Gavin is SIX!

My, my how the years are just flying by!  Here we are with a SIX-year-old boy.  It has truly been a joy watching him grow up and I can’t wait to continue to watch that journey.  I am so proud of the boy he's grown to be.  

Gavin is SO smart.  He just started kindergarten and already he's a pro with his letters and has been able to sound out many words when we read together.  Coincidentally, reading together is very high on my list of favorite things to do with him.  We read every single night together and this is such a special time where we can snuggle up and explore what’s inside books together.  Gavin's also quickly become a whiz with math and loves to count things.  He can count past 100, count by 5's and 10's and add numbers together.  

As he's gotten a little older, he's become a little less spastic as far as his energy level goes, and that's given way for more noticeable, sweet tender moments.  He is so kind and loving to our dog, Marty.  He is also so gentle and patient around younger kids.  Being an only child, I am relieved to see he seems to have an innate sense of how to treat little kiddos and I’m so proud when I see that.  

As he's gotten older, he's become more and more attached to his friends.  He's really become quite the social little boy, making friends quite easily, both at school and at church.  I love seeing him and his little buddies running around church together after services are over.  Thankfully our church seems to be patient with the "track team" as I call the herd of kids who race around the sanctuary and atrium areas of church.  One of his favorite things to do with his friends is play tag and chase each other, and it sounds like this is the main thing that occupies his time during recess at school.  He is quite the lover of running already and that also is so fun for me to see as it’s something he and I share in common!  He often tells me he wants to go running with me when he's older and he and I have already done a number of kid’s half-mile races together.  He has such a great joyful attitude about running and playing.  

He continues (no surprise here) to love playing with vehicles, especially his small matchbox sized cars.  He's also discovered a huge love of playing with and building with legos.  He also likes building boats and other buildings out of his magna-tiles and then put his animals and small figures in them.  He really loves putting together puzzles and playing board games...some of his favorites are Monopoly Junior, the "grown up" Monopoly, Checkers, and Guess Who.  

Another favorite activity he has right now is swimming lessons.  At first he wasn't a huge fan of swimming lessons but he's been in them now for about a year and a half consistently and he's grown to absolutely love them.  He's caught on to the concepts and now can dive to the bottom of the pool to retrieve objects, swim the back stroke and front stroke, and is learning now how to take side breaths.  We swam a ton this summer and I called him my little fishy.  We are super blessed with a fantastic neighbor who has a pool and said we could use it anytime we wanted, so we were happy to oblige :) 

He also joined our church's Epiphany Choir which is for grades kindergarten through 2nd grade.  He loves to sing but is quite shy about doing it in front of others.  He's only had two sessions so far so more to come on how he likes this.  Additionally, we've signed him up for basketball this Winter as he requested to join basketball.  He's my super duper tall kiddo so if he likes basketball, his height should work to his advantage! 

We haven't had his 6 year well child check up yet, but last we measured him, he was 4 feet tall and about 52 pounds.  He's the tallest kid in his kindergarten class and this has been an ongoing trend.  We will see if this tall boy trend continues or not as the years progress.  

Speaking of kindergarten, he's been doing so well there.  We LOVE his teacher, Mrs. Worm, and he's adjusted quite well to this new routine.  I think the biggest adjustment for him is the reduced recess/outside time.  They only have a 20 minute recess there but thankfully his teacher is big on adding other forms of movement into the classroom activities which helps.  I ended up changing my work schedule as he started kindergarten, which allows me to be done with work when he's out of school.  Because of this new schedule, we are able to add in more play time after school.  We will often go to a playground after school and run around to get those extra wiggles out after a long day at school.  Since we only live 3/4 of a mile away from his school, most mornings we are able to walk to school together which is a lot of fun.  I can't wait to see what the rest of the school year has in store for him! 

Over the last couple months, we've begun giving Gavin an allowance for doing chores around the house.  He gets the number of dollars as how old he is, so now gets $6/week.  Half of that goes into a bank savings account we started for him, which he'll be able to use once he's much older.  The other half goes into a kids wallet we got for him and this is his spending money.  It's been a great way to teach him about money, delaying gratification when he wants to buy something but doesn't have enough money yet, and the value of saving one's money.  

I continue to love how full of joy and energy Gavin is.  His laughter is just the best sound and brings smiles to mine and Tom's faces every time he is silly and busts out in giggles.  One of the things that always proves to make me laugh is when he speaks or sings in his made up “country accent”, it’s quite hilarious! 

This last year he's become much more independent in several areas and continues to want to do as many things as possible by himself.  He can now go to the bathroom fully independently, takes a shower by himself, get dressed all by himself, and is starting to try to tie his own shoes.  He also walks into the school to his classroom by himself.  His elementary school is actually two schools in one (the other is a Spanish emersion school) so there are 1500 kids in the school and the school itself is quite huge.  He's very proud of himself that he can navigate through the school and find his room by himself.  

Though Gavin is growing up more and more everyday, we still get to share in a similar bedtime routine that we’ve followed since he was very little.  Tom and I take turns putting Gavin to bed every night and I treasure the quiet together time with him when it’s my turn.  We sing songs together and I often scratch his back (what he asks for to help calm down) while he lies in bed and starts to relax and fall asleep.  Favorite songs he has right now include “You are my sunshine” (especially the part where I sing “how much I love you” and gently tap his nose as I sing it), “Lord, listen to the children praying”, “Amazing Grace”, and the list goes on. 

I am so lucky to be his Mommy and we love our boy to the moon and beyond and back. 

A Whole Hand!

Again, it's hard to believe we've come another year and now we have a F-I-V-E year old! That's a whole hand (Gavin's very excited about that)!

Five truly feels like a major milestone. It's unbelievable that it's been five whole years since Gavin made me a mom.  He's taught me so much and challenged me in so many amazing ways. I can't believe to see what the next years bring.

Here's the happenings of our five year old boy!:

***DAILY SCHEDULE***
Wake up between 6:30am-7am. Lately closer to 7am. Woo hoo!

During the week he goes to Pre-K during the day while we're at work.  He's done amazingly well at school and loves showing us his projects everyday when we pick him up. He's learning so much and surprises us with how quickly he picks things up. We are so proud!

During the weekend we do various fun family activities like go to the Minnesota Zoo, Science Museum, or if it's nice out we go on a family bike ride or swimming.

Up until a month ago he was still taking about a 1 to 1 1/2 hour nap most days of the week but during the weekends the only way he'd fall asleep is if we laid with him in his bed while he fell asleep.  Most of the time mama had the special touch with getting him to fall asleep so I was on nap duty most of the time. I really loved it because he was so snuggly.  Cue the last month and he's really rejected naps pretty much entirely and it was becoming more of a battle than it was worth. Plus, frankly, we considered ourselves super lucky that he'd consistently taken naps until now.  So we bit the bullet and let him choose whether he slept or just had quiet time and gave him a bunch of books to occupy himself. The first couple weeks were a little trying as he wouldn't sleep during nap time and then would be a bit of a bear at bedtime with not wanting to listen and throwing some fits, but he's gotten adjusted and now we have a smooth bedtime at night despite no nap beforehand. I think we'll hang onto quiet time in lieu of nap time for awhile but it's sure been a relief to not have to be so rigid about being home mid-day for his sleep.

Bedtime is by 7:30pm most nights. He's still definitely a kid who needs at least 11 hours of sleep a night and we definitely make it a priority to help him get it!

***GAVIN QUOTES & FUNNIES***
Tom, "Gavin, tell Mommy the secret ingredient in the banana bread we made"...Tom whispers in Gavin's ear...Gavin, "tots!" Tom, "no, nuts!"

Gavin told me my name should be "Purple Queen Mama"...can't argue with that!

"Doubled eggs" = deviled eggs
"Fighter fighter" = firefighter
"Prentzel" = pretzel

"Mommy, can I tell you something? It's going to make you giggle!"

