Monday, June 30, 2008

june thirty

This morning my mom & sister came by before we left to do a day full of errands, to help me with the boys so I could get a few things together. Wow - does it take forever to get out of the house with 2 boys! And I thought it was bad with just Sean! It always took us forever to get organized and out of the house! And those times you were just about to walk out of the house and oh no - a diaper change is needed!


Mack was ready to go - and really peaceful. He looks like he's about to meditate here in this picture! I call him my yoga baby - some of the positions he likes to sleep in with his legs folded, etc.

This late morning we had Mack's first doctor's appointment. All went well, and his doctor is just a little concerned about his weight not going anywhere in the last week. (And he has been eating!) Here's the stats: (I used this online measurement converter).

Birth weight: 2845 g – is actually 6.27 lbs (6 lbs 3 oz. and not 6 lbs 4 oz which is what the hospital told me he was).

Discharge weight from hospital: 2555 g – which is 5.63 lbs (5 lbs 6 oz. - not the 5 lbs 10 oz. they marked in Mack's vaccination record book).

Last Monday the CLSC nurse came to our house to weigh Mack. She told me he was 2770g (minus about 20g for the diaper, so 2750g) and not the 2700 g – which is 5.95 lbs (5 lbs 10 oz) she marked down in this vaccination book. She weighed him in a cloth scale, and not on a digital scale like at the doctor's office. No two scales are ever the same, especially not even when it's not the same kind of scale even!

And she weighed Mack today and he was still at 2750 g – 6.06 lbs, which is 6 lbs and almost 1 oz. How is it that he has been eating like a champ, yes, I hear him swallowing and he's latching properly, and he's not gaining any weight?

She wants to see us on Thursday, just to weigh him, but I don't know if I want to run all the way into the city just to get him weighed, so I may see if I can go into the local CLSC here, where I know they DO have a digital scale, and get him weighed like that, and if he has not gained any weight, Dr. F wants us to go to the breastfeeding clinic at the hospital where she works on Fridays, and he may have to get his "tongue-tie" clipped. She said it's NOT painful and it WON'T bleed. (My 2 concerns). But that he may not actually be sucking properly due to this. Apparently it's an easy procedure to clip the membrane under the tongue. She said she felt under his tongue and he may have a small one that needs to be cut, if there is no weight gain. Bottle fed babies don't have symptoms with tongue-tie, it affects breastfeeding, however, I just read that it could cause speech problems, because the tip of the tongue cannot rise high enough to make (articulate) some sounds clearly, such as t, d, z, s, th, n, and l. Hmm! I don't want Mack to have any speech problems, maybe I should have the tongue-tie fixed anyhow? Have any of you experienced this with your child? Now I'm wondering if Sean has tongue-tie and if maybe that's why he didn't latch when trying to breastfeed. I wonder how to tell?? Now I'm getting paranoid!

After Mack's appointment, we went to the mall across the street and had lunch. Auntie Amy chased Sean around the jungle gym that the had in the food court for a bit after we finished lunch, while I fed Mack. Apparently Sean tires her out! LOL.

He had a grand 'ole time in the playground! He didn't want to leave - put up a fuss. Poor guy!

He was all kisses though when we went to Walmart to pick up a few items. Yes, it seems like I'm always at Walmart. What can I say? They have some decent stuff & a great baby section. (Today I picked up random items like baby wipes, some photo albums for the boys (I ran out of room in Sean's last photo album), and I can't remember what else. Oh yeah, some tank tops (great for breastfeeding).

I also stopped at another store and picked up 2 more breastfeeding pillow covers as well as some Gagou Tagou Preemie Sized outfits for Mack. He's still only 6 lbs and is not fitting into anything Newborn (NB) sized nor 0-3 month sized stuff. Even some of the preemie stuff is WAY too big on him! Just means he'll get to fit into EVERYTHING we have for him! I heart Gagou Tagou. It's like one of the only companies that I find fits Mack. I don't even know any other company that makes preemie sized stuff. And why is it impossible to find preemie sized shorts?? IMPOSSIBLE! I can't have Mack go naked, and some days are just too hot for pants!

I wasn't spending 5$ on this bib, as Mack has about 100 hand-me down bibs from Sean. But I thought it was just too cute, I had to get a pic of Mack with it!

The Tomato Garden section.... yep, it's HUGE!

Houston, we have a first tomato sighting! How cool are they??? I'm soooo freakin' excited! I did this all on my own! I planted from seeds...! And I'll be eating tomatoes soon enough!


