Kagle Boys
Here is that great picture Laura took while we were in Washington...
Thanks, Laura!
[I'll be posting again by the end of the week - I just need some time off to be sad about not seeing the boys much.]
April 23, 2008
April 15, 2008
News You Can't Use
Just in case you've ever wondered...
You know that smell that contaminates urine after eating asparagus? The same thing happens to breast milk.
April 14, 2008
Mistakes
It's been an interesting 24 hours in the nursing world. I'll be brief for this will quickly become too much information. In summary, yesterday morning Adlai started spitting up blood. As is the usual course, we calmly freaked out and called the advice nurse who gave him an appointment right away. And then I fed him and figured out where the blood was coming from - me. Apparently I'd been feeding our little vampire blood all night long and just hadn't noticed. (My blood isn't actually harmful to him in any way.)
Let me point out here that nursing just isn't for me - it never really has been. I do it because of guilt and love and love and lots and lots of guilt. If formula were proven to be just as good as breast milk, I'd be running to the formula section of the grocery store. So, in any case, since I stopped using the "shields" I've been in a lot of pain but I figured it was necessary pain; the pain of breastfeeding. I figured it would go away with time.
Once I figured out it was me, we canceled the appointment for Adlai and they asked me to come in. I did. It wasn't a completely successful appointment. I'll be using the shields from now on. Adlai has learned some bad habits - things you can do to plastic boobs that you shouldn't do with the real thing - and it doesn't seem worth forcing him to adjust at this point. We only have eight months to go!
However, and this is probably the most interesting part of the experience, they weighed Adlai and found him to be an entire pound heavier than he was just last Thursday. I'm pretty sure he didn't gain a pound in four days so now I'm sure that he isn't in the 6th percentile of weight. That was a weighing mistake.
April 13, 2008
The End of Swaddle Season
A lot of people say how different their children are from each other. Ours? Not so much. Simon and Adlai appear to have the same interests (the outdoors, water, fans, books, music, silly sounds, being thrown up into the air, being mobile, etc.) and very similar personalities. Heck, let's be honest - they could be identical twins if there wasn't that 3.5 year age difference. Adlai is a little more reserved but only in that he takes comfort the way Simon never would. He has a favorite blanket, he uses a pacifier, he doesn't complain when cuddled, he is working really hard at being a finger/thumb sucker and he insists on being swaddled while sleeping. Unfortunately for him, it has been really warm for the past three nights and we don't have air conditioning which has given us a choice: bake him in a swaddle or not sleep. Last night, after two hours of failing to get him to sleep unswaddled, Matthew removed his clothing and I cut a sheet and mummified him in it. We've decided to go with the slow approach- one arm out of the swaddle this week, one arm next week, then freeing his legs until we are only swaddling his torso and then not swaddling ever again. I think that makes us swaddle free sometime in June. Oy.
By the way, Adlai ate more than a full portion of rice cereal last night. Granted, a portion is a tablespoon of cereal and an ounce of breastmilk but that's a lot for a second feeding. He did complain but the complaining was about the delivery mechanism not the meal. He can't seem to understand... why the spoon?
April 11, 2008
And the Boys Ate!
Simon was up every four hours last night, once the Tylenol wore off, with a fever spike. It was the scariest night we've ever had with him - scarier than the Night of Blood. He was so very very hot and completely delirious (he always woke up singing) and we couldn't do anything but medicate him slightly and give him more water and more ice. About 2 pm this afternoon Simon started to move about the house normally and asked for some mac and cheese. He ate and then, for dinner, asked for pasta and toast and scrambled egg and cheese and a sandwich and an apple and a pumpkin muffin and some fries and three popsicles. He didn't actually eat very much but his desire for that much food probably means he is on the mend.
In the mean time, Adlai was feeling pretty hungry and not at all feverish so we decided to give rice cereal a try. We're not sure if he hated it, tolerated it, or loved it. He cried while opening his mouth for each spoonful, swallowing it down, and made moves for the next bite. We fed him quite a bit and only stopped when he refused to swallow what was already in his mouth.
Statistics
Here are the actual measurements from Adlai's four month check-up:
Weight
4 months: 11 lbs. 13 oz. (6th percentile)
2 months: 10 lbs. 6 oz. (35th percentile)
Height
4 months: 25.5 inches (80th percentile)
2 months: 23 inches (71th percentile)
Head Circumference
4 months: 15.98 inches (17th percentile)
2 months: 15 inches (22nd percentile)
He's long and thin, just like his brother. At Simon's four-month check-up he was 50% for weight at just over 14 pounds, 90% for height at 26.25 inches and his little head was in the 25th percentile.
April 10, 2008
And Then it Got Worse
We sent Simon to school today because he was feeling well but by lunch we got a call to come pick him up. He was laying on the ground of the classroom feeling cold with a high fever. We brought him home and gave him some Tylenol which perked him up enough to eat and then the Tylenol wore off and his fever rose to nearly 103 before he vomited everything from the past few days all over Matthew.
Meanwhile, Adlai had his four month checkup this morning. It turns out he is 80th percentile for height but only 6th for weight. Last time he was 35th percentile in weight so the drop is sizeable. The doctor suggested we start feeding him cereal and that may bulk him up. Otherwise he was adorable and cheerful and healthy until we got him home and he started to poop a really odd color every 10 minutes. He also has a low fever but was given a group of shots so it could be the shots or the illness not making him feel so well.
In any case, we may not make it to any of our fun weekend events. Instead we will probably still be coughing and changing poop explosions and cleaning vomit. Fun!
