Where does the time go?

Alex turned 3 months old this week. 3 months!  When Andrew & Carson were this age, I was heading back to work one or two days a week.  So thankful that I don't have to do that right now.

Alex is growing and changing so much.  He blesses us with his smiles, coos, and giggles.  He also blesses me with sleeping through the night!  We are talking 12 hours here!  He usually goes to sleep between 7-8 and wakes up sometime between 6:30-8.  Unbelievable!  Andrew and Carson did not sleep that will til much, much later!

He is having some issues, mainly GI related.  I am eliminating foods from my diet.  I will be honest, I am feeling a bit frustrated with the many foods I have eliminated and he doesn't seem to be getting much better.  Since the end of June, I feel like each week I come up with some new theory as to what is going on with him.  None of these theories have solved his issues, at least not completely.  The foods I no longer eat are dairy & any milk proteins, soy, eggs, all nuts, corn and wheat.  I do not know for sure that he is intolerant/sensitive to any of these for sure but have suspicions about some.  Others, like nuts and eggs, I have cut out simply because I do not eat that many of them anyways, they are on the high allergy list, and that is one less thing I have to wonder about.  It sure would be nice to eat an egg or have some peanut butter now!  At one point I thought I might have a fore milk/hind milk imbalance (at the risk of sounding like a dairy cow, I won't go into all that, but if you are curious you can read more about that here.)  He was on Zantac for a little over a month, which initially seemed to help but then he was back to spitting up a lot again.  Later I read (info on the Internet has been my friend recently) that liquid Zantac and lots of other medications (including my multivitamin and Alex's) contain corn.  So if he truly is having an intolerance to corn, he shouldn't be on this!  Aauugghh!   I did have him to the Dr. almost 2 weeks ago now.  Alex is still gaining weight but his growth does seem to have slowed down.  And his stool did test positive for blood.  The Dr. told me he has allergic colitis. 

Well, I could go on and on about Alex's symptoms and what I have wondered might be causing it, but on to the real reason you are here.... PICTURES!

Here he is on July 13th, all smiles.

I recently got the baby toys out of storage.  At this point, Andrew & Carson are much more into the baby toys than Alex is.  Maybe in a few weeks he will enjoy them more.

 These two pictures were taken on July 20th.

July 21st.  Alex never really liked a pacifier.  He would kind of gum/chew it or gag on it.  Well he has now found his thumb and to see him suck it is really quite cute!  (I might not think it is so cute when he is 4 or 5 and still sucking it.)  He usually only sucks it right before going to sleep.  (He still sleeps in his bouncy seat, I'm a bit hesitant to lay him down with all the reflux he has) And since now sucking his thumb, he will sometimes take a pacifier.  He doesn't it love the pacifier like his older brothers did though.  He also will not take a bottle.  I was hoping to go see Cinderella with Andrew & Carson when a community group performed it and have Alex stay home with Chad, but Alex wouldn't do it.  So Chad got to go see the musical with the boys.

 I no longer bundle him so tightly in his swaddling blanket so he can get to his thumb.  I actually just leave his left arm out of the blanket.

And here are a few pictures taken on August 3rd, a day after turning 3 months.  Oops!  He is already enjoying the play mats a bit more.

 And first time in the Bumbo seat.  I think it is a hit!