Gavin will ask similar types of questions like the following, always with the same final reply: Gavin, "Mommy, why did you get me this vehicle?" Me, "Because I thought you would like it." Gavin, "AND I DID!"

Gavin, "That makes no sense. And if you have a lot of sense (cents) you have a lot of money. I know that.  I have a good brain.  I go to preschool."

Gavin, "You are 'erupting' (interrupting) me.

***FAVORITES***
~VEHICLES!! He's still crazed about all things cars, trucks, you name it, if it's a vehicle, he loves it.
~Driving his Lamborghini car that my parents got him that he can drive around our neighborhood. He's a surprisingly attentive driver :)
~Dogs and cats. He asks to pet every dog we see when we're out walking.  He also loves going to Wild Rumpus and chases the cats around the whole time trying to pet them.  He LOVES our golden retriever, Marty, and definitely sees him as his brother and loves to snuggle with him. It's definitely sweet.
~Running fast! He's already impressive with his speed and how much he loves it. Our joke is an ode to Forest Gump: "if he was going somewhere, he was RUN-NING!" He's signed up to run his second race this weekend which is a half mile kid's race. He did it last year and absolutely loved it.
~Riding his bike around the neighborhood. He's nervous about taking off training wheels so we're keeping them on for now.
~Kicking his soccer ball into the goal on our driveway.
~Family bike rides and riding in his "wee hoo" bike tag-along.
~Spotting construction equipment when we're driving around.
~Making up silly songs.  His latest one was titled "Down in the deep house." I have no idea where that up was inspired from but he definitely takes after his Daddy with this one!
~Building things out of Legos or Lincoln Logs.
~Swimming lessons. This summer we signed him up for his first swim lessons which we'd waited to do because he's had ear tubes. He warmed right up to swimming and just started his second class. ~We're amazed at all the learning he's doing!  He also found a love of water slides this past summer. He was a little scared the first time but then has loved it since.  We visited several pools this summer and took advantage of many fun slides.
~Cooking with mama.  This is my favorite too! He loves helping me with baking and cooking and actually offers really great ideas of things we should add, like various spices. Maybe we will have a future chef?!
~Favorite movies and shows (we very much limit TV but once every few weeks we have a movie night): Chuck, Chuggington, Daniel Tiger, Thomas the Train, Lady and the Tramp, Bug's Life, Cars Movie, Finding Nemo, Mater's Tall Tales.
~Reading! He loves to read pretty much anything and everything. We have been making our way through the Spark Story Bible and he has also loved reading all my old Berenstain Bears books my parents handed down to me.
~Superheros. He's become of a love of all superheroes and this Halloween is going to be Spiderman.

***NOT SO FAVORITES***
Frogs. Our backyard butts right up to a little pond/marsh.  In the spring/summer time we get seriously hundreds of tiny baby frogs that are born and hop around our backyard. I think it freaks him out that you can't really walk around the backyard without a frog hopping on your foot.
This is a short list as there's not much that our kiddo doesn't like. He's honestly the least picky eater kid I've ever met (don't ask me how we got so lucky with this one!) so not much to add here.

***STATS AND MISCELLANEOUS***
At his 5 year well child appointment he got a glowing review by his pediatrician.
He's now:
45.75 inches = 94th percentile
48 lbs = 80th percentile
He continues to be our super tall kiddo and I joke with him that next year he'll be taller than me. I know it won't be long until this is actually true!
He still wears glasses full time and the last 3 months has been able to stop wearing his eye patch completely as his lazy eye has been improving. We have been down this road before and know that it's typical for this issue to wax and wane but we sure do hope he doesn't have to wear the patch anytime soon as it is pretty tough for him emotionally to have to wear it.

Gavin is a wonderful son and we are so so so lucky to call him ours. He gives lots of love, hugs, and kisses daily and we love how loving he is. He's impeccably funny and has a contagious laugh and smile. He's to a blessed five years with him!

4 year old Gavin!

I'm a tad belated in this post but better late then never :)

I've been trying to update on the happenings of Gavin a couple times a year, so without further ado, here's all about 4 year old Gavin!

Gavin turned 4 on September 20th. This year we celebrated with separate family and friend gatherings which made the planning a lot less hectic for me as his friend gathering was not at our house this year, and thus, I didn't have to clean my house, ha!  His friend party was at Pump It Up which is a big indoor inflatable playground area with bounce houses and slides for the kids to play on. We invited several of his friends including several of his preschool friends. The kids jumped their hearts out and got sufficiently tired then ended the evening with pizza and cake. We went with a super original (cue the sarcasm) theme of Frozen for the cake which the birthday boy picked out himself (chocolate cake with chocolate filling, that's my boy!).  He even got his own inflatable birthday "king" crown and had a huge smile on his face the whole evening. I call that a success :)  Now if I can just wrap my head around the fact that I have a FOUR year old...

**Gavin's normal daily routine (I think it's fun to look back and see how his normal day to day patterns have changed over the years so here's his normal day....):
-He sleeps with his "sheep clock" which we as his parents LOVE. We set it to change to "awake" sheep at a certain time and then can set it to show "sleeping sheep" when it's time for him to be sleeping. He really understands the system and MOST of the time it helps him stay in his bed and not wake up at outrageously early times. So normally he's up between 6:00 and 6:30am (he is and has always been an early bird).
-He is fully independent with going potty by himself and then we all try to sit down for breakfast together (even on weekdays, which is one luxury of me working from home in that we don't have to rush as much).
-During the week I normally bring him to preschool for the day while I work from home. On weekends we usually use the morning time for family time (our favorite spots continue to be the Minnesota Zoo, the Children's Museum, and in the summer we love to go to the beach, swimming, or for bike rides).

-He still gets a morning snack and then lunch before nap time. He's still a fantastic eater and not picky at all. I feel like I hit the major lucky mama button here with this little guy, he exclusively eats what we eat for dinner so there's never making him separate food, and he'll happily eat his veggies, etc.

-He is still taking a nap (about 95% of the time at least). He normally falls asleep between 12-1pm and then will sleep for 1.5 to 2 hours depending on the day. We struggle a bit more to get him to nap on the weekends as he's just having too much fun to calm down and want to sleep. I tend to put him to nap on the weekends as I seem to (at least for now, fingers crossed) have the magic touch to have more luck getting him to sleep then Tom.

-After nap he's typically hungry again for another snack (growing boy, yup!) and then we have play time. We'll often also use this time to do baking together. He's become quite the great baking helper and can measure out things by himself, operate our stand mixer by himself (with supervision of course) and even scoop batter into mini muffin tins by himself. It's so fun to share these sorts of memories with him.
-We typically do bath time every other night at this point (except in the summer when he tends to get grubbier). We've tried showers a couple times and he's not really a fan, and doesn't really like when water gets near his eyes.
-We try to stick to a 7pm bed time as any later than that and he gets pretty squirrelly.  He can get himself dressed in his jammies all by himself now and gets so proud of himself, especially when he's able to button his shirt all by himself. He also loves brushing his teeth as we recently got him his own fancy toothpaste (it's the little things that still excite him!).  We read several books together, choose several "buddies" as we can them (stuffed animals), tuck in the stuffed animals into his bed, and tuck in Gavin. He loves when we lay with him in bed, sing songs, and rub his back to help him fall to sleep. When we say night, night, we also turn on an angel that used to be his great-grandmother's that sings "Jesus Loves Me".  Most nights there's minimum bed-time revolt/battle to look forward to, but other nights he harnesses his inner rebel and fights us a bit on the whole "you need to go to sleep" thing that's just no fun for a 4 year old.  While Mommy reigns for nap time, he loves Daddy to put him to bed at night time best.

