Pictures!

I haven't had anything too exciting to write about, so I thought I would just put some pictures together from the last little while.

We went to the park and Lily kept telling me to tickle her while she was swinging. She was originally on a big kid swing, but we had run into one of her friends from church who is a little younger and Lily wanted to swing next to her friend.

Gabriel asked if he could take a picture of me and Gideon and I kind of love it.

Gabriel is really into pictures lately. This is when he posed Mickey for a picture with Gideon.

He also asks to be in pictures with Gideon about 63 times a day.

We played outside after church on Sunday and Gideon had his first time in a swing!

During church Gideon was being disruptive so we took a break to chill out on the floor of an empty room.

Gabriel, I mean Santa, really loves Gideon and can't stop touching him. Like, for real. He never stops...

Also, this picture is much more recent than Christmas. Gabriel is obsessed with Santa Claus.

Gabriel fell asleep in a super weird position while watching tv. Also, he can rarely be seen without that Santa toy.

Baby Troubles

Okay, so Gideon has been our most difficult baby by far. A few days after Jeff was first called away to the fires, I noticed that he would cry, no, scream for about an hour and a half every night after I put the other kids to bed. It was like clock work. One Sunday, I was in the mother's room with another lady who told me one of her kids had really bad colic. She said that the predictability of Gideon's crying could mean that he had colic, too. So I started thinking that might be his problem and I might just have to wait for it to go away, but I wasn't  completely convinced.
Over the next couple of weeks, the crying got worse. It got to the point where, if he wasn't sleeping, he was crying.
During all of this, some other things were happening, too. Gideon's belly button didn't look quite like the other kids' did. It was this adorable little swirl, like a cinnamon roll. But one day, it wasn't anymore. It was sticking out. Not like an outtie belly button, but like a little nub sticking out of his belly. It totally freaked me out. After some research and a visit to the pediatrician, I discovered that it was an umbilical hernia, it's normal(ish), he's fine, and it should go back to normal on its own with time.
The other thing happening was that he wasn't eating really well. He would lose his latch 2 or 3 times while eating, I never felt like he got enough to eat, and he would get hungry again really fast.
Not knowing if any of this was connected, I was trying to get advice from everyone on everything. I found myself in the mother's room at church with another lady. She had experience with both umbilical hernias and tongue ties, which she suggested might be Gideon's problem with both eating and all the crying. She said the hernia never bothered her baby.
I don't know if hernias affect different babies differently or not, but I know that on that same day I noticed two things: Gideon was crying less and his hernia didn't look as bad. Could be connected, might not be.
Gideon continued to cry less over the next few days, but I was still concerned about his eating habits. Luckily, he had a doctor's appointment coming up, so I decided to ask about tongue ties. The doctor took a look and sent us to a specialist. We got in to see the specialist the next day and he confirmed Gideon's tongue tie. He took care of it right then and there while I panicked inside my head about whether or not I was doing the right thing.
Right afterward, he still wasn't eating well, but they said that could be because it still felt raw and to give it some time. Then it happened. Tonight Gideon ate from both sides for the first time! He ate so much! I was seriously so happy I could have cried.
As his temperament continues to improve, I'm really excited to be able to have more fun with and worry less about my baby.

Back at it

Well, we went from having a 3 year old with a broken leg while I was super pregnant to having a very difficult baby while I was recovering from a c-section. Hence, I haven't kept up with recording the events of our lives. Now we're past the worst parts of it (though we're still working on determining what's bothering the baby) so I'm going to try to be better.
Jeff was sent to work on some of the big fires in Southern California that happened before Christmas. He was assigned to defend Rob Lowe's house at one point. Rob Lowe and his son tried to bring the firefighters brownies to thank them, but CHP wouldn't let them because of the evacuation orders. Jeff hadn't taken his paternity leave, so he was able to use that to come home from the fires for Christmas. We were super excited about it, but it was after he left that Rob Lowe was able to provide Jeff's group of firefighters with a nice dinner. Dang it!
Gideon didn't seem to understand what the big deal about Christmas was, but the other kids loved it! They got just what they wanted from Santa and assumed that all their presents were from Santa even after we would say something like, "Look what your aunt got for you!"
Now, a week later, they are still constantly dancing around the house while singing Christmas songs. I suspect that will last a couple more months. We just love Christmas!