This is What Reflux Looks Like

Pretty much anytime Charlie is laying flat, he looks like this - (UNHAPPY):

So he sleeps in the bouncy seat. Sleeping upright also helps with the constant congestion that keeps him from breathing very well at night. On a brighter note - isn't his onesie cute?? My friend Stacy made it for Charlie and I love it!

Yesterday I had a bout of food poisoning or a stomach bug. I'm not sure which, but either way, it was miserable! I'm not fond of throwing up or any other gastrointestinal distress, and this lasted all day and into the night. My mom came over today to help since I was still feeling wiped out. Charlie is a much happier child when he's upright in someone's arms, so it was a huge help to have her here! Eli had fun with grandma around too. I feel much better tonight, though I'm still pretty tired.

And here is a shot of Eli with his new favorite bath toy - Sesame Street bath finger paints! He took the LONGEST bath ever and threw a huge fit when we finally dragged him out. This was a gift from our friend Karrie and it was a hit!

Tonight I cleaned out and updated our filing cabinet - it was a huge project and I feel SO good that it's finally done. It's so satisfying to knock that one off of my to do list. We had papers piling up on the dining room table over the last few weeks and it was driving me crazy. It's amazing how hard it is to keep up with things with a newborn and a toddler consuming my days and nights!

First Few Days at Home

Charlie is 4 days old! He's been pretty sleepy so far, but has quite the yell to let us know when he needs something. I can't decide who had more of a piercing cry as a newborn... Eli or Charlie :) On our first night home, we were lucky enough to have a four-hour stretch of sleep, which was great.

The second night, Charlie woke up EVERY hour (from 11-6) wanting to eat. I thought I was going to die by the next morning. The problem was he wouldn't eat for more than 10 minutes or so at a time... luckily things were resolved the next morning when he finally pooped after not going for two days.

And now it appears that Charlie's pooping problems are a thing of the past - because last night he pooped at least five times in just a few hours - we lost count after a while (sorry for the potty talk on the blog). Luckily I had a nice four-hour stretch at the end of the night, which helped me not feel too awful by the time morning came.
Here's Charlie on the way to his first doctor's appointment on Friday - Ben took him (our pediatrician suggested this, which I thought was a great idea! I stayed home and took a nap and avoided an uncomfortable car ride - I'm definitely still healing)

The Klearmans came over for a visit on Saturday - here's Caroline holding Charlie

Eli with Caroline and Charlie

Davey (Uncle Munkle) and (a very hungry/grouchy) Charlie

My dad singing songs to Charlie

love those chubby cheeks!

Gram talking to Charlie

Eli and Ben having fun
(Eli has enjoyed lots of daddy time over the last few days)

First bath:

Bathtime and Spelling

Eli does cute things every day that make us smile. Tonight we were hanging out in the family room, where there were a few piles of folded, clean clothes that were ready to go upstairs. Ben was watching college football and Eli was playing with toys, occasionally dancing to the music from the school bands. I asked Eli, "Do you want to go take a bath?" He immediately stood up, walked over to the pile of laundry, picked out his frog towel and excitedly ran to the stairs, saying "Fish! Fish!" because his bathtub has fish on it (he used to have a duck inflatable tub, but it got a hole, so we now have a fishy one).

Eli loves taking baths, but hates when bathtime is over. Thankfully he also loves reading books, so I finally convinced him to climb out with promises to read his favorites after he got into his jammies - currently he's a fan of Ten Little Ladybugs, thanks to our visit with Amber who had the book, and Dear Zoo. I love snuggling with him as we sit in the rocking chair together, reading stories and pointing at the pictures.

My other favorite thing that he does lately - Eli loves when we draw pictures or write words on his doodle pro toy. I often write his name and spell it for him - he usually repeats it in his own version, "E I E!" and says E I E when he's looking at the letters on the phone or up on a sign or billboard. To him, everything is E I E. Though sometimes he'll repeat letters O, C, R, etc. but he doesn't spot them randomly like he does E and I :)

Getting Messy, Cleaning Up

Here are some pictures from this week:

Eli at 6 Months from Sarah on Vimeo.

A Bike and Better Eyesight

Here are some pictures from this week... as you can see, the bike arrived - Ben was SO excited and has diligently used it for the last two nights. It's not as enormous as I had feared, so I think it will be fine. We need to get a mat for it to go on - for now it's on an ugly green towel :)

Yesterday I went to my optometrist to get my yearly checkup and buy new contacts. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my eyesight had improved after being pregnant! While I am still pretty blind without glasses or contacts, it's nice to know that my prescription doesn't have to be quite as strong. One other interesting thing - my eyes always feel really dry, and even though I wear certain contacts that are supposed to help prevent the dryness, it still happens. So the optometrist suggested I use a product called Clear Care, which is a special solution that contains hydrogen peroxide that cleans the lens and removes proteins and bacteria from it so your contacts are more comfortable. Then you put it in a special lens case that neutralizes the solution, making it safe to wear the next morning.

Below are some other random pictures - a few from bathtime and some from playing around the house. And today I felt something sharp on his bottom middle gums... we'll see how long his tooth takes to really appear!