Whew, that part got long, but I am a detail lover :)

**Other random Gavin-isms as of late:
-He continues to be lover-of-all-transportation-things.  He loves to park his cars, makes an impressively realistic engine revving sound, and on any given day we trip over many of them which can be found in nearly every room of our house.
-This last year we've taken more initiative to get him into sports-related activities. It's so good for Gavin in particular who has tons of energy and does much better when he has healthy outlets to get it out. This summer we signed him up for a soccer camp which he LOVED and did so well following his coaches' guidance. Unfortunately he ended up breaking his arm at preschool after the first day so wasn't able to finish the whole week's camp. He also did a basketball class through the local rec center and again, loved it. He made so much progress in just a couple classes, learning how to dribble, pass the ball, and start to make baskets. I'm already that crazy soccer mom, because I had just as much fun as him, being able to watch him have a great time. Tom and I like to debate and dream about what sports he'll choose to love as he gets older. Of course Tom is rooting for golf and I'm hoping he'll be a runner. I have a feeling he'll like both.

-I recently asked him his "favorites". He told me his favorite vegetable are pea-pods, favorite fruit is apples, favorite color is purple (I think he was trying to butter me up), and that he wants to be a "firefighter" when he grows up. We drive by the fire station every day on the way home from preschool and every day he asks me to drive up close to the fire engines so he can take a good look.
-He's recently taken a bigger interest in drawing, coloring, and writing. He loves to write his name and he's gotten quite good at it!
-His eye sight has been gradually improving. We see the eye doctor several times a year to check on his amblyopia and strabismus (fancy terms for his lazy eye). His vision (corrected) is now officially 20-20 which is progress and we've been able to reduce his eye patching we've been doing since he was just under 2 years old to just 2 hours a day. This is way easier than way back in the day when we had to do up to 6 hours a day. Gavin sure is a trooper to tolerate it all, we're super proud of him for that fact.
-Speaking of his health, he hasn't had an ear infection in a LONG time. I never thought I'd say those words a few years ago when ear infections were just part of normal life. He got his 2nd set of ear tubes in November 2013 and they are still in and doing their job. I'm hoping they (1) stay in as long as possible and (2) when they do fall out, hope that we've made it over the ear infection hump and don't need a further set of tubes. Furthermore, I'm so excited for him to be able to take swimming lessons once they fall out as he's not allowed under water while the tubes are in.
-As far as his growth, he's continued to be on the top of the charts. At his 4 year well child check up he was 43 inches tall and 43 pounds. He's ranking in the 97th percentile but has always been and his pediatrician assured us that he's looking perfectly healthy and there's nothing more we could hope for there! Of course thinking of how tall he's going to be some day boggles my mind!
-He's got some pretty definite "favorite friends" as well.  At preschool this is David and William.  It's pretty cute because every day when I pick up Gavin, he and David give each other the cutest little hugs.  David also happens to be in his Sunday School class as well so he loves that fact. His other favorite friends are Linnea and Kane but he does so well (most of the time) playing with whoever is around him.

**Some of mine and Tom's favorite things about Gavin:
-We both marvel and love how chatty this kiddo is. He seriously talks ALL day long. He's very much extroverted in the sense that he processes things out loud and with other people. He chats about what he sees, what he thinks, what he remembers, and is not shy to tell you what you think about everything going on around him. His therapist/mama is pretty darn proud of the fact that he can name his feelings and this has significantly helped us minimize tantrums by giving him tools to talk about it.

-His giggle. He cracks himself up and finds humor and joy in many things in his little world. We just love how he throws his head back when he laughs and lets those cute little dimples show; it's definitely infectious. THE BEST.

-How smart he is. I am so proud of how much he knows and how much he's learning. He knows all his letters and numbers and can count up to 30. He likes to spell "S-T-O-P" when we're driving around and knows it spells stop. He memorizes all the books we read to him and if we get a word wrong, he knows how it should go and isn't shy to remind us of the "right word", ha.

-His kindness.  Yes, he's definitely a rough and tumble kind of kid. He has LOTS of energy, is very physical, and very boy. But he also has a tender, gentle side. If anyone is sad or crying, he is concerned and knows that hugs help people feel better. He loves to cover up our dog Marty with blankets, read him books, and give him hugs. He gives THE BEST hugs, full on huge squeezes, THE BEST.  It's routine at night for him to tell us he needs to give us ONE MORE HUG! And how can you say no to that?!  He's also gotten into a habit of opening my car door up for me, what a gentleman :)

I could write a novel about Gavin and all of the fun things that make him HIM at this age, but I think this is a really great summary. I just love that he's given me the best job in the world: being his Mommy. He brings me joy I couldn't have imagined, love I didn't know was possible, and challenges me to be the best person and the best example to him that I possibly can be. I can't wait to see what the next year has in store!

3 and a half year old Gavin!

I’ve been trying to write updates on Gavin at least twice a year or so, and thus it looks like we’re due for another update!

Gavin is just over 3 and a half years old! Every day he seems like he still grows so much and I can’t believe how close we are to having a FOUR year old! I won’t lie, there are times I really wish I could reverse time and go back to when he was a snuggly little baby to re-relish in those times, but I just love the little boy he’s become too.

So here’s the latest and greatest talents of Mr. Gavin:

-This boy loves to talk! If you’ve read any of my past posts this is no surprise. Or if you’ve met his extroverted Daddy, this is also no surprise. But there are many times Tom and I look at each other and smile because Gavin will literally talk your ear off all day long. Sometimes I wonder if he is able to take a breath with how constant he’s talking!  A lot of what he has to say is asking “why” still, which I honestly don’t mind at all, because it’s fun to see how inquisitive and desiring he is to get to know the world around him and make sense of it all.  The way toddlers minds think just amazes me.  He also likes to tell us his interpretations of the world around him too.  Sometimes though things get a little off in the description which cracks us up.  For instance, I like to tell him about when he was a baby and how he used to be in Mommy’s tummy. The other day he told me that someday I’m going to be in his tummy and he’s going to be my Mommy.  Interesting though eh? J

Here are some of my other recent favorite quotes of Gavin's. He sure has us cracking up on a daily basis!

"What does holy mean? Does it mean guacamole?" 

"Mommy, I really like candy, cookies, peanut butter cookies, lobster, and crab"

I asked Gavin to call his Daddy and he yells "Tom! Tooooooooom!" 

He also likes to call our dog Marty "Marcina" or more recently "Marcina-rina".

-Another passion that continues is his love of all transportation.  This love continues to grow and his knowledge base is honestly impressive if not startling to me sometimes. I sometimes call him the "Rainman" of cars and trucks.  He makes Grandpa Denison proud with how well he knows his cars. When we drive around in our car he can name you off almost any car you see.  He knows Dodge Durango's, Saturn Views, Smart Cars, Mini Coopers (he likes to call those Coops), Volkswagens (which he pronounces in his best German way "VoltsVagen"), Nissan Exteras (which used to be his favorite car), you name it.  He has a fleet of his own cars and trucks at home that he likes to park around the house.  

-He's still an outdoors boy.  Anytime we have a halfway nice day out he's pleading to go outside. He has mastered his trike and has quite the endurance level for biking around the neighborhood.  He also loves to pull his little red wagon around and push his big firetruck around.  He loves to blow bubbles or even better pop bubbles that Mommy blows for him.  We got some new outdoor toys I'm excited to try out with him this summer.  We also can't wait to visit the splash pad close to our home.  We recently got a different kind of bike trailer as he's really grown out of our Burley Bee as he's just so tall--his legs stick out and he can put his foot on the back wheel of our bike tires so not super conducive to safety anymore.   

His first try in the new trailer didn't go so well as he got scared, but I have faith he'll learn to love it and we'll be enjoying lots of family bike rides this summer, one of our favorite family past times.  

