Christmas 2012

It's 8:10pm on December 31, 2012.  I really want to get a Christmas post in before 2013 comes, so here it is!

Christmas 2012 was supposed to be pretty busy.  We purposefully skipped a few Christmas parties for various reasons, like the fact that Isaiah is hysterical on car rides, and that certain ones (read: work parties) were just going to be awkward instead of enjoyable.

The plans boiled down to this:

-My immediate family Christmas on December 23

-My MIL's side on December 24

-My brother Matt, his wife Lynsey, sister Giliane, and my Mom on December 25, followed by a couple of hours with my FIL's side on December 25

-Brunch at my inlaw's with their friends on December 26.


The first two days went as planned.  Christmas at my parents house with my siblings was great.  It was a little hairy with naps for Isaiah, since he just recently became less able to nap in a room full of people, even while babywearing, but I didn't stress about it and just went with the flow.  Noah had fun, although he doesn't always enjoy playing with his cousins because they just aren't as nice and gentle as he is.

Noah's present from my parents was a floor mat for cars, the first Cars movie, and 3 cars from the Cars movie.  He really really liked it!  After his cousins realized what he got, they went over and were crawling all over his mat playing with his cars.  Noah said to Josiah in a frustrated voice, "Go somewhere else!!"  So I said to Noah, "Noah, please be nice," and Noah said, in an equally frustrated voice, "Please go somewhere else!!!"  Hahaha.

Christmas Eve was at my inlaws and included the Nonna on that side, and my MIL's sister Mary, her husband Skip, and their son Josh.  This was huge, as they had a huge falling out before Noah was born and the two families never get together for anything anymore.  Justin and I get together with Skip and Mary a few times a year, but never with my inlaws.  It went well.  Again, I wore Isaiah all day so he was happy... except when I let Mary hold him and she started walking around with him facing out into the noisy room.  As soon as she turned him that way he started SCREAMING, and even though both my MIL and me told her to turn him back around because it's not comfortable, it's way too stimulating, and he had nowhere to hide from the stimulation in that position, she ignored us.  He stopped screaming for a couple of minutes and then started wailing again so I just took him back.  Poor little guy.

I should mention, the drives to and from my parents' house and my inlaws house were awful.  I sit in the back with Isaiah and Noah, but Isaiah still gets hysterical.  It frays my nerves.  I usually end up taking him out of the carseat and nursing him.  I know it's unsafe but I just can't let him scream for 25 minutes!

By Christmas Day I was NOT wanting to do any more driving because of all the crying.  I had kind of decided that Isaiah and I would be skipping the rest of the Christmas festivities, but told Justin he could take Noah for a couple of hours.  Keep this fact in mind.

Christmas morning we woke up and stayed home from church (because of the crying).

We opened presents as a family.  Well, Isaiah just watched:

Isaiah got a book and a whole bunch of BabyLegs, the boys got matching handmade hats (not handmade by me, I don't have those skills):

And Noah got a Duplo gas station set and 5 different wooden Thomas trains.

We purposefully kept it lower key this year and just stuck with things we knew he would love (and he did).  I didn't want to bring a bunch of useless plastic crap into the house like we did last Christmas.

Blurry picture of me and my boys, but I have to add it... look how happy Isaiah is!:

Noah fell asleep in the downstairs spare bedroom around 10:15, which was weird.

Then my family started arriving around noon, and he acted very unhappy to see them.  This was weird too.  I gave Isaiah to Justin to hold and brought Noah to him room to ask him what was going on, and when I picked him up he was burning hot.  He had a pretty high fever.  I gave him Advil to bring it down, which it did.  At this point I told Justin that none of us would be going to his family's Christmas that night, as there were two other kids who would be there and I wasn't about to be the family bringing the sick kids into other people's houses.  Justin seemed like he thought I was overreacting, but he agreed.

By the end of the day it was pretty clear Noah was quite sick.  He was burning up again and was very lethargic.  Justin slept in his room with him that night.  At around 5am he brought him into my room because he had been asking for me.  At first I was annoyed, because I'd been lying awake since 12:30am, but as soon as Noah got in my lap I realized he was even sicker.  He was limp like a rag doll and sooooo hot.  We gave him more Advil, I nursed him, and the two of them went back to sleep in Noah's room.

The next morning we skipped Boxing Day brunch because of Noah being sick.  During the course of the day he developed a bad cough and still had a really high fever.  That night Justin brought him to me again at 2am. I think the next night the same thing happened, but since then it hasn't.

Basically, Noah has never been so sick in his life (and he's been sick at least 20 times).  High fever, sore throat, headache, body ache, horrible congestion, horrible cough, major lethargy, spending all day on the couch, choosing to nap for hours even though he stopped napping in August... He even stopped eating for a few days, during which I was so thankful he was still nursing and that I have so much milk.  It's been rough, and right now I'm not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel.  I can't wait until he's healthy again... I know it's only been a week, but it's been so brutal that I'm starting to forget what normal, happy, healthy Noah is like.

