Wednesday, December 9

This last week and a half has been a whirlwind.  Last week, Kirk worked all 5 days.  Cade was sick with the stomach flu on Wednesday.  We also woke up to 5 inches of snow that day and lots of icy roads.  His preschool was cancelled so he didn't even miss out.  We stayed home and watched movies.  We spent a lot of time at home throughout the week.  I have also received a lot of help!  Kara took the kids for a few hours one day and I slept.  Michelle Robertson helped out too.  We had meals brought in 3 nights from the Relief Society and a fourth by someone in our ward who just called me and asked if she could bring dinner!  Cade went to preschool and speech.

Ellie has been a good little baby.  She sleeps a lot.  Some nights she will sleep 4-6 hours at a time.  We realized that this was a problem on Monday of this week.  I took her in for her check up and she only weighed 6 lbs 5 ounces.  She started at 7 lbs 10 ounces and should have been at least that by 11 days old.  Dr. Patillo told me that we need to start giving her bottles in addition to breastfeeding and make sure she eats every 3 hours. I had been having trouble getting her to eat, but I didn't realize that it was that bad or that she had lost nearly 20% of her body weight!  I tried breastfeeding her and then giving her formula and then pumping for another bottle.  However, for whatever reason, I had very little milk.  when I tried pumping I got less than half an ounce.  She wouldn't nurse for more than a few minutes at a time without pulling off or falling asleep.  I ended up giving her 2 ounces of formula every 3 hours and we went back to the doctor yesterday (the day after her initial check up).  She had gained 3 ounces back.  I am happy that she is now going in the right direction.  I will continue to give her a bottle every 3 hours until she is up to the weight she should be--not sure what that is right now.  I have really struggled with deciding if she should get just formula or if I should keep fighting and try to get her to breastfeed.  I have chosen to go to all formula.  I need to know if my baby is getting enough food.  I don't have time to pump bottles every 2 hours to get more milk and fight to get her to nurse.  Cade and Cami need me too. I hate to think what would have happened if I had skipped this check up and she kept losing weight.  The doctor said that one reason she has been sleeping so much is that she doesn't have enough energy to be awake because she doesn't eat enough.  So, I am giving up nursing and going with the formula/bottles option.  I think it will be good for Ellie.

She is still a super cute baby.  She loves to be held and hugged.  In the last 2 days she has been easier to put to sleep (probably because she is not hungry!) and has been a little bit more alert.

Cade loves to do crafts and art projects.  We have been making small, simple ornaments each day that go with a story of Jesus and he loves that.  Cami loves princesses and dressing up.  We had a friend give us a small doll crib and Cami loves to wrap up her dolls in blankets and put them to bed.  She's been carrying the crib all over the house.

I am so glad that we have our house.  I love having space and having things put away.  I love the kids' play rooms and having a yard.  I love that Ellie has her own room and isn't sleeping in our closet or something.  I love looking out the window at the temple or the sunset and having a big garage to keep our truck and other things.  I am really happy with the new ward we ended up in and feel like the people here are really nice and welcoming.  I am excited to have a place that we can live in for a long time and just feel settled.

Kirk was home from the OR by 11:30 yesterday and it was great!  He helped me out and went grocery shopping with Cade and let me go to the Relief Society activity.  He is off Thursday and Friday this week too.  We are going to get our truck check done on Thursday and have dinner and decorate gingerbread houses with Scott and Kara.  Friday Kirk is planning on going fishing and then Saturday we have DFK trampoline family party and then adult dinner party.  My mom flies in on Tuesday of next week and we are looking forward to seeing her too.