-He's still got his cute little blonde curls.  Over the winter I questioned whether his hair was starting to turn darker but now that we've had some sunny days it's brightened up again to his same bright blonde.  He loves knowing that he has blue eyes and likes finding out what color everyone else's eyes are too, even his stuffed animals.  As I mentioned above, he's reallyr really tall for his age.  Literally at the top of the growth chart and the tallest kid in his daycare class.  I can't wait to see if this trend continues, it'll certainly be weird when he's eventually taller than me, which feels like it won't be too long now! Last time he was measured he was almost 43 inches tall and about 42 pounds.  

-Bedtimes and nap times have been smoother than they have in quite awhile.  We had a few weeks where he was really trying to rebell against his afternoon nap and I feared the end of naps (aka Mommy and Daddy's break, let's be real here) as we knew them, but he's settled back in to taking a good solid 2 hour nap each afternoon, sometimes longer even.  Putting him to bed has also gotten easier.  We used to go through a major rigamarole every evening trying to put him to bed with a hundred different questions and requests for more snacks, more water, more blankets, more bathroom trips, you name it, to delay bed time. He's really settled in though and we have a great routine of bathtime, putting on jammies, eating a small bedtime snack, brushing teeth, reading a few books, singing some songs while either Tom or myself lay in bed with him, then hugs and kisses and we say goodnight.  We still use his sheep clock (a kid's sleep training clock) we got awhile back and it really has helped get him to sleep until a decent time in the morning.    Then when he wakes up in the morning he yells out loudly "Mommy, Daddy my sheep woke up!!!" so proudly that he slept through the night.  

-About 3 months ago we went on our first big family trip since he was 6 months old when we went to Hawaii, and this time went to Clearwater Beach, Florida.  We all had a blast and can't wait for future family trips!  We flew down all together and Gavin was a trooper on the plane ride down, even when we got delayed with snow, and even napped for a bit on the plane.  We joined Tom on his work trip so Tom had work duties the first 3 days, but that gave Gavin and I some good Mommy/Son bonding time.  We went to a children's museum and an aquarium together and got to see a dolphin show.  The last 3 days Tom was off work AND the weather warmed up considerably so we were able to swim in the pool and went to the beach to build sand castles and dip our toes in the freezing cold water.  Gavin's biggest highlight of the whole trip though was riding in a golf cart shuttle that took us from our hotel to the beach.  He thought that was the most excellent thing ever (see transportation adorer above!).  

Gavin, we love you so much and you bring us so many smiles and sweet moments everyday.  We love your cuddles, your inquisitiveness, and how smart you've already become.  Here's to more memories to come! 

Gavin at 3

It's about that time to post the new happenings in the world of our little Gavin. This serves as my pseudo scrapbook to remember the facts and fun tidbits of his life. Our boy is growing so quickly. Now that we've started the new year I've already started thinking of how in only a few more months we'll have a 4 year old!  Ahh!  4 sounds really old. Well for now let's focus on his 3 year old self.

In the last couple of weeks we transitioned Gav out of his fire truck toddler bed into a twin sized bed (which just so happens to have been my bed growing up). We felt like he was starting to out grow the toddler bed and I noticed how uncomfortable his old crib mattress he'd still been sleeping on was. The transition was super easy and he handled it well. Most importantly though he's still been sleeping well (for the most part). He does wake up occasionally at night but goes back to bed quickly most of the time. Putting him to bed has been much smoother than it was months ago where we affectionately referred to him as Dr. Delay. Now he uses the potty, has a snack, and we read a couple books and sing a few songs and to sleep he goes!  He's normally in bed by about 7:30pm and sleeps till about 6:00 or 6:30am on a good day :)  He hit a milestone on January 13, 2014 and slept all night for the first time with no diaper and stayed dry.

He continues to be a super active mover and shaker as well as an excellent eater. We really can't name anything he won't eat but his appetite varies quite a bit day to day. At his 3 year appointment we laughed that he was a perfect square as he was 40 inches tall and 40 pounds. He's still been a very tall kiddo and fun to think of how tall he'll be someday.

Some of Gavin's favorite things to do include reading (favorites include his Bible, Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site, The Bearanstain Bears series, and anything by Dr. Seuss like Are You My Mother), putting together puzzles, playing with his trucks and parking them, playing with his Thomas the train set, playing with play-doh, pushing his toy lawn mower around the house, singing songs, and chatting the ears off of anyone around!  He has a ton to stay all day long and loves to ask lots of "why" questions. He still has lots of funny things to say that crack us up as well. Here's a couple recent favorite quotes:

"Lollipops look like pickles!"

When I asked him what kind of ice cream he wanted, "chocolate, no whip"...someone has gone through the Starbucks drive thru with Mommy a few too many times.

When I was tickling him I joked and asked if I could eat his little piggies (toes) and he responded, "no, they're my fancy toes!"

After reading a book with a raccoon, "when I was a baby raccoon I used to have a truck".

Instead of saying "yesterday" he says "last morning" exclusively.

He has overall been a lot healthier as he's gotten older though did have to have ear tube surgery again in November 2013 due to pesky ongoing ear infections. He did have one other recent cold and a very short bout with the stomach flu but that's still a lot better than when he was younger.

Truly my favorite things about Gavin is his excitement, curiosity, chattiness, and his big huge hugs. I look forward to many more fun and special memories to come!

All About Gavin

It's been a few months since I've documented some of Gavin's Gavin-isms so it's about that time to write them down so they won't be forgotten!  Here's all about Gavin at nearly 33 months:

• Gavin sometimes talks in double negatives and I pretty much think it's adorable.  For instance he'll say "my not can't see it", "my not can't do it".  Oh and he refers to himself as "my". :)
• He's been doing pretty darn well with potty training and poops in the potty about 99% of the time (sorry I know, TMI, but it's what is going on with him right about now!).  When he's finished, he looks in the potty and says "woah!!".
• He still loves and adores his trucks.  He has acquired dozens of them and likes to "park" them and drive them around and make their appropriate noises (like wee-oh wee-oh for an ambulance).  He has started to be much better with sharing and even lets Tom and I share and play with his trucks at times (which is a big deal as these are his most precious toys) which we're very proud of.  I'm already thinking ahead to his 3rd birthday party (ahh he can't be almost 3 yet!!) and thinking of doing a truck theme--already have some fun ideas in the making too!!
• Gavin adores our dog Marty.  I really do believe Marty is his best little buddy and in many ways a therapy dog for Gavin.  Gavin loves to give him hugs, play with him, and lay on him when he lays on the ground.  He especially loves laying on him when he's hot and panting as he thinks it's pretty hilarious how his chest/tummy goes up and down so quickly.  Gavin also likes to give Marty walks outside and actually does a fantastic job holding onto his leash and keeping him on the side of the road.  We've got a dog lover here folks!
• Gavin has been sleeping in his big boy bed for about a month now and has actually been doing a really good job overall. He sleeps through the night most nights in his bed which is a major achievement.  Going to bed is still somewhat of a challenge because he is Mr. King Delay when it comes to bedtime. He asks for a snack, to use the potty 15,000 times, needs water, milk, to sing songs, etc etc etc before he'll finally settle down.  We're working on some new tactics to try to cut down the amount of time this process takes but once he's down, he's down to bed thankfully.  
• When Gavin wakes up he puts his face right up to his door and yells "me waking up now!!!!!". So subtle :)
• His language continues to explode.  He can talk in full sentences and 90% of the time we can easily understand what he's saying.  It's just amazing to think of not so long ago all he could say were only a couple of words at a time.  He has been working on his counting and can count to 10 in Spanish and all the way into the 20's in English.  Though he does get a bit confused in the 20's.  He'll go from 20, 21, 26, 24, 26, and on from there :)  I'm still impressed!
• He loves loves loves to sing.  There is rarely a series of minutes that pass where he isn't humming or singing some sort of tune.  You name the kiddy-song and he likely knows it.  He has a music class at daycare and he comes home singing lots of fun new songs he's learned there.  One of his favorites recently is the "Water Buffalo" song from the Veggie Tales.  It's really fun and sweet to see this love of music expanding as I know how proud it makes Tom who's obviously Mr. Music himself.  
  
