This Little Boy

This little boy has stolen my heart.

Elias has kept me quite busy.  On a good day I get the dishes done.  I like to think that as long as we have food to eat at meal times, dishes to eat them on, clean clothes to wear, and Elias taken care of and happy that my days are pretty successful.  The house is far from clean and it is beginning to bother me more and more.  Thankfully I am getting more energy and Elias has been letting me sleep more at night, sometimes for 4 hours at a time.  He does still remind me that he is the boss every once in a while at night by waking up more frequently than he had been.

Things have continued to go smoother and smoother as we learn how to be parents.  The first few weeks were really difficult though.  Elias would cry and scream from around 10-2 in the day and 10-2 at night.  I knew that he was in pain but there was nothing that I could do to relieve it.  I just had to watch him suffer.  It was very hard.  People kept telling us that by 3 months life would be a lot easier and all I could think was that I wasn't even going to make it to 3 weeks.  I started to try to take different foods out of my diet thinking that may be the cause of his discomfort.  I started with dairy, as that is the most common problem for babies.  It didn't seems to make much of a difference so I stayed away from chocolate, garlic, onions, peppers, spicy foods, citrus, cauliflower, and broccoli.  Still nothing helped.  We talked with our pediatrician and he told us that it may be wheat that is causing the problems, especially if we have relatives that have wheat allergies. Lucky for me, my mom, sister, and brother are all allergic to wheat.  So I took wheat out of my diet.  Miraculously, Elias was much happier and didn't have any scream fits, until I ate Twizzlers, which have wheat as a second ingredient...  That was not a good night.  I was only able to eat meat, some vegetables without butter, some fruits, and rice, again with no butter.  I was pretty miserable but it was worth it to not have Elias in so much pain each night. Another nice bonus was I lost all my baby weight and then some, nearly 30 pounds.  Slowly I started adding foods back into my diet.  Right now I'm only staying away from wheat and chocolate.  It is a lot easier but I really miss a lot of foods like cookies...  We are going to try introducing wheat again in about a month.  I really hope that his digestive system has developed enough that he can handle it.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, when I try to get him to take a nap.

Elias has grown so much in the last two months.  I can hardly believe it.  Elias is such a curious guy.  He loves to look around and see everything.  He gets bored easily because there are just so many new and interesting things to see.  He won't nap any longer than a half an hour between his feedings, which are every two hours, no matter how I try to get him to sleep or when.  If he doesn't want to sleep he really lets you know.  He cries and struggles and sweats and tries to out-stubborn me.  My days are filled with cuddles and playing and moving him around to see different things.  I worry that he isn't sleeping enough and I continue to try to get him to sleep more but I really don't mind the extra sleep I'm getting at night, almost 6 hours a night now. (any tips on napping would be much appreciated.) During the day when Elias is taking his little cat naps I race to shower or do laundry or dishes or dinner.

 

Rare moments from naps.

Elias has turned into quite the little giggler.  He smiles and laughs and coos and it is just the cutest thing in the world.  Some of his favorite things to look at and laugh at are the mobile I made for him

 and the lamp and tree.

 These things are fascinating to him and he stares and giggles and smiles.

Eric took a really cute video of Elias before church last Sunday.  It is nearly two minutes long of Elias flirting and giggling and having an all around great time. 

 It is hard to believe that it has already been two months since he was born but at the same time it feels like he's always been with us.  We love our little boy so much and he brings so much joy to our lives.