Baby-wearing and co-sleeping

So much for the crib. After two pretty good nights it has become hated, by both of us. Nathan apparently decided it was not something he was interested in despite doing it for two nights in a row.

We spent two more awful nights on Sunday and Monday fighting until I gave up in the wee hours of the morning and just brought him back to bed with me. Last night I thought I'd go ahead and bring the pack&play into the bedroom and try that since he'll nap in it. Yeah, still a no-go. I will say I didn't try as hard this time around since I was exhausted from the previous two nights, so the first time he woke himself up, I just gave up and brought him to bed.

He wont be patted back down and he ends up waking himself up COMPLETELY. Like, wide awake, quiet-alert awake which is something he just doesn't do normally. Once 1am rolls around he usually sleeps without waking (except to eat) until 8ish. It's just ridiculous. I'm sorry but I wont let my 5 week old cry-it-out. He's just too little - Sorry Dr. Cimo, but I'm not doing it. (I'm going against the pediatrician...uh oh!) Everything I've read says you can't spoil a baby this little, that their crying is not manipulative so, I refuse.

Self-soothing will come in time. When he's older I'll be able to let him cry-it-out but for now we're going to be a co-sleeping family. We all sleep better. He sleeps pretty much all night and doesn't even fully wake up to eat. Just gets fussy in his sleep and is able to eat while staying half asleep. I'm able to just roll onto my side and nurse and we both drift off to sleep again. It's wonderful. Why do people in the USA have such an issue w/ co-sleeping? Now I understand it can be dangerous if you roll onto the baby, but we've got it set up that I really don't think this will happen.

I've put that co-sleeper I bought in the middle of the bed and I'll put him in it when he's VERY asleep, but if I hold him I'll place him in my left arm against the side of the co-sleeper and I sleep on my side. There is no where for me to roll too and Caleb is on the other side of the co-sleeper, therefore completely out of the picture when it comes to rolling onto Nathan. It works, he sleeps so well and so do I. I got so much sleep last night! I was able to wake up at 8am w/ Caleb again. Something I haven't been able to do since attempting the crib (even on the "good" nights) ... I had to sleep until 9 then and even felt like I could sleep longer.

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I'm also attempting to get Nathan used to his sling. I haven't used it much, but I love having him close yet able to have my hands free to do things (like eat lunch!). Right now he's in it, sleeping away. Sweet boy. Dr. Sear's says babies who stay close to mom in slings all day sleep better at night. Interesting. We shall test this theory.

So now I am a breastfeeding, baby-wearing, co-sleeping mommy. If we start doing a little cloth-diapering I can add that to my list of "hippy" things I do too... Heck, maybe I'll even make my own baby food ...

We did it!

Last night Nathan slept in his crib! Whoo!

A Month Old Today!

He's a month old today...that just amazes me...

I love being a mom. I really do, I love getting covered in my child's spit up and not caring all that much. Just wipe it up and go. Hehe.

That is one thing Caleb has a hard time with, the spit-up. He can do the dirty diapers (which he swore he'd NEVER change) but he hates it when Nathan spits-up, even if it doesn't get on him. It's kinda funny too, because I think our child knows how much daddy hates it. He'll be fine, I'll hand him over to Caleb and of course he inevitably spits-up. It's kinda funny actually (to me anyway).

Today we had Nathan's 4 week wellness visit. He's such a big boy! He is now:

11.5 lbs

21.5 inches long

and his head is 37.5 cm

I don't know what his head was at birth. They never told me if they even measured it, but he's gained over 3lbs since birth and grown a whole inch in length! My new mommy friend Leigh called him "solid" yesterday which I like. My kid is not chunky, chubby or fat. He is SOLID. Hehe.