• He still has some favorite friends at daycare, including his best buddy, Kritagya, and other buddies, RJ and Garrett, and loves to tell us about them and how they played together.  
• His daycare teacher at his center, Shannon, tells us lots of wonderful things about how he acts at daycare which make us so proud. She tells us he's one of the most social kids in the class and loves to help.  He helps Ms. Shannon carry the little kiddy trash cans into their room each day.  He also continues to be one of the best nappers at daycare (wahoo!) and most of the time at home takes great naps too.  We're going to hold onto that for as long as we can!
• Gavin is a definitely outdoorsy kid.  The second we bring him home from daycare he asks to go outside, no matter how cold/rainy, etc it may be.  He loves to explore, run and kick balls in our yard, and play with his bike and wagon.  He has a big beach ball and asks me and Tom to kick it way up in the air for him and thinks it's pretty much the funniest thing ever when we do.
• Gavin's pretty much always been a fantastic eater and continues to be.  There's really almost no food that he won't eat. The only food previously we couldn't get him to eat was lettuce and we've even been able to encourage him to try it successfully. Some of his favorites though are bananas, any other type of fruit really, turkey burgers, rice, peppers, and cereal.  He does love his smoothies too!  

Why, oh why?

Within the past 36 hours, Gavin and I have been enjoying some father and son time, and he has learned how to use the word "why." He is really expanding his conversational skills with all his questions which is extremely cute! Below are a few of the hundreds of conversations I can recall over the past 36 hours.

Me: "Gavin, it's time to put on your coat."
Gavin: "Why?"
Me: "It's cold outside and I don't want you to get sick."
G: "Why?"
Me: "We don't feel well when we're sick and I want you to be healthy."
G: "Why?"
Me: "Because you have more fun playing when you're healthy."
G: "Oooooooohhhh!!!"

10 minutes later...

G: "Daddy drive car? Daddy drive mail truck, semi truck, mail truck, Becky, Jeromy, Linnea, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandma, Grandpa's car???"
Me: Daddy is driving Daddy's car to the Children's Museum."
G: "Why?"
Me: "Because we're going to see Jeromy and Linnea and we're going to play."
G: "Why?"
Me: "We're going because we always have fun at the museum."
G: "Why?"
Me: "Because you get to wake up the dragon."
G: "Wh---Me wake up dragon?!? Mommy, Daddy, Gavin, wake up dragon!"
Me: "That's right"
G: "NO--Me wake up dragon!"

After lunch

G: "Daddy slippery?"
Me: "Yes, it's slippery outside."
G: "Why?"
Me: "Because it snowed last night and rained a few days before."
G: "Why?"
Me: "Well, there was a low pressure system that made the temperature cool outside"
G: "Low pressure?"
Me: "Yes, that's why it was cool and that's why it snowed instead of rained"
G: "Oooooooohhhh!!!"

Before bath time

Me: "Ok Gavin, it's time to come upstairs for a bath"
G: "Why?"
Me: "Because you're stinky!"
G: "Why?"
Me: "Because we played all day and got sweaty."
G: "Daddy sweaty?"
Me: "No, Gavin sweaty..."
G: "Why?"
Me: "Because we haven't taken a bath yet."
G: "Why?"
Me: "Because you keep delaying our making it to the tub."
G: "Ooooohhhhh! Daddy bathtub?"
Me: "Gavin. Bathtub. Now."

Never forget

There have been so many times since having Gavin that I tell myself "never forget this moment".  I hope I never forget his sweet newborn baby scent and all those firsts he's had over the last 2+ years.  So this blog post is dedicated to the current "Gavin-isms" that I never want to forget:

*Gavin is a charmer.  He knows he has me wrapped around his finger.  When he wants something he knows he probably isn't allowed to have, he'll grasp his hands next to his chin and turn his head and smile his big dimpled grin at me.

*Some fantastic words Gavin says: "right hee-ahh" (aka: right here), "rab-ee-oh-lee" (aka: ravioli), "folk lift" (aka: fork lift), "too spicy" (aka: all food he eats right now is TOO SPICY!).

*Gavin sometimes acts like he's a parent of 10 children and can't remember whose name is he wants to say.  A common phrase out of his mouth is "MommyDaddyPuppyGrandmaGrandpaBeckyJeromyNaya" in one big breath (including most of his favorite people).  It cracks us up!

*Gavin has developed quite the imagination.  He loves to pretend to go to the grocery store and bring us back lots of goodies including: bananas, mangos, pistachios, chocolate, and quesadillas--he's such a ham!  He also loves to pull out all our pots and pans and stir up "soups", "cakes", "cookies", and give us pretend tastes of his creations.

*Gavin has just now gotten into "loving" on a stuffed animal.  The only one he really cares about is "Little Puppy" which is what he's named his stuffed puppy dog Grandma and Grandpa Denison gave him for his birthday and only recently has started carrying him around, giving him hugs, and trying to feed him.  Also when he's sad he asks for "Little Puppy" to snuggle with which just warms my heart.

*Gavin is also particular about his bed time requests.  He always asks us for "two bankies" (aka: two blankies) when we put him to bed and tuck him in.

*He has really learned an increased self-awareness.  He loves to say emphatically, "ME!" and pat himself on the chest for extra emphasis.

I just love and adore this little boy all the more everyday!

Many months in review (long overdue!)

I am significantly behind in the blogging world and have been thinking for some time that I need to blog about our recent happenings. So here it goes!

 It's so hard to believe that Gavin is over 2 years old now (27 months to be exact)! He amazes me everyday with how much he has learned and I am so proud to be his Mommy. It's so hard to sum up all the wonderful things that make Gavin, but here's a few....

**Gavin loves all things to do with transportation. I'm talking LOVES. He knows the names of all sorts of transportation including: dump truck, school bus, city bus, train, car, taxi, plane, boat, semi truck, bike, motorcycle, fire truck, police car, ambulance, and race car (you get the picture eh). He loves pointing them out as we drive around. When we turned his car seat around it was like a whole new world to explore and see.

**Gav also loves being a little chef in the kitchen. For Christmas he got two kitchens for his play room, one from his Uncle Corey and one from his Uncle Aaron and Aunt Emily and he LOVES pretending to whip up food like pizza, eggs, and make coffee for Daddy. Mommy may also have just as much fun playing with his pretend food as he does! We also made Christmas sugar cookies in our grown up kitchen and used a recipe for cookie paint so Gavin got to paint each cookie a different color. It was a blast to have him as my little helper and to see how cute he was in his apron.

**Gavin has a happy go lucky, full of life personality. My little guy brings out smiles from all he encounters any times he shows his smile (complete with heart melting dimples) or laughs his contagious giggle. Our dog, Marty, is a common cause for bringing out Gavins giggles and he loves to tell "puppy" or "Marney" (as Gavin calls him) to sit, lay down, or beg and finds it quite hilarious when he listens to him. Lately when Gavin's especially excited he'll let out a big squeal as well. 

**Gavin is a Daddy's boy through and through. He loves to yell out "my Daddy!" and run up to give him huge hugs. To witness the bond these two have is something that brings me such joy.

