Too funny...

Nolan, Liam and I went to eat Mexican food last night at a local restaurant and while we were waiting to be seated (for less than 2 minutes really) this girl at a table nearby kept making eye contact with me, as if she totally knew who I was!  I, unfortunately, couldn't place her, so I asked Nolan to glance in her direction... by the time we were seated at our table, Nolan had figured it out!

It was an entire table of Labor and Delivery nurses from the Naval Hospital! 

WOW!  I definitely spent WAY too much time in L&D... so much so that they (yes, about 3 come to find out) recognized me (and likely Nolan too!) in a completely different setting!  haha

Swinging!

The park at the Marina, which is within walking distance from our house, has a brand new kids park with swings! 

Ready to swing!

Happy Liam!

"This is great Mom!"

Today was such a beautiful day out, Liam and I walked down to check it out!
I wasn't sure if Liam was going to have enough head control to swing in them, so we took some blankets to provide some cushion!
He loved it! :-)

Daddy Doll and Recordable Books!

In hopes of keeping Liam connected to Nolan, as best we can while he is gone, there are two things we have done so far...

• We purchased a Daddy Doll , which has a recording of Nolan's voice and

Liam and his Daddy Doll
(I laid him down to lay out his blanket to swaddle him and he was OUT!)
We had a long day! (3/19/11)

• 3 recordable books from Hallmark.

 

My favorite is the Hey Diddle, Diddle! book, as it is many familiar nursery rhymes!!

I think these books are really neat, of course because they have Nolan's voice, and that they are books I can "read" with Liam! 

We also plan to make a few videos of Nolan talking to:  I love you, good morning/night, how was your day?, etc and playing games, such as peek a boo, where's "said body part," etc. so that as Liam reaches those phases of development Nolan can be a "part" of the learning! :-)  (Any suggestions, please share!!!)

Technology is a wonderful blessing! :-)

3 months old!

Happy 3 Month Birthday Liam! 

Liam is really becoming an interesting little guy, doing new things literally every day! 

- Eating 22 - 25 ounces EACH day! (as of the past week or so!) 
- Becoming more and more alert.

- Able to be laid down (tired, but awake) and wiggle/fall asleep on his own

- When he stretches while/after waking up, which he is really good at, he often toots... a lot... it is hilarious!

- He laughs and giggles and can be a chatty cathy 

- When we go to get him when he wakes up in the morning, after you say "Good morning Liam" he gives us this confused look and then SMILES! when he realizes who it is! LOVE!
- He slept through the night for a few days, but is back to eating once after midnight/during the night and usually again between 7 - 9 am 

- Still not a fan of tummy time

- Hopefully is up to almost 12 pounds - he will be weighed again on Tuesday... 2 weeks from when he weighed 11 pounds...

- Starting to wear 3-6 month clothes and 6 months pjs (because he loves to stretch and the 6 month pjs give him lots of room to stretch)

- Not wearing swaddlers to sleep at night... just a cotton blanket used to swaddle enough to keep his startle reflex from waking him up, but loose enough for him to wiggle out of it if he wants to

- Sleeping with a sound machine, we got this at about 2 months, since Nolan pointed out that our house is silent and he came from a womb that had constant noise for 10 months... We do think it helps him sleep more soundly... 

We helped Liam celebrate his 3 month birthday with a day FULL of fun! Unfortunately for Liam, I think it was too long!  Note to Mom and Dad. 

• Lunch date at Red Robin with Mom and Dad
• 3 month photos at Sears
• New car shopping - test drives included!
• Toyota Sienna
• Honda Odyssey
• Total meltdown, from such a busy day of eating and napping around town, about 2 minutes from home :-( 
• Eating an ounce or so every hour and fussing in between from 630 - 830pm
• Finally gave it to overtiredness :-/ and slept for over 3 hours! :-)

St. Patty's Day...

Some people drink green beer, Liam on the other hand showed me, more than once... (that is how I got pictures) that he can take his pacifier out of his mouth with his hand!
Up until now, he has been really great at spitting it out! haha 

Ta da!
"Mom's Lucky Charm" can do tricks! ;-)

A few pictures...

Tummy Time!  Not Liam's most favorite thing to do, but he does become rather chatty while on his tummy... at times!

Liam and Mom

Nappin' in my swing...
Such cute fingers and toes!

Ready for take off... ;-)

Sandi is interested in Liam, while Liam is interested in what Dad is doing... working on his gear... 

