Preschool Graduates

Isaac and Caleb officially graduated from Preschool.  What a bittersweet moment.  They had a cute little program for all the preschool classes together.  They sang a bunch of songs and got their certificate.  I can't believe how fast they are growing up.  They both really loved Preschool and I'm anxious to see what next school year holds for them.  Having them in separate classes was a good thing, but now next year they will be in separate grades so hopefully that goes ok too.  After the program we had cake and juice.  Grandma and Grandpa Bronson and Grandma and Grandpa Kooiker came to the program too.  We then went for pizza afterwards so that was nice.  Lucas did well during the whole thing but started to get tired and hungry at Pizza Ranch so we headed home after we finished eating.  If you can't tell, the boys are pretty proud of their baby brother!

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day as a Mom to THREE boys.  It's hard to believe I now have 3 kiddos.  Life was busy before Lucas, so it's certainly much busier with Lucas here.  He's now almost 4 months old and growing fast.  He is such a easy going baby for the most part.  He really fits in with the family and the boys love him to death.  Sometimes Isaac loves him a little "too much". 

We went to church as a family and then we went out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa Kooiker to Shari's Kitchen.  The boys love eating there.  Lucas was experiencing an upset tummy while we were there and cried quite a bit.  I hate when he goes through those pain spells and there is not much you can do to help him.  I know it's because of the acid reflux and I know it's getting better, but it's still so hard to watch when he's in pain.  Grandma tried to calm him down while I ate but he just cried and cried.  When I finished eating I took him and held him and he immediately calmed down.  It's as if he just needed me to comfort him.

After eating we walked across the street to the Courthouse and took some pictures.  The older boys even cooperated for the most part.  All in all it was a nice afternoon. I love my family!!!

2nd Opinion

I took Lucas in for a 2nd opinion on his acid reflux.  Dr. Springer agreed with the doctor that it's probably acid reflux or my milk or both.  However, he said he would like for me to try the increase in medications and see if that does anything before stopping the breastfeeding.  He seems pro-breastfeeding and so I was relieved that he wasn't pushing for me to stop nursing Lucas.  Dr. Springer also agreed that at this point we don't need to do the Upper GI but if things continue to get worse we may need to think about that in the future.

Back to the doctor

Lucas is still dealing with tummy troubles and I wasn't sure it was acid reflux or what the deal was so I took him back to Sioux Falls.  I saw a different doctor who examined him and he said it's probably 2 things.  He thinks it's the acid reflux and he needs different medication and he also thinks that either he's not handling something in my diet or there's something in my breast milk that is not agreeing with him.  His recommendation was to switch medications AND to stop nursing and switch over to expensive Hypoallergenic formula.  He also said if no improvement he would want to do an Upper GI test.  I left the doctor's office in tears.  Lucas is the only baby I've been able to nurse and he's my last baby.  He nurses like a champ and I just feel like there's a way around this.  I checked out the formula and it was over $40 for a small can.  It was then that I talked to Ross and decided I would cut out the  main dairy products and continue nursing and see what happens.  From that day on I cut out cheese, milk, yogurt and any other things I could think of that would cause him troubles.  Milk wasn't as hard to cut out as I could drink Almond milk but the yogurt was really hard as I used to have a yogurt every day at work.  I found out my insurance would not cover any other medications for acid reflux other than what he was already on, so we decided to try increasing the dosage to 3 times a day instead of 2 and see if that helps.

They measured Lucas and he measured in at:

Weight: 14 lbs 12 oz (48%)
Height: 26" (82%)

I also decided to go to Dr. Springer and see if he came up with the same conclusion.

Just some pictures

Lucas started daycare on April 8th.  It was a sad day for Mommy but he did amazing.  He drank his bottle well.  He didn't sleep much but he was a happy camper for them so that made me happy.  It was good to get back to work and get into a routine even though I missed him like crazy.

Here's a couple pictures on  before his first day of daycare and some other pictures throughout April!

3 month photoshoot

Lucas had his 3 month pictures done, however they did not turn out as well as I had hoped.  He was having a bad morning with some tummy cramps and quite fussy.  He was crying quite a bit when we arrived and he was not into smiling so we only got one good one with him smiling which was disappointing but I figured instead of bringing him back to Sioux Falls I would just go with that and hope that 6 month photos go better.  He's still my cutie pie!!!

He's really not to sure about all these poses.

MY FAVORITE above.

This picture would have been perfect, but as you may notice
he's making a hand gesture LOL

Finally a smile!