The doctor also said he could start rolling over at anytime, so we can't assume he'll stay where we put him anymore. I'm glad she said that because I really thought it was more like 3months when they started to roll over. Also, we've been instructed to start moving him to the crib. She said he wont learn self-soothing unless he's given the opportunity so I guess tonight I'm in for a night of no sleep! He always wakes himself up by grunting when I put him down by myself so it should be interesting. He also got his second HepB vaccine and he next visit (at 2mos.) is when the real round of vaccines start. Lovely. Although the little bean took it like a champ today. He just cried out once when she stuck him with the needle and then hasn't been all that fussy. I did give him a small amount of Tylenol to help ease the pain once we got home. Doctor's orders ;)

In other news we've got some craziness going on w/ our bank account and the kitchen sink. The sink started leaking about a week ago but it was a really slow drip that we kept meaning to call on and never did. Until yesterday when it became a steady stream and now we're in a slight panic. Our maintenance guy isn't exactly the most reliable person in the world (one reason I kept hoping the stupid leak would stop and we wouldn't have to call) and now we've got to wait on him to even call back while we continually empty out the bowls we have placed under the sink. We can't even turn the water off because every time we attempt to the leak gets worse!

As for our bank account, yesterday Caleb got a notice from Chase saying there was a balance of negative $275. Luckily this isn't our main account but we were still in a panic. After checking online we realized someone had gotten a hold of one of our debit card numbers. Not knowing which one I called and canceled all of my bank cards (for every account we have, just in case) and called Chase to let them know. Of course they can't do anything until it posts but they were alerted, which was good because this morning the person tried to buy something else and it was denied because of the alert on the account. We ended up finding out it was Caleb's card but we're still not sure how someone got a hold of the information. It's the least used of our cards since it's hooked to Caleb's Comic Book account. So, anyway...thank goodness for automated bank alerts. Otherwise we wouldn't have known as soon as that first transaction took place.

update w/ nathan pictures

Sorry it took so long to update. My appointment went well. It turns out I do have a small prolapse but the doctor said there wasn't much we could do about it and that it isn't dangerous. She did say

that although we could do things to fix it if it really was

bothersome (surgery) it didn't make any sense to do it now since I want more children. Pregnancy would just undo anything we fix. So, if I get it fixed it'll be after we have all the children we're planning on having.

I guess prolapse is pretty common after pregnancy and w/ age. I had just never heard of it. No one really talks about what you'll look like "down there" after pregnancy. I guess I was just shocked by it.

Anyway, not much else is going on here. Nathan has his 4 week wellness appointment on Friday. I can't believe he's already a month old! I need to get something to make an imprint of his little feet into. Molding clay or something because they're so freaking cute and I can't stand the thought of them getting bigger. It's funny how excited you get when your child starts to do new things and get bigger, but it's so bittersweet too. You want them to stay tiny!

good morning!

Well my dad left yesterday afternoon. We had a good visit and I should be putting up pictures of Nathan and his grandpa on Facebook sometime this week. I'm usually a bit slow getting pictures up, so bear w/ me. My whole family is coming back up over Thanksgiving and I'm excited to see them all again. Especially my brother and sister (neither one has gotten to see Nathan yet!)

My doctor's appointment is later this evening so I'll have to update again after that. I'm curious what she'll say.

Other than that the only other interesting thing going on here is that Nathan has started to make eye contact in the last couple days. It's so neat to see him getting more and more alert and aware of his surroundings!

Welcome baby Leah!

Let's see...first off, congrats to Krista and Patrick on the birth of little Leah Catherine this past Tuesday! Krista and I went to grade school together and have been keeping in touch through facebook, xanga and blogspot throughout our pregnancies.

In other news, my dad is coming into town tonight to visit Nathan. He wasn't able to make it back when everyone else came in, so now he gets a whole weekend w/ Nathan all to himself. We'll have lots more pictures on Monday!

Also, tomorrow we're going to visit my coworkers for the first time. I really wanted to go on a day that didn't have any students. Friday is a late start day which means the students don't come until 9:40 but the teachers come on time. This would have given me the opportunity to bring him in w/ minimal student contact. I found out though that most of the library staff will be in a meeting at our sister high school during the morning hours so we have to come in during 1st period anyway. I would have come in earlier this week if I'd known I'd have to go into during normal hours anyway, but oh well.

