The Liner Family

Well, we went yesterday to Vanderbilt and had them look at the cast. At first, they said they thought it was ok around his tummy, but he got a second oppinion and they ended up removing a little window around his belly button to help give more room for that big belly of his. And what a world of difference! Every bottle he has had since they made the adjustment he has had no spit up! The only tiny bit he had was just a little slobber I dont even have to put a bib on him. YAY! And I can give him raspberries, zerberts, whatever you call them on his belly now!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha It is strange seeing his belly button. Before the cast it was about the size of a tator tot bc of his hernia. Now its smushed in. We are waiting to see if it will pop back out. I hope not. When we were at the Dr. we also were told that next week when the cast comes off he wont have to be put to sleep so that is good news on our wallets, but he will be one screamin baby. That saw it so loud and it jars him so he doesnt like it too much, but who would!!

Oh I am soo ready for this cast to be OFF!!!!!! Ever since this new cast has been on Elijah’s spitting up has gotten worse and over the last week it has gotten horrible. I would have to put like 4 or 5 bibs a day on him and change his outfit like 3 times a day bc the amount of spit up. It just got so bad that I decided to call the Orthapedist bc I thought maybe the cast could be too tight. So before and after talking to them I decided to reduce the amount of formula I was giving him. He was taking 6 ounces and drinking every drop. That to me says that he was wanting to eat that much bc before I would fix a 6 ounce bottle and he would sometimes take 4 or 5 and then for a few weeks now he was taking 6 and drinking it all. After reducing the formula the spitting up wasnt too bad, but we think there is still something not right. Elijah is not a fussy baby at all. He only cries when he is hungry, hardly cries when he is wet, and lately he has gotten a little fussy when he is sleepy but not bad. Well, tonight he was crying so we can usually bet that its bc he is hungry so Cam went to feed him and he just screamed and had tears which is RARE. So then I went to feed him and he finally calmed down enough to eat. Then later on he did the same thing again and he calmed down, but when we got him ready for bed we got his PJ’s on and changed him and he had just eaten so usually he is good to go. Not this time. He SCREAMED and cried and screamed and that is just not him so we knew something wasnt right. We decided to take his temp just in case maybe all that spitting up could be a virus and he was running a fever. NOPE no fever. SO we walk him around and he is still crying and then he gets a burp out and he calms down a little. We try to put him back down to bed and he screams again so I decide to rock him a little and when I do that he burps again and after that burp he finally calmed down and we put him to bed and he was out. Its either that cast lifting his belly up and causing him to burp continually and when we fed him the 6 ounces he was getting rid of the formula by spitting up and that was relieving him, but now that we arent giving him as much the air is what is causing him to be upset and he has to burp alot to get it out. Or maybe he is teething? I read that babies usually drool, are fussier, and there hands are always in there mouth and they definetley are. We are going to Vanderbilt tommorow and letting them see if the tummy area around the cast needs to be adjusted. Next Thursday couldnt come any sooner!!!!

Hey Everyone! We have a new video of Elijah posted now. He has decided that sneezing is hilarious and he laughs at them! Check it out! Also, I posted some new pics of him. ENJOY!!

Today marks 2 weeks until the cast FINALLY comes off! Im already planning outfits he can wear finally and Im practicing my “cast is off dance” around the house. YAY!! Ok can you tell Im excited? Cam and I were talking last night about how it was actually alot easier than we thought. It was overwhelming at first and it hasnt always been easy, but overall it hasnt been bad. We went over to our friends house the other night and I held William who is just a little younger than Elijah. Holding a baby without a cast was soooo WEIRD! It was actually harder to do!! We can sit Elijah upright on our laps and he can look around so after the cast is off it will be harder to do that.

We are going today to get his other 2 month shots. They werent able to give all of them bc he had to have them in his arms so we are going to get the others done. While we are in Murfreesboro we HAVE to stop by Target and get new pacifiers. He got a Pooh and Eyore ones for Christmas and we lost Pooh after the dedication and I cant find Eyore!!! Those were the only ones he actually would take. UH OH.

