Note to self:

Next time clothe your children in clothes that fit. I have to giggle every time I see this silly picture. What were we thinking blessing him in these pants?! Poor Will.

This post is really about Mr. Eli. I took Eli into his two month appointment today and he is 11 lbs 10 oz (50%) and 23 3/4 inches (75%). He is a chunky baby by our standards.

As mentioned earlier, Eli didn't sleep. People would say, "He's a cat napper?" and we would say, "He's a non-napper." We fasted he would start sleeping and Mike gave him a blessing saying that he would make dramatic improvements in his sleeping. He slept well for two days after I put him on his tummy and then went back to not sleeping. One day he woke up at 4:30 and didn't go back to sleep until 2:00 AM. Then this past Saturday he woke up around 12:30 and didn't sleep again until midnight. I was crying and frustrated and ready to pull my hair out. I talked to Mike for a long time about answers to prayers and such. Mike said, "Tomorrow you are going to feed him formula and pump for a few days." I went to my room to get ready for bed and went to read my scriptures before bed and happened to be in Mormon 9:10: And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles. It was a coincidence that I was in that chapter that very night. I know that Heavenly Father was talking to me in those verses.

The next day I gave him formula like we planned. He took a morning nap and tried sleeping at church but there were too many people around for him to really go into a deep sleep. At 5:00 I got him to sleep and he slept until midnight, woke up to eat, and didn't wake up again until 6:00 AM!! He has been sleeping so well since then. I imagine he is sleeping like a normal baby now. He takes a short morning nap and is awake for a few hours, eats and goes back to sleep for a few hours. He still needs to be swaddled and rocked and has to be free of burps. He still wakes up from gas. The amazing thing is that I can put him down and he can be mostly asleep only to wake up when I put him down. He will cry for about 15 minutes and go right to sleep. I have never, ever had a baby like that.

Isaac was exactly like Eli has been. He used to stay awake for nine hours at a time. It wasn't until he weaned himself at about 10 1/2 months that he began sleeping through the night and taking naps. We had prayed Saturday night that it would be obvious to us if formula was the answer. It seems pretty obvious to us and we are a much happier family now. This is definitely a miracle for us. My sister asked what this meant for future children (Will we have more? ) ;). I think it just means that while on this medicine I will breastfeed for the first six weeks, see how the baby is sleeping and switch to formula if this repeats itself.

So now I am trying to dry up and that is painful...but so worth it!