5th Birthday party!

Caleb is almost 5 years old!  It's hard to believe how fast time is flying by.  Because his birthday is so close to the 4th of July we usually celebrate his birthday in June.   He chose a farm theme so Grandma Bronson ordered a cupcake platter with a farm scene on it, which was pretty neat.  We decided not to do a friend party until next year since Isaac didn't get a friend party when he turned 5.  We had our usual family party with Grandma and Grandpa Bronson, Emily, Gina, Brad and Caden, Grandma and Grandpa Kooiker, Uncle Nolan and Great Grandpa Winter.  We even made homemade icecream outside so that was pretty fun.  Isaac and Caleb enjoyed helping Daddy wait for the icecream.  Isaac decided to go incognito and attend as Optimus Prime.  Caleb got some fun toys as usual and had a great time.  Lucas was too tired and couldn't stay up long enough for the family picture. 

Little photoshoot outside

It was a nice day outside so I took advantage of it and brought his little pillow outside and got some cute pictures.  Most of the time he likes to frown or be so serious whenever the camera comes out, but once in a while he will give a cute little grin. 

Love this little boy!!!!

First time swimming!

We decided it would be nice to get out as a family and do something.  We decided to go to Sioux Center and go swimming with the boys to the indoor pool.  Isaac and Caleb love going swimming there and there is plenty for them to do.  Lucas was NOT a fan of the water at all.  It was quite noisy in there and I don't think he liked that either.  The water was pretty cool and he cried everytime we put his legs in.  We basically held him the whole time and I ended up changing him back into his clothes and just sitting out in the waiting area until Ross and the boys were done swimming.  I had to nurse him in the locker room which was quite uncomfortable but we made do.  Hopefully his next swimming experience will be more enjoyable!!!

What a great helper!

Ross has been taking Isaac on my days off to get him out of the house so that he keeps busy and life isn't quite so hectic at home.  Ross is pretty good at taking either one or both of the boys for a while which allows me to get things done and to care for Lucas. 

This particular afternoon Caleb decided he wanted to fold clothes and help me out without even being told to do so.  He's a great helper when he wants to be :-)

Wedding celebration

Lucas experienced his first wedding this past weekend.  Ross' cousin Lynelle and Jeremy were married at First Baptist Church and then their reception was at the Forster Community Building in Rock Rapids.  Caleb was staying with Grandma and Grandpa Bronson and wasn't interested in going to a wedding so Ross and I took Isaac and Lucas.  Isaac was very excited to get dressed up in his shirt and tie.  Unfortunately his jeans were way too long and he was having a bit of a time with that and was not going to pose for any pictures.  The wedding was very nice and both boys did well during the ceremony.  Lucas didn't seem to mind the music or noise at the reception so that was good.  Isaac took his buddy Matthew from church out on the dance floor and they had a blast!!!

Here's the only pictures we got from the wedding.  Aunt Erin came home for the wedding so of course we got a picture of her with baby Lucas.

4 month check up

Lucas had his 4 month check up with Dr. Springer.  He had to have another round of vaccinations which included 3 shots and one oral.  He cried and cried as I expected.  Goodness I hate shots.  I think it was worse this time because we had to wait so long for the nurse to come in and by the time they did he was extremely hungry so I had to stop nursing him so he could have his shots.  How mean is that?

Little man is growing fast!!!


Weight: 15 lbs 8 oz. (43%)
Height: 26" (80%)
Head: 17" (85%)

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!