Snoqualmie Falls

I forgot about these pictures when I published the post from when my family visited. On their last day here, we got out and about and did some shopping and also stopped at Snoqualmie falls. Sadly by this point Owen was OVER IT as we'd been shopping for a few hours and I interuppted his snack to walk to the falls. So most of these pictures involve me looking at him to calm him down or him screaming. Oh well!

Month 1: Dear Owen,

(note all pictures but the first two are courtesy of the amazing Tara of Red Thread Images).

Wow, it's already been a month, little man. It's simultaneously unbelievable how fast it's gone by and on the other hand, some moments have seemed to go on excruciatingly slow (you know, those moments when you just SCREAAAM like someone has sawed off your toes one by one and there is absolutely nothing we can do to save the toes. Yeah, those are the slow moments). We are lucky in that you are fairly easy to calm down and we've only had two nights were it was tempting to pull a Michael Jackson move and dangle you out the window to see if you'd stop the yelling. KIDDING. We'd never do that. But don't test your luck.

Speaking of screams, you were not happy to take your one month photo with Sam the moose. It was cranky morning and your mean mom made you pose for unwanted pictures.

The epitome of screaming! I almost think that your screams were too loud for even you as it looks here as if you were covering your ears.

By the way, can we talk for a second about your impeccable timing? Are you just a little show stealer? You HAD to come 10 minutes into our wedding anniversary. I think you planned this all along. And I think we are going to love you for the way you just bust in to life as if to say, "Here I am, nothing else matters!" And it's true, nothing else matters. Sharing our anniversary with your birthday makes August 19th even more special than it already was. You've added a missing piece to your dad and my relationship. You've enhanced it and you've made it stronger and every year as we reflect on our relationship, we'll also celebrate the day of your birth and how special and intertwined we all are.

We've spent the past month just looking at you, poring over the details of your body, wondering about who you look like and what you will be when you grow up. I remember I was in tears a few days in because I didn't want you to grow up. I wanted you to stay that tiny infant babe forever and did not want those moments to pass. But the more they passed, the more intrigued I became because I saw the changes in you. I saw you growing and becoming more alert and aware of your surroundings. I saw you start to interact with us and while I miss my tiny newborn baby, I am loving watching you grow and get excited for each new step you take, which seems to happen almost daily, right before our eyes.

You slept a lot your first week, well, minus the second night where you practiced using your lungs all night. I'm hoping you continue to be a rather good sleeper but we'll see how that goes as you seem to have regressed from that first week. It's as if there is too much to see and do now that you're in the world to bother with sleep. I had no concept of what it should be like but I do know I wouldn't complain if you wanted to start sleeping more consistently at night. I'd even be fine with 6 hours straight!

You love your poppy so much. You don't smile or coo or really interact much yet but it's obvious how much you love him. He is the one person that can pick you up and you just melt into him, as if his chest is the only chest that matters. He will always protect you and love you and keep you warm. I have a feeling that he will also wrestle with you and give you hell once you are old enough to roll around with him. I also have a feeling that he will be the first person to elicit huge belly laughs from you. He is going to be your hero. I have seen your pops as a father before and that is one of the reasons I fell in love with him but if it's possible, I've fallen even more in love with him watching him with you, our child. He is so gentle, loving, and at ease with you and he helps me with these things too.  God knows there have been times where your dad is the only person that has saved me from an emotional breakdown (don't let us lie to you in the future and tell you having a baby is easy!) I think your dad is tired, though. Again, with the sleep thing...come on turtle, 6 hours!

Regardless of your erratic sleep schedule, we are so enamoured by you... by your giant big toes, big hands, red hair, big blue eyes, little squawky baby noises, funny faces you make at us. We have spent hours talking about what traits come from who. The red hair is a little mysterious, but even more mysterious is the fact that towards the end of the month, the top part of it started to fall out. By the end of your first month, you looked like a balding old man who could possibly model in a toupee commercial. You also grew SO much in just weeks, probably much in part to the fact that you eat like a horse. You went from a tall and skinny little peanut at birth, 8 pounds, 21.5 inches to an even bigger tall and skinny peanut at 9 pounds, 22.5 inches at your 3 week appointment (putting you in 95% for height and 25% for weight- tall and skinny).

You make us laugh multiple times a day. You don't know it yet but you're a pretty funny boy. I have never seen so many expressions from such a small baby but in your own way, it's how you communicate with us.