Monday I have a doctor's appointment w/ my OB. My six week appointment isn't until October 7th but I think I have some sort of prolapse so I'm going in to get it checked out. There are various things that can prolapse after pregnancy (bladder, inner wall, and even the uterus itself) and when I called the nurse and relayed my symptoms she said "yeah...how about you come in" so I probably do have some sort of prolapse. Hopefully it wont require surgery.

Well, that's about all I have to update on. Nathan is doing well. He's getting huge already and has a ton of baby acne despite my twice daily attempts at washing his face. Perhaps I'll have to up it to three times a day. Hopefully lots of baby acne doesn't mean a lot of teenage acne later on! He's a happy baby except for a few hours at night (around 11 to 1am) when he gets fussy and wants to eat constantly...well I should really say, use me as a pacifier. I've tried the actual pacifier and sometimes he'll take it but other times only mommy will do. Not sure how that's going to work when I start working again.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm not sure I'll be updating until next week since my dad will be in town.

On Saturday I took Nathan into the doctor due to some bad diaper rash and excessive spitting up. He'd been having a hard time keeping his food down for the past day and I was worried about it.

The doctor checked him out and of course he was fine. I'm a worry wart, but we did get some sample cream for his bottom, eventhough it wasn't near enough, so I bought some maximum strength desitin at CVS yesterday. It seems to be helping, I think the key is to dry him with paper towels after the wipes, then add the diaper cream. Seems obvious, but as a first timer it took me a little while to catch on. =)

He has gained weight, in fact he now weighs in at 9lbs, 15oz ... a full 2lbs more than we weighed at birth! He's only 3 weeks tomorrow, which means he's getting enough to eat. The doctor says he's just a "happy spitter" and could have some mild reflux but since he's gaining weight and having the right amount of diapers, that it isn't an issue.

We did figure out though that the excessive spitting up on Friday was probably due to some salsa I ate Thursday night. So, sadly, I have to cut the spicy foods. Also, he's been so gassy that I think I'm going to try cutting milk (I drink a TON of it) and see if that helps at all. I figure I can drink Soy Milk while I nurse. I'll deal if it means he isn't as gassy. Poor guy! I've tried Mylicon but it doesn't seem to help much. I might try gripe water sometime, but I dunno. I've heard that's more for colic and hiccups which he does get hiccups but since he isn't screaming for hours, I don't think he's colicky.

8 years...

How is it possible that it has been EIGHT years already?

I was on my way out the door headed to school when my mom stopped me and had me watch the TV. That's when the second plane hit. In my first class my drama teacher already was predicting the radical change our country would endure following this. In my second class we watched the first tower fall.

I was sixteen when our world changed ... where were you?

Josh Josh Josh

Hmmm, I love Josh Groban. I go through spurts where I don't listen to much music and I forget how much I love him. I mean he'll be on my favorites list, but I'll forget how his music makes me feel. How it hits my soul. Lame sounding, yes I know.

But, today I have Oprah to thank for reminding me. Her show today was about old episodes where they surprised people. Her friend Gail is a huge Josh fan as well and Oprah surprised her once by sending Josh to her office to serenade her w/ her favorite song: When You Say You Love Me.

I loved this because that was the song that Caleb and I had at our wedding. We also had You Raise Me Up, which we had his cousin sing, but When You Say You Love Me was our unity candle song and we played the cd of Josh singing it.

So, anyway, I threw in one of my cds this morning and have been listening to it for a while now. Nathan seems to enjoy it too, which is good ... gotta make sure this kid is cultured!

BTW - if you enjoy Josh Groban and have never seen him in concert, you're REALLY missing out. Caleb and I went to a concert once when he came to Oklahoma City and it was amazing. I cried, especially when he sang Starry Starry Night, which happens to be my all time favorite Josh song.

Okay, enough rambling about Josh Groban. I love him, blah blah ;) Have a great one!

Two weeks!