**His current daily routine has been the same for many months. He wakes up between 6 and 7 (closer to 7 lately--hooray!). He has breakfast right away and reminds us by telling us many times as soon as he gets up that he is "hungry!" Getting him to change out of his pj's is normally a bit of a battle because he only ever wants to wear his "truck" shirt (shocking huh). Breakfast for him is usually either cereal, pancakes, or eggs with fruit. At daycare he goes to a music class in the morning and then plays outside. He has a mid morning snack and lunch at 11:30am then takes a nap starting at 12 to anywhere between 2 and 3. Then he has his afternoon snack and normally plays either outside or in our play room in the basement (when not at daycare) for the rest of the afternoon until dinner at 5:30pm. We then do baths normally every other night and go to bed between 7 and 7:30pm. Going to bed is a bit tricky on occasion because Gav only wants Daddy to put him to bed. I know it's a phase but this is certainly a challenging part of parenthood at this time. Luckily I'm a-ok in his book any other time of day :)

**Potty training has been an adventure we've been embarking on since Gavin was 22 months old. He enthusiastically started this process with much assistance from daycare as I was skeptical with having him start this early. It helps that daycare has tiny toilets the kiddos size. At home we have a froggy potty and he has been doing so well using it. We really haven't had to try very hard to get him motivated to sit on it which has surprised me as I thought it would be a lot harder than it has been. He has started wearing pull up diapers and is so proud of himself for being such a "big boy".

**Tom and I like to get out of the house on the weekends so we have taken full advantage of our Minnesota Zoo and Children's Museum memberships. Gavin loves watching the fish and penguins get fed at the zoo and to "wake up" the dragon in the castle exhibit at the Children's Museum. We also make some semi frequent visits to Mall of America because we live so close and Gavin loves to watch the rides and play in Lego Land.

**One of Gavin's most recent loves is "Froggy", which is a frog whose real name is Pepsi at his daycare who swims in a fish tank. Every single day when we drop him off and pick him up from day care, "see Froggy" is one of the first phrases he tells us and pulls us over to the tank. He excitedly narrates what the frog is doing, such as sleeping or swimming through his tunnel.

With just having experienced his 3rd Christmas (where has the time gone!!), we took full advantage of Gavin being old enough to "get it" this season. It was so fun getting to have Gavin participate in helping to decorate the Christmas tree and see his fascination with the lights and ornaments. (I won't dwell on how he knocked it down 3 times from a bit of over excitement--luckily never got hurt doing so). Gavin also loved pointing out our wreath on the front door and icicle lights on our house every time we drive up our driveway. We also took a trip to the Macy's 8th floor display (an annual tradition we've started with wonderful friends Becky, Jeromy, and Linnea) which was lots of fun. I got Gavin an "elf on the shelf" we named "Elfy" and he got a major kick out of finding out where Elfy was hiding everyday. He would gasp and point every time he found it. We also continued a tradition we have had for many years to sing Christmas carols around the piano while Tom plays the songs for us. This is one of my most favorite parts of Christmas for sure. We also sang happy birthday to Jesus and Gavin impressed us by knowing all the words to the song though we had never taught him (good ol daycare!). On Christmas Eve Gavin modeled his new Santa Elmo pajamas and we set out cookies and milk for Santa. Gavin stole a quick bite from Santa's cookie but he must have been forgiven as he certainly got spoiled silly the next day with gifts. Being the first grandchild has made him one lucky kiddo that's for sure. We loved watching him help everyone open their presents Christmas Day and see how he was more excited about the bows than his gifts.

I can honestly say the only gift in the world I ever need is just to look at my sweet little boy. He brings me ongoing everlasting joy and that little guy has me wrapped so tight around his finger. He challenges me in all the best ways and I feel like I've grown so much by being his Mommy. I really mean it when I saw I never could have expected how much I could have learned from such a little human. I'm so looking forward to tons of memories to come...and I promise I'll try to blog a bit more often, though Gavin certainly keeps me on my toes!

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1 1/2 years of Gavin!

Time sure flies when you're having fun.  I find that the days, weeks, and months, just keep speeding up somehow.  I believe my last update was just at the turn of the new year.  Since then, we've been up to a lot!

For Gavin, he has been exploring the world, learning a ton, and thrilling us each day just by being his wonderful, cute, happy, giggly self.  Gavin has been walking all over and running all over! He loves to explore everything in our house and he and our dog, Marty, have become really good buddies.  Gavin loves to poke Marty's face, pull his tail, pet his back, and throw him his ball.  Most of the time, Marty is a calm companion with him (most of the time!).

Because of Gavin's love of exploring we've gone to the Children's Museum a few times in the last 2 months.  He just LOVES that place.  He especially loves the water exhibit, splish splashing around.  One time when we went he made a couple of friends with two older girls who were about 8 years old and they played peek-a-boo with him--very cute :)

After our very scary high fever escapade at the hospital with Gavin (see previous post), our pediatrician got Gavin a quicker appointment with an ENT.  We quickly decided we were going to pursue surgery to have ear tubes be put in for Gavin.  He was on ear infection #10 that wouldn't go away despite 3 trials of antibiotics.  I was very nervous for the procedure but it went super quickly (15 minutes long).  Gavin even made the nurse and anesthesiologist laugh when he met them and stuck out his hand to shake their hands.  He's quite the charmer! He didn't even shed a tear at all during or after the procedure.  What a champ! I was a proud mama.  And to date, he's been ear infection free (hoping this trend continues!).

Also, Gavin had his first dentist appointment.  Our pediatrician said it's now recommended that kids go to the dentist once they are 1 year of age.  We weren't sure what to expect since we can barely brush his teeth without a fight from Gavin.  They mostly did education about dos and don't for good tooth care.  It was honestly all things we already know--like don't give him lots of sweets, gummies, or juice.  They did show us a handy way of brushing his teeth by having him lay backwards on Tom's lap with his head in my lap so one person can hold his hands while the other brushes his teeth.  Sounds funny, but it really works!

Gavin has really been talking up a storm lately.  Most of his "words" are unintelligible to the non-mommy or daddy ears, but he will say "da" for dog, "dada" for daddy, "ma" for mommy, knows "ba ba" for the sound of a sheep, and lots of other cute little sounds.  He has also progressed a lot with learning sign language which certainly helps us understand what he wants.  For instance, he will sign "more", "help", and "all done".

My favorite "new" thing that Gavin has learned is to give kisses.  He will lean in if you ask him for a kiss. He hasn't quite gotten the pucker part, but it's super cute nonetheless.  He also gives us hugs too and it just melts my heart!!  Other new things Gavin has learned is to open and close doors, he's getting much better at drinking out of a cup without a lid, can use a spoon and fork to feed himself, he has learned to play the recorder (and often sings into it to make sound), and tries to help us get him dressed (sometimes undressed too by taking off his socks for instance).

On average Gavin sleeps about 10-11 hours at night, falling asleep between 7-8pm and waking up about 6am.  He then takes about a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon from 12-2 or 3pm.  We have had a slight recurrence of some separation anxiety at night time with lots of crying when we leave him in his crib, but this is improving slowly but surely.

In our unseasonably warm March weather we've been venturing outside daily.  It's so fun to be outside with Gavin now that he's more mobile.  He loves discovering everything there is outside, including trees, leaves, rocks, and our neighbors cat which he calls "ca".

We marvel everyday at home much Gavin is growing and learning and my love just continues to grow for this little boy.

It is way too HOT in here!

Though I put some humor in the title, the last 48 hours have been anything but humorous with respect to Gavin's health. 


On Wednesday afternoon around 4pm Jackie received a call from our daycare stating that Gavin's temperature was over 100 degrees and he needed to be sent home. After Jackie seeing him and feeling him burn up we took no chances and went to urgent care. Jackie and I were suspicious thinking this could be an ear infection since Gavin finished his 3rd course of antibiotics in the last 6 weeks. However, the exam showed that Gavin's ears weren't red or infected but they were recessed. We opted for no prescription medication since we had a scheduled visit with his pediatrician on Friday and decided we would treat with Tylenol and ibuprofen. We got lucky and left the urgent care within one hour (the nurse had sympathy for us and saw that Gavin is quite active and an hour wait in the waiting room wasn't going to do anyone any good). We took him home that evening gave him dinner and put him to bed. However the night didn't go so well as Gavin was up a few times between 3-5:30am. 