As a result of your already prevalent personality, there is never a day that goes by that we don't look at each other and thank each other for the little blessing that you are to us. (Is this getting too sappy? Are you makimg a face? Well, get used to it, I guess that's what moms are for).

You aren't really focusing or tracking anything yet but when your eyes are open you look very thoughtful and wise. I wonder what is going on in that brain of yours...

...sometimes I'm sure you're wondering who these crazy people are who are talking to you and playing with you all day long.

Did I mention you HATE having your diaper changed? HATE IT. You scream like there's no tomorrow. I'm pretty sure that our neighbors might call the cops on us and we'll have to tell them, "I'm sorry officer, I was just changing a poopy diaper...it only SOUNDED like child abuse." Luckily, you do love baths, boobies and being held so if having your diaper changed is the one thing you can't tolerate, I'd say we are in pretty good shape.

You were quite the champ for your newborn pictures and we put you in ridiculous outfits and positions to capture your first few days of life. You modeled your dad's preemie hat and an afghan that my grandma made me without complaint. It made for some great pictures:

We were also able to have your brothers meet you for the first time. I can't wait until you are old enough to run around and play with them. You are going to love them just as much as you love your pops and I have a feeling they will always have a little tag a long at their sides. You will want to do everything that they do.

It's pretty special to add you to our family because you feel like the link that combines us all. We were a family before but with you, we are even more of a complete family.

Every day I look at you, little O-e-o and I am somewhat astounded that you've made it another day under my care. I find it to be a small miracle that you are alive and not just alive, but thriving. I worried a lot about not knowing what I was doing in the last weeks of pregnancy and really, the truth is, I am IGNORANT, Owen. I mean totally ignorant. I have no idea what I'm doing and don't tell anyone I told you that...we'll just all pretend like I have a clue. But really? I'm clueless. I had to realize (quickly, and with a gentle reminder from your pops) that you had a floppy neck and I had to support it. I had never changed one diaper until you came along. Not one. I'm getting pretty good at it now although it took me a week or so to remember to tuck your little penis down so that I didn't get peed on (and trust me, I got peed on more times than I can count this month... for the most part due to diaper failures on my part). I'm pretty sure that the "mother's instinct" was a bit lost on me because I really have been in trial and error mode this past month to figure out how to be your mom- what you need and what you don't need, what to do and what not to do. Some things have been natural so maybe I do have SOME mom instinct but some things have just been a learning process. I have forgotten your diaper bag a zillion times (including one long trip to Leavenworth) but have now after a month gotten to the point where it's clicked that, oh, hey, I have a baby, MIGHT. NEED. SUPPLIES. We've also gone through the whole boobie fail experience together where my boobie blew up in to a nasty all out infection and then abscess. You were truly amazing through it all though- you continued to nurse on that breast without complaint and you tolerated the antibiotics reasonably well (now if you could please stop having green poops so I could eat something different than rice, turkey and sweet potatoes, I would love it!) This whole boob experience pretty much dominated the last couple of weeks of your first month in dealing with it and in being in more pain than I thought imaginable. Many people told me to quit breast feeding altogether but I fought for it... let this be a lesson to you- I promise to ALWAYS fight for what I believe is good for you. 

Regardless of the fact that I have not one clue what I'm doing as a mom, I'm learning... with you. You've made me a mother and that right there is the biggest and best gift you could ever give to me. The weight of just what that means stops me in my tracks sometimes. The one thing that means to me, and will always mean to me, is that I love you more than you'll ever know, than I ever even fathomed I could, and somehow it's only getting stronger every day. And really, I think that one fact right there is all that either of us really NEEDS to know in all of this....the rest we'll figure out as we go along this journey together.  

Love,
your tired but happy mom

Return to running

One of the benefits of having my parents in town was that I had babysitters whenever I wanted! So, I took full advantage of it, especially one day when I decided that I wanted to make my official return to running. I left the baby with my parents and I headed out for a long run. Long being a flexible word here as "long" was not really long as in my past running days. Long was really a short run in my pre-pregnancy days but doing 4 miles 5 weeks post partum seemed like quite the haul.

So, 4 miles plus 2 miles walking and I was SORE. It felt amazing though and I feel like it was my first "official" run in my return to running post-baby.

