I am SO happy to say that Waverly had her first tear-free bath today!!

I know some of your babies love baths, but ours never ever have. Wavy has been the closest, with having one or two where she didn’t cry immediately. Other than that, its taken a long, long time for our kids to appreciate the bath. Before you even ask, yes, we’ve tried the shower, too. They scream like you wouldn’t believe. Its awful. We’ve. Tried. Everything. They just hate the bath when they’re young, and sometimes when they’re older, too.

If you’ve been a LONG time reader, you might remember the struggle we had with Dekker. Bathing him with like a full contact sport. We tried absolutely everything, and we bathe him for a couple of years, holding him down like a rabid dog while he screamed for mercy. Those were some HARD years. The only thing that helped was age. So while I LOVE baths, my kids do not.

But today, while I can’t say she loved it, she definitely didn’t hate it!

What a relief! We usually end up just bathing her and pulling her out immediately, but instead, we did what so many parents get to do, and we chatted and I slowly poured water all over her and she cooed and splashed and it was just so awesome and normal. I loved it.

Let’s hope for many, many baths like this!!

I took a little break this afternoon. Brady finished his work around 11:00 and was home shortly before noon. We had a shot chat before I left. I didn’t put myself together more than clean clothes and deodorant, but it was fine. I wasn’t going anywhere that I felt I’d be judged for my top knot.

I went to get my nails done today! I admit, I was feeling a little unsure about it. My nail girl is on maternity leave, and I’m pretty loyal to her. Going elsewhere feels incorrect, somehow. But I went to the same spa, and saw another girl there. And she did a lovely job! I got me some beautiful nude nails for the month, nice and short, too. Exactly what I always want!

I kind of didn’t want to leave. I try not to delve too deep into all the drama, but we’re in a challenging stage in our home these days, and I’ve had a lot of moments where I just feel like my head is going to explode. Getting out for the afternoon was a much anticipated breath of fresh air! I wasn’t totally ready for it to end. As I was driving home, I thought of something I could go pick up, as it had been on our list for a while, but we keep forgetting. Aaand then I missed the turn. So I rather did an impulsive thing and turned in at Value Village. I have a few things I’m constantly on the hunt for, so when I’m in on my own, its a good opportunity to go do a quick look. And it was successful! About a half hour later, I came out having spent $15, with a shirt and sweatshirt for myself, and two hoodies for Waverly. Go me! I’d show you but they’re all in the wash, because stinky.

I’m now home with the fam, anticipating an evening with Brady and Jerilee. And also sweatpants. Real clothes are so overrated, am I right?

Spoiled punk that I am, I’m going out for most of the day on Saturday, too! And the next weekend! Goodness, I’m one lucky girl to have so many fun things to look forward to!

Ok. Here’s the thing. I’m not very good at keeping memory books for my kids. I have one for each kid, and I have some info in all of them. But I’m not as diligent as I could be. I’ve spent a decent chunk of time beating myself up about it, but not too long ago, I realized that this is our records. This is our memory book! So whether one day I go back and find all the little details of my kids milestones and put them in their books, or I give up and hope my kids just read these books and find the info themselves, it is recorded. Unfortunately, I didn’t start the blog until Dekker was around 10 months old, so I don’t have all of his first year on record. But he has the most in his memory book, so hopefully it all levels out 🙂

I’ve been doing monthly updates on Waverly, which I’m really enjoying. I almost feel like I should do a “Whats my Kid up to” post each month on the corresponding day they were born. Thoughts?

Anyway, because I’m doing monthly updates on Wavy, I tend to hang onto info abut milestones until the 2nd of the next month, but I also want to have the exact date on record, and in this case, I’m just too excited! Hahaha! Don’t judge me. Its a mom thing.

I mentioned on November 24 that Wavy had cut her first tooth. Now that tooth was like a teeny tiny bit poking out for a couple of days already, but when it really pushed through was when I counted it. It was out almost all the way across. On the 26th, she went to bed with most of that tooth poking through her little gums and woke up on the 27th with TWO teeth completely through!!

Was SO awesome! She felt SO good about herself, too. Not complaining at all!

She continues to chew away at her hands, happy as a clam. I wonder how many more are on their way out! Our kids tend to teethe in twos, and the first four are often pretty back to back. Give yourself a rest, Wavy girl! I know you’re a pretty top notch individual and all, but you do NOT have to be an overachiever at such a young age!!

