Grandma's December visit

My mom and brother came down from Michigan on the 26th for 4 days. This was the first time she had seen Max in person since she left in Aug., when he was only about a week old. She was amazed by how much he has changed and how he is such a big boy! While grandma was here Scott and I took advantage of that by going shopping without Max and we even went and saw a movie! Grandma made a great babysitter! Max really like his uncle Daniel, one afternoon they played on the floor for about 45minutes and Max was just entranced!

Christmas...the many events

We had a total of 8 Christmas events this year. The first one was on the 19th(see previous post). Christmas continued on the 23rd with most of Scott's family heading up to Nashville to Scott's Aunt Glenda's house. We play dirty Santa here which is always fun!

On Christmas eve we hung out at our house then headed to Aunt Jackies for a night filled with the Christmas story(it starts at 7pm on TBS and runs over and over for the next 24 hours). More presents were opened and fun was had!


Christmas morning was at our house. Scott's dad and sister stayed the night Christmas eve and his mom and step dad came over in the morning. Scott's dad cooks a big Christmas breakfast and then we open presents. I am really torn over how we will do Christmas. Santa doesn't wrap presents in Scott's family so everything from Santa is just laying out so as Max gets older he will see everything all at once and can even sneak a peak before everyone gets up. Santa always wrapped for my family.....and wrapped everything including your stocking. It is easier for Santa not to wrap because he is so busy but makes me a little sad not to see Max's face light up over and over again as he unwraps his presents from Santa. Anyways Max was a really good boy and got a ton of great stuff!!



Christmas afternoon we head to Scott's Great Aunt's house for lunch.

Christmas night we go to Scott's mom house where we also celebrate with his step brothers. I didn't get any pics because we were all worn out at this point.

The day after Christmas my mom came to visit from Michigan. This was our last real Christmas event.

A few days later we had some of the kids over(just Madison Claire and Ryan could make it) and they exchanged gifts and played.

Whew are you exhausted?! We sure where! I can hardly imagine what this will be like next year when Max is running around!

and Christmas begins....

This past Sunday was Christmas with my dad. We all got together at Karyl's house for some yummy food(too bad I couldn't eat any of it) and presents. This was Max's 1st Christmas adventure and he did great. We opened his presents(of course) and pushed all the button's and he really seemed to like them. He was all about grabbing them :)

Last night Santa came to our neighborhood, so we bundled Max up and headed out to meet him. I think the concept is great, however it was not the real Santa but one of his helpers(I'm guessing about the age of 15). I think Max knew it wasn't the real Santa and he wanted to prove it by tugging on his beard ;)

The next few days are going to busy so look for a big Christmas post in the next week or so. Merry Christmas!!!

4mo Dr visit

Today Max and I went for his 4mo dr. visit. He is up to 13lbs and 10oz putting him between the 10th and 25th percentile. He is also 24.5 inches also putting him between the 10th and 25th percentile. His head is 42.5cm and is in the 75th percentile for that. Basically his is growing well and steady but is a tad smaller than the normal baby his age and he has a big ole head :) Dr B was happy with his growth.

Max's circumcision looks good. Still with a small adhesion but Dr B said it looks like it is loosening up so no trips to the urologist yet. Hopefully we will not have to have it redone!!

Max has had a few dry patches of skin, I have bad eczema and am thinking thats what he has. Anyways Dr. B thinks he does have a little eczema but all we are going to do is keep him lotioned up.

As for teething the Dr said unless the gums are real swollen or there is a tooth he does not guess on them teething. But he did agree that Max's symptoms indicate that his teeth are moving.

Max has met all the milestones up to this point. Our next appointment is in Feb for his 6mo and the milestone we will be looking for is sitting up by himself or close to it.

I explained to Dr B about all of Max's eating issues and he feels that the dairy free diet is doing more for his acid reflux then the Zantac but wants us to keep him on the Zantac. Dr B also wants me to play around with how much Max eats out of a bottle. Just keep giving him milk until he won't eat anymore. I have issues with that. First I usually only pump about 4oz. I pump after he eats and that milk is what I use to top off his bottles so he gets 4 1/2oz. If he eats 6oz out of a bottle then I will never have enough milk. Second if he get's 6oz out of a bottle and only 4 out of me he isn't going to want to nurse anymore. According to the breast feeding calculator with Max's weight now he should be eating 4.5-5oz. So to me he is eating what he needs but I'm a little worried because he is a tad small and no matter how much I try to produce more milk I am staying at about 4oz. Curious to my breast feeding friends....how much is your baby eating out of a bottle? Any tips or suggestions?

Oh and Dr B said we could start Max on cereal if we wanted but we are choosing to wait till 6mo to start him on solid food.

Busy social calender

Max has become a popular man in the birthday circuit. This past week we had 2 birthday party's to go to. This first one was for Madison Claire. This precious princess has been in our lives for 2 full years now and I can hardly believe it! Her mom and dad threw a great owl themed party in Eagleville. We found Max a owl shirt at old navy so he was all decked out in theme too. MCK got a ton of gifts and it was soooo funny watching her open them. Max even sat with big Al and just watched her open them for most of the time. She also practiced blowing out her candles so when the time came she was a pro! Amy(MCK's mom) made these super cool owl ornaments for everyone to have. Max's is already hanging on our tree. Happy birthday Madison Claire we love you!!!

The next day we headed over to the Bryants for Cohen's early 1st birthday party. You can read all about Cohen's miraculous entry to this world here. Instead of bringing Cohen and present his mom asked that we bring books and blankets to be donated to Baptist Hospitals NICU(GREAT IDEA!!). Anyways the party was packed! Santa and Mrs. Clause were even there! Max got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him everything he wanted for Christmas. Max even got to hang out with his friend Wyatt. All these birthday party's have really got us thinking and planning for Max's 1st birthday....I know we are crazy, but I am a planner :) We have already decided on a day and the theme. LOL

Sunday morning we had our first snow flurry's of the season(and Max's first flurry's ever!). I was so excited because we were getting Max's 4mo pictures taken that morning by Kate Crafton. We went outside for a few pictures and you can see the snow in the pics!!! Here is a link to view his 4mo pics. Password is Lacey.

We have managed to get up 3 trees this year. We got a new family tree(9 feet tall!!!!!), a tree in the dining room, and of course Scott's snoopy tree upstairs. We even have 3 pencil trees(our forest) and a fiber optic tree. Needless to say Max doesn't know where to look :)
Max and I go to the Dr next week for his 4mo check up. I'll try to post about all of his stats! I went to the thyroid DR this week and had some more blood work done and am having a ultrasound on my thyroid next week. The DR is checking for the cause of my hyperthyroidism. He did say my thyroid is enlarged and I have at least 1 nodule on it possibly 2. Treating my hyperthyroidism may be tricky because I am nursing and the medications used can harm Max so once we know for sure what is going on we will try to plan on how to treat it and still allow me to nurse.

Speaking of nursing all is GREAT!! Max still spits up a few times a day(only when he nurses not after eating out of a bottle???? very confusing) but is not in pain and is not fighting eating. We have even now been almost 48 hours without any shield use! I am almost ready to throw it away(Scott said we should wait a few more days).