Magically, Isaiah hasn't gotten sick, which is amazing since it's been 7 full days of Noah being like this.  I'm a little sick, but nothing like Noah.  Justin is the one who brought this into the house, but he was never sick like Noah is.  It has really been awful to watch, but I'm so thankful it's happened during Justin's Christmas vacation.  I don't know how I would have taken care of both kids by myself.  Plus, Justin has slept in Noah's room every night for the past week, which has really saved me from many sleepless nights.  He's such a good dad!

Incidentally, this illness (and Justin sleeping with Noah) has been the catalyst for Noah sleeping in a big boy bed.  We realized about a month ago that Noah would finally do really well in a big boy bed (as in, not leaving his room when he's not supposed to), but he was perfectly happy to stay in his crib, so we left things that way.  However, with Justin in there over the past week, the sleeping arrangement slowly evolved so that Noah is no longer sleeping in a crib, and he is doing great.  I'm thinking we'll leave it this way after he's well.  Actually, Justin is wanting to continue cosleeping with him after vacation is over, because they both enjoy it so much.  Noah keeps telling me to sleep in there with them too.  He can't seem to accept my explanation that I am a terrible sleeper who doesn't sleep well with people in the same room as me, much less two other people in the same BED as me.  As much as I would love to have my entire family sleeping in one giant bed (and since our master bedroom has two queen beds pushed up against each other, this would be totally feasible), I suck at sleeping too much for this to happen.

Okay, it's 9:00, which means it's past my bedtime.  Goodnight all, have a Happy New Year!

Isaiah is 3 Months Old

Hi people!  I haven't been blogging or even reading any blogs because my laptop busted and Noah has been sick with the darn plague for the past week, but I had to make some time to write a 3 month post before 2013 gets here!

Isaiah was 3 months old on December 22.  (Incidentally, I need to have my kids earlier in the month so that I have more time to get the appropriate post up in the actual month that it occurred.)  Here's the quick low down:

-Isaiah weighs 15.5 lbs (this was naked, on our digital scale, on his 3 month birthday).

-I believe he's around 25 inches but I'm not sure  I can't remember when I last measured him.  He's in 6 month clothing, some of which is too small because of his cloth diapers.  If we used disposables they would all fit fine (although a few things are getting too short).  He's tall, but not as tall as Noah was at this age.  However, he does weigh more than Noah did.


-He is on the medium rise setting on his diapers.  Even though we have hundreds of diapers, we exclusively use Flip covers with various inserts (stay dry, organic cotton, Thirsties inserts, flats, or prefolds) during the day, with a few bumGenius Freetimes thrown in.  This means I never have to stuff diapers, which I HATE HATE HATE doing.  I may as well get rid of all my pocket diapers.  At night he wears an sbish snapless fitted (with both doublers) with a Blueberry one size cover with aplix.  The rise on the cover is completely unsnapped to fit over the fitted.

-He still has those two bottom teeth playing peekaboo.

-He has no bottles ever, nor will he ever have one unless something horrible happens, like me ending up in the hospital on my deathbed unable to breastfeed.


-He is a super sleeper at night time!  His record is 11 hours and 15 minutes straight.  He's also done 10 hours and 45 minutes.  Those were his two longest stretches.  Generally I get a 6-9 hour stretch out of him at the beginning of the night, which is amazing.  He's only getting up to nurse once most nights, which is wonderful to me.  Noah was up nursing once a night until he was 18 months old, so I'm happy with this and I won't be looking to night wean Isaiah until he's a toddler, probably.  I do expect some regressions in this area, though.

-Right before he turned 3 months I started putting him down for some naps in his crib because he doesn't nap on me as well as he used to.  If he's sleeping on me and I have to talk, he wakes up.  However, he also only cat naps in his crib.  Or rather, he did only cat nap in his crib.  In the past few days I've gotten a couple of long naps out of him (over an hour).  The napping situation is very fluid.  Noah was a terrible napper and I vowed not to stress myself out over the napping thing.  I'm just happy that Isaiah finally nurses to sleep (he didn't do that until sometime in the past few weeks).

-Isaiah is still pretty decent at going to sleep on his own if I put him in his crib on his tummy.  Not every time, but I don't expect him to.

-He still does all his sleeping on his tummy.  I'm becoming slightly less nervous about this, but I do still carefully examine him over the video monitor to see him breathing several times a night (haha, no really).

-He is a super happy baby most of the time now.  He's very very smiley, starting to laugh, and is still very "talkative".  I just love when he talks, it's the cutest thing.

-He is quick to smile back at people when they're talking and smiling at him, but he definitely prefers him Mommy over everyone else.  Other people always want to hold him, but it never lasts long as he makes his preference for me very clear pretty quickly.

-He's not rolling yet, but he can push himself right up off his tummy when he's laying on his front.

-He likes to sit up and look around (propped up by us, although he has balanced in a sitting position for a good 5 seconds on several occasions).

-He loves to watch Noah, and that makes my heart melt.

-We still babywear a lot, which we both love.

-Evenings aren't nearly as fussy as they used to be, and I can eat dinner sitting down more often now, either with Isaiah in the bouncy chair or sitting on my lap (he prefers to be on my lap, obviously).