Podcasts are internet radio shows that can be made by anyone about anything. I have started to listen to quite a few of them and thought I would post my favorites here.

Inside the Magic ( http://www.distantcreations.com/insidethemagic )

Daily Dose of Disney ( http://www.distantcreations.com/dailydose )

This Week in Tech ( http://twit.tv )

Security Now! ( http://twit.tv )

Inside the Net ( http://twit.tv )

101 Uses for Baby Wipes ( http://101usesforbabywipes.blogspot.com/ )

There are many others I listen to, but I make sure I never miss an episode of these.

Well, my time in Cleveland was awsesome. We did a lot so it wasnt a very restful trip, but I learned alot while I was there! Cam’s Mom, Della, does cake decorating as a hobby and she does such a great job and I thought that maybe if I could learn how to do it it would give me something to do at home. There are SOO many kids where I live and no bakery so I thought it might be something to try. She was a great teacher and I learned alot in the short time I was there. She suggested I go home and try a charachter cake bc it tells you what tips to use and what colors etc…So I just had to try it and it was a lot harder than I thought. Making the icing and the colors was the hardest. Mixing the colors to make purple and green was tricky. It basically took me all day long. I had lost a tip at one point and ran out of parchment paper which is what I make my bags out of so that took a lot of time. But my end results are actually pretty good for a 1st timer if I do say so myself. I am proud that I accomplished this and who knows where this will take me.

I made my first cake ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check it out under the pictures!!!

Elijah and I are going to take a road trip today for a few days. Tessa is out of school this week for spring break and Cam is working over and a friend of his is coming in for a visit so I just decided to take a few days and go on to Cleveland. My uncle Bruce is also coming there right now and we havnt seen him in a long time so I wanted to see him. It will be a long time without seeing Cam though that will be hard

So I guess Elijah really slept through the night last night. What do most people consider that as? He slept from 9pm until 5 am. He woke up and was fed and changed then went strait back to sleep until right before 9 am. So is that really sleeping through the night?? If so YAYAYAYAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Recently Cam and I decided to go through our finances and try to cut out some small things that we necessarily didnt need and try to save our money. Well, our website was hosted by a company that charged us a small fee, but Cam found a place that was free and he thought that we should try them. As you probably have noticed we have had some problems latley. It started with the website being down. We thought that wasnt too big of a deal because since it was free we have to sort of just let that slide. We could deal with that. But then they blocked us from uploading pictures!!! That is what almost ended our free website. We HAVE to have pictures!! That is what our website is about! Sharing photos with family and friends that we dont get to see very much. Cam tried to work around it, but they did a good job of blocking it so we couldnt change it. We complained along with thousands of others who use them and were being blocked too. FINALLY they changed it and are letting us upload again, but who knows how long it will last. So I put some new pictures on here of Elijah. Sorry for the problems hopefully we will be on the right track with this place!!

GOOD NEWS! Elijah had to go back to Vanderbilt Friday to have his cast taken off and recheck the hip. Everything looked GREAT! He tried to manipulate the hip out of place and he said it felt really solid! It wouldnt budge. He said he also tried going the dye again but it still wouldnt work! He said that has NEVER happened to him before, but since the hip stayed in place he felt like it was ok to proceed with a new cast! I never thought I would be soooooo happy to see that cast back on him. So now he just has to wear it until April 6th and they will put him back to sleep again and probably recheck it and if he feels like its ok then it will stay off! The next step is going to be a splint that goes over his knees and he will wear it all day at night and then after a month if things are ok then he will just have to wear it at night. The Dr. also said that if he is small enough that he might put him in the harness again which really wouldnt be that bad since we know how that works! But it will all depend on how big he is. It was a much better visit this time. It only took an hour like they said, they didnt have to put in a breathing tube when they put him to sleep they just let him breath the gas, he didnt have an IV, and they taped him and padded him properly!!! All of our prayers were answered and we just thank God so much for taking care of him.