My Hands are full.

I haven't written a blog in 20 days! That's probably the longest I've gone without writing a blog. At the moment Levi is sitting on my lap as I write this. He can hold up his head now - he's a little wobbly, but he still does a great job. Every once in a while I have to stop typing to adjust him because he'll slump over too far. It's funny. He also coos and smiles. So cute.

Tomorrow the baby will be 2 and a half months old...or 10 weeks - whichever you would like to call it. I'm not going to lie. I've had my hands full with him and these last two months have been so hard. Levi is a strong willed, fussy child. At his two month check up, the pediatrician wrote on her notes "difficult temperament". I just had to laugh - because it's so true. On top of the fact that he's so strong willed, he's also had his issues. He's struggled with breast feeding for quite a while. I've gone back and forth between the pediatrician and lactation consultant several times. I think that this week we have finally figured out his issue - Levi's stomach cannot handle dairy products. I've been on a strict no dairy diet for several days, and Levi has been doing so much better and so much happier while he eats and afterwards . Such a relief. I'm still not completely sure that dairy is his issue, but I think it is...I'll have a better idea by the end of next week.

Even though we've made a lot of headway on his feeding issues, I'm still not out of the woods yet. Levi is a TERRIBLE napper. Like the worst EVER! I spend about 2/3 of my day fighting with him to get him to take a nap! I've read and read and read about causes of napping problems, but the biggest issue is that he just doesn't want to take a nap - no matter what I try. Some methods work for a while, but in the end, they stop being effective. Sometimes, depending on his mood, when I try to sooth him by stroking his forehead, he'll turn away, and move his head back and forth, so I can't calm him down. (How in the world can a child so young have such a strong opinion??) It's really funny, but not when he's doing it. I've tried every technique in the book. Some of them work on him sometimes, but nothing really works consistently. Yesterday I tried putting one of his hats down over his eyes so he couldn't look around, but he was able to move his head back and forth until he could see again. Little stinker. The thing that works the best is putting him in the swing and covering the whole swing with a blanket...but I can't let him sleep in there all the time. What am I going to do when he gets too big for the swing?? So I have reached the point to where I have decided to stop fighting him on this issue. The pediatrician said to not worry about it too much because he gets enough sleep at night. (He does take naps during the day, but they are short - 45 to 60 minutes).

One more confession - secretly I feel jealous of first-time moms who have calm, easy-going, laid back babies and I hope that their next child will be the complete opposite! Ha ha. That's so mean. But it's true. (I apologize in advance to all who fit in this category if I have offended you.)


One month old. He's really not as red as he looks in the picture.


Sitting in his jumperoo that he is waaaay to little for. The thing swallows him.


Crossing his eyes is his best trick. Ninja skills.