I keep noticing these little things in our life that we wouldn’t have without Waverly. Some of them are really just about having a baby in the house. Others are more specific to her.

Wavy brings a high pitched celebration when she first wakes up in the morning and makes her grand entrance.

Wavy brings little diapers, and fills them with inoffensive things.

Wavy brings the BEST hair.

Wavy brings bottles that our older kids LOVE assembling. It is often an argument to see who gets to put them together at the island for me. The more the better! With the bottles comes the smell of her milk, which you may find off putting but I think smells like a newborn baby.

Wavy brings conversation, especially recently, as she yodels alongside us as we talk. She’s such a cute interruption distraction contribution.

Wavy brings a purple diaper bag and a Lillebaby carrier that has never once hurt my back.

Wavy brings the smallest white ankle socks I’ve ever seen.

Wavy brings drooly spit bubbles.

And my favorite thing…

Wavy brings pink dryer lint. I was absolutely beside myself when I first dried a load of her receiving blankets and cleaned out soft pink fuzz out of the lint trap.

Literally EVERYTHING about her is cute! If she weren’t here, our life would be so different. I couldn’t be more thankful!

Its not a secret that I don’t love winter, but its amazing what a good nights sleep will do! I felt pretty capable this morning upon waking up, and headed down to get the kids up at a reasonable time that didn’t leave me rushing them through breakfast. I got Dekker packed up and sent off to school, and got the dishes done while Solly finished eating the Rowan and Laela played. I sorted laundry and started it going. When I came up, I was greeted by this beautiful sight.

Laela has been paying attention over the last year or two, watching Dekker learn to read, and she has been really interested in it! We talked with her teacher the other day, and Laela said she wanted to start bringing books home to read that are in her reading level, not just library books for us to read to her, though of course we’ll keep doing that, too! Her teacher agreed, and Laela brought home some level A books the next day. And crushed them. That alone seems to have boosted her confidence. She spent a good chunk of the morning reading a book that is definitely out of her reading level, and while she had to ask a handful of times about different words, she never got discouraged, and she limped her way through that entire book!!! I was SO impressed! Once it was done, she requested a snuggle, so we did that too.

The little boys seemed a bit lost without her, lol! It was pretty cute!

Wavy has slept through our entire morning, which is both awesome, and inconvenient, haha! She’s sleeping through teething, which is ideal! But I also have a parcel waiting for me at the post office that I ordered three weeks ago and I want to go get it! I obviously can’t justify waking her for that :/ Merp. Self control, guys. I may have to exercise mine and wait until Brady gets home! *sobs internally*

I pulled out the laptop to get today’s blog up and Rowan was loaded with suggestions of what to blog about…

guitars
Christmas trees
robots
faces
buttons
mugs
stuffies

All solid options! But on mornings like this don’t require too many extra ideas. These kids make stories just by being here! Its been a cute day so far 🙂 Let’s hope it continues!

Christmas is ONE MONTH AWAY! While I had such high hopes to be done Christmas shopping by this point, I’m not, and thats ok. I have plans!

The tree is up! Its not decorated yet, but its up, so the rest will happen soon. At least the kids can get used to it in the meantime.

Hopefully I’ll order our Christmas cards today! The price is right (thank you, Black Friday) and the design looks good! We even figured out the message on the back, so its all good to go! They may not reach their destinations before Christmas, but I doubt we’ll be the only people who have that issue.

I have a Christmas shopping date this weekend, so I’ve spent a good chunk of this morning getting totally organized gift-wise. I have my list of who I’m buying for and what I want to get them. I’m hoping to streamline shopping day and get TONS done! I’m still a bit stumped for a couple of people, but I have time still. Time-ish. Not much. I always struggle with what to get my doctor (Though yes, I KNOW I don’t have to! I want to!) and this year I have two doctors to think about! Gah! What do you guys get for people who you really know nothing about in real life?

There is even talk of a girls trip with Jerilee to Edmonton! Because I could REALLY use Ikea…

In a lot of ways, I feel prepared for Christmas. And then in others, I’m so lost! I don’t actually have even half of the gifts I need. I haven’t baked. I don’t know when the school Christmas concert is. I don’t know where we’re going to be when. We haven’t replaced our Christmas lights that the hail destroyed. But this week feels like a solid kick off! Its less full than last week, and I’m determined to get organized and get rolling!

One month, folks! ONE MONTH!

