Gassy Emmett

Emmett's tummy is miserable. He is constantly gassy and grunting and fussing and passing gas and crying in pain. It is very sad to see. He is only really content if I am holding him against my chest, and even then, his knees are curled up and his back is arched. He spits up constantly and screams out in pain...then passes gas. The lactation consultant at the hospital recommended that I cut out dairy immediately as she thinks his behavior is for sure the result of something in my diet, and dairy is the most common culprit for upsetting baby's tummy. It takes three weeks to fully get out of my system, so until then, we just wait.

I miss creamer. I had really been enjoying my coffee in the morning with my Girl Scout thin mint coffee mate creamer. Yum. It made getting up at 5am doable. Almost enjoyable.

I miss my protein shakes. They get me started off on the right foot and keep me full throughout the morning. They make me less ravenous during the day and help me to have more self control when it comes to what I eat.

I miss my cheese sticks and greek yogurt. These are two of my biggest go to snacks, especially during late night feedings.

It's worth it though. He's worth it. Seeing him not in pain after he eats, totally worth it.

The Best Days

Last night was rough, and tiring, and even a slight bit frustraitng. Emmett wanted to nurse about every 2 hours for about 45 minutes each time. When he wasn't nursing, he wanted to lay in his bed and grunt and sqeak and gasp and keep mommy and daddy awake with all of his cute (but not so cute in the middle of the night) baby noises. In the meantime his sister woke up several times  throughout the night screaming, "mommyyyyy," and "chocolate milkkkkkkkkk," and "no, no, nooooo." Her breathing wasn't great so she ended up getting to spend some time with daddy, getting a breathing treatment, a diaper change, and  even a story, meanwhile mommy nursed...and nursed...and nursed. Then I snuck away to give still-awake Eden some two a.m. cuddles before crawling back into bed.

This morning when I woke up, exhausted (did I really even sleep at all?), the dreary, rainy weather outside, not helping matters at all, a thought occurred to me......What if these days..... these exhausting days of night feedings and cuddles,  crying,  temper tantrums, endless nursing, breathing treatments and antibiotics, mommy brain, and spit up wearing are the best days of our lives? What if they are the days that we look back on and think, I wish we could go back to those days. I wish I hadn't wished those days away. So many people out in public, at church, the grocery store, the mall, stop and stare longingly at our sweet children and tell us how they miss those days or how they wished their kids or grandkids were so small again. Such sweet times, they say, and you can see in their eyes that they are reliving those memories, they are longing for those times.

I don't want to wish these days away, these days that just might be the best days, away. I don't want to rush them being little. I want to enjoy every minute of it, every sleep deprived minute, and thank God for the two little ones that he has blessed us with, amidst all of the chaos.