It was a GREAT night

We have no idea what's been going on with Alex. From about week 3 till now, he'll be 7 weeks on Monday, he's been screaming crying after he eats. When he cries, it's like he's in pain and he cries for a long time. Sometimes he latches on and pulls off after a minute and cries. He's on medicine for reflux and I've taken dairy out of my diet as of Wednesday.

By the way...worst timing ever!!! The day before Thanksgiving. Now that's just plain old cruel, but it's worth a try.

In the last 2 days I've noticed a difference. I don't know how permanent it is, but we are thoroughly enjoying it. He went to bed at 8:30 last night. Usually he's asleep, and so are we, somewhere around midnight. The nights usually have been that he cries like he's in pain and then nurses for a bit, then cries. Maybe he settles down a bit, but then he's hungry again b/c he's not getting enough at each feeding to really settle him to sleep.

Well last night was AMAZING. I went to bed at 8:30 too b/c I'm getting a cold. I woke him up at 1am to eat. His previous feeding was at 7:30pm. After he was done he was smiling and happy. It was so joyous! He went back to sleep pretty easily. Then I woke him up again at 6am to eat. (They say not to let him go too long with the reflux.) He was again really pleasant and went back to sleep on his own easily.

You don't understand...this has NEVER happened. It was so glorious. I don't know if he's growing out of things, if my milk let-down is better regulated, if the dairy was a problem, but I'll keep doing what I'm doing. It may not last, but we are finally enjoying our son instead of just getting through each hour.

Aunt Karen reading to Lilia

Tea Party With Alex

Our guests

Here are our guests. Each one was born in China. They all came to the states at different times and their English was great. We had a wonderful dinner. The girls even helped make the gravy, carve the turkey and put stuff on the table. We loved it! After dinner we played Apples to Apples, which was really fun.

Alex is so colicky at night and so we prayed before our guests came. He only fussed a little here and there. We were so thankful that God chose to have him be more relaxed than usual. The girls loved the dinner and we all had a really fun night.

My helper

We got a gift the other day of matching aprons. They are the cutest things I've ever seen! We put them on yesterday while making our Thanksgiving dinner and Lilia was my helper. Dave was the peeler, I was the chopper and Lilia placed the potatoes into the pot of water. We had so much fun as a family.

The table

My 1st Thanksgiving

This is the first time I am cooking a Thanksgiving dinner. The really funny thing is that it's not for my family (extended). Tonight we are having a Christian Chinese student and some of her non-Christian friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. Somewhere around 75% of international students will never enter an American home. So we are giving some of them a chance to do that as well as experience a traditional holiday dinner

The turkey scares me the most. It grosses me out. My mom picked one up from a turkey farm for me that was all ready to go. We'll see how it all goes!

Dave is home today to help me with the kids so it's been great. Lilia helped me put the potatoes in the pot of water and get the corn muffin mix ready. As of right now, everything is pretty much made and I'm sticking the turkey in the oven. Wish me luck!