Please notice, but don't judge... :-) the huge stack of Liam clothes in the back there... he has SO many 3 month clothes - it is awesome!  Funny thing though...  once he grows out of 3 months clothes... which he is getting close to doing... he will have almost nothing to wear! haha
Looks like Mom will need to go shopping! :-)  We have been really blessed to not have to really buy any clothes up until now...

Care Packages...

We don't have an address for Nolan yet, but if you would like it when we do get it, please email me at paigedean@gmail.com... I won't be posting his address here.... 

Also, if you would like to have some boxes delivered to your house... that you simply fill up with stuff and then take to the post office (and pay around $13) to mail to Nolan.... here is what you can do....

Call 800 610 8734

Option 1 and ask for a Military Care Kit from the USPS

They will send you everything you need for mailing 5? (I believe) care packages! Very cool! :-)

Videos!

 
Liam 1
 
Liam 2

Liam 3

A new journey begins....

The inevitable has arrived. Our first deployment is upon us....

We were told on Friday that Nolan deploys very soon. Months early and for likely a much longer time period - Blah! We knew the day would come, just didn't think it would come so soon... and definitely not when Liam was only 3 months old... but God has a plan; this too shall pass.

So for that reason, we have officially gone private with the blog.

Of course hackers can get into anything, so I won't be posting anything too informative about Nolan nor about what Liam and I are up to - of course until after the fact, but the less eyes the better I suppose. :-)

Come journey with us, as it is bound to be an interesting one! :-)

11 pounds!

Whoop for Liam who has not been eating "enough" - meaning at least 25 oz/24 hours - but he has made it to 11 pounds! Hopefully he will stay on his path of gaining 1oz/day, just as the doctor would like to see him! :-)

Update.

It has been 3 weeks since I wrote my last post - although I just posted it tonight.

A summary of the past 3 weeks....

- I was going weekly to doctors appointments at the Naval Hospital to share my concerns about Liam's lack of eating/sleeping/weight gain and had no real luck getting any help, so...

-Finally went to patient relations... they were able to get me a same day appt. to speak with the head of Pediatrics... He turned out to be equally as unhelpful as everyone else....

- Since I was having absolutely no luck getting any acknowledgment from the Naval Hospital doctors, that Liam could stand to gain a bit of weight, I really couldn't make any progress in addressing my concerns about his eating and sleeping...

- All of that led me to file a request to transfer Liam out of the Naval Hospital Pediatrics clinic to a clinic out in town (that request was actually approved today - YAY!)

Liam had his 2 month well baby check up on Feb 23rd at the clinic out in town. The first thing the pediatrician addressed was Liam's weight... really? I have been begging every other doctor to talk to me about this!! The doctor (who has been in practice for 30 yrs, 20 in this same clinic) was encouraged that from month 1 to month 2 Liam had gained 2 pounds, but had would have wanted to see him also gain 2 pounds from birth to 1 month... leaving Liam a minimum of 1 pound behind (in weight) what he would like to see him. Liam took his 3 shots and oral meds like a champ! He was a bit fussy when we got home, but he fell right to sleep after the shots themselves. He weighed 10 lbs 2 oz. (although the day before the Naval Hospital weighed him at 10 lbs 6 oz - whatever ;-) ) Otherwise, Liam looks good and is growing developmentally - YAY! I was able to honestly answer yes to all of the things that he "should" be doing... He had JUST recently started responding to us with a smile! Melt your heart! :-)

We are 12 days into feeding a hypoallergenic formula, Similac Alimentum, whose milk proteins are extremely broken down, to be most gentle on little tummies. It is a gift from God. A teacher friend, who I taught with over 4 years ago, recommended it. Liam has become quite the eater in just the past 2 days; so it seems it took him about 10 days to really feel the full effect of this wonder baby formula. He has also been back on Zantac, since reflux hasn't exactly been ruled out... Out of nowhere, 2 days ago, Liam downed a full 5 oz bottle... he had rarely been eating 4 oz at a time, so what a shock to me this was! We had been wasting a lot of formula, wishfully thinking that he would eat 4 oz, only to have it sit out so long that it had to be thrown out. Not anymore! Whoop! And, with a great eater has come a great sleeper - day and night!
Last night, Liam slept from 11pm - 6am! OMGoodness! I gave him his pacifier, hoping for an extra 15 minutes of sleep, (getting greedy I know) and he slept until I woke him up at 8am!

What a difference a week makes! Praying this lasts!!!