The Doll

Meet Dolly.  She was born in December 2014 and joined our family in February 2015.  We were told that her mom was a golden retriever and her dad was a standard poodle and her estimated adult weight would be 50 pounds.  We picked this cross because golden retrievers are very smart, loyal, family dogs and standard poodles are extremely intelligent and tend to not shed (which was only a priority because our old dog Meggie was the world's harriest dog and I wanted a break from that).  Although she looks exactly like a golden/poodle should, as far as her facial features and hair quality, it's apparent that her sellers weren't exactly forthcoming.  Or possibly just plain lied.  At 8 months old, Dolly is exactly 10 pounds.  However, she is a great family dog, she is extremely intelligent, she doesn't shed a whole lot, and she's pretty darn adorable.  And we've decided that it's easier to have a 10-pound dog vs a 50-pound dog, anyway.  So we like her.  I'm guessing that her mom was actually a golden retriever and her dad was a miniature poodle.  Dolly was a runt, too, so that might contribute to her smaller stature.  Either way, she's a keeper!

And now, since it has taken me over 6 months to get around to introducing you to her, here are some pictures, in chronological order, for you to get to know her.  Enjoy!

 She really loves her boys!

 This is a favorite napping spot for her.

 Captain is bigger than her, even now that she's older.

 Dolly has wanted to be friends from the beginning, but Captain isn't a fan!  They have been caught playing together a few times recently, though.

 She loves going for car rides!  She even drove with us to Minnesota and back this summer, and did great!

 This is her favorite toy.  <3 p="">

 Her soft hair attracts snow!  That's gonna be fun when winter comes...not.

 Sundog.

 She really does think she's a big dog!  She likes to fetch tennis balls, too.

 Doll-face!

 She's practicing great restraint by not going after Caleb's angry birds.  (She did great this time, but ended up chewing on them another day.  Tisk tisk.)

 She needed identification on her collar for our road trip to Minnesota.  This tag suits her perfectly and has our contact info on the back.

 Sundog again.

 They were both pretending to be polar bears in the zoo.

Dolly is extremely tolerant of the boys (one reason why I wanted to get a puppy and not an adult dog).  As you can see, she really loves them!  She house trained really early and really easily.  She rings a bell whenever she wants to go outside, which, let me tell you, is a genius idea.  The most useful command that she knows is "leave it."  She immediately drops those kid toys when I say it.  She is a fan of chewing on things she ought not to, but she does know the command "where is your toy?" and will find her own toy to chew on when I can tell she just needs something and the easiest chew toys to find are the ones my boys leave laying around.  Because of her chewing habit, she is kennel trained for night time and when we leave the house.  Her favorite things to chew on are stray socks.  She's also a fan of any diapers we leave laying around and baby binkies left within reach.  Thankfully she hasn't done much damage to either of those objects--she normally just moves a binky from one room to the other and doesn't chew on it, except for the one I found just yesterday.  Thank goodness those binkies are dishwasher safe!  She learned quickly that if she chews on human fingers, she doesn't get petted.  She's learning the same with licking.  She also likes to sneak to the basement to eat the cat's food, and always throws it up.  We now have a baby gate blocking the basement stairway.  She's a huge fan of getting brushed and kinda gets manic when I bring out the brush.  I have to trim the hair around her eyes or else she can't see.  She's the prettiest blond color with a darker golden streak down her back; freckles on her nose, belly, and the pads of her feet; and a white spot on her chest and tip of her tail that is very difficult to see.  We're all super big fans of her, and I can confidently say she's a big fan of us.  Welcome to the family, Little Doll!

Zachary MANIA!

Remember Russell MANIA?  He was just over 3 months in those pictures.  Here are some similar pictures of Zachary at about 2.5 months old:

This kid just loves to smile!  He smiles with his whole face.  I can't get enough!  He's pretty easy to love.  <3 nbsp="" p="">

Scope #8

Caleb had his 8th scope this week.  He was eating a diet of everything but dairy, wheat, and soy, but his egg consumption was limited (and mostly in the form of baked eggs).  He was also getting a tiny piece of sacrament bread for the past few weeks at Church.  Technically this trial was for peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish.  We didn't eat a lot of fish/shellfish during the trial, but he did have a piece of Udi's toast with chocolate peanut butter for breakfast most mornings.

And he...

