Times are a-changing

The Szolusha's have wonderful news to report. Axel has turned a page in his growth and development. He has made huge gains in his physical abilities, his eating habits and his sleep habits.

Let's start with the motor skills. Axel is a rolling machine. I set him down on his back and before I know it he is on his belly and then on his back again. It is very nerve racking because we have hardwood floors. I will put him on an area rug, play mate or blanket and with one roll he is off the "safe zone". I then have to watch and try to place my hand on his head to insure a slow lowering. He is getting much better and 80% of the time he eases himself down, but every now and then he lets his head go quickly and "clunk" goes his head on the floor. Normally, he looks startled. As long as I smile and tell him good job he smiles and laughs, but occasionally when he is tired or I wasn't able to reassure him with a smile he will cry. He does the same thing in the kitchen and bathroom and will roll himself right up into the cabinet. He loves to roll right and will continue trying to roll right into the cabinet. Again, a "clunk" startles him, but then he laughs if I reassure him.

Axel is also starting to scoot a lot more. He is even showing signs of crawling as he brings his knees up while on his belly. He likes to practice these skills at night. We often find him perpendicular in his crib all the way to one side or with his head right up to the corner and his body projecting out diagonally. Keith really wants to capture this on photo. I will try to remember to bring the camera into the bedroom tonight.


Speaking of the bedroom and sleep, Axel miraculously changed his sleep patterns three nights ago. Monday night Axel went to bed at 6:30ish as usual. He woke at 10pm which he has done a few other times, as opposed to his usual 9pm waking. I heard Keith come to bed at 11pm and then fell back to sleep. It felt like a mere 30 minutes had gone by when Keith woke me and said, "Did I sleep through Axel waking up". "No," I said. It was 2:45am at this point. "He is sleeping way too long," Keith explained. "Is he alive? I think you should go check on him." "No way," I said. "I am not going to disturb this awesome stretch of sleep." Well, he woke about 10 minutes later to eat and then again at 5am. Now the shocking news was not Monday night, but was Tuesday and Wednesday night. Yes, Axel out did Monday night by sleeping until 11pm and then waking at 3am and then 6:40am. I hope I am not jinxing Axel's sleep for tonight, but we are very excited that the past three nights have been as good as they are. I think the difference is that Axel is starting to consume the solids we are feeding him and the fact that I think he is now 15 lbs.

Yep, you heard me Axel is eating!!!! Every morning Axel watches daddy make breakfast. They both have a blast.


The past three days he has hit 35 oz of liquids along with 2 small meals. He could be in a growth spurt, but the food consumption is a nice treat regardless. Axel has now had sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, avocado and bananas. I am sure you can all guess what his favorite food is and the magic food that we think is allowing him to "sleep through the night". If you guessed BANANAS you are right. He loved it so much after the first time I fed it to him, he continued to eat more right from the banana. I smashed a small amount between my fingers and he chowed down. It seems he almost prefers to eat it this way over mashed up with milk and rice cereal.

Today was the most beautiful fall day. It was 77 degrees with multi-colored leaves scattered over the road and grass. This is a drastic contrast to the tropical storm that hit California on Tuesday.

Keith stayed home with the Axe, to make sure the house didn't fall apart and that the dogs were okay. Axel and Keith had a ton of fun playing and winter proofing the house. Keith also had time to make persimmon cookies AND pumpkin pie.



The cookies were amazing and the pumpkin pie number three is just as delicious as the first two! Now don't be surprised if I look a little "fuller" the next time you see me :) I think all of the sweets are starting to add insulation to my frame. Keith thinks all of the junk causes me to loose weight. We will just have to see if the clothes start to become more snug. So far, so good :)

I leave you with a series of pictures Keith took of Axel dancing in his high chair.





Happy Parenting fellow Mommies and Daddies!!!!

Axel hard at work!

Hi all! Winter came overnight and as a result Axel is now wearing clothes that are for 6-9 months. they are a little big, but will have to do. The picture above was right before we left for work and school this past Monday morning. I believe the temperature was 49 degrees outside when we left.

According to Axel's daycare he was quite fussy on Monday and a little fussy on Tuesday and Wednesday. Well, the fussiness turned to a scream fest on Wednesday night. Axel took over an hour to put to sleep. Keith and I were hoping it was because of teething, but unfortunately, it was do to Axel catching another cold. You can see his runny nose in the picture below. We had a pretty sleepless night on Wednesday, but the past few nights Axel has been doing quite well. It is funny how proud I am of him being such a big boy and sleeping in his crib in his own room even when a cold. He has only been getting up 3-4 times a night. The humidifier and heater seem to really help. This weekend we are weather proofing his bedroom by adding the window insulators and lighting the pilot lights to our floor heaters. Lets pray his sleeping continues to get better despite our set backs.