TMI alert: only negative was that as a result of having a natural vaginal delivery I am slightly incontinent when I run...(WHAT IN THE WORLD?! I KNOW) I'm hoping this eventually gets better and everything down there tightens up more...fingers crossed.

Meeting the family.

Last week my parents and brother flew in to town for a long weekend. It was so great to have the extra help with Owen and he got spoiled by all of the extra attention especially since the grandparents were not mean like mom and let him sleep all day long. I also co-hosted a baby shower for my friend Stacie on Saturday which seemed like no problem at the time when I volunteered to do it but as it got closer, I realized that had my mom not been here to help I would have been absolutely SCREWED.  The shower and her trip did not overlap intentionally but thank goodness there was an overlap as I was responsible for all the food and getting this done with a one month old just would not have happened if I was doing it on my own. My mom totally saved my butt. My parents also helped us out around the house which was awesome!

A few pictures from the trip (I don't have the majority but here are a few that I took):  

The boobie edition.

Wow, my poor blog has been overtaken by posts about babies and baby related topics. Does this make me a mommy blogger? God help me. Another in a series of "what has my life become comments"...worth it of course but wow how quickly things can change!

So, two words about breastfeeding?

UTTER HELL.

I DISLIKE BREASTFEEDING.

Ok, that was 5 words. But seriously? AWFUL. 6 words. And I'm sure I could add more... Now before I get a bunch of hate mail because "Oh my god, breast is best and you are a terrible person and blah blah blah, I love breastfeeding" (shoot me) let me just SAY. I LOVE the aspect where I get to bond with my son, where I am the person keeping him alive and nourishing him and it is amazing in all regards in that respect.

BUT. I am just slightly jaded right now.

I have never felt such pain in my LIFE. Part of the issue was that I was just clueless. CLUELESS. I thought breast feeding should be easy. You just attach the kid and go, right? Ha. Ha. Ha. Freaking lactation consultants (and moms) all over the world are laughing at me. WHO THE HELL FREAKING KNEW that breastfeeding was so damn complicated? From the latch to the letdown to the various ailments that can occur? OH MY WORD, was I ever clueless.

My problems started when my right nipple decided to crack open and bleed about 4 days in. Right around when my milk came in. But, I talked with consultants who said that this was normal and it would toughen up and heal as long as I used nipple butter (CHECK, I could probably be a majority investor in all freaking nipple butter companies at this point...) Then when nipple butter did not help the cracking and it looked like my nipple was the grand canyon with a crater in the middle, I moved on to St John's wort... supposedly the "miracle" relief for cracked nipples. I would like to slap St. John for lying.

And let me just say: my kid has a great bottom lip (apparently important) and latches well (also important)... but for those first two weeks? DOES NOT MATTER ONE BIT because you are still yelling four letter words every time the latch happens. My feet would drip sweat, it hurt so bad. And after I started talking about this with girlfriends I found out this was normal. Are you KIDDING me? Why did I just hear about this now?! And please also pass the bourbon because it would have been much better had I done a shot before each feeding... at least for me.

So, the kid has a good latch, eats well, is gaining weight (meaning my supply is great... there's also a thing as an imbalanced supply... again, WHO KNEW... luckily, not one of my problems which is good because I have so many other problems covered...), but my nipple is oozing and has a crater in it and I start to feel a pain deep in my breast. I didn't think much of it because why would I? My nipple makes if feel like I am being stabbed repeatedly so it's probably just transferring pain. Right?

HA.

WRONG. Again with the things I didn't know then but I know now...

A few days later, I start to develop a redness around my nipple. Of course, I consult my dear friend google who after telling me that I might possible have a rare form of breast cancer (isn't that always the first result on google? You *might* die...), I thought I had thrush. After pondering on just what in the holy hell thrush was for about a day, I finally figured out that thrush is basically a yeast infection of the breast that is caused by cracked nipples. Great, I thought... I probably have thrush. Thrush is painful, red, and can pass to the baby in the form of white spots in his/her mouth. Looked in Owen's mouth and yep, white spots. Great, we have thrush... well, at least I have an answer as to why it's been hurting so bad.  

