Auntie Nina Saves the Day

Let's get the bad news out of the way first: Ethan is sick again. :(

It's so hard to listen to him breathe so noisily, cough so often, and sleep so fitfully... it breaks my heart! The past few nights I have gotten up with him at his usual 2 a.m. feeding, and then spent the rest of the night/morning with him sleeping on my chest, semi-upright, so that he could breathe easier. I may not have gotten much sleep, but at least he did!

Now for the good news: We have finally found a new "Auntie" for Ethan, someone who can take care of him one-on-one and love on him just like we would-- well, almost just like we would. :) Her name is Nina, and she is related to our friends Veena & Raj. She is so awesome! We took him out of Childtime day care, partially because it was so expensive (almost $1000/month!!), and partially because they just weren't taking care of him like we thought they should. For instance, on a typical day Joel drops Ethan off by 9:30. He fed him last at 8:00 a.m. Well, Childtime lets Ethan sleep from 9:40 until 12:40-- 3 hours straight-- and then doesn't feed him until 1:00 p.m., which is *5 HOURS* after he ate last! Hellooo, he is only 3 months old (barely), he should be eating every 3 hours right now. In fact, their own guidelines say that infants need to eat at a minimum every 4 hours. What the heck, then?! I think they were just so happy to have him there because he slept all day long, which meant less work for them! I brought up my concerns multiple times, but they never really changed anything, even when he was sick and only eating 1-2 oz. per feeding.

I'm so glad we have him with Nina now; she really cares about him already, and has a lot of experience with babies. I feel really comfortable with her, and know that he is as safe as can be over there. *Now* all I have to do is try to stop being jealous that she gets to spend time with him instead of me! /:)