Three Months

Elias is now three months old! We have made it to the long hoped for three months.  Everyone told me that once he turned Three Months that life would be a lot easier.  Three months is when babies start producing their own melatonin and sleep more at night, three months is when babies' digestive systems are more mature, and three months is when colic goes away.  When Elias was first born I didn't think I could make it to three months.  The first few weeks were very rough but within 6 weeks he had already started sleeping more through the night and I had figured out that when I ate anything with wheat in it he would cry and act colicky.  I was able to solve most of the things that were making life difficult those first weeks by cutting out wheat.  Now that he is three months old, however, I plan to try eating wheat again to see if he is able to handle it yet.  I am waiting until Saturday and then I am making pancakes for breakfast.  I decided that I want to eat wheat in the morning so that if he has a reaction to it that by mid afternoon it will all be out of my system and his instead of eating it for dinner and dealing with a screaming baby until 3 in the morning.  I also am waiting until Saturday so Eric can help me if it all goes wrong.  I am pretty hopeful that Elias will be okay.  I have been eating chocolate and he hasn't had any problems with that for the last week or so and when I would eat chocolate before the reaction was almost as bad as with wheat, although not as long.  I am really hoping that I will be able to go back to eating things with flour in them.  Eating gluten free is rather expensive and I really miss things like bread. And cookies.  And cake.  All the unhealthy things really.  

Elias has been growing so fast.  He smiles all the time and laughs.  He has started to squeal and act really excited when he sees me.  He loves to play and cuddle.  He still gets bored easily and he has started to yell at me to get my attention if he gets too bored and I don't pick him up soon enough.  He babbles and has conversations with us and he really loves when I whistle.  He also thinks it is a really fun game to have his mouth and face wiped.  I think he spits up and drools on purpose just so I will wipe his mouth.  He has discovered his hands and stares at them or sucks on them nearly all day. 

We had Elias' baby blessing on Sunday.  He was surrounded by his grandpas, uncle, and friends, and Eric gave him a beautiful blessing.  I was only able to get one picture of him in his tuxedo that my mom got for him for the day.  He isn't wearing his jacket and the lighting is terrible but he still looks cute. 

 

 We love our little boy so much and it has been so much fun to watch him grow and learn.  

 We love you Elias and your big beautiful smile!

Penne with Mushrooms and Sausage

I try once a week to have an experiment night for dinner.  I love looking through recipes and cookbooks and deciding what I want to try next.  Last night I made a really good pasta dish from one of my favorite cookbooks, Weeknight Fresh and Fast.  I adapted the recipe a bit for the sake of convenience but I really liked it.  Here is how I made the recipe:

Source and original recipe

Penne with Mushrooms and Sausage

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. onion, finely diced
3/4 lb. hot Italian sausage
12 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 c. white wine
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
12 oz. penne pasta ( I used gluten free pasta and it turned out great)
1 c. freshly grated parmesan

In a large frying pan heat the olive oil.  Add the onions and saute about 5 minutes.  Remove the casings from the sausages and add to the pan, breaking up into smaller chunks with a fork.  Cook until no longer pink, about 4 minutes.  Spoon out the excess oil, otherwise there will be too much grease.  Add the mushrooms, rosemary, and salt and pepper.  Stir and cook about 5 minutes more.  Add the wine and bay leaf and cook until the liquid has all evaporated, about 4 minutes.  Add the broth and simmer, stirring occasionally until the sauce begins to thicken and becomes syrupy, about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile boil the pasta.  Add the sauce to the pasta and stir to combine.  Stir in the parmesan and serve immediately. 

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.