Its been a really big work week. Brady has worked late every day this week, and he had to work a full day today. Usually work Saturdays are just for catching up, but this time around, it was an entire day in order to get a house done in time. Even though it should feel like an extension of a work week, I always have a hard time when he works weekends :/ I know, I’m spoiled. Lots of people work weekends. Its just not our usual.

Cher spend the day with me and the kids, to help lighten the load, and to just be a friend. It was so good to have her around to visit with, and help break up the day.

Today, we did lots of reading, coloring, and playing. We drank a lot of coffee. We looked through our recent family picture photo shoot. We chatted about fun stuff and heavy stuff. Brady came home with milkshakes. I chatted with my mom on the phone. Wavy cut her first tooth!!

Now, Brady has begun setting up the Christmas tree. Because Christmas is coming!

Its been a full day, but a successful day! I’m excited to assemble and order our family picture Christmas cards, though apparently they won’t get anywhere by Christmas :/ Kind of a bummer about all the strikes, but I do understand. I’m excited that Waverly is teething productively and is still such a peach! I’m excited to potentially finish getting the tree up and decorated tomorrow.

And while today was great, I’m really excited for a less chaotic week next week. More “regular” work scheduling makes such a huge difference!

Stay warm!

Last day of updates from our doctors appointment! Last day of disclaimers and reminders to be nice! Lol! For now, anyway 😉 We should ALWAYS be nice.

***

The first thing we talked about regarding Rowan was his hearing. I don’t have an especially big concern regarding his hearing, but I did not too long ago. For a refresher, we had his ears checked periodically over many months and there was always fluid in them. He never got startled, and never answered the first time I called him, and I couldn’t figure out if it was his personality or he really couldn’t hear. I took him to a private audiology appointment and we were told there was absolutely no echo back in one of his ears. At that point, I had gone back to Dr. Guselle, and she had referred us to an ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) to get the process of ear tubes started. Our specialist wasn’t the most helpful, and said things like “I understand why she says there’s fluid in his ears, but there isn’t.” And he wouldn’t explain any further than that, even when I pressed. He was far more concerned with thinking Rowan “looked like a girl.” So nothing ever came from that. Since time has moved on, its hard to know if his hearing has improved or we’ve just gotten used to it. But this summer, I noticed a big difference in his balance and coordination, and therefore figured it would be worth a second look at his ears. So with ALL that backstory, Dr. Guselle checked his ears and said again, they looked dull and covered. She did one very basic test, where she puffed a little bit of air in his ears to see if his eardrums moved, which they did, which didn’t really tell us much. So she suggested I go back to the ENT and see his audiologist rather than the random Lawson Mall guy.

His balance and coordination is pretty bad, and again, we’re not sure if its just who he is, which is a distracted, busy little dude who doesn’t pay too close of attention to his surroundings. He also tends to walk on his tip toes, which apparently can suggest some muscle developmental/maybe sensory stuff. We’re going to see if the hearing tests turn anything up that might shed some light on some answers, and if not, we might make our way over to occupational therapy. But nothing about any of that feels impending doomy. Its all good.

Onto the biggest thing we needed to talk to Dr Guselle about. The whole milk thing.

We recently picked up on some *ahem* stinky *ahem* issues with Rowan and realized that things had never been quite as they should be. In talking with a few friends, we thought he might be lactose intolerant and decided to give that whole thing a go. Simply switching his milk to almond milk and his yogurt to apple sauce made a HUGE difference! He’d go a few days without dairy and be the most “regular” he’d ever been! But then we’d have a lapse and feed him cheese, and nothing would really change, which was extra confusing, because if dairy were the issue, wouldn’t cheese be part of that? Then questions started flying from a handful of different angles. Is it a dairy thing, or a lactose thing? Is it an allergy, or just a sensitivity, or an intolerance? Guys, I DON’T KNOW! I’m totally new! So I asked Dr. Guselle. She agreed that we were on the right track, and that it seemed like straight up lactose intolerance. She began to load me down wth tips and tricks, and as per usual, left me feeling totally capable, and uplifted, and like this shift wouldn’t actually be as challenging as I had originally thought. She told me that lactose intolerance is very simply the lack of the enzyme needed to properly digest milk. At this point, Rowan isn’t in any pain from lactose. It just makes his poops yuckier than necessary. I told her I’m nervous about trying to accommodate an allergy with a big family, because without milk, we’re without most of the easy kid-friendly favorites. Grilled cheese. Pizza. Macaroni. That brought up the conversation about Lactaid/Lacteez. We did a quick google search and learned that there are little chewable tablets for kids now, as well as drops. Dr Guselle said that if I had to, I could buy him regular cows milk and just add the drops. While I don’t think we’ll do that, its good to know the drops and tablets aren’t JUST for emergencies. I figured we’d need them for going out to other people’s houses or situations like that, but she said we could use them whenever needed. It feels SO good to have resources! If a meal kind of needs dairy, then so be it! (This is mostly the part I’m nervous people will debate me on, so PLEASE don’t! I’ve done my research, and I trust my doctor, and I’m not going to force feed Rowan three tablets every day. Its just so comforting to know we have options, and our easy options aren’t out the window.) So, that all being said, I guess Rowan is offically lactose intolerant now!

