8 months

I could also add "Hardest Month So Far" to Ezra's above picture, but I figured I should keep it to more of the developmental milestones.  Hey, we made it to the 8 month mark, celebrate!

31 Weeks
Ezra was able to watch with varying interest as the new deck was put up just outside the family room.  He sat in his ExerSaucer and watched the happenings through the screen door.  Not overly impressed with the sound of the impact driver, but Ezra put up with the rest of the noise wonderfully during wake time  and naps.  Ezra got very sick during one of our days this week, after having egg whites.  He was eating egg yolks as he has before but was so enthusiastic and eager to keep eating once they were gone, I gave him some egg whites too.  He happily ate them as well, but within about 2 hours, was vomiting large amounts.  I returned from the store unaware of what had transpired, but Grandpa and Grandma Wiebe had gotten Ez through the worst of it.However, at the end of the week, Ezra began screaming when put down for any naps during the day which was a huge change, and a bit shocking to the system.  It was a tough balance with strained nerves and trying to be compassionate to this tired little baby that refused to sleep.  So there was lots of rocking and singing to try to help him go down, which often was unsuccessful.

32 Weeks
The beginning of this week saw tears from both Ez and I as he continued to scream when put down for a nap and I changed tactics and let him scream it out.  Listening to baby scream in that way was so torturous and combined with the thought this was going to be the new normal for nap time in our home, brought me to tears as well.  However, almost as suddenly as it came on, by the resolution of the week, Ezra had begun napping as usual again.  Hallelujah! Around this time Ezra started sleeping through his 10:30 feed a bit more regularly, and getting him up to feed was becoming more disruptive to him.  So I began feeding him only when he woke up for the late evening feed.  During the day Ezra became more irritable and fussy than ever before.  His top two teeth were making their way down.

33 Weeks
At the end of the week, Ez had egg yolks for breakfast and just like two weeks ago, was violently ill 2 hours later.  We weathered the worst of the vomiting in the bathtub, putting an inch of water in the bottom, and draining it after each wave of sickness and then filled fresh again.  So hard to see baby boy so miserable and feel responsible.  So we are swearing off eggs all together until further notice.  Thankfully he was feeling more like himself in the evening, after a very mellow day sleeping with me and then in the afternoon taking long stretches sleeping or just lying in his crib.  A few days later, Ez began crying and not feeding well during his nursing times.  Assuming it was his teeth bothering him we did a combination of nursing and bottles to tide him over.

34 Weeks
Ezra continued arching his back and crying just after a few seconds of nursing this week and we resorted to giving bottles and pumping as much as possible as I now realized my milk supply seemed to have dropped past a point Ezra was will to work for.  However, after days of pumping and stressing about what to do, I tried to schedule with the local lactation consultant (who was on a leave of absence), called and talked to a nurse at the local health clinic (who was knowledgable, but didn't give me much more than ideas I was already trying), and scheduled an appointment to see my doctor and got a prescription for a medication to boost milk supply (but I was concerned about the continued stress of the necessity of Ezra having to nurse for it to work).  All of these events, and my quickly unraveling sanity, led me to a place where I threw in the towel.  The uphill battle was becoming the size of a mountain in my mind, and a mountain I didn't have the strength or energy to climb.  I realize mommy's and baby's can stop nursing for many reasons prior to 8 months, but the unexpectedness of these developments completely threw me off.  I had no problems nursing up until now and had expected to nurse Ez up to a year at least, so I had to deal with some very real disappointment and tears at various points as the realization that my time nursing Ez was over.  However, now that I've gotten my head around it, I've found my peace with it and Ezra is quite happy with the bottle, and is taking it all beautifully.  His disposition has also greatly improved in the last few days as the second of the two teeth working there way through his gums, broke through.

So folks, there is light at the end of the tunnel and I'm praying 8 months will be a much happier four weeks then the last four.  Oh, and we are now van people!  That happened somewhere in the last month too.  Never thought I'd be so happy about a van but it's the reality of my life now!