-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me, but he has totally outgrown it.  It's very squishy in there.

I'm trying to think of other things, but I'm feeling very rushed to get this posted before Isaiah wakes up.  So here are some cute pictures from the past few weeks!

He makes me so happy :)

Work to Rule

Since March I have posted several times about how the government is going all Hitler-ish and attempting to dictate teacher's contracts instead of allowing the lawful collective bargaining process to take place.  They even passed a bill (Bill 115) to make it legal for them to impose a contract on the teachers and for it to be illegal for the teachers to strike.  And the Minister of Education is denying all reasonable contracts that have been negotiated with individual boards unless it is EXACTLY WHAT SHE WANTS.  If it's keeping within the budget she really should just allow it, but she only wants contracts that are completely identical to what the government has created.  Yeah, things are pretty tense.

The bright side of this is that as of December 10, the high school teachers are on a work to rule, which means NO COACHING!!!!  Wahoo!!!  Justin started his basketball season, but it only lasted about a month and only four games were played.  Now that's all done.

You know what that means?  I am happy.  My marriage has no tension.  My husband is home every night after work.  I am sane.

This is supposed to last until teachers are again free to collectively bargain without the restrictions of Bill 115.  So I'm all "Keep Bill 115 alive so my husband never coaches again!"  That sounds bad, I know.  But that's really how I feel.

The Conservative party leader is saying he's going to legislate the teachers back to extra-curricular activities... yeah good luck with that, buddy.  A) The Liberals are in power right now, not the Conservatives, and B) how do you think you're going to force teachers to do extra curricular activities?    They're voluntary, and probably only half of a high school staff, or less, does them.  You can't force half of the staff to do them and not the other half.  But you can't make the other half volunteer to coach or do drama club or band if they have absolutely no experience in these areas.  Obviously this guy has no clue what he's talking about.


Anyway, the point is, my life rocks when Justin comes home after work everyday.  I'm a nicer mother and a nicer wife.  And he gets a homemade dinner everyday.  And the kids get to bed on time, which means I get to bed on time.


And last night Isaiah slept 8 hours straight, so he obviously approves.

Isaiah at 11 Weeks Old

Isaiah turned 11 weeks on Saturday, and I wanted to update what things are like in our house.

Life is good.  Isaiah is such a fun part of this family.  He is such a happy, smiley, talkative little guy now.  He is so much more smiley and talkative than Noah was when he was a baby.  And not just for 10 minutes after he wakes up, like it used to be.  He is so vocal.  He coos and gurgles and shrieks happily all the time... it is so fun.  Noah cooed a little bit, but nothing like Isaiah.  It is incredibly endearing.  And his smiles... he smiles so big.  He just seems to love life now.

(This smile was completely spontaneous.  I didn't have to pry it out of him for the camera or anything.)

He is still worn for all of his naps and while I'm doing anything around the house, which we both enjoy.  For some weird reason on the weekends when Justin is home he doesn't nap as well as he does during the week.  This weekend he only slept 8-10 minutes at a time for the majority of his naps.  It doesn't really bother me, though, because it's not like I'm trying really hard to get him to go down in his crib and then he's waking up the second I put him down.  I'm just going about my daily life with him wrapped to my body.  When he sleeps, he sleeps.

(This is a Girasol woven wrap. I've been expanding my babywearing options.  I now have a stash of 12 baby carriers/wraps/slings... 13 if you count the Snugli, which I don't because I've only ever worn it once when Noah was 3 months old and I knew nothing about proper babywearing, and I would rather burn it than have anybody wear it ever again.)

(Waking up from a long nap, during which the rest of us decorated the Christmas tree)

About a week ago he gave me his first 6 hour stretch of sleep, and then this weekend he did his first 7 hour stretch!  7 hours and 20 minutes, actually.  The next night it was 6 hours 45 minutes, and the night after that it was 7 hours 10 minutes.  Those 3 nights I only had to get up with him once, which was awesome.  Night times are very good for him.  After a bath and nursing, he usually goes into his crib awake and falls asleep on his own.  He is starting to fall asleep a little easier while nursing, though, which is fine with me, too.  Just in the last week we've had a couple of mild "struggles" while he's going to sleep where I've had to go back in his room and cuddle and nurse him again.  Again, I don't mind that.  I am trying to keep him used to falling asleep on his own, though, because of the sleep issues we had with Noah.  However, I will not let him cry, so I do go back in there if that's where things start heading.

(This is what Isaiah was doing when I went in to get him one morning last week.  He looks pretty proud of himself, doesn't he?)

He still grunts in his sleep at night (I know this when I'm awake in the mornings before he is), but it doesn't affect my sleep.  I've stopped giving him any reflux meds ever since I started wearing him all day, since he is now upright all the time.

He is very strong with great head control.  At about 10 weeks he started pushing himself up on his elbows with his chest all the way up off the ground.  He loves to hang out like that.  He actually prefers it to being on his back.

