

just momma and me

hubby kicked the turkey out of our room yesterday.  it was so hard putting him in his own room all the way on the other end of the house but i think i did pretty good.  i only watched the monitor for a few minutes every couple hours 😉

he looks so tiny in that great big crib

mesmerized by the new mobile

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