Jackie and I decided that I should stay home with Gavin (we couldn't send him to daycare within 24 hours of a fever anyway) and we did a little coloring, played with some puzzles, read lots of books and did quite a bit of napping. Gavin did well throughout the day until yesterday evening (Thursday). We continued to give him ibuprofen and Tylenol alternating doses. He went to bed at 6:30 which has been quite earlier than normal (Gavin typically goes to bed around 7 and falls asleep around 7:30). Jackie and I went to bed knowing that we'd need to be getting up throughout the night (6th sense parenting feeling). Sure enough we were worken up with cries from his room. I got up and took his temperature which was quite high at 103.9. We decided that with only the four hours of ibuprofen on board that we couldn't keep his fever down so we called 911.



We hear sirens go by in our neighborhood and we always wonder where the emergency vehicles are headed. This time we knew they were coming to us. A police officer and two EMTs came into our house and asked us into about Gavin and his condition. The officer left after the EMTs felt comfortable and they got right to work. They put a device on Gavin's finger measuring his oxygen which was normal. After documenting a brief history, they then asked us what we wanted to do. We decided that it was best to go to the St. Paul Children's Hospital ER and take the ambulance ride in the event of a seizure or other medical care that Gavin required. Jackie rode in the ambulance with Gavin as I followed behind in the car.

At the ER Gavin was seen right away. They took his temperature rectally and it shot way up to 107.1. Now we REALLY had cause for concern. The physician came in to see us shortly after the nurses did some initial work-up and said that she wanted to rule out any scary diagnoses and ordered a urine sample, chest  X-ray, blood work and have him Tylenol rectally. The four hours in the ER were challenging. After all the testing was done it came back normal but Gavin needed some hydration so they put in IV into his left ankle and also gave him medication through that line. 

Thankfully the physician ruled out meningitis and didn't order a spinal tap, but she was concerned that Gavin may have the flu. So to be sure, our nurse performed a final test by squirting water up Gavin's nose and immediately sucking it out. Of course he didn't like it thrashed and threw a fit but also got a bloody nose from the test which lasted only a few minutes. We won't find out if he has the flu for approximately 48 hours after the test.

Thankfully we are all home and resting, gearing up for our next doctor visit to Gavin's pediatrician to discuss the test results and come up with a treatment plan. 


Given that I not only like to share the process and experience of the visits we have, I also want to share a few new bits of knowledge Jackie and I gleaned from this visit to the ER.

1. In Gavin's case, and I don't know of this is because of age and weight, we can administer ibuprofen on a schedule of every 6 hours and if he spikes a fever we can give Tylenol too in between.
2. Similar to when you're expecting to deliver a baby, have the diaper bag at the ready in your home with diapers, wipes, a change of clothes, etc...  Consider having a change of clothes or extra clothes for the parents/caregivers in the event you would leave the house in an emergency like we did.
3. Ask if you don't understand something the nurse or physician tells you. There are so many times medical and office staff came in and out of the room, hooked up an IV, took a urine sample, obtained chest X-rays, took my co-pay, peeked in to see if we were OK, etc... Ask for spellings of medications. Ask how long the dose is effective. Should it be given with food? Does it need to be refrigerated or room temperature for storage? Does your discharge paperwork summarize the care you received and a next course of action?   
4. Stop at the pharmacy and stock up on some basics; in most cases, it's cheaper than your average "big box" store. I bought a large amount of liquid Tylenol for $2 and I know it will get used.  

Nursing woes...belated recap

I was reflecting today that I really love my blog because it's a great memory book about what's been going on the past 2 years or so of my life.  Especially with bringing Gavin in the world, it helps me remember all the little things that have happened.  What I recognize, though, is that there's a huge part of the beginning of Gavin's life I really haven't written about.  That is the breastfeeding part.  Truly, I have only really opened up about most of this nursing saga with my close friends, and only Tom knows all of the...gory...details.  I never wrote about my experience being a nursing mama on the blog because I thought it was too personal, and some may not want to know all the TMI details.  And maybe it is too personal, but I'm realizing that the memories associated with it are the hardest I have from Gavin's early days and I decided to write this blog post as a sort of catharsis for myself to try to let go of some of the memories.  And if it can help any soon to be nursing mamas prevent some of the many problems I had, even better.

So here we go...

I knew from pre-becoming pregnant that I wanted to breastfeed.  I read books about it, I went to a breastfeeding class through a parenting center we have in the Twin Cities, and felt ready.  In the hospital I saw two different lactation consultants to get as many tips as I could to set Gavin and I up for success in this new nursing relationship.  Unfortunately, the second lactation consultant I saw really set me up for a road to trouble.  She made me use a nipple shield (I know I told you it may get to TMI) and said I should only nurse with this to make sure Gavin was latching on appropriately.  Only later did I learn that this can cause babies to become dependent to only using this and that it can also increase your risk of developing breast infections.  She also told me that I should use a breast pump for 10-15 minutes extra after EVERY nursing session to ensure that I'd have an adequate milk supply.  I was extremely exhausted in the hospital after a labor that lasted over 30 hours, but was determined to listen to the advice of the lactation consultant, so I did.  It was laborious and time intensive to pump after each nursing session (which lasted about 45 to 60 minutes each anyway because Gavin was VERY slow), but I did it.

Five days post-partum when we were at home is when it really got hard.  This was the day my milk "came in" and I became horribly engorged.  Naive me, I continued pumping like the lactation consultant told me to, after each nursing session as I'd been instructed which made it all worse.  That afternoon my brother, Corey, came over for dinner and to meet Gavin.  During dinner I felt like I got hit by a truck, was so exhausted that I laid my head on the table and nearly fell asleep.  After my brother left I took a bath to try to relax and started shaking uncontrollable and was SO cold.  It was then time to nurse Gavin again and I felt absolutely awful, like I had the flu.  I took my temperature and it was 102.  I then started to have excruciating pain in my chest and nursing was also terribly painful.  The pain was shooting up my arms to the point I could barely hold Gavin.  Because I was so engorged as well, I had developed lumps all over both of my breasts and could tell Gavin wasn't able to empty them completely.  I called my nurse line and they paged the on call OBGYN who called me back shortly.  I ran through my symptoms and he was pretty certain I had mastitis but wanted me to be seen the next morning to make sure.  I was advised because they thought it was mastitis to make sure I was emptying my breasts of milk every 2 hours around the clock until the infection cleared.  Talk about exhausting.  I was also told I could use ice packs on my chest to help the pain and engorgement.  I got barely any sleep that night because I was in so much pain and my fever made me sweat like crazy.

The next morning my doctor was able to fit me in and confirmed that I had mastitis. In addition, she confirmed that (TMI alert) my stitches from labor had torn, became infected, and I had a bladder infection to top it off.  I was pumped full of antibiotics and was cautioned by my doctor that once you get mastitis, the more risk there is of developing it again.  I was uber determined, however, to get past this and continue to breastfeed.

One very nice part of my post-partum journey was a benefit I got through my job for free telephonic services with a lactation consultant named Debbie.  Debbie became my nursing lifeline.  I probably spoke with her 1-2 times a week for the first 16 weeks of Gavin's life.  Debbie was the first person to help me realize how enormous my milk supply was.  She had me pump after Gavin had a full nursing session and I pumped out 6 ounces of milk out of each breast.  She had some sort of reaction like, "holy crap!".  She said at this stage it was normal to pump 2 ounces per breast BEFORE a nursing session.  She then coached me on a plan to try to cut down my milk supply.  Once my mastitis cleared up, we talked about a plan to try to reduce how much milk I was making because this was lending itself to the plugged milk ducts that I constantly had and was constantly trying to rid myself of.  Basically the plan was to keep pumping after each nursing session to ensure that I was emptying all of my milk out to try to get rid of the plugged ducts.  Then I was to choose one nursing session a day and only pump out half as much as normal for 3 days, then skip pumping after that nursing session the next 3 days, and keep repeating until I was no longer pumping at all after nursing sessions.