I hadn't realized how big Axel was until looking at the picture below. I was amazed to see that he was almost as long as his play gym. Just for comparison I included a picture of him lying in his play gym at about 6.5 weeks old. Amazing....I can't remember him being so small. Axel has been hard at work making many new discoveries. Here he is playing with the strings on the slippers he inherited from his second cousins the Anderson's. I included a short video of him in action.

Axel also recently discovered that the flowers on his play gym light up. Axel can even help the birds fly from one side to the other. But his favorite thing to do is to shake his toys. Here he is shaking Mr. Giraffe. With all of the hard work Axel still finds time to have fun. Have a great week! Hopefully we will all be healthy the next time you check back in!

Axel is 6 months old!!

Axel turned 6 months this past Wednesday, on the 30th of Sept. It is amazing to think that he is half way through his first year. We just got back from his 6 month Dr.'s appt. He is still 25.5 inches long (they have mis-measured him a couple of times), which is the 30th percentile and 14lb 15.5 oz.......oh so close to our goal of 15 lbs. He is now in the 9th percentile for weight, which is a bummer because he was eating very well for a couple of weeks. He took a negative turn about a week ago. The Dr. thinks it is because he out grew his current dose of medication. We are all hoping that be increasing the dose he will start eating more again which equals sleeping more.

Here is Axel all ready to go this morning. You can see how thrilled he is by needing the Binkie to calm him :)
The medication makes a world of difference. To give you an idea when Axel is on a clinically effective dose of Zantac he is able to eat 6oz at a time and he easily consumes 32oz for the day. On days he eats well he is able to sleep in 4 hour stretches, getting up only 3 times a night. The past week or so he is back down to eating 3-4 oz at a time, barely consuming 25+ oz for the day, waking 6-8 times with 1-3 of those times being a 1 hour cry fest. I have never been an advocate for drugs until now. Keith and I are praying that he will return to his happy self within a day or two once we increase his medication.

Axel has been eating rice cereal off and on for over a month. We have been much more consistent the past week giving Axel rice cereal after his morning and late afternoon bottle. Yesterday we started sweet potatoes. He seemed to like them, despite only eating 10 spoonfuls both in the morning and later afternoon. The good thing is I know that he is finally starting to consume "solids" because his poop has changed. Yes people, they are no longer yellow and runny :)

Axel has also been on 50% formula, lactose free, for one month now as well. The GI specialist suggested doing half and half for as long as possible. This way he would still get the benefit of breast milk without having as much irritation if he is allergic to something that I am eating. She wants us to continue this for as long as I am willing to continue to pump. I have been pumping 100% of the time now for 6 weeks and luckily I am trying hard to decrease my milk supply because our freezer is getting too full so I think we will be able to make it close to the year mark.

Physically Axel continues to practice sitting, rolling and standing. He is getting better at rolling from his back to his stomach and he does a great job of being pulled up to standing from lying down on his back. He was difficult to keep still at the Dr.'s office today. He is into reaching for everything. Including blood pressure cuffs and table paper. Everything goes into the mouth! Here is Axel playing while I fold clothes. Axel accidentally opened his play gym and had more fun playing under the gym than on it :) Axel responding to his name.....he is about 50% on turning when I call him. He loves inspecting his toys more closely. Axel now pulls the animals off the play gym. He much rather play with the plastic hangers and bite the mirror :) Axel also continues to be a jabber mouth. Those of you who talk to me on the phone know that Axel is always busy talking or screeching up a storm when mommy's talking. Here is a video of how his babble has changed. I love the new cooing over the old. It sounds more real to me. Sometimes I think he is actually saying mama, dada, baba, but I know he has no idea what he is saying.

Oh, I am sure Keith would like me to include that while I was at a conference this past Saturday he took Axel for a walk with his college buddies Mark and Tyler. Yes, it was quite a scene, with three men and a baby :)


It is also important to note that with the cool weather came our first official pumpkin pie. I am excited to be in our pumpkin pie season which lasts through the end of the year. I asked Keith last night if he thinks we will break our record of 11pumpkin pies this year. I hope so because I absolutely love them. He is going to be suprised to see half of it already gone when he gets home tonight. What can I say....I had a pumpkin pie diet today :)

Ok, hope you all have a great weekend!