So, I consulted a natural website I like who recommended grapefruit seed extract for treating thrush. At around 9pm one night, we put Owen in the car and went to the natural foods store for a bottle and (hopefully) some relief for my poor boobie. It helped a bit... luckily a few days later, we were seeing the naturopathic doctor for Owen's two week well check so I showed her my boob then and had her check Owen for thrush. NOT THRUSH. His white spots are normal calcium deposits and not thrush at all. Great. So I probably just have a boobie problem like a clogged duct, which is weird because the redness is right next to my nipple and typically a clogged duct is more out in the, you know, duct part... not right by the nipple (but then again nothing about my breastfeeding experience thus far has been normal so, again, should have known). She sent me home with various ideas on what to do for a clogged duct, all of which I had been doing anyway as treatment is similar for thrush. Heat and massage the affected area and make sure to continue nursing on that side as it will pull out the clog.

Again... HILARIOUS...So, you're telling me to hook my kid up to my nipple with a hole in it, have him ingest blood, make me scream 4 letter words upon attachment, then MASSAGE the area where it hurts while he is nursing my poor wounded nipple? How is this not some rare form of torture? Oh, yeah, and before all this, heat up the area to as hot as I can handle with a moist compress. At this point? I just want to cut off my own boob. Would be less painful. But, I did all of this. Repeatedly. A million times a day.  

We saw the midwives a few days later and they asked if I was having any troubles. I think this was the appointment to talk about emotional troubles but I don't have any of those unless you count wanting to chop off my own boob as some form of post partum depression. We spent the better part of our time together on my boob issue and I showed them my boob (I'd already consulted them a few times on the nipple) but once they saw it they really freaked out. NO KIDDING! It looked scary. Just use your imagination. They gave me a nipple shield (OHMYGOSH why had I not heard of this either?? AMAZING) as well as some homeopathic treatment that should help with the inflammation. Um yeah... it didn't. 

A couple days later, it was Owen's three week check up with the naturopath and I made an appointment with her too to figure out my boob. So, to complicate matters more, Owen's poop has been a little greenish tinted and mucus-y meaning that he is allergic to something in my diet. What? We don't know. So we are talking about this and she looked at Owen's poop and put me on a strict elimination diet... basically nothing but rice, turkey, sweet potatoes and oatmeal...all "safe" foods until we can get his poop more normal and then start adding foods back in to make sure they are safe. Great, I can do that for 4-5 days, no problem. She then looked at and felt my boob and agreed with me in that it was still clogged and to just keep doing what I'm doing but add in castor oil packs as treatment. Basically soak castor oil in flannel, heat it and it draws out the clog. Ok, I'll add that to the list of torture to my boob that I perform 400 million times a day. 

So I do that for a day or so along with the elimination diet for Owen's tummy. Good news? His poop normalizes. WIN (finally!) Bad news? On Saturday of that week, I felt like CRAP. Like flu-ish, I took a nap and just felt beyond normal "I've been not sleeping due to the baby" crap. Justin felt me and said, "it really seems like you have a fever" so we took my temperature. 101 degrees. Shit. An hour later? 102.5 degrees. And an hour after that? Tipping at 103 degrees. I called the naturopath at around 102 degrees and said that I definitely have mastitis (what a clogged duct can turn in to if it does not get unclogged) as mastitis is characterized by all of the symptoms I had previously with the telltale sign of a fever. She tells me that she is going to call in a prescription for antibiotics but if I want to try to tough it out until my fever breaks naturally I can try that. Bad news in this is that if I start antibiotics the antibiotics will start us back at ground zero in regards to Owen's tummy. BAH!!

A few hours later, I'd gotten the prescription and just decided to go for it. I knew it was not getting better and the fever was just going up and up. That night the fever broke which was good news, bad news for our bed as I sweat more than if I'd just run 15 miles. Gross. We continued on in the week and the pain was not better. I simultaneously wanted to schedule a masectomy or just chop off my own boob all at once. It was not pleasant. On Thursday of that week, I talked to the naturopath and we agreed that I'd wait it out through the weekend to see if the antibiotics started to work. On Friday I decided there was no way it was getting better. So after meeting a girlfriend in the morning and putting a call in to the naturopath, I was referred to a boobie doctor and was fit in for a little procedure. They did an ultrasound first to determine what was going on. Basically the clogged duct turned mastitis had turned into an abscess...the worst of the worst. It only happens to about 3% of people who get clogged ducts or mastitis...lucky me!