April 09, 2008
Phone Photos From Today
April 08, 2008
The Plague
We've got the plague
Yes we do!
We've got the plague
How about you?
We thought Simon was over the plague since he didn't wake up with a sore throat last night (as he had the three previous nights) but he was sent home from school this afternoon after eating no lunch and having a stinky explosion. Matthew and I are still congested and low-feverish. Adlai has a fever but is oddly cheerful.
New things for Adlai: he is starting to have a great deal of interest in watching us spoon food into our mouths, he desperately tries to turn his head in the direction of the TV when it is on, he LOVES baby tylenol, and he has started playing with toys.
More news when the plague lessens its grip.
April 06, 2008
The Chair
Originally, we were going to give Simon's chair to Adlai - until we realized what a bad reaction that would have caused. Simon loves his reading chair and it has withstood a lot of abuse. So we bought Adlai a similar chair and, after a two month wait, it finally arrived.
He'll grow into it.
A kiss from big brother?!
They can rock together.
We all fit!
April 05, 2008
Still Sick
We're still sick over here in Mountain View Kagle Central. But Adlai will FINALLY be getting his reading/nursing/rocking chair this afternoon and that almost makes it all better (at least, for me). We've moved the queen bed out of his room and into the "bonus room" (what we lovingly refer to as "the garage" because it is in fact a garage with a closet and a ceiling). Today would have been Adlai's first time in the pool but I'm not going to pollute the waters with my phlegm and he probably isn't feeling great either.
Maybe we'll take some photos today. It has been a while and today is the start of the April 4-year-old birthday extravaganza - four birthday parties in three weeks!
April 03, 2008
Calling All Fools
OK, no. Simon has never been offered a lucrative contract to star in a major motion picture. To the (at least) two people who fell for it, we offer our appreciation. If you believed that, maybe you also thought I was pregnant last year? OK , I was, but only by a week so the pregnancy stick wasn't mine (our timing was off - that one wasn't supposed to be a joke). Or maybe you thought we were moving to Florida right after we moved to Chicago? And who could forget Matthew's sudden ability to lactate?
Thanks for playing. We appreciate your continued support - foolish or not.
Adlai, Matthew, and I are not feeling so hot. Simon came down with a series of mysterious symptoms last week that went no where - an ear infection for a day, pink-eye for a day, a sore throat that never turned into a cold... He has passed this illness on to us only, in us, it provides an extended feeling of *bleh* along with some unspecified aches and sore throats. Fun.
In the mean time, Adlai has apparently been growing. He is staring to outgrow his 3-6 month clothes (without even having worn some of the more Summer-ish garb) and we moved the shoulder straps on the carseat up to the middle height. He seems to eat a lot but doesn't stay at the boob any longer than absolutely necessary. In fact he has started to SCREAM when he wants milk and it isn't coming fast enough and SCREAM again when he is tired of being fed. Adlai has a really loud scream - especially in the middle of the night. He, sadly, isn't letting me get more than a few hours of sleep in a row. He slept for seven hours in a row once last week but, since he goes to sleep for the night around 6:30 or 7 and we don't, I never get the benefit of those long stretches.
March 28, 2008
Growing Up
I was away from the boys for the majority of the day today - a first and a mock trial of what it will be like come April 21 when I return to work. Matthew managed both boys well. Adlai drank from the frozen milk supply and I took my pump and sat in a private room listening to that oh-so-familiar mechanical wheezing. I really like work but I'm going to miss being home something awful.
Adlai has made a few changes in his life this week. First, his fear of strangers completely disappeared. That all stopped when the cute flight attendants asked to hold him on our flight to Seattle. He did cry twice this week when Simon left the room. Second, he has started grabbing my hair and pulling. Ouch. Third, he decided that he has had enough of the plastic boobs and wants the real thing. As you may recall, we had some nursing challenges that were solved using plastic "shields" and he quickly became addicted to them. No more falsies for him which makes less work for me (having had to carry the things around and keep them clean has not been ideal).
March 26, 2008
A Trip to Bellevue (Without Going Insane)
The seven Kagle boys (Jonathan, Matthew, Bradley, Jeffrey, Simon, Andrew, and Adlai) hadn't been together since Adlai's birth so we decided it was time to take our first trip with Adlai - up to the Bellevue Kagles. We left at the crack of dawn on Friday morning, spent Friday afternoon and evening letting the boys play, participated in a neighborhood Easter egg hunt on Saturday, and drove to the mountains on Sunday in the rain which soon became heavy snow. We returned on Monday evening and have spent the last two days washing poop out of all of Adlai's outfits and taking Simon to the doctor for a minor ear infection.
We imagined that this wouldn't be the best of weekends - not because we don't love the Bellevue Kagles but because our boys plus travel equals just as much fun as slowly driving toothpicks into our eyeballs. Alas, it was a weekend with little to complain about - even for us. Simon didn't sleep the first night but did really well the second night and passable on the third (thanks to Auntie Laura). Both boys were in perfect form for the flights even though Adlai managed to poop through every diaper and outfit and spare outfit from here to Seattle. Would we do it again? Definitely.
Thank you Bellevue Kagles and Friends for a delightful weekend. Laura took a dream photo of the boys which I will post as soon as I sweetly persuade her to send me a copy. In the mean time, here are some other pictures:
Brad and Simon, decorating eggs
Egg hunt candy!
Andy shows off his loot
A beautiful day for a walk in Bellevue
First snow since Chicago
Simon and Jeff showing post-snow-playing exhaustion