Chaos turns to blessing

Life has continued to be hectic and busy for the Szolusha's. Our long hiatus away from the blog was not chosen. I am happy to say that we are all healthy and happy now, although the last two weeks have been another story!

Axel restarted Zantac after visiting the GI specialist a couple of weeks ago. The Dr. stressed the importance of Axel getting the medication every 8 hours to keep the acid down. This required the daycare to administer the medication every afternoon. Unfortunately, despite having a Dr.'s note that specifically stated the time and quantity of medication Axel was severely overdosed. He received an entire syringe of medication (3ml) rather than .8 ml on Wednesday of last week. We are also not sure if he was overdosed on Monday and Tuesday because it was documented that he received .18 ml of Zantac. Keith and I are not sure how you get .18 ml, so we were assuming he received 1.8ml the previous two days. Well, the daycare did notify me of the overdose but they forgot to include the screaming and projectile vomiting that came with it. Let's just say we spent the evening in the ER. Luckily after several more times of vomiting (all over the ER chairs and carpet, ooops!) Axel was cleared and we all went home.

Needless to say this incident gave me the motivation I needed to find Axel a new daycare. I have been unhappy with his daycare since day one. I felt that they sold me this great package with wonderful words, but when it came down to fulfilling their promises they were just not able to do them. It is hard when they have 5 gals taking care of 20 infants under 10 months old!!!

Axel is wonderful now. He appeared to magically return to himself after 24 hours. We were lucky to have Gramma Susan visit us this past weekend. She helped me pick out his new daycare. After calling 20 home day cares we had 3 tours set up for Friday. I am pleased to say that my mom and I were blown away by Nelly's Daycare and Preschool. It is a full Spanish immersion program. In one week's time Axel can now sit for up to 30 seconds and is more consistently rolling from back to stomach. He absolutely loves it there. It is funny because he seems to enjoy listening to Spanish more than English now. The daycare says they have never seen a child laugh and smile so much. Axel learning Spanish is going to be such a bonus!

Because of the new environment and the Zantac around the clock Axel has been eating 5-6 oz bottles consistently. It feels like he has gained a ton of weight the past few days. We are all excited to see how much Axel weighs next week at his 6 month check up! Can you believe the little guy will be 6 months old next Wednesday? Axel has also been sleeping much better over the past 5 days getting up every 3-4 hours, or 3-4 times per night to eat. This is a huge improvement from the 6-8 times a night or every 1-2 hours with screaming during one or two of the awakenings. Keith and I are confident that Axel's sleep will continue to improve over the next couple of months and we are hoping that he will be sleeping 6-8 hours straight by the end of the year. We both think that he is finally showing signs that he is ready and that the weight gain definitely helps. He weighed 14lbs 5oz when we went to the ER a week ago. I would like to note that Axel has put himself to sleep a half a dozen times over the past week. This means that in the middle of the night when he wants to "play and talk" he will eventually fall to sleep without help over the course of half an hour. When he did this for the first time last week I wanted to cry I was so happy. He use to get frustrated and cry until I helped him go back to sleep.

Here is Axel on Saturday sitting. He still needs help. He went from sitting unsupported for 5 seconds to 30 seconds in just 4 days. I do believe he will be sitting completely on his own in the next couple of weeks. I will be sure to get a photo over the weekend.


Axel continues to grow, but Gramma and I concluded it is all torso. We hope his little legs catch up soon!


Even if he is all torso....he is oh so cute! Already a flirt!


Finally we remembered to take a picture with his Axel onesie on!


Axel's favorite new toy!


Look at those feet gripping the ball!


I see you mommy! Axel's fascination with the camera continues. I wish I could have captured him trying to eat it this morning :)


Gramma and Axel had so much fun playing together.....


I hope you all have a great end of the week! We do hope to be back into a good routine shortly. I will not say check back soon, because every time I do 7 to 10 days go by before the next posting. I will end with....until next time!

A Wrinkle in Time

The hours and days just keep ticking by. Axel's naps and feeding schedule, work, daycare, dinner, my pumping and my sleep (or lack thereof) are all time-challenged these days. Sometimes things go smoothly, but quite often, one could say that they are not so smooth, rather wrinkly. I never thought that time could be so precious.