PASSED!

WOOHOO!

The only "diagnosis" on the pathology report was "FOCAL MILD MUCOSAL EPITHELIAL REACTIVE CHANGE" in his small bowel.  I'm not sure what that means, but there were no eosinophils, so that's great!

Since biopsies have shown that he reacts to dairy, and we had to stop his wheat trial before we could scope because he was symptomatic, that leaves SOY to trial.  He was put on soy formula when he was young, and we stopped after less than a week because he seemed to be reacting to it, so I'm not particularly optimistic that he'll pass his soy trial, but it's worth a shot!  Bring on the soy sauce, edamame, and tofu!

Zachary is 2 months old!

I can't believe it's been 2 months already!  They've gone so fast and have been surprisingly enjoyable.  :)

At 2 months old, Zachary:

• Weighs 9lbs 14oz.  That's in the 4th percentile, which is right where he was at his 2 week appointment (when he weighed 6lbs 14oz), which means he's gaining the perfect amount of weight to stay on his curve!  That means he's got healthy weight gain!  That means he's healthy!
• Measures 23.25 inches long, which is in the 61st percentile!  That's up from his 2-week appointment, when he was 20.5 inches and in the 42nd percentile.  That means he's jumping percentiles!  That means he's growing great!  I don't believe I've ever had a kid so high on the curve!  That's just amazing to me!
• Has a head in the 38th percentile, which is exactly where it was at 2 weeks as well.
• Takes a bottle at every feeding, usually 3-4 ounces (which is why he's growing so well!).  The other day we left him with Grandma and Grandpa while we went to a wedding out of town.  In 8 hours he drank 12 ounces of milk, and I pumped 2.5 ounces.  I still nurse him before most feedings, but I'm trying to phase it out a little.  I feel like I feed him all day long (nursing takes forever, since my milk doesn't just flow out so easily).  But it's emotionally hard to think about not nursing him.  I don't know why.  I'm perfectly justified in stopping.  I just wish it worked out differently, so I'm trying to hang on or something.  But I've gotta say, it's nice being able to leave him for a few hours without thinking about his next feeding!
• Drinks donor milk!  I was fortunate enough to have three amazing people offer to donate their milk for Zach since I obviously can't make enough and formula gave him a tummy ache.  He's been drinking it for a little over a month now, and we have enough for probably two more months!  After that I just hope he can handle formula a little better, since his digestive system will be a little more mature.
• Has slept 6-7.5 hours at night a handful of times, but usually sleeps 4 hours.
• Is starting to take naps in his crib, but has a hard time falling asleep on his own if he's not on his tummy.
• Is spending more time awake and aware of his surroundings.
• Loves flashing a giant smile for his favorite people.
• Tries often to "talk" and coo.  It's the sweetest thing!
• Loves listening to music from his swing mobile.
• Is a big fan on things that move and make sounds in general (like his baby play mat thingy).
• Only wants to take his binky when he's tired and hungry at the same time.  That's totally ok with me.  ;)
• Is extremely tolerant of his brothers, who obsess over him!  You can often hear Russell say, "I love that guy!  That guy right there!  I'm going to eat him up!  Num, num, num, num."  They also love to help feed him his bottle.
• Doesn't have any rashes, bloating, diarrhea, colic, excessive spit-up, etc.  He has a little mucus in his poop, but I'm hoping that's not food-related and it's something that will just go away as he matures.  He's by far the healthiest baby I've ever had, and I just can't believe it!  Even though he's still pretty small, he just feels more solid and soft (as opposed to scrawny and sickly, like Caleb and Russ were).  It's a dream come true!  

Here are some of Zach's cute expressions:

Brothers at 2 months

Caleb at 5 months (2 months adjusted for prematurity):

Russell at 2 months:




Zachary at 2 months:




You tell me: Which brother do you think Zach looks most like?


PS: What sweet, adorable little boys I've been blessed with!

Getting to Know Zachary

Zachary is the sweetest little thing!  I can't believe I got lucky enough to have such a wonderful baby.  In my mind, I told myself I deserved the perfect baby after all I went through with my pregnancy, but I was preparing for a really difficult baby (like Russell...poor thing).  But no!  I got Zach!  He may still poop and cry and wake up to eat at night, but as far as babies go, he's as close to perfect that I can imagine!

