Three Month Old Esther

• No official stats from the doctor's office this month but according to Wii Fit Plus Esther weighs around 11 1/2 pounds.
• She must be getting longer, too, because I have had to move her up to 3-6 month sleepers. Most of her 0-3 month daytime clothes still fit, but there's something about wearing cloth diapers with pajamas...she just needs more room.
• Esther's beautiful eyes are still dark blue. Perhaps for good?
• I no longer think Esther looks like a newborn. She doesn't make so many scrunchy newborn faces anymore. Sigh. But now she makes a whole new set of adorable faces.
• Esther is a smiley baby now. Sometimes she smiles when I come to get her out of bed. You melt my heart, little one! No real giggles yet, but she makes cute breathy sounds that will turn into laughs soon, I bet. She also coos a lot. Sometimes I swear she's saying "uh-huh" when I ask her a question.
• Esther eats 6-7 times a day. She is such a fast nurser! That is quite helpful, with a two year old to keep track of. Bottles are a different story. She'll take one, reluctantly, but is pretty slow. No way to know for sure, but I think she eats significantly less from a bottle than when she nurses.
• If she is awake, Esther usually sits in her bouncy seat in the corner of the dining room while we eat meals. She spends most of her time watching me. At the risk of sounding conceited, I must admit that I love this. I think she loves her mommy.
• Esther definitely hit a few rough patches, sleepwise, this month. For a few weeks we were enduring 3-4 hour crying spells as we attempted to put her to bed, at least a few times a week. That does not bring out the best in me, as Zach can attest. (Sorry again, honey.) I think that is behind us now, though. We have been trying to teach her to put herself to sleep with a gentle sort of "cry it out" plan that involves periodic visits to comfort her after 5, then 10, then 15 minutes. Most of the time she falls asleep during the 10 minute interval, which means within 15 minutes of being put down. Then she usually wakes up to eat once during the night.
• Esther can hold onto things like her little toy keys now, if you help her grab them. (And by help, I mean wrap her fingers around them.) But then she'll hold on for awhile.
• Esther pays lots of attention to Austin when he's nearby. She turns her head to see what he's doing. (No wonder, he's usually the most exciting thing in the room.) I have an adorable video of Austin "reading" to Esther while she just gazes up at him. But that's another post, hopefully coming soon.

Blessings all Around

Austin, Esther, and I all caught a cold this week, so naturally there has been a lot of sneezing in our house. Yesterday morning Austin started saying "bless you" to himself after sneezing. By evening he seemed to realize that something wasn't quite right with his pronouns; I overheard him sneezing and then saying "bless Au-tin!"

Pink Lady

Oh no!

I was unloading the dishwasher this morning when I heard the sound of a plastic bowl hitting the floor, with a little voice saying "Oh no, da mok fall!"

Well, as you can see it was a bit more than milk that fell. Luckily Austin had already finished about half his cereal when the accident occurred. He was quite upset so I got him more cereal and cleaned up the mess. Then I went back to the kitchen to resume my task. Minutes later I turned around and Austin had somehow dumped the second bowl of cereal in his booster seat. (I'm thinking his little plastic bowls scoot across the table much too easily as he tries to get a spoonful, perhaps?) Anyway...another cleanup. And it wasn't even 7am yet! Did I mention that in the middle of all this Esther woke up and started crying from upstairs? Sheesh.

But...God works all things together for good to those who love Him. I was aware in the midst of this that here was an opportunity to be patient and loving to my young son, and with His help I think I was.

But maybe we'll have toast for breakfast tomorrow...

Scary Morning

Austin had a seizure this morning. Let me assure you right off that he is fine now, but it was terrifying as it happened. Austin woke up a few times in the night coughing, and by morning had a runny nose so we thought he just had a cold. He felt slightly warm but was playing and eating more or less normally so we weren't worried. But just before lunchtime Zach laid him down to change his diaper and the seizure started. He yelled to me to call 911. By the time I got off the phone with the dispatcher, the seizure was over but an ambulance came and took us to the ER. The doctor there diagnosed it right away as a febrile seizure, one brought on by a fever. We thought that sort of thing only happened with really high fevers. Austin's was only 101.7 but apparently the seizures happen when fevers spike suddenly. They gave him Motrin and monitored him for awhile to make sure the fever went down, then sent us home. He has an ear infection, it turns out, so he's also on an antibiotic to take care of that.

So...not fun. Poor little guy, he was exhausted, scared, and not feeling well at the hospital and cried most of the time he was awake; thank goodness he was able to fall asleep and nap next to me for awhile. He had monitors strapped to his chest and a pulse-oxymeter on his toe. (Strangely familiar...) Now that he's home, though, he is obviously feeling better. He's upstairs playing right now.

We have since learned that febrile seizures are genetic and quite a few people on Zach's side of the family have had them. Austin may be prone to them for the next few years so we will need to monitor any fever he gets and control it with tylenol or motrin. Scarily, though, the seizures can happen when a fever initially starts; you don't necessarily get a warning. We are just praying that he will not have any more of them.

I just have to mention the kindness of God on display in this situation, though. If one of my children had to have a seizure, the circumstances couldn't have been any more ideal. Most days at 11:30 in the morning I would be by myself with two kids and dealing with this alone would have been horrible. But Fridays Zach comes home early, and this particular Friday my in-laws are in town, including my nurse MIL. She knew what to do with Austin while we was seizing, and she, Bill, and Heath were here to take care of Esther while Zach and I went to the hospital. I am so thankful.

SwaddleMe Fail