Sick and tired of being sick!

Yep, that's right. We are sick and tired of being sick! The past two months have been filled with one sickness after the next in our house. We managed to stay nice and healthy before Joel got here this winter, but since his arrival, the story has been much different. And unfortunately, with 3 kids, sickness just drags out even longer. And chances are that by the time the first kid gets better, he/she is sick again because they've caught what the third kid has. It feels like a neverending battle of sleepless nights, runny noses, coughing attacks, and a whole lot of whining! We started in the beginning of March with colds/runny noses that spread to all 3 and lasted a total of about 3 weeks, had a few days off, then had a 24 hour stomach bug that only hit Caleb, had a few more days off, then Caleb started with pink eye, followed by Leah a few days later, followed by a cold and horrible cough for Caleb, and then Leah was lucky enough to get that one, and now Joel is battling the same cold/cough. Will.it.ever.end?!?!

I'm pretty sure the doctor and his nurse think by now that I am either nuts or just a horrible mom that can't keep my kids healthy. I think I call just about every week with some new concern, but in my defense, I've never dealt with a newborn being sick this much (it's kinda scary at times). Whatever happened to breastfeeding being the best for immunity? I'll admit, I've never been a germ-o-phobe, and I don't think these past two months will even change that about me. I keep my house clean and orderly, but I don't go overboard with disinfecting. My kids sit in shopping carts that haven't been wiped down with lysol wipes, an occasional kid fork drops to the floor and gets picked right back up for use, and every so often I just have to turn my back on one of my dirty monsters picking their nose. I just can't spend my life trying to avoid sickness, and hopefully the amount of sickness we're going through now will build up enough immunity so that they will be healthier later in life!

So, although I'd love to have posted more in the past few months about how much Joel is growing and changing, the trip we took to the aquarium, all the fun things Leah is doing now that she's two, the beautiful weather we've had, our enjoyable Easter, Caleb's life as a four year old, etc., etc., I'm sticking to this. It's been time consuming, I've done lots of laundry, we're still not sleeping all through the night, and I'm more ready for warm, summer days (with less chances of illness) than I've ever been before (even during my teaching days when summer vacation felt like all I was living for)! Until then, we hope those that are reading this have managed to stay healthy and we are thankful that the germs in our "petri dish" (as my sister called it) of a home can't find their way into your home via the world wide web! And for your enjoyment, here are some pictures that would've made for great blog posts, but surely you can understand why they didn't...

3 Months

I thought that this time around, I'd try to update the blog on our baby's monthly "birthdays". Well, as you've noticed, I missed months one and two, but here we are at month three already! I don't consider this a failure yet, because everyone who knows me knows that I cannot stand months one and two, and could easily skip the newborn phase altogether. I could sum up these early months by saying there was no routine, plenty of crying, little sleep, and not very much excitement to blog about. Though I don't like it very much, I have managed to cherish the newborn phase a bit more this time as I know hope this will be the last time I have to endure it!


With that said, here we are with a 3 month old baby already. Some of the days have felt like an eternity, but in reality, time has flown by! Joel is truly a joy to have in our family and has been our easiest baby yet.

EATING:  Joel is still exclusively nursing and is doing well with it. He gained a lot of weight at the beginning and seems to have slowed down a bit. I was a bit worried by that, but he's happy and poops/pees plenty, so he must be getting what he needs. He's fine with taking a bottle of pumped milk and that's a great relief as I've know some moms who have babies that refuse bottles! He eats about 5 times a day and it only takes about 30 minutes instead of an hour like it did at the beginning! The only downside of breastfeeding is that I don't always know how much he's getting and therefore feel like I can't try to push too much of a schedule like I did with the other kids. If you know me at all, you know that the lack of schedule is REALLY hard for me. But, we're sticking with this a bit longer because it's good for him and good for the family budget!

SLEEPING:  Eh....sleeping is still not Joel's strength. We've had some nights where he's slept 11-12 solid hours and other nights where he is up a ton for his pacifier or a 4/5am feeding. Regardless, he goes to bed around 8 and wakes up around 7:30. In his defense, he's had 2 nasty colds within the past 2 months, so it's understandable to not have very consistent nights. For now, we're just waiting it out and hoping that better health will bring better night sleeping! As for naps, he's doing okay. For the first 8 weeks, he would only be content while being held. So, naps and everything else about his day were done in my arms or while being wrapped in a baby carrier. He hit the 8 week mark, though, and became a bit more independent. He started to nap in his crib or the pack-n-play in our room. Soon after that, his mini-naps started to turn into much longer naps, which was great. He seems to be falling into a routine of taking three naps a day, but they vary greatly in length. Usually at least one nap will be about 2 hours, so that's nice....it's even better when that 2 hour nap overlaps with Caleb and Leah's naptime! 

MILESTONES: At this age, there isn't much excitement, but it is fun to watch Joel begin to interact with the world. He started smiling very early on (at 3 weeks) and has been Jolly Joel ever since then. He loves to smile at just about anyone. He spent several weeks experimenting with his sounds and you could tell he was trying to figure out how to laugh. At around 2 months old he started to giggle. He started cooing around 2 weeks old and has been very vocal since then. He is constantly "talking" and trying out new sounds. It looks like he'll take after his daddy in the social skills department! Joel is also a big mover and started to roll over at about 6 weeks old (front to back). He has recently rolled a few times from his back to front, but can't always figure out how to do it again.