We are back for now.

First I want to note that I am officially maxed out and what I am about to write may or may not make complete and total sense to everyone!! Austin is not our happy go lucky little man who sleeps great and is happy in between. That was fun while it lasted, but all good things can't last forever...or so I am told! At his 4 month appointment we visited with the doctor about him still having runny stools. I had eliminated milk (all forms of it, including taco seasoning) and it still wasn't cutting it. He was also starting to break out in a nasty, crusty rash on his head and scalp, so we knew that something else was going on. She told me to add milk back into my diet and wanted to run lab work. No blood though...something better :) I had to collect his runny stools and take it into the lab within an hour of him producing it. Assuming it was during lab hours. Let me just say that was probably one of the most disgusting things I have ever had to do! Well it only took three attempts and I finally got it into the lab within the allotted time frame...barely though. I had to wake the girls up, throw clothes on them and feed them breakfast in the car so that we could get it there. The result came back that he did in fact have a milk issue (mal-absorption to milk), but he doesn't have a digestive issue with soy.

We went back to eliminating milk and I started mixing his rice cereal with soy formula. I am not one of those women that make enough milk for my child and others...my body just doesn't do that I guess! Well, the rash got worse...way worse! So we decided that I should eliminate soy from my diet as well! That seamed to do the trick, the rash disappeared and his face and head look so much better. But that leaves me with a diet of absolutely no milk and no soy...FUN! There are worse things in life, so I just try to suck it up! It would be a great diet plan if I didn't have to feed Austin :) Thought my body had a hard time making enough milk before...now take a lot of foods that I usually eat out of my diet completely and see what happens. We are surviving...but just that, not thriving! I have definitely had to become more creative in what I eat and I cook a lot more things from scratch! He is still gaining just fine and that is what matters. He has slowed down considerably, but that is normal. He just acts like he is hungry all the time!

We did start real food last Friday and he LOVES green beans, too bad they have basically no nutritional value by themselves. I mix it with cereal and he can eat a ton of it! We will add a new food every 4th day. So far he has three foods...rice cereal, green beans, and oatmeal cereal. Next up will be peas, avocados, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, pears, peaches, bananas and so on. I am hoping that he will not have any major reactions to these foods and we can make it to a year without supplementing. I won't be able to use soy based formula's and we will have to trail and error that milk based ones if we have to go that route...pray that we don't! We do have to hold off on all other forms of dairy until he reaches a year. I know I started the girls on cheese and yogurt before a year, but hands off for him until a year.

We are working on him learning to put himself to sleep and I forgot how tough that is. We did it with the girls too and it takes about a week and then hopefully we will be good to go. The first two nights and days were tough, but I knew we had no other choice as I have been spending more time trying to get him to sleep than he was sleeping. He was waking up 2-3 times during the night and only taking three 30 minute naps during the day. That makes for one tired and grouchy momma and baby, a very messy house, and the girls wanting, "their nicer mom back!" I am updating during his cry it out sessions and I hope next week I will be finishing this up during one of his napping sessions!!! Hopefully soon we will all be sleeping better and good sleep starts the days off better!

Now that I have clarified my disclaimer, I will get on with the show and get to the stuff you all really care about...kids, fun times and pictures. I am going to have to back all the way up to the end of Jan and bring you you till now, so there will be a bunch of short posts with a ton of pictures and hopefully some good videos!!

The end of Jan, Grandpa Doug was finally done with harvest and able to make it down to see Austin for the first time and celebrate Christmas with his grandchildren. He also had a birthday coming up so we "celebrated" with a cake. He took the girls shopping for their Christmas present and everyone had a great time. The only regret was not taking our cameras. It was a little like shopping for prom dresses as Grandpa agreed to get them an Easter dress/dress for Blake and Laura's wedding that they were going to need. Grandpa and Brett stood outside the dressing room with Austin while I helped the girls try on dresses. Grandpa and Brett also picked out a few for them to try on and they must have good taste as the ones they ended up with were ones suggested by them...it really was fun to do and glad the guys had fun too! Plus the girls didn't need anymore toys as their room and toy area downstairs a total mess!

This is not a good picture as my camera does some weird things at times.

Once apon a time he did sleep good and could do it anywhere...hopefully we will be back to that soon!

We also had our fair share of sickness....he was sick 3 times this last winter and the rest of us at least that many times....and I wonder why the easy going, happy man that sleep great didn't last! Not really!

Up next Misty and Cole came to visit and our first trip back to Nebraska for my little brother's wedding shower. I have about 5 post coming, but don't promise they will all be coming soon...just as soon as possible!