Simon’s turn in staying up feeding etc last night – Oliver unloaded most of his 4oz feed on Vicky @ 11pm.  BIG clear up job – is amazing how far the splashes actually get.  There were four individual jets of spew made their way north of Oliver’s throat and then spread out evenly over the bedroom floor.  V thankful for laminate flooring 🙂

Simon managed to get wind out after just about 1 hour of attempts, and so got to sleep just after 1:15am.  We were up again @ 4:40am, and asleep by 6:15am following a 1oz unload.  Awake @ 8:30 am for more milk.  It definitely felt like Simon was simply loading a milk regurgitating machine / pistol overnight 🙁

Vicky went out to get some Dr Browns bottles to give those a try, since we have read that these should help.

Following feed #1 with those bottles, we are still unloading the milk and while it does not feel as much as overnight, it is definitely a whole heap more than two weeks ago.

Gut feeling is that he has a similar cold to the one that Elliot and Mummy have presently.

The really irritating factor is that we can get plenty of wind out at half time, but it seems that when the final whistle goes at full time, he is only interested in leaving the field and not the wind.

We continue to persist…..

Elliot is definitely feeling better today, although is not entirely rid of the cough etc.

Granny Rust (and gang) came over today to see the boys.  Think they found the most amusing part was when Oliver unloaded 20% of his lunch onto the dog.  The dog (Max) was not in the slightest bit bothered it seemed, and actually was rather surprised to find a source of nourishment on his right hand side of his coat.  Pepsi also found this new food source appealing…… NICE !

Simon has been up to Edinburgh this week on Monday and Tuesday, and typically Elliot has picked up a nasty little cold and cough, and Oliver has continued with his sickyness.

We decided to swap back to the SMA Gold to try ot reduce the sick – the great news is that it hasn’t really worked 🙁

Fortunately it is not every feed that he unloads, but it does seem all too regular.  The little monkey is awfully pleased with himself following the unloading exercise.

The health visitor that Vicky took Oliver to see today (OK so it can’t be a health visitor given that they are not actually visiting 🙂 ) was not particularly helpful when Vicky asked for advice on how to handle the sickness issue.  The good news is that he has put a good amount of weight on in the last two weeks – he weighs in at 9lbs 14oz today – 13oz up on two weeks ago 🙂  So the sickness is clearly not having a significant negative impact.

The damned Conservatory is still leaking – the guy came round today, and tried to make an excuse why he couldn’t look at it solo – Vicky was not having any of it, and so he did take a look, and found the leaking component – we even had to suggest using the hose pipe to mimic rain water to see if he could figure out where it came from – it worked (surprise !) and he has now sealed the area off, and will (apparently) be back on Monday to put the internal trims back on.

We went to Nursery last night to parents evening – our VERY FIRST parents evening.  Elliot is doing pretty well – he is slowly getting involved in group things, but still will not wear an apron or join in with the sing along sessions.  Sounds awfully like Simon when he was young … 🙁  He also is not keen on books it seems !!! He LOVES books – we definitely could not understand that so we have agreed to take some of his books from home in to nursery.   He is also learning to share toys and apparently understands rules and why they are important – he is not sharing that understanding with us at home quite as well 🙂  We are also considering extending his stays to one and a half full days – up from two half days.

We changed Oliver’s formula earlier in the week to try to help him out – he has been struggling to number 2 and looks like he will burst a blood vessel in his head when his pushes. With him having the red complexion, it probably looks far worse than it really is, but Vicky did some research and found that “Aptomil” *may* be a better alternative to SMA Gold that we have been using.

We are now 48 hours into it, and he is definitely NOT struggling to unload his unrequired (left over) food (small quantity in each nappy and the smell has reduced drastically), BUT has thus far unloaded it twice orally all over Daddy and the bed 🙁  Yes, as funny as it may be, changing the bed sheets every day is not a favourable option, and for some reason, Simon is not prepared to sleep on rubber sheets.

We will continue with the new food until we run out of it, as it has so far been the same feed (very first one after night time (3 – 4am) big feed) where the prompt ejection notice has been served.  We are kind of wondering if he takes too much on that 3-4am feed and of course doesn’t really bring much wind back up, hence is a waiting milk implosion.  The flatulence is slightly down which (I guess) means it has to come up, and is now bringing the [slightly digested] milk up with it 🙁

Elliot has woken up this morning (early) with a temperature – two teaspoons of Calpol, and literally within 3 or 4 minutes, he is fighting fit – incredible stuff.

Tiredness kicked Elly’s ass yesterday – he slept for about and hour in the car, and then fell asleep on the dining room floor as we were trying to suggest he ate some tea – it was only 6pm.  He was in bed and asleep by 6:15pm !!

….and butter wouldn’t melt right?

We have unfortunately fallen out of a decent sleep pattern since the weekend it seems.  Vicky has had three really crappy nights this week (might even be four 🙁 ) where he is less that happy with himself.

We are thinking that the SMA Gold is not entirely right for Oliver and it is only now that he is 95% formula, 5% booby scoobies that it is coming to light.  It really does appear to give the little guy stomach cramps (probably the reason for the night sleep issues).  Vicky is researching alternatives to see if we can take away the cramps for Oliver.

Elliot is settling in as big brother really very well, although he has decided that he doesn’t want to go to Nursery anymore – think he is feeling a little pushed out on those two mornings a week.

He has begun to learn how to use a netbook to watch Cars videos from the Disney website 🙂  Not quite trained himself how to find them in the first place, but he certainly really enjoys watching the little 4 minute videos when he gets the chance.

Finally, the ISOFIX base for Oliver’s car seat has arrived in the UK – Vicky has ordered and we expect it to be here and installed in the car by mid week next week.

And, no, it is not wind 🙂  There is no question about it, Oliver is now smiling.  Both Vicky and Simon have seen it this morning.  Vicky continues to claim that he WAS smiling last weekend…. OK….

Oliver was also rather sick on daddy this morning too 🙁 Was totally Simon’s fault – he had only been fed 20 minutes previously, and Simon thought that it would be a good idea to go on the swing.  It was a good idea – he liked it, but when Simon took him out, he promptly unloaded half of his last bottle of milk. It is only two ounces or so, but by, can it get everywhere – smelled rather nice as well 🙁

We walked down to grandmas in the new (from Francesco, Sophie, Fabrizio and Rhiannon – they didn’t use it and kindly let us borrow it) Jane buggy – a Prop Powertwin – so Oliver sits in the Matrix Pro seat at the back and Elliot up front “steering”.  Elliot got straight in the pool with daddy and mummy and Oliver joined them 10 minutes or so later.  It took Oliver 4 or 5 minutes to get used to the water, but then he was OK with it.  We just decided to introduce him to the water as soon as we thought was smart – now he will join Elliot in swimming on Sundays.

Simon has performed the night shift over the weekend, and is surprisingly awake given a couple of feeds during each night.  He apologises to Vicky for not stopping the crying a little earlier when changing the nappy this morning at 3am 🙁

We are going to head out for tea tonight as a little treat 🙂