After the ultrasound determined that I did indeed have an abscess, the doctor performed the procedure to drain it which basically entails putting a needle about a pea width into my boobie, numbing it with lidocain, then using the ultrasound to guide them to the abscess and extracting the junk (pus) in the abscess pocket. Yes, it is indeed as disgusting as it sounds. Then they send what they extract to a lab to determine what kind of bacteria it is and what it is sensitive to- meaning, what antibiotics it will respond to.

A couple of pictures from the day of the little procedure- thank god Justin was there to entertain Owen as we were there for 3 hours!

And the doctor gave me a flower for enduring it all...

At the end of the day... Justin was wiped, Owen was crashed.

A week or so later, it was determined that it was a staph bacteria and most likely was the result of my wounded open nipple. Awesome! Good news was that it was sensitive to the antibiotic I was on so it *should* work to break up the lump and make the infection go away. Bad news was that I had to increase the dosage because it had not gotten much better which meant more tummy troubles for Owen.

So, where does that leave us now? Well, I wrapped up the 2 weeks worth of antibiotics a couple of days ago but the lump is still there. So now we are in a holding game of see if it goes away or not. If not, I'll probably have to have it drained again. So as it stands now the boobie saga is still a little open but hopefully we are on the road to recovery. I would say HANDS DOWN breast feeding has been the hardest part of this whole experience, no questions asked. I'd rather be pregnant for the rest of my life and that's saying something. Anything that could have happened to my poor little boobie really did so I am now a walking vast of knowledge for all things breast feeding. I guess that is good but I think I would have preferred to have not lived through it! I'm hoping that once we are through this hurdle I develop more of a love relationship with breastfeeding... we shall see.

Owen David Week #4

This will probably be the last of the weekly Owen posts as I'll start to post randomly as well as a monthly post of his little life (month 1 to follow sometime... you know, as much as I like to think I'll have time for some things, sometimes it just doesn't happen. It is so bizarre. It's the first time in my life that I've had to realize that my to-do lists don't mean a damn thing). A few pictures from week 4...not many as we continued with the boobie drama (another post coming soon!)

Hanging out with pops in the sun...

We see this face a lot. Sadly it doesn't always mean sleep....

Being cute and headed to the gym.

We introduced a pacifier to him this week as he seems to do a lot of "comfort sucking" on the boob and well, my poor nipples needed a break as did Justin's pinky. Unfortunately Owen is not a huge fan of the pacifier....occasionally like above he'll tolerate it.

Mostly it ends up like this...just a fixture.

Hey I just typed this whole post with one hand...not bad, not bad.

B.A.B (Body after baby) Month 1

Well, Owen is 4 weeks old and a few days away from officially being a month old so that means that I had to pull out the old swim suit and take a few pictures of myself to track what my body has done over the course of this last month as it attempts to get back to "normal"... whatever normal means now. I really have no "goal" per se in the pursuit of my body after having the baby other than I just want to have my prior level of fitness back.  I want to go out and run 7, 10, 15 miles and not have an issue. I want to be able to lift weights with ease a few times a week (and baby Owen mocks me... HA, like you'll have time, Mom...) I want to be able to wake up on a weekend morning and head out to the mountains for a hike and pound it out without a second thought (again, commence baby mocking...). While fitting in to my "skinny" jeans is a definite plus, I don't think that's going to be an issue. I think I could sit on the couch for the next 6 months and achieve that, no problem from breast feeding alone. But, I want to be fit and strong like I was prior to popping out this kid. I maintained a lot of my muscle mass throughout pregnancy, now it's time to continue on this fit journey. So, here we go.

This month I can't really say that I did a lot in terms of fitness (feeding and changing diapers? Definitely). The first week I did absolutely nothing as I was recovering from labor and delivery (my poor lady parts...) but by the end of the second week I was back at the gym for an easy workout. It felt weird. The third week workouts resumed to almost the pre-pregnancy state which meant oh HELL, my poor little abs that haven't been used in MONTHS. I did push ups during one workout this week and thought I was going to die... not from the arm/chest use but from the fact that I literally have zero abs right now. The fourth week I ran my first mile post pregnancy. It was weird. Totally weird. It felt somewhat like my insides were going to fall out and I think it was almost too soon for running. So, gym workouts commenced and a bit of walking but running is going to wait for just a little bit longer. 