I'm back to making our normal dinners every night (while babywearing) instead of living on chicken fingers and fries or frozen meals.  I do still eat a lot of our dinners standing up and bouncing around the kitchen while Justin and Noah sit at the table, but it's become my new normal so it doesn't bug me anymore.  If our timing is really good then I can actually sit down, but it's hard to predict so I usually eat standing.

In short, life is good.  I don't have any standing complaints anymore.  He's sleeping and eating well, he's happy most of the time now, and really seems to be adjusting to life outside the womb.

We really like him. :)

(I didn't pose them for this picture, by the way.)

Edited to add: Oh crap.  I forgot about this complaint - Isaiah still DESPISES the car.  Like, he gets hysterical on just a 2 minute trip.  So I am housebound.  I don't mind being at home all the time, but I really really wish Isaiah was okay with the car, considering we live 25 minutes from our parents, most stores, and church.  

Things Noah Says

(A little under 2 3/4 years old)


Me: Noah, what do you want for Christmas??
Noah: Maybe a tree and some decorations! And I want a candy J!

(I love that he called a candy cane a candy J when we have never called it that... I don't even think we've ever had one in our house before!)

Mommy: Guess who's coming over, Noah!
Noah: I don't know!
Mommy: Guess.
Noah: Guess?
Mommy: Yes, guess!
Noah: Who's 'Guess', Mommy?


Mommy: I love you to pieces!
Noah: I love you ONE piece!


I looked at Noah and discovered that he had bitten off pieces of grapes and shoved them in his ears. I asked why and he said, "I didn't want to hear the TV."


"Hang on, I'm gonna blow you up just a little bit more. It will just take a second." - Noah blows on Isaiah's foot like he is a balloon.

Odds and Ends

-I am always surprised that I can do 1 to 2 extra large loads of laundry every single day, but days like today can still sneak up on me where I have four loads of laundry to do.  How does this happen when I do laundry every single day?

-I have no idea how I'm going to get my Christmas shopping done, since all the stores are 25 minutes away and Isaiah screams frantically every time we're in the car.  I can't leave him behind (especially since he would scream frantically without me around), but I don't want to take him with in the car, either.  I really don't know what I'm going to do.  I don't have one single thing bought, yet.

-I bought a few Baltic Amber necklaces for Isaiah, since he's had his two bottom teeth popping up and down since he was 4 weeks old.  Noah fell in love with one and wants to wear it every waking moment.  So it's his, now.

-I'd post a picture of Noah wearing the necklace, because he looks like a cool surfer boy, but every time I've tried to upload a picture since my last post I've been informed that I'm using all of my photo storage.  I'm not about to pay for more storage, and I have no idea how to take advantage of any other options.  Advice?

-While I was doing laundry today, Noah snapped every single one of his white board crayons in half.  TIME OUT!

-I discovered last week, after Noah drew on four pieces of living room furniture with bright blue pen, that he will, in fact, stay in his room for time out.

-Putting those two things right after each other makes it sound like Noah is always destroying my house.  He's usually not.  He makes plenty of mess, but he's not usually destructive.

-Foods that are especially hard to eat while babywearing in a front carry: soup, rice, tacos, any sort of burger... I'm sure there are more I can't think of right now...

-I can't figure out if Justin Bieber's version of The Little Drummer Boy is sacrilegious or not.  Either way, it's catchy.  It makes me want to bust out the club-worthy dance moves.  With Isaiah in the wrap, of course.  We listen to it on a nightly basis.  He digs it.

Early Bedtime

Yesterday was a busy day for us.  It was the first significant snowfall we've had this year, which is kind of fun.  We skipped church, because Isaiah despises the car so much that I can't bear to put him in it and listen to the frantic screaming for a 20 minute drive there and a 20 minute drive back.

Instead, we bundled up and walked (with Isaiah in the wrap under my coat) to my friend Emily's house around the corner and had a playdate with her son James.

Then we came home and my inlaws brought a late lunch over.  We'd been planning on going to their house but ended up asking them to come to ours instead, because of Isaiah.

By the early evening both kids were exhausted and miserable.  It was out of character for Noah, but pretty normal for Isaiah.  Justin held Isaiah and bounced around for about half an hour while I ate some dinner, nursed Noah, and got things ready for bedtime.  Isaiah SCREAMED the entire time.  The only time he likes someone besides me to hold him is right when he wakes up and is super happy.  Otherwise he screams frantically.  It's a little bit frustrating, since during the evenings he often still needs to be danced and bounced around the house, and my back starts to hurt after wearing him all day long and then not being able to sit down at all for the last 3 hours of the day.

Anyway, both kids were so exhausted that they were asleep by 7.  That's a whole hour or more earlier than they are normally asleep.

What did I do?

I ran around the house like a mad woman tidying things and cleaning up, and then I went to bed.

At 7:30.

That's right, I went to bed at 7:30.  And it was awesome, compared to my normal bedtime of 8:30.

Isaiah has been having better and better nights during the past week, often sleeping in 4-5+ hour stretches.  So between that and going to bed at 7:30, I got a good amount of sleep last night.  Yipee:)

Isaiah is 2 Months Old!

