Going bananas!

Well it's been almost a week since David's dreaded hernia repair and he is doing just amazingly well. His incision sites are both healing nicely and he's even started to roll on the floor much like he did prior to surgery. He's not spending quite as much time on his belly just yet, but adventures out a bit more each day.

The feeding of solids was full steam ahead last week but with David spending the night in the hospital after such an ordeal, and Mary Louise's routine at home being a bit askew, we took a step back and eased up a bit on the progress. They did try peaches last week and decided that they'd prefer never to try them again. After having a taste myself, I have to say, I agree - once fresh are in season, they can try those...I typically use fresh fruits and veggies when I can, but keep a selection of stage 2 foods that are sodium free and only have fruit or veggie and water as ingredients. It seems to be working well for us so far...BUT (as if you didn't know that was coming)...we've had a new, ummm, experience as of late...

We'll just call it what it is - forget semantics - that's right, the dreaded constipation. We sort of touched on it when they tried apples - 2 days in- lots of gas, late night discomfort, stopped the apples, symptoms subsided. Now, it's bananas; and there's no tiptoeing around anything - it's full on diaper pebbles being birthed every few hours complete with fits like I've never seen.

Pretty stupid on my part I must say. I'm well versed in the (ha) ins and outs of the BRAT diet both from school and post delivery. Ridiculous Heather. In my (feeble) defense, I've never had to deal with constipation before - these babies are breastfed. It'd be next to impossible I think for a breastfed baby to have anything but gas (and boy have we had our fair share of that beast - see colic era). Anyhow, back to the babies...of course they've played with bananas for awhile but have recently started taking in much of what they play with - hence the digestive change.

Enter operation, "make these babies poop now!!" To make a long story short, my day was filled with belly massages, warm baths, stroller rides, tandem rocking, straight breastmilk bottles, ones with probiotics, pears and finally, (drumroll...) prune/ apple juice - about a half ounce in a few ounces of breastmilk, a relaxing walk in the sun post warm bath and tummy massage...voila - THE LARGEST POOP DIAPERS I'VE EVER SEEN!!! and MUCH happier babies. My goodness. What a day.

Today (Wednesday) has been very busy but better and happier than yesterday. Mary Louise and David are starting to show more and more individuality with their playing together and getting along well for the most part - for the most part I said. Mary Louise has a not so sneaky tendency to steal toys from David which consists of her leaning in, seeing the toy she wants in his hands, shoving him face first into the play mat (thank goodness for the foam) and taking said toy and playing with it quietly acting as if she doesn't hear he poor befuddled brother wriggling about and crying in front of her. David still has quite a temper - though it's a bit more directed now. It pretty much goes in order - "I want..." "I can't have or get to..." and "I will pitch a fit now." He kicks his legs and flops about on the floor like a kid getting told "no" in the candy isle at the supermarket. All I can say is at least the 2 of them are rather easily diverted with some cradling, feeding and toys that light up and make noise.

The babies are also MUCH more mobile with Mary Louise appearing to be on the verge of CRAWLING!! David is not far behind and in the meantime has fine tuned his ability to roll where he wants to go. Gone are the days of them staying put! Exciting times here at the LeBlanc house.

Mommom was a great help while here. She stayed through the weekend, waking for early morning play time and keeping Mary Louise happy while David received some extra Mommy attention. I can't believe it's already been a week since the surgery...

David (the poor boy) also got his Synagis shot today. When it rains it pours for him! He did well - he weighed in at 10 pounds 13 ounces which is up from surgery time!! Mary Louise is 11 pounds 15.5 ounces. Hard to imagine we'll soon have a 12 pounder in our house!! In addition to that news, each baby only has 1 more Synagis shot for the season!!! YAY!! I've been forewarned that IF they are approved to receive the shots next season (the if is a whole different issue), it will be much worse as they'll recognize the nurse and the shot amount goes up with weight so they will receive larger doses (insert frowny face here). Having said that, I do sincerely hope we'll somehow get approved for it...

xo,
Heather