Unfortunately I was not able to ever finish this plan because 3 weeks post partum I developed mastitis again.  This time Tom was at work and I was home alone with Gavin.  I noticed the initial signs of exhaustion again and while nursing I felt the same shooting pains in my breast and up my arm.  It hurt so bad I was literally afraid I would not be able to hold Gavin and had to set him in his crib.  I called Tom who raced home to find a crying me and a crying Gavin.  I again had a high fever and called the nurseline who said again that it sounded like mastitis.  I went right back to the doctor who confirmed it again and sent me home with more antibiotics and that I needed to nurse until my breasts were empty every 2 hours until the infection had cleared.  Totally exhausting.  Plus this completely threw my whole plan on decreasing my milk supply back to the starting point.

After this second bout of mastitis, I had a brief period where I decided I couldn't do this anymore.  I couldn't put my body through this wearing routine any longer and we bought a can of formula.  I gave Gavin one bottle of formula which he promptly spit up all over himself, and decided this was not what I wanted.  I really, really, wanted to be able to breastfeed.  I knew all of the positives and decided to not let myself give up.

Once the mastitis cleared up, I worked with my lactation consultant, Debbie, on trying to get Gavin off of the nipple shield and she also advised me to see a lactation consultant face to face.  I went to see one at Methodist Hospital who was very helpful in correcting Gavin's latch and nursing went much more smoothly after this.  I did tons of research on ways to prevent mastitis as there are many different things that can contribute to it (including stress--ironic huh?!).  I started taking Lecithin supplements three times a day which is supposed to help prevent pluggled milk ducts.  I was super hopeful.

Yep, you guessed it, as soon as thing started getting better, and I was advised it was time to try cutting down my milk supply, then came back the plugged ducts and again at 7 weeks post-partum I got mastitis a third time.  I was devastated.  Beyond devastated.  This really hit me not only physically but also emotionally. I felt like I was trying so hard and only running into the same problem over and over again.  My body was so tired.  While working through this course of antibiotics, Tom had a "come to Jesus" moment with me.  I was constantly, every single day of Gavin's life, thinking and worrying about my body.  That, on top of post-partum hormones was really wearing on me.  He really wanted me to stop breastfeeding.  I really, really didn't want to do it.  It took a lot of talking, a lot of crying, and a lot of convincing, but I finally came to the decision to stop.  Let me tell you this was the hardest decision of my life.  Not kidding.  I had so much guilt about stopping, felt like a failure, had to deal with telling others including some who though didn't say it outright, gave judgmental glances when I told them I was going to stop nursing.  I had to acknowledge the fact that I couldn't be a good mom while nursing in my conditions.  My doctor also had a mini "come to Jesus" moment with me too, acknowledging that it was very lucky that the mastitis would come back again, which I was terrified of.  Being worried and anxious all day every day was causing me to be preoccupied and not able to enjoy my time with Gavin.

Here came the tedious and tricky part.  Because I was making SO much milk (at my peak I was making 70 ounces a day which my lactation consultant said was about 3 times what a normal woman makes and was the most she had ever seen a woman make with only one baby--not multiples), I had to move forward very carefully.  I spoke with my lactation consultant and did a lot of research on my own.  I met with my doctor and we came up with a plan to actually go on an antibiotic for a little over a month while weaning and to do a very slow weaning process to try to prevent getting mastitis again.  We learned from my previous mastitis experiences that each time I got mastitis, it only caused my milk supply to go up because of how often I needed to nurse to cure the infection.

Basically what we devised was a 7 week nursing taper.  I stopped nursing completely and instead just pumped.  I started with 7 times a day.  Because of how much milk I was making it took me 45 minutes for each pumping session to empty all my milk.  Yep this was a lot of hours a day I was pumping.  I did this all through the night as well.  At 8 weeks old Gavin was sleeping through the night and I was still waking up 3 times a night to pump.  Every 4 days I cut one of those pumping's in half, only pumping half as much milk as I normally did.  Then 4 days after that I skipped the pumping entirely.  I kept going with this schedule and once I had cut a few pumping's out, I spread the time out between pumping's further.  Basically this entire time I was dealing with engorgement and constant pain from the pressure from all the milk I was holding.  I was discouraged as other women I had talked to said it took them 3 days to wean and I had to deal with 7 weeks of it.  I was bitter and so sad about it all.  What I also started to notice was not what was supposed to happen....which is that the less I pump the more my milk supply should go DOWN.  But no, not my wacky body...my milk supply was going UP!  So frustrating.

With my lactation consultant, we then decided to try EVERY other trick in the book for decreasing my milk supply.  Many of these tips were more or less old wives' tales but I was desperate.  I tried wearing multiple sports bras to try to squelch the milk supply.  I put ice packs on my chest after each pumping session to try to again, stop the milk from coming back.  I tried placing cold cabbage leaves on my chest after pumping, again for the same purpose.  I then tried taking Benadryl multiple times a day which is also supposed to decrease milk supply.  I also drank cups and cups a day of peppermint tea each day which again, supposed to decrease milk supply.  Nothing was helping.  Luckily, I was able to continue the weaning schedule and hadn't gotten mastitis again.  I did have one hiccup in the weaning process when I was about halfway done with the weaning I was pumping and started pumping blood...a whole ounce of blood.  It was gross and totally freaked me out.  Call to my nurseline again and I got another reaction like "oh my, that should definitely not be happening".  Back to the doctor's office and my doctor said she had never had someone experience this and went and did a pole with some of her other colleagues.  Basically they couldn't determine why this had happened but nothing they could find told them this was specifically cause for concern.  I was told to keep pumping and continuing weaning but to come back if it happened again.  Luckily me for it didn't happen again.  So back to weaning...it wasn't until I was down to 2 pumpings per day that my milk supply FINALLY started to decrease.  I was up to pumping 28 ounces in one pumping at that time, though.  Yes this is an insane amount of milk and you can only imaging how uncomfortably painful this was.  When I was finally done pumping all together, it took a full 10 days for my engorgement to go away.

Now what I can say is that when I was finally done weaning, I for the first time in 4 months (which is how old Gavin was when I was fully weaned) I felt relief and no more worry.  I was so glad to be done with nursing even though I still had a ton of guilt about it.  The one positive that came of my breastfeeding problems was that because I made so much milk, I had been able to save all of the extra milk Gavin wasn't able to drink.  We had so much milk, in fact, that we had to buy a separate chest freezer to store it all (we're talking about 1800 ounces total).  With this, Gavin had breastmilk until he was 6 months old and that, in my opinion, isn't too shabby.  I was proud that I was confident that I had literally tried everything I could to try to make breastfeeding work.  It just didn't for me.  I was also lucky to have an extremely supportive spouse who dealt with helping me through this whole process.  

So to copy my husband who likes to write anecdotal comments to his "future Tom", here is my list of tips to "future Jackie" if I ever have another child.  Because I will try breastfeeding again.  Despite all of the trauma I went through the first time around.  But here are things that I will do next time and a list of things I will NOT do next time:
-Do NOT buy nursing bras with underwires in them (I didn't know this)...they can instigate plugged milk ducts
-Do NOT use nipple shields unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, and even then try something else
-Do NOT pump at all until your milk supply is well established
-DO meet face to face with a lactation consultant as often as possible in the early weeks of nursing
-DO be on the lookout for plugged ducts and intervene as quickly as possible to eliminate them
-DO take Lecithin supplements to help ward off plugged ducts

When I became a mama, most of my closest friends hadn't yet entered this journey so I did feel alone with a lot of this.  I hope, though, that I can help others who have had issues and help them know there is a way through the hardest of the journey.