We are all recovering slowly from last week's illnesses. We are mostly convinced that we all contracted some form of the swine flu, but we have no gathered proof. Axel's congestion is slowly disappearing, but continues to be a factor around 3-4 in the morning. Axel is still waking 7 times a night, but he is sleeping in a few 2-3 hour increments. He typically is easy to put back to sleep and is only up a few minutes except once a night where he is up for over an hour. The good thing is that we have been diligent about not letting Axel "snack" anymore and he is only eating 2-3 times per night. Typically he is going 4 hours without eating and he is consuming 4 oz when he wakes. We also have been strict about making sure Axel is going at least 3 hours before eating during the day. It is really hard to follow what all of the sleep books tell you when the Dr. says the opposite. Axel's body knows how much he can handle at a time and this contradicts the sleep books rules. The GI specialist officially diagnosed Axel with GERD and put him on some meds to keep him from waking in pain at night. If we can do that and possibly increase his stomach's ability to handle more food at once, maybe all of us can get more sleep too. We noticed Axel arching his back when he was coughing and fussing at night and the doc says that is GERD firing up. Keith often thinks that Axel just wants to unswaddle his arms and be free. who knows?

Axel continues to show signs of teething without anything to show for it. Here are several pictures of how Axel tries to put everything and anything into his mouth. He also likes to suck on our cheeks and noses. He is so adorable and cute, we can't help but laugh.






Ok, have a great rest of the weekend. Hopefully, I will have more energy to write a good post next week. Gramma Susan is coming again next weekend so hopefully we can capture some good moments on film. Take care, and sleep well!

Axel turned 5 months...The Szolushas still sick!

Here is Axel on Monday, when he officially turned 5 months old!


Well, the infrequent posts are becoming a norm as being sick is becoming a norm. Axel and I finally went to the Dr. We think that there are several things going on. First, the Dr. thinks Axel has had two colds in a row. He has also had another stomach bug which lead to another screaming fit and very fussy day this past Thursday. Axel had a BM in every diaper for 24 hours and continues to have more BM's then wet diapers. Of course, Axel wanted to make sure that daddy and mommy experienced first hand how awful he felt so this entire labor day weekend has been dedicated to the entire Szolusha house being sick. Luckily, we were all one day behind each other so only one of us was "really bad" at a time.

The Dr. also thought that we should make another appt. with the GI specialist in order to rule out food allergies or to come up with a solid diagnosis of GERD. I had cancelled the appt. last time because Axel had two good days after seeing the Dr. I have learned since that this is a trend where after 5+ days of little sleep and little eating or lots of spit up he has a couple of really good days where the entire house gets a bit more rest before he goes back to having more bad days. The bad days just consist of him being more fussy, possibly a screaming fit, and very little sleep. Keith and I believe that he truly is in pain or uncomfortable when he is trying to sleep, and therefore, try to stay as patient as possible.

We have officially done everything that the Dr. has recommended. WE have a humidifier, we use saline drops at every diaper change and only suction 2-3 times per day. Apparently too much suctioning causes damage and hence more pain. Axel sleeps at a 45 degree angle in his crib or in the car seat. For his itchy skin i am using the mineral oil treatment and petroleum jelly almost every day, but he still scratches the crap out of his scalp. i will have to include a photo next time of this. it looks dreadfully painful. For his stomach i am using gas drops before bed. I have also tried 2 lactose free or low lactose formulas. The Dr. wanted us to have him on formula for an entire day or two to see if there was a change in symptoms. Well, this is good in theory, but when an infant has only had yummy sweet mommy's milk, formula just doesn't cut it. I can't even get him to finish an ounce let alone an entire bottle. I hope the GI specialist will have some insight. I have cut out almost everything from my diet with no avail. This is what makes the Dr. believe he might have picked up some sort of bacteria from day care or have multiple food allergies. Keith and I are in the process of trying to collect stool samples. Who knew they require you to fill up an entire vile full. Don't they know that lots of the BM gets absorbed into the diaper? needless to say we only have 1 of 3 viles filled to the "fill line".

Axel weighted in a 14 lbs 2 oz at the Dr. on Friday. His height was the same as 3 weeks ago at 25.25 inches, which makes me believe the last measurement was incorrect. He has now dropped to the 12th percentile for weight. At this rate in 6 more months he will be at the 0 percentile as he drops 2% every 3-4 weeks. let's hope that the GI specialist has some good solutions. here are pictures from Friday. Axel had one of the best days in a long time on Friday.
here is Axel with daddy just before Keith left for work.


on our way to the Dr. Axel always has good, happy days when we see the Dr.!

here is Axel enjoying his new hand clapping toy he got from day care.


And last but not least......Axel did the unthinkable. he has become more flexible in the past few weeks and can now suck on his toes!