I can't believe Isaiah is 2 months old... for some reason I thought he'd "seem" older by the time he was 2 months.  I'm not exactly sure what about him doesn't "seem" 2 months.  I mean, I think he looks like he's 2 months.  A tiny baby he is not.  But in some ways I guess his behaviour doesn't seem like what I remembered a 2 month old to be.  He sleeps a lot (thanks to babywearing) and can't handle long awake periods.  He's pretty much had it after 30 minutes of being awake - the total opposite of his big brother!  I've only had one 2 month old, though, and my two newborn experiences have been very different.  So what I'm saying probably makes no sense.

Anyway, here is what life is at for Isaiah at 2 months old:

-He weighs 13.5lbs according to our digital scale and with his cloths and cloth diaper on.  In the past when we weighed him this way it was always slightly heavier than what he actually weighed naked on the baby scales (by about a pound).  So it appears his weight gain has finally slowed down, since he was 12.5lbs a little over 2 weeks ago and had been gaining about a pound a week up until then.

-He is about 24 inches long.

-His head is 16 inches around.

-His hair is dark blonde and his eyes are blue.

-His skin has paled in the last month.  We thought he might have Justin's tanned skin at first, but he is totally pale now.

-His bottom two teeth having been playing peekaboo since he was 4 weeks old. They're always right there; sometimes you can feel them better than others, though.  I think this is insane.  I wonder when they'll actually come through.

-He is becoming more coordinated at nursing, and things must be calming down on my end, too, so there's less popping off and choking going on.  He nurses on demand, so just whenever.  A lot less often than Noah did, though.  The frequency depends on how long he naps, but generally it's about every 2 hours, sometimes 3, sometimes twice during an hour long awake period.  I don't pay a ton of attention to it because nursing has been such a part of my life for the past 32 months.  Isaiah has also been super fast at it since day 2.  Each session generally lasts about 5 minutes, never more than 10.

-I babywear him pretty much all day long, and therefore he naps quite a bit.  (At this age Noah was taking 4 half hour naps a day, and didn't lengthen them until he was about 12 months old.  I wonder if Noah would have slept a lot more if I had had to babywear him all the time like I have to with Isaiah).

-For the most part this past month he has only slept in 2-4 hour intervals at nighttime.  But...

-Last night he surprised me by sleeping 5 hours and 45 minutes for his first stretch, and then 3 hours and 45 minutes for his second stretch!  (He then did a 2 hour stretch after that, but his second wake up was at 6 so I just stayed awake).  I was/am elated.

-He seems to be sleeping better at night now that I'm wearing him all day long.  The days that I don't wear him as much, he doesn't sleep as well that night.  I don't know if its coincidence or not.

-He never falls asleep in my arms at night.  I don't know why, he just won't do it.  So I always lay him down awake.  He still takes awhile to go to sleep after that (often about half an hour), but he's not fussing or crying so I'm good with it.  This has been happening for the past 2.5 weeks (although it feels like longer).  Before that we were pacing the house while holding him for hours trying to get him to go to sleep.

-We started doing a bedtime routine at 6 weeks old - bath, jammies, nurse, bed - when he was 6 weeks old.  He loves his bathtime (in the kitchen sink) now, and is slowly getting better about his screaming afterwards.  He used to start screaming the second I took him out of the sink, but now he doesn't start screaming until he's dried off and I carry him to the bedroom to get dressed.  Progress.

-He's sleeping on his tummy at night.  I'm still nervous about it but seriously, we all need sleep.

-For some reason he won't fall asleep "in my arms" for naps either (and has almost always been that way).  However, if I put him in a carrier (wrap, sling, Ergo, etc), he'll go to sleep right away.  It's weird.

-He can be fussy, but if I lay him down and start tying on a wrap, he knows he's about to go in it and he calms down while he watches me.  I think that's cute:)

-He loves diaper changes.  If he's being fussy and getting close to crying, if we go lay him on the change table and either change his diaper or pretend to (undo his sleeper and play with his legs) he gets all happy.  Noah was like this too.  The difference is that for the first few weeks of Isaiah's life he SCREAMED through every diaper change (whereas Noah never cared), so it's a complete 180 for his behaviour.

-He's wearing all one size diapers, and most of them are on the middle rise setting and the second smallest waist setting.  He has super chunky thighs!!!

-I am still changing him once at night.  Right now he wears a Flip cover to bed with one of two options stuffed inside - either a Flip Organic insert with a bumGenius Stay Dry Doubler on top, or a Thirsties Duo Hemp Prefold with a Thirsties Duo insert on top (with the hemp portion of the insert folded in half at the front).  When I change him I put him into a bumGenius 4.0 with their one size insert and a Thirsties hemp insert stuffed inside.

-He is VERY smiley and happy for the first 5-15 minutes after he wakes up, and in the morning time.  It's awesome.  I swear, he has the biggest, happiest smile I've ever seen on a baby!

-He is starting to laugh and make various cooing noises.  I love it!