All of that being said, it sounds like a lot but mostly I just took it easy this month. Most of my time was spent in what Justin calls "survival mode." Making sure I eat and sleep and occasionally remember to pee since my sole job has been feeding and taking care of Owen. It's really all I cared about anyway and it was a much needed "rest" time both mentally as I was exhausted and physically as my body still needed time to do it's thing to recover from pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Oh yeah, and that god awful thing called a BOOBIE INFECTION (aka officially, mastitis) sort of made me just want to curl up in a ball and will myself not to die... But we're here, at the end of month one and we made it! (in more ways than one...)

Pictures- week one post delivery is one the left, month 1 post delivery is on the right:  

 

Measurements:

Week 1 post partum

Belly- 33 inches (-8.5 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)

Waist- 36 inches (-4 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)

Hips- 39.5 inches (-.5 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)

Thigh- 19.75 inches (-1.25 lost from week 38 of pregnancy)

Boob - 37 inches (1 gain from week 38 of pregnancy)

Bicep- 10 inches (0 change from week 38 of pregnancy)

 

Month 1 post partum

Belly- 32 inches (-1)

Waist- 34.75 (-1.25)

Hips- 37.75 (-1.75)

Thigh- 19 (-.75)

Boob- 36.5 (-.5)

Bicep- 10 (0 change)

 

Weight, week 1 post baby- 131.5 (-20 pounds lost from week 38 of pregnancy)

Weight, month 1 post partum- 129.4 (-2.10)

 

The results are about what I would expect to see for the next several months going forward which is why I wanted to track this on my blog... not really for anyone else but for me to see that there are actually changes going on. When you go through day to day, it sometimes doesn't feel like it but gradually you get there.

Owen David Week #3

Week #3 was another week full of adventures. Pictures, as always, tell the story best:

Owen got his first bath... I know, I know who are we, the parents that don't give their kid a bath until they are 2 weeks and a day old. Whatever, don't judge. We were worried that he would freak out and scream and hate it but he LOVED it. It was pretty cute.

He did not, however, like the drying off part.

Sleep was again, hit or miss. He does thing where when we put him down he'll do a "fake out." He'll pretend to be asleep and then the second you put him down, NOPE. Awake. He still sleeps for the most part in 4-5 hour blocks at night although we still have one or two nights a week where we are awake ALL.NIGHT.

I tried him out on this little play gym one day... he was sort of intrigued but I think he's just learning to track and focus so it will be more of a hit in a few weeks.

We cuddled a lot... of course.

And went to the gym a few times. He loves the gym. He just looks around... I think he's fascinated by the movement and the noise. Works for me- I get a workout in!

We also spent a little time in the sun since it's been so gorgeous out here in Seattle. This kid LOVES the sun. I also went to work for a couple hours this week for a client meeting. Owen hung out with Justin and it sounds like everything went seamlessly. It was weird to be at work but I was glad I could go in for a little bit.

Another picture of Owen sunbathing... he was a little jaundiced so the sun helps with that.

One morning we were cuddling in bed and Owen was being especially cute...

Then he made this face and I left warmth on my legs...

Yep, that face was "Oops, I just peed out the top of my diaper all over both of us." SO MUCH PEE. Fail on pointing the little pee pee down in the diaper that morning.

Naptime during the day... I swear, what is it with kids? They just CRASH during the day to the point where nothing you can do will wake them up. It's incredible.

One more of him crashed out.

And at night during a grumpy time, I was doing things you know, like peeing, so Justin was giving him his finger before I nursed him. It was hilarious as we both knew he was grumpy and all of a sudden his middle finger was out as if to say, "Eff you, pops, that is NOT the boobie." Too adorable.

We are enjoying the time with the little guy and getting to know him even better... the only issues have been trying to get his tummy figured out. His poop is still a little green so something in my diet is pissing off his tummy. I went on pretty much an elimination diet to figure it out and his poop turned to the normal color pretty much immediately. The next step is to start adding foods back in to my diet and doing trial and error as to what doesn't work with him. Unfortunately, at the end of this week my right boobie pain imploded on me (more on that in another post) to the point where I had a 103 degree fever and a clear infection so I had to go on antibiotics which was a huge set back in the whole tummy issue thing. So, I'm basically on just the elimination diet until I'm done with the antibiotics. Fun! Other than that, Owen is getting more alert by the day and he has been a pretty good baby. Some days we are more tired than others but for the most part, we are doing well and are pretty infatuated with the new little guy.