This conversation branched into just a general conversation about milk. I had a question about milk SO long ago and felt so silly about it, so if anyone else wants to know, here it all is! What do you switch from whole milk, and what do you switch to? The general Sask Health guidelines suggest that children drink whole milk between nursing/formula until around age two. Obviously there are exceptions, but this is the guideline I’ve heard and am comfortable with. However, I haven’t known really where to go from there, which means that all of my kids still drink whole milk. I know thats perfectly fine, and no one has a weight problem or any reason to be concerned, but I was curious what she figured would be our best move. I told her they drink whole milk, I drink skim milk, Wavy drinks formula, and now Rowan drinks almond milk. My gosh! Add to that, what, some 1% or 2% for a couple of them? Thats FIVE milks for seven people!! Nooooo!! She laughed at my odd predicament and pointed out that everyone, besides Wavy, was past the two year mark, so if we wanted, we could jump to 1% or 2% for the kids. She said either or was fine. They both have the same amount of calcium and vitamin D. It’ll be mostly about the change in taste. I made a joke about continuing to buy whole milk and just blooping some skim in there, and while she laughed at me, she said that would have basically the same effect. That all being said, we picked up some 2% yesterday, so I guess we’ll start there!

All in all, Rowan did really well at the appointment, cooperated well with having his ears checked, and answered Dr. Guselle’s questions well. He was super charming the entire time, smirking at her when she’s glance over at him throughout our conversations. She seemed pretty smitten.

***

I think thats it for our appointment! It was loaded, and I think we spent about an hour and a half going through everything. I am SO thankful to have a doctor who makes exceptions and stays late to see as many of us as we need. No fifteen minute appointments for this family! I appreciate her so much. I always leave her office feeling uplifted, and hopeful, and capable, and this appointment was no different. Praise the Lord for good humans and our health care system.

Remember all of my disclaimers from yesterday? Good! Feel free to disagree with me privately 😉

***

I bought Solly to Dr. Guselle for two reasons. The first, simpler one was about a little bump that lives in his bottom lip.

See it off to the side there? It looked to me like a calcium deposit or something. Nothing I was too scared of, but I wanted to mention it. I remember right around when it showed up. It wasn’t from a fall or bonk, so I didn’t think it made sense to be scar tissue. I was mostly just curious her take on it. She felt it while he angrily stuck his lip out at her. She gave me a rough idea of what she figured it might be, and said it would likely disappear as he grew and stretched it out. Mostly importantly, she wasn’t worried about it at all. So, win.