-He is still grunty while he sleeps, but I have the video monitor set to the lowest volume and my fan on high, so I can't hear anything until he cries out.  I wish I was cosleeping with him, but then I wouldn't get any sleep at all.

-He has a very strong neck, and pushes himself up almost 90 degrees when he's on his tummy.



I'm enjoying Isaiah a lot now that I'm wearing him all day long.  He's happier, he sleeps more, I'm not fighting with him to go to sleep in his crib for naps, I can still do things with Noah... it's just better.  I've even cooked real meat several times in the last couple of weeks (although chicken strips are still a staple in our house right now:).  I should have just done this from the beginning instead of always trying to put him down when he was sleeping.  I would have had a lot less frustration.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the next month brings with my little sweetie!

8.5 Weeks

This is what Isaiah is like after he wakes up... for about 5-10 minutes :)

Isaiah is spending his entire day attached to me in the Sleepy Wrap now, except during nursing and diaper changes.  Thank heavens for stretchy wraps!

I'm investing in 2 more carriers that are on their way in the mail right now, bringing my total up to 6... for now!

Updates on my Boys

I just wanted to write an update on where things are at.

Isaiah seems to be doing a lot better.  Last Monday I let him cry while I held him, and that drastically improved his overall state of being.  I really do think he needed a healing cry for any number of reasons - I had a horrible attitude while I was pregnant, he went through over 2 days of labour, I had bad baby blues for a couple of weeks after he was born... I don't know why, but those are definitely contenders!

Anyway, because he was doing SO much better, on Thursday and Friday I didn't give him any reflux meds.  He'd been on them for a week, but I thought maybe he didn't need them and all of his fussiness was due to us not allowing him to cry when he needed to.

Friday he got progressively fussier as the day went on.  And Saturday?  Oh my gosh, Saturday SUCKED.  By night time there was so much screaming I just didn't know what to do anymore.  Justin took him and I sat on my bed and cried.  And then called my mom.  Thankfully Isaiah finally fell asleep on Justin and then went in his crib.

On Sunday evening he was back to nursing REALLY fussily again.  Crying and popping on and off the whole time, like he had been doing before he started the reflux meds.  I stopped and gave him the meds mid-feed.  Then Monday I gave him two doses, morning and late afternoon.  The fussing while nursing went away.  Tuesday I just gave him a late afternoon dose, and the fussing while nursing was back (although not as bad).

Bottom line, I think he really does have painful reflux, and that his fussiness has been due to several factors, that being one of them.  Today (Wednesday) I'm going with two doses again.  I'm going to see how this two dose thing goes (he's only supposed to have one dose) and let my doctor know.  Hopefully he believes me and changes the prescription, because he didn't think the meds would make any difference to begin with.

Anyway, moving on from reflux...

Isaiah is cutting teeth.  Yeah, what the heck, right?  I first noticed the little white slits in his gums at 4 weeks.  Then at 6 weeks I was rubbing them and I could feel the sharp pointiness of his two bottom teeth right below the gums.  WHAT?!  I think they've receded a bit again in the past few days.  Poor kid.  A teething one month old?  Not fun.  This could also have been contributing to his fussiness in the past month.

At 7.5 weeks, Isaiah is smiling a lot more now, which is wonderfully rewarding.  He has been growing much more smiley in the past week.  He's also having a lot more pleasant and content periods than he was having 2 weeks ago.

He takes a lot of naps in the Sleepy Wrap, which allows me to not worry about trying to put him to sleep.  He'll nap for over 2 hours in the wrap sometimes.  I just pop him in and within a few minutes he's out like a light.  I can even sit down now when he's sleeping in it (before I had to keep moving).

Sometimes he takes decent naps when he's laying down, sometimes not.  I'm not stressing about it, and trying not to think too far ahead.  It is what it is right now.  I'd rather have him get his rest in the wrap and me be able to take care of Noah and my house and myself than be fighting to get him to sleep in the first place, and then be fighting to get him to sleep longer than half an hour.

Sleep at night is... pretty good I guess.  It depends on your standards.  It's not horrible.  He often puts himself to sleep while lying on his tummy in his crib.  But he's still up every 2-4 hours.  Sometimes its an hour and a half, and the longest stretch yet has been 4 hours 20 minutes.  He is frantically hungry when he wakes up, and I know he's capable of putting himself to sleep since he does it every single night (if not at the very beginning of the night, then at some other point during the night after he nurses).  So it's not a sleep association thing... I'm not sure when he'll get over the needing to nurse every 2-4 hours all night long.  For now, I'm just accepting it. I sure would love to not have to go to bed right when he does, though.

On Sunday I skipped going to my SIL's baby shower.  It would have been over two hours of driving and unfortunately Isaiah is HATING the car again.  He was great in the car on the way to my midwife appointment last Thursday, but every time he's been in it since he has been screaming non stop.  He seriously panics, and I feel terrible.  I'm trying him in it again today to take the kids to my parents house to put up their Christmas tree, so we'll see how that goes.  Non stop panicked screaming makes for a LONG 25 minute drive.