Nathan will actually be two weeks old tomorrow! I can't believe how fast it's gone by. We've settled into a better routine in the last week. Now his sleep pattern is fairly predictable:

He is awake between feedings until about 1 or 2 am depending on when he eats (which is based on how he sets his schedule during the day..sometimes he eats every 2 hrs during the day, sometimes it's just every hour...but at night it always goes back to 2-3 hrs). After that 1/2am feeding he goes to sleep until 4 or 5 (depending on when he ate last) and then goes right back to sleep until 7 or 8am.

So, really I'm getting almost 6 hours of sleep a night! Pretty good if you ask me! We do need to figure something out though for when I go back to work in November. I'll have to wake up around 5, so I wont be getting those extra three hours in. Not sure how to switch his little schedule, but we'll see.

The other night he slept between every feeding starting at 11pm, which would be better for once I go back to work, but I don't know how to repeat that, lol.

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As for the crib situation, I've given up. I've talked to friends and family w/ young children and they all say their kiddos didn't sleep in the crib until 2 months. What I've done however, is buy a sleep positioner (see the picture below) that goes in between Caleb and I in the bed. It keeps us from rolling over on him, plus gets Nathan used to sleeping somewhere other than our arms. And, once you want to move him to the crib, you can put it in there to help the transition.

So far he seems to like it. He does end up in my arms at some point in the night, mainly because he's fussy and as I'm calming him down I fall asleep, lol. Oh well, we'll get the hang of it!

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His yucky cord stump is about to fall off. I think it'll be off sometime today, it's only hanging on by a thread. I didn't know how icky it would look underneath so I called the pediatrician this morning because we were afraid it was infected. But, apparently it is only infected if it is red AROUND the navel ... not on the navel. So even though the belly button is red and has some pus on it, it is normal. I'm just supposed to apply alcohol to it to help it dry out now. I can't wait until it's all healed and the stump is gone. It stinks!

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Sorry this is such a long post! I didn't realize I had such a long update. Saturday was our first Oklahoma State game and we dressed Nathan up in his OSU gear and he was soo cute! To make the day even better? OSU won against Georgia and OU lost against BYU! Love it!

Okay, enough...hehe. Hope you have a great Labor Day!

GO POKES!

Growth Spurts

Well, I think Nathan has hit his first growth spurt. According to the books he's supposed to hit one between either: 7-10 days, 1-3 weeks, or 2 weeks (gotta love books that all say something different!)

The symptoms of this include "cluster feeding" which is when your usually routine 2 hour feedings suddenly turn into much more. Today he's eating every hour or so. The only thing that worries me is that he doesn't seem to be eating much during this time. He only eats for about 5 mins ... but I guess if he's eating more frequently then maybe that's all he needs.

Anyway, it has made it hard to get anything done today. Usually I have a little time when he's sleeping but now I start something, get right in the middle of it and he awakes. Oh well ... guess I wont be getting a shower today!

Picture Post!

New pictures of Nathaniel! =)

Coming home from the hospital

Hanging out w/ mommy

Tummy troubles!

Snoozing in the hospital

Mommy's favorite!

one week later...

I can't believe he's already been here a week! Amazing. I could just stare at him for hours.

Our nights have been interesting. The second night home was the worst. I still had a little stamina from getting rest in the hospital that first night home, but the second day I over did it a bit. We had a lot of family in and I was feeling good so I was up and around a lot. Then, when he didn't sleep that night I was drained. Add a mild case of the baby blues and I about lost it. I cried a lot that night.

Since then things have been better. No more crying (from me that is), but there have been points in the night where I've seriously considered switching to formula. We'll be working on getting him to sleep in his crib for a while I think. A couple nights ago he slept in it for a while, but last night he would have nothing to do with it. So, again he slept with us. I hate doing that because I'm afraid he's going to suffocate but it's the only way he'll sleep and in turn, the only way I can sleep.

Anyway, that's about all update I have time for. He's sleeping but I'm trying to get at least a little house work done while he's snoozing.