first bout of illness

well it had to happen, our little guy isn't feeling too well.

it started probably about a week ago in wisconsin. occasionally he would pull himself off, while breastfeeding and start crying. he also started to insist upon being carried only vertically. seriously, any position that wasn't straight up and down would set him off.

when you haven't had a baby before, you aren't sure what is normal. did this seem weird? yes - but so does yellow seedy poop, and that, as it turns out, is normal.

the crying during nursing got progressively worse, so we took him in to the doctor on sunday. emmett has acid reflux. the little valve near his stomach isn't closing as is should so he get stomach acid in his esophagus that can be really painful. this isn't uncommon in babies and it usually fixes itself by 6-9 months.

he now has some medicine, but it might take a few days for it to start working. also, we might have to tweak the dose, or change medicines all together if this one doesn't work. so we are still in for a few rough days.

i can handle a fussy baby, but once you know he isn't being fussy - that he is actually in pain. it makes the whole thing really hard to endure.

also, until the medicine works, i'm having to get really creative in terms of trying to find a nursing position that is best for him. so far, this has resulted in sore back and arms.

but this cutie is worth it.

journey to wisconsin

for quite awhile, we didn't know if we would be able to attend greg's (aaron's dad) wedding. we wanted to see everyone. but we really really didn't want to make 5 flights and drive all over wisconsin with a 5 week old. also there was a part of me that was really nervous to parent in front of people. everyone has different view on so many things (pacifiers, bed times, crying, breast feeding, etc). i was scared that someone would think i wasn't doing a good job.

in the end we decided to go. greg doesn't get married too often, we wanted to introduce our family to emmett, and also then we wouldn't have to think about travel for at least another year. 

the flight over was a red-eye, but emmett was a champ. he slept the entire way in aaron's arms. unfortunately, neither aaron nor i got an sleep that night.

the next day we stayed at aaron's brother, justin's apt. we hung out with justin, and his girlfriend, julia. that night was awful. emmett woke up at 2 am and didn't go back to sleep until 9am. blarg.

the next day we drove to egg harbor, the location of the wedding. we had a nice hotel room all to ourselves at the landmark. we had our only real time with greg and karla that night. we ate dinner together at the cookery. that night emmett gave us a bit of a fright by sleeping until 4am. as nice as that sounds we didn't sleep as well as we should have because we were scared something was wrong.

the next day aaron went golfing with the males of the family, while i stayed in our hotel room. we rested a bit, and then julia, rachael (aaron's sister), and caitlin (our niece) dropped by. we hung out and chatted for a bit. rachael was fairly enamored with her new nephew. at one point i said "it's time to feed emmett" to which, caitlin (who is 3) grabbed a french fry and tried to feed it to him. i had to explain that little babies can't eat french fries, they can only have milk. she was very interested in the process and while i was trying to discreetly nurse, she lifted my shirt up for the whole room and asked where the milk was. that even we celebrated bob's (aaron's grandfather) 80th birthday with a fish boil at the white gull inn. here we met the entire wech clan. i love seeing all the wechs together it makes me really happy, the only problem is that when there is that many people by the end of the night i usually feel like i haven't had the chance to really talk to anybody. there was also a bonfire to cap off the night, aaron attended but emmett and i headed to bed and were no shows.

the next day was pretty lazy for us. we stayed holed up in our hotel room. did some laundry, ironed our clothes, etc. in preparation for the wedding that night. the wedding was at the beautiful horsehoe bay golf club. emmett started fussing at the very begining of the ceremony so aaron took up for a bit of a walk. as caitlin (flower girl) was walking down the aisle, i grabbed my phone to take a photo and noticed an urgent text from aaron.

emmett was hungry. i quickly found them and aaron went back to the ceremony. i fed emmett and missed the entire wedding. next came about 45 minutes of family photos followed by some mingling and hors d'oeuvres. we passed emmett around and chatted with various aunts, uncles, and cousins. the dinner was wonderful (i had the tenderloin, aaron had the stuffed trout). more chatting, some funny toasts. followed by dancing. i really wish i could share some photos with you, but honestly i'm really bad about capturing moments. i usually prefer to just be in the moment and not hassle with photos, then i'm always upset that there aren't any photos. i did manage one shot: a four generational wech photo (with aunt michelle photo bombing in the background).

sunday we left egg harbor and headed to green bay to aaron's mother's house. sunday and monday were spent chatting it up with jean and bob and letting them meet their grandson. 

tuesday, we packed up again, and headed back to madison to justin's house. we spent the last couple of nights there. hanging out with justin, julia, and caitlin. 

thursday we took 3 flights to get back home. we were exhausted. any remnants of a schedule that emmett was on was shattered. but it was great to see everyone, and really at this point it's probably easier to travel with a 5 week old vs a 2 year old. 

i also think that this trip helped to make everyday things with emmett seem easier. the grocery store no longer seems like a challenge.