Now, let's talk about Noah for a minute.  He is great, of course.  He and Justin have a new bedtime routine that doesn't include me, since I am doing Isaiah's bedtime routine at the same time (bath, jammies, boob, bed).  Justin and Noah do the bath and jammies thing, then Noah picks a book to read and goes in his crib.  Justin sits on the mattress outside of the crib and reads Noah the book.  Then Noah "reads" the book himself.  Then they turn off the light, turn on the sound machine (Noah decided he didn't like white noise anymore, and chose a "nature" track instead... it drowns out no noise whatsoever, but he is sleeping just fine anyway), and then lie side by side as Noah goes to sleep.  Noah will actually go right to sleep with Justin in there beside him, which really surprises me!  It also gives me hope that when we transition him out of his crib, he'll actually do well.

Last night was Noah's first night with a pillow and blanket.  He was asking for them, and since many kids his age are in big boy beds with pillows and blankets, I saw no reason for him not to have them.  He really enjoyed it!  When Justin tucked him in he said "If you get cold, just pull the blanket up to your shoulders."  Noah replied, "Oh, that's a good idea!"  It made us laugh.

I really enjoy listening to Noah's running commentary as he plays with his toys.  His imagination is hilarious, and I love hearing him say all sorts of "grown up" things as he plays or "talks on the phone".  "Oh hi Aunt Giliane.  It's just Noah.  Oh yeah, I'm good.  I'm just doing fine.  We're just going to have dinner now.  We're having buns.  Okay, see you!"

He just started saying his whole prayer with us at meal times, instead of just "Amen" at the end.  He surprised us by saying it a few nights ago, since we didn't know he knew the whole thing.

He is super sweet to Isaiah still.  He always tries to share his toys with him.  Some things he's said to him that made me laugh: "Hi Isaiah!  You're chubby!  You're a chubby boy!"  "Hi Isaiah... I love you... I'm so proud of you!" (I wish I could explain his tone of voice when he said that one).  "Hi Isaiah!  You're so tiny and cute!"  He calls him "cutie pie" and "chunky monkey," which I find adorable.  He'll also say to me, "Hi Mommy... you're so pretty and cute!"  I'm not sure where he got this pretty and cute business from, but I'll take it!


I'm sure I could blabber on for another 10 paragraphs, but I'm leaving the house in less than an hour and I need to get things ready before Isaiah wakes up (he's sleeping in the wrap).

Update on Isaiah's Weight

Today was my final midwife appointment (6 weeks and 5 days).  I'm kind of sad.  I'm going to miss Christine.

There's not much to report from the appointment on my part - everything looks healthy and good.  Hopefully my pap is normal, since I haven't had one in over 2.5 years.

Isaiah got weighed and measured.  He was 23 inches long (20 inches at birth) with a head circumference of slightly over 15 inches (13 inches at birth).  He weighed 12 lbs 7.5 oz.  So 12.5 lbs, basically.  At 6 weeks 5 days.  He was 7lbs at birth.

Geez Louise.

I'm so glad I make great milk that makes my babies thrive and grow, but it's sad to me that they have to get so big so fast.  I wouldn't be surprised if Isaiah doubled his birth weight already at 2 months old.  Isn't that supposed to be a 6 month thing?  

Birth - September 22
Weight - 7lbs
Height - 20 inches
Head - 13 inches

3 Days - September 25
Weight - 6lbs 13oz

5 Days - September 27
Weight - 6lbs 15.5oz

11 Days - October 3
Weight - 7lbs 11oz
Height - 20.75 inches
Head - 14 inches

18 Days - October 10 (his due date)

Weight - 8lbs 12oz

1 Month old - October 22

Weight - 10lbs 9oz

Height - 22 inches

Head - just shy of 15 inches

6 Weeks 5 Days - November 8

Weight - 12lbs 7.5 oz

Height - 23 inches

Head - just over 15 inches

Noah slowed down in the weight department after 2 months, so maybe Isaiah will soon, too.  However, Noah didn't grow quite as quickly as Isaiah, either.  Noah gained 6lbs in 9 weeks.  Isaiah has gained 5.5lbs in 6 weeks.  Yikes.

Update on 'Fussy' Isaiah

Thank you so much to those of you who expressed support in the comments of my last post.  It really does help to know there are/were other people out there who have been through the same frustrating phase that we're in with Isaiah right now - or worse.  While logically I know that things could be a lot worse, it helps to hear your experiences first hand.  It really put things into perspective for me!

With all that being said, I have a little update on the situation.

On Sunday Isaiah was baptized (I'll do a post with a couple of pictures after I upload them to my computer).  It was kind of a frustrating day, as he was having his short little naps, wouldn't stay asleep when put down in his crib, and was fussy.  However, there were many other arms willing to hold him and walk around with him, so that helped.  Unfortunately, the willing arms all left around 4:30pm, and once again I was left facing the evening alone with a fussy baby (Justin usually spends quality time with Noah during the evenings)... and I had that feeling of dread that I get every afternoon.