First off, my recovery has been a breeze, which helps a lot!  I hardly even needed pain meds.  There were many times in the hospital that I rated my pain as a zero.  Zero!  I was in more pain than that a month after delivering Russell!  It's much easier enjoying your baby when you don't want to cry with every move.

FYI, we decided that when we shorten Zachary's name, it will be spelled "Zach."  I was torn on this name purely because of the shortening dilemma.  Zach or Zack?  "Ch" doesn't technically have a "k" sound, which may confuse him when he starts learning to read, but "ck" isn't part of the full "Zachary."  It's all just preference.  So we decided that we prefer Zach.  :)  I hope he doesn't mind when he's older!

He seems to be a good eater, nursing on demand every 2-3 hours, and often going 5 hours at night, and even up to 7 hours once!  He has a great natural latch, which I appreciate.  But he's following his brothers' trend by gaining weight very slowly.  He was 6 lbs 13 oz when he was discharged from the hospital at 2 days old, and was 6 lbs 14 oz at his first doctor's appointment at 2 weeks old.  They're supposed to be back to their birth weight by 2 weeks!  He was still about 7% below birth weight!  So we started supplementing with a few ounces of formula  a day, and Zach does a great job taking a bottle.  But it's hard to find the "right" formula for him.  We decided to try Alimentum, since it's the most gentle formula you can buy off the shelves, but just a few ounces caused constipation, a tummy ache, and mucus poo.  I was pretty worried that he'd develop an aversion to the bottle (like Baby Russ did when he realized that it caused tummy pain), so imagine my disbelief when a few people stepped forward to offer their own breast milk for me to feed Zach!!  I've been nursing him at every feeding, following it up with a bottle of milk every time.  He usually drinks about 12 ounces a day from the bottle and he's gaining weight great!  He's up to 9 pounds at 7 weeks old, which still seems so small, but he gained a pound in just over a week, so I'm impressed!  I can honestly say I have never experienced what it's like to have a baby who eats properly until now, and it's amazing!  I mean, this baby can nurse for 20 minutes and then down 3-4 ounces from the bottle!  He still has mucus in his poop, but it's not quite as bad as Russ had it, and he still doesn't have any rashes, bloating, diarrhea, or colic, so I'm hoping it's just an immature digestive system and not a symptom of a bad food.  Hopefully he'll be able to handle formula once we run out of donor milk, since his digestive system will have time to mature and get stronger.

Now for the more fun stuff.  :)

He lets anyone hold him, which makes for two very happy big brothers.

He's a great snuggler.

He'll gladly go in his swing or his bouncy chair, as long as he's not hungry.

He's got great skin!  No rashes, no cradle cap, and no baby acne!

He rarely opened his eyes for his first two weeks, but now he's starting to look around and enjoys having the mobile move on his swing.

He's got a major cowlick on the right side of his forehead.

He's a huge fan of his binky!  He's really good at keeping it in, too.  I'm not sure how to feel about it.  There are some serious advantages to having a binky baby.  If he's crying, all I have to do to make him happy is pop in the binky.  But my first two never liked binkies.  They both sucked their thumbs when they were tired, and never at any other time, and it was ideal, I tell ya.  They're both great sleepers.  What I absolutely don't want with Zach is to be waking up all night long to replace a lost binky every time he stirs.  I'm not sure how to keep that from happening, though, since I've never had a binky baby before!  Any tips are welcome.  ;)

He still likes to keep his legs tucked up under him froggy-style.  It's super cute.  :)

He rolls over to his side often.  Very often.  And a few times he's rolled all of the way over to his belly!  Once he rolled deliberately from his back to his belly then back to his back again!  And he was less than three weeks old!

He wears size 1 diapers and size newborn clothes.  He totally rocks plain onesies!

He sneezes a lot, and it's almost always more than one sneeze at a time, and his sneezes are soft and gentle (unlike his parents').

He often (not always, but often) will start to cry then just lose motivation for it and fall asleep for a moment instead.  It made the nurse in the hospital laugh out loud.  :)

Instead of having his grandpa's nose, like his brothers do, he seems to have my nose.

He looks a lot like both of his brothers, especially now that he's thinning out.

He started smiling around 6 weeks old.  These days he'll always give me a smile when I talk to him!  He's much more likely to smile for people he knows, and always smiles best for me, since he loves me most.  ;)