My pumkin plant is OUT OF CONTROL! It's taking over as well. I've got to get Jamie to help me direct it properly. Right now it's just creeping along the garden. I hope to just get 2 pumpkins for Halloween, one for Sean & one for Mack.


I borrowed Jenn's breastfeeding pillow since she's not currently using it. On it, is one of the new covers I got for it today. I borrowed it for 2 reasons. 1) So I have one for upstairs and one for downstairs (I have my own also) and 2) so that Sean can have his own while I'm breastfeeding on the couch, as he has been trying to steal the pillow out from under Mack, and it's just not funny. So by borrowing Jenn's, we have an extra one that Sean can sit with, while I use the other.

Sean likes to give his little brother hugs & kisses. I caught him in the act giving Mack a kiss here, just as I was about to change Mack's diaper. How sweet. He's definitely still jealous of my time with Mack, but he does love his brother. He likes to "make nice" to Mack.


I leave you tonight with a little bundle I like to call my Sweet Pea.
I'm bad though, he's already gotten nicknames in this house:
Mac N Cheese
Mack Attack
Big Mac
Mack Truck
Mr. Mack (my personal fave)

He'll probably hate me when he's 18. But that's okay. He has no say now!

Just a few spots left in the August Sock Club. I'm totally insane for deciding to keep the sock club running, but hey, it's in demand, so I'm doing it for YOU! And you know what? It's ME designing the pattern for the August kit... so go on, order yourself one!!! (Once again, I know, I'm NUTS. I have a toddler & a newborn and I'm designing a sock pattern). I must be crazy!

Tonight, Jamie and I watched The Incredible Hulk which we'd gotten from someone. I liked it, but not as much as Iron Man or some other superhero movies I've seen lately/in my lifetime.

11 comments:

Tara said...

I think Mac N Cheese is my favourite. Does the kid ever do anything besides sleep??? :)

Amelah said...

Yes ur kid tires me out!!!! What a work out lol

If u ahve extra tomatoes - well you know which sister of urs LOVES her tomatoes :)

Casey said...

I love Gagou Tagou clothes!! I got some at my baby shower for my daughter, I never wanted to get rid of them they were too darn cute!
I've never dealt with the tongue-tied thing before, how doesn't it hurt when they get clipped? I don't get that, maybe he's just so young he'll get over it faster. good luck with that :)
that jungle gym looks fun, we don't have any in the malls here that fun

LizzieK8 said...

About nursing and gaining weight:
Make sure he's nursing for as long as he wants and as often as he wants.

You may want to wake him up and try to get him to nurse more often.

If you have some cloth diapers, switch to those so you get a better idea of how often and how much he pees.

Eat stuff with garlic. Babies seem to love the taste in the milk and that may encourage him to nurse more often.

Are you feeling a let down? A tingly feeling in your breast and/or the other breast all the sudden starts leaking? When this happens, Mack'll get the hind milk which is higher in fat content and has more calories = weight gain.

Before you explore more invasive techniques, contact your local La Leche League for more hints on helping Mack gain weight.

Unknown said...

Great job on the tomatoes! You'll have sauce in no time!

Anonymous said...

We got Raley's tongue tie clipped at about 10 weeks, and I wish we'd found out about it and done it much sooner. It doesn't hurt or bleed because there are very few nerves (so almost no feeling/pain) or blood vessels in that bit of tissue. Raley yelled because we were holding her down and poking around in her mouth, but it didn't bleed at all and she was fine once we let her go and just held her normally. It's definitely related to breastfeeding, so I would do it just to improve your chances. It didn't "fix" our issues, but I was also worried about speech impediments (my dad and sister both had issues) so I went for it, and after seeing the procedure I have no regrets :). Good luck whatever you decide to do!

Bea said...

Mac n' cheese. I thought mack truck was going to be bad...I had NO idea.

Bea said...

Oh yeah. Chris' sister slept most of the time. Apparently something like 18 hours a day for her first few months.

~Jo~ said...

Thought I'd share that I am tongue-tied and my parents worried I wouldn't talk... I did start to talk late but that's because I learned french and english at the same time. Now I can't seem to stop talking! ;)

KSee said...

Love the picture of you and Sean. Then you post a bib larger than Mac! Too funny. Beautiful garden. Don't know how you do it all. Oh youth!

g-girl said...

that slide looks so cool!! wow, your tomatoes look amazing and your pumpkin!! it's exciting. as for the tongue tie-I hadn't heard of that before. It said that it was hereditary-did you see that part? Wouldn't the nurse who checked out Sean when he was a baby have noticed if he had tongue-tie? So what will you do?