The Many Moods of Charlie

"What?? You're not holding me anymore?"
Charlie cries as he realizes I set him down after he fell asleep in my arms.

Offended, he kicks and screams......and doesn't stop until he's picked up again Later, I manage to make something for us to eat for dinner while Eli entertains Charlie by giving him kisses - so sweet. Charlie's 5 weeks today! Yesterday he weighed 11 pounds at the doctor's office - he's getting chunkier by the day. I need to get a picture of his many leg/tummy rolls that are developing - they are pretty cute. He's wearing the other onesie from Stacy that says, "If you think I'm cute, you should see my blog." Pretty funny! I really need to update the blog so it's not just Eli Love. But that takes more brain power and time than a quick post... (last night it was the old routine of Charlie waking/eating every three hours, so it wasn't as glorious as the night before, unfortunately)

Anyway, it will get done... at some point. I just barely updated our phone's voice mail to have all four of us on there. We love you Charlie!

Day 1 on My Own

These pictures sum up the day pretty well
(Eli started the day off with lots of yelling and tears...)

Last night Charlie was up from 1-2 a.m., then 4-5:30 a.m., and then Eli woke up at 6:45 a.m., screaming and crying for "DA DAAAAAAAAAA!" Too bad Ben left for work at 6 a.m. and I was alone, exhausted, and not looking forward to cheering up my very cranky toddler. He and Ben have yucky colds, and Eli was coughing pretty much the entire night. The good thing was that Charlie didn't wake up until 8, so I had time to feed Eli breakfast AND get shower/dry my hair right before he was up. Hooray for the shower!

Charlie was a little fussy today. I don't know if it's something I ate that was bothering him, or if his stuffy nose was making it hard to be happy? Who knows. It was a day when he was not content to be anywhere for very long - whether it was the swing, bouncy seat, on a blanket on the floor, in my arms...

Thankfully, there were at least some happy moments in the day when Eli wasn't throwing fits or crying. I think Mondays are just hard. He was entertained by Ben all weekend long, only to find today that it was just his tired mom and baby brother around to play with, poor guy. I kept wishing we could go out for a walk, but it's just too cold. Tomorrow we're supposed to get MORE snow, so help me!

That's the hard thing about having a baby in the winter - you can't get much fresh air when it's freezing cold like this. The upside is you can be a bum at home all day and not feel too bad about it... here's to another exciting day at home tomorrow :)

Charlie at 10 & 11 Days Old

I think pictures of babies crying are almost as cute as when they're content or smiling... I love watching Charlie's face in his various moods.

Thank you mom for all of your help since Charlie was born!! She went home last night. We'll see how I function next week completely on my own... (I have VERY low expectations - my only requirement is that I squeeze a shower in every day)

worried face!
We need to trim Charlie's nails - I've already done it once since he came home from the hospital, but they've grown again and he keeps scratching his poor face
I gave Charlie a bath and decided it was time for a quick photo shoot while Eli was napping.

My favorite quote from Ben about Charlie - "That sounded like a car crash" - referring to Charlie's explosive pooping sounds

And it's a whopping 36 degrees today! The wind makes it feel much cooler though. The sun is shining and the icicles on the back porch keep crashing down - it's crazy how heavy and noisy they are when they fall. I don't think our huge blanket of snow is going to melt anytime soon, unfortunately! This winter feels like it is never going to end, but I'm excited we've almost made it to February.

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:

The Joys of an Ear Infection

Eli has had a miserable couple of days - I know the pictures on Friday make him look happy, but he was still fighting a bad cold that he has had since last Sunday. Over the last few nights, he woke up multiple times in the night crying pretty hard. On Saturday, he spent much of the day crying or hitting the sides of his head out of frustration - it was so sad!! Then this morning at 5 a.m. when I was up with him once again, it clicked in my head.

Eli had an ear infection.

Hello!? He'd had a week straight of a congested cough, runny nose, fever, and his head was hurting him... Why it took two bad nights for us to figure it out, I don't know.

Ben had things he needed to do at church today, but Eli and I stayed home and I took him to the doctor, who confirmed that Eli's left ear was infected, the right ear had fluid in it, and his throat was red/sore. Poor little guy!! Thankfully, we filled the prescription right away and Eli had a full dose of the antibiotic by tonight. I also was more diligent about giving him tylenol and motrin throughout the day.

What a difference! I took these pictures tonight with my old point and shoot camera, so the quality stinks, but I can't believe how much happier Eli was! He woke up this morning screaming, so this was a major improvement. I'm hoping tonight is more restful for all of us. By this time last night, Eli had already woken up crying two times, so that's a good sign.

Eli is pretty possessive of his Spiderman couch - anytime Ben tried to put his head on the couch when Eli was off doing something else, Eli would run back over, move Ben off the couch, and laugh because he had it to himself again. Ben couldn't resist teasing him though, and put his head back up on the Spiderman couch anytime Eli ran away from it.

Darn. I just heard him crying! I spoke too soon. It probably doesn't help that it's super windy outside (making the windows rattle). Tomorrow our high is 14 degrees, wind chill below zero (the forecast shows the worst of it will bring us down to -10 degrees for the wind chill, because the wind could be gusting 20 to 30 mph). This is WAY too cold for December! I expect this more in January and February, but December isn't usually THIS bad.

Think warm thoughts for Ben tomorrow as he commutes by train and then has a long walk to his office. I made him promise he would wear a coat, hat, gloves AND scarf - he hardly ever brings the scarf, which I think is nuts. I'm a firm believer in covering everything but your eyes in weather like this.

Poor Eli. He's still crying, so I'm going up now to check on him. We may still have another long night ahead of us...

Picking Out a Tree and Decorating for Christmas

We headed over to Home Depot this morning to pick out our Christmas tree. It had snowed a few inches overnight and it was still snowing and chilly (about 28 degrees) this morning, but we decided to attempt it anyway.

Eli was not happy with our decision to get the tree. It was too cold and snowy for his taste, and the morning turned even more sour when he slipped and fell in the snow.

He spent most of the time near the trees crying. Ben eventually brought him inside the store to warm up while I debated about which tree to buy. The one we settled on was a little small, but oh well. It was hard to pull the trees out by myself and I felt rushed since Eli was so miserable.

Once I had decided on the tree, Ben switched places with me and waited in line to get the trunk cut. Eli and I hung out inside near the Tigger/Pooh Bear and Minne and Mickey Mouse toy display. He had fun talking to them and trying to pull them out of the boxes so he could hold them (Eli loves to say "hold!").
Back at home, we pulled out our boxes with Christmas decorations and Eli was in a much better mood.
Eli's favorite decorations are a tiny wooden train, the wooden frog with a Santa hat, and Ben's ornament from his childhood that is Sneezy from the 7 Dwarfs - Eli sees it and says "Ahhhchoo!" over and over again, it's pretty funny.
Of course later tonight, we had friends try to take a picture for us in front of our tree and Eli was less than cooperative once again. I'll have to take a picture of the decorated tree and post it on here tomorrow or later in the week.

Fun Labor Day Weekend

It's been so nice having Ben home for the three-day weekend. Eli loves it when he lifts him up high.

Eli learned how to eat corn on the cob on Saturday.

But by the end, as has been typical over the last few weeks, he was in tears for no apparent reason. I really hope his molars finish coming through soon, because the constant off and on crying is hard!! (so far this morning, I think he has cried more than he was happy, poor guy)

By the way - I moved my ultrasound date to this Thursday, Sept. 4th! So put your votes in soon for whether you think the baby is a boy or girl (the poll is on the right top side of the blog).