The second thing we talked about was his constipation. (Hey, that picture shows his little lip bump, too! Go figure!) For a quick refresh, if you’ve forgotten, Solly is pretty bad at pooping, and we only really picked on just how bad it was earlier this year. Maybe end of February-ish. We spoke to a couple of people and got some direction. We got his system cleared out, and proceeded to keep him on a laxative treatment for the next sixish months in an effort to give his bowel a break and let it go back down to size after the mad stretching it was going through. We ever so carefully and slowly weened him off of his laxatives over the summer, and within one week of being off them completely, he was back to being completely blocked up, unable to poop. So we put him back on his laxatives and he’s been on them since. Dr. Guselle was very happy with all the steps we had taken, and was in total support of the months we spent trying to retrain his bowel. Lots of people have recently been suggesting to me that he possibly has an allergy, but in her opinion, she figured the laxatives wouldn’t solve the problem the way they have been if it were an allergy, or celiacs, or something along those lines. We talked about how everyone has different needs and its very likely he just needs more fibre than maybe the rest of us. Not so fun fact – I am also that person, and I take benefibre often enough. No shame. She told me I could absolutely give that to Solly as well. I told her that felt wrong, having come from a home where my loving mother made basically everything from scratch, and she said that was fine, too, but in the meantime, benefibre is perfectly fine because its literally just fibre. She suggested I slowly get him taking it in regularly, and then slowly start weening off the laxatives. Because of the laxatives we’re using, they’re not making him sick or hurting him in any way. His body won’t have any type of “withdrawal” from them at all, so if he stays on it a bit longer, even just because I’m nervous, thats ok. None of these decisions are hurting him, which helps my mama heart feel some relief. I don’t want to set him up to be in pain, or to be unhealthy, but the idea of dropping everything and suddenly trying to make everything under the sun from scratch so I can douse it all in bran and flax seed scares me. Hopefully I can some of that gradually, though. Thats the ideal. But until then, Benefibre is going to become a part of Solly’s life! And maybe everyone elses. Can’t we all use a little bit more fibre??

Thats the skinny on Solly and what he’s up to! He’s really happy, really cute, and super healthy. 

***

I’ll give you all the low down on Rowan tomorrow. His part of the appointment was definitely the longest and most info packed, and the post about him is probably the one I’m dreading putting out there the most. I appreciate so much your support on the post I wrote about my part of the appointment, so let’s keep it friendly!

In preparing to share information on our doctors appointment yesterday, I feel a little nervous. I can’t help but think there will be people who will disagree with some of the solutions we settled on. While its ok to make different choices and not to agree with everything everyone chooses, putting it on the internet is a vulnerable thing, and I’m a bit apprehensive. So please, if you choose to read forward, respect me, Brady, our doctor, and the choices we’re making going forward. Trust me, I’m well researched. I feel confident in our choices, even if you’re not.

***

I’m starting with myself, because I feel like the boys updates might be a bit more “debatable.” My info is pretty cut and dry.

First off, my ear! When I was pregnant with Waverly, I got super congested, and eventually, my ears plugged. My doctor was able to see that I had a lot of wax in one ear, and advised me to drop oil or peroxide or whatever I so desired into my ears to loosen the wax up so I could hear again. I did so, and it was a definite relief. Though I didn’t feel it had completely cleared up my issue. They checked my ears a handful of times. Sometimes there was fluid in there, sometimes not. Nothing really consistent, so we rolled with it as a pregnancy thing. Now, as a currently not pregnant person, my ears are still giving me a hard time. In the last month or so, I had to go through another span of time where my left ear was completely plugged with wax. I managed to get it pretty clear, but then it started itching and bugging me and I’m doing everything I can to resist Q-tips. Yesterday, Dr. Guselle checked my ear and confirmed that there was still quite a bit of wax in there, and offered to water blast it out. Have you guys ever had that done? It was amaaazing! The big syringe came out, looking all scary, but the moment it started, I remember asking if we could just have a standing weekly appointment to do just this. It felt SO good! She blasted a couple of rounds of water into my ear before a big disgusting hunk of wax made its appearance. It was a noticeable change. It did, however, leave a bit of an angry, raw spot in my ear. I have a standing prescription waiting at the pharmacy if it starts to irritate me, but it hasn’t yet. Win! But seriously, guys, get your ears blasted out. Its unreal.

Secondly, I discussed my yucky face mole with her. I mentioned it a while ago in my “Things You May or May Not Know” post. She was in full support of me having the mole removed, but as I suspected, she has to send a referral to a plastic surgeon for it. She will do some small mole removals in office, but not this one. She said it’ll be a pretty sizeable wait time, but I’m comfortable with that. At least the ball is rolling!

That was basically all we covered about me. She inquired about Brady, as he had originally been on the list of people to talk about, but he confirmed that he had since been to a walk in and his sickness was all squared away. I had never seen her so laid back, honestly. She’s so comfortable with us, which I will always appreciate, but yesterday was just different. She leaned back in her chair and twirled her hair as we talked. She talked about some things she had gone through with her kids when they were younger, and how she saw them through. Not just “doctor” advise, but some “mom” advise thrown in there, which is sometimes almost better. It was a LONG appointment, and I am SO thankful to have a doctor who will take that time with us.

Sooooo can we all agree to keep our differences of opinion to ourselves tomorrow when I share about Solly and/or Rowan? Yes??