Thankfully, Isaiah was exhausted from not sleeping well all day, so it didn't take 2 hours of pacing around the house to get him to go to sleep for the night.  Instead, he was asleep and in bed by 7:30.  The time change was very helpful in getting him to go to sleep earlier than normal.  And, I got to go to bed at 7:50pm!!!  It was glorious.  Isaiah did get up several times that night, only sleeping in 2-3 hour chunks as usual, but still.  I was happy.  Collectively, I got the most sleep I've had since probably before I was pregnant with him.

Monday morning Isaiah got up around 7am.  He was happy for the first 10 minutes, and then I had to pace around the house with him.  The whole time he kept drifting off for a minute and then forcing his eyes back open.  We did this until 8:30, when he finally was asleep and I put him in the pack and play.

As soon as I put him down I raced around the house getting things done.  I was tidying, doing laundry, shoving breakfast in my mouth as quickly as possible, etc etc.

At 9:00 he woke up.  He'd only been out of my arms since 8:40, and was super fussy as soon as he woke up.  I was really frustrated.  There were still a million things I had to do that I now couldn't do.

I was so frustrated (since half hour naps have been his habit for the past week, and then he's miserable whenever he's awake) that I wanted to just put him in his crib and leave the house, letting him cry.

Of course, I can't actually do that with a 6 week old.  So instead, I just sat on the couch holding him, and I allowed him to cry.  He would get really worked up and scream his head off, and then after 30-60 seconds he would suddenly stop and look around, like he hadn't just been screaming.

This went on, on and off, for 2 hours.  I just sat there, holding him while he cried, not bending over backwards to soothe him.  There were probably about 10 crying episodes, punctuated by calm.  I can't say why exactly I did this, originally.  I know I was just too mad at the situation to spend hours pacing around with him.  I felt like the whole thing was just ridiculous.  I mean, I know he's a newborn and they aren't exactly rational creatures, but he used to be pretty chill, and over the weeks he has evolved into a really high maintenance baby.  I felt like he shouldn't require such specific conditions in order to be calm, and that he needs to learn that it's possible to be calm without those conditions (sort of like when you're trying to get your baby to learn that they can go to sleep without nursing, rocking, or a pacifier).

I mean, I have a husband and a two year old, but my entire life revolves around this fussy baby and the other two members of my family are hardly getting any of me because of it.  Plus, it was starting to get depressing to me.  The other day Justin was saying that he was looking forward to something, and I realized that I don't look forward to anything anymore.  Every day is just too challenging.  Not challenging in a good way, like it was at the beginning when I was learning to balance a newborn and a toddler.  But challenging in a "I really hate this and don't know how much longer I can keep going like this" way.  I was starting to not enjoy life anymore, because my whole existence was trying to keep a fussy baby calm.

So I sat there holding Isaiah while he cried.  It's just what felt like the right thing to do, and it was actually making me a lot less frustrated.  He kept acting like he would fall asleep, and then would force his eyes open.  After 2 hours of this he had a good nursing where he fell asleep, but then he woke up when I started burping him.  After I burped him I decided to just put him down so that I could get Noah something to eat.  I went to put Isaiah in the swing, saw his eyes were almost closed, so I put him on his tummy in the pack and play.  I wasn't really expecting him to go fully to sleep, but he did, and he slept for almost 2 hours!

After that good nap he had a couple of shorter naps in the pack and play over the course of the afternoon (40 minutes and 1 hour).  This is better than it has been, as he usually won't lay down for his naps after about 3pm.  He woke up from his last nap around 5:15 (we had an early dinner so that we could all actually eat at the same time).  The next two hours consisted of a lot of crying.  Screaming, really.  When he got really worked up I would do some jiggling to get him out of the screaming fit, but otherwise I just held him and talked to him.

I gave him a bath around 7pm.  He still pretty much hates baths, and he screamed like crazy as I was getting him diapered and dressed afterward.  At 7:20pm he started nursing.  He nursed really well and fell asleep during it.  However, he once again woke up when I put him over my shoulder to burp.  At this point I took him into his room.  He was very calm, so I just laid him in his crib. I wasn't really expecting him to go to sleep on his own, but I wanted to give him the opportunity.

Shocker of shockers, he calmly looked around for 10-15 minutes, and then went to sleep.  No fussing, no crying, just closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Then last night he slept for over 3 hours 20 minutes, then 4 hours, then 3 hours and 20 minutes again!  I only had to get up with him twice!  When he woke up at 7:15 I nursed and burped him and he was drowsy but awake, so once again I put him in his crib.  He was awake, but he just laid there blinking for about 5 minutes and then went to sleep on his own.  Again.  And he slept for another hour.  After that he was awake for close to 2 hours, and he was pleasant and smiley for most of that time.  Now it's 10:30 and I just put him down in his crib drowsy but awake, and he fell asleep on his own again.

I don't know if this is a fluke, or the beginning of something beautiful.  I know that this doesn't mean my life or baby are going to be perfect from here on out, because if Noah taught me anything it's that babies are always changing.  Still, I'm very thankful that Isaiah finally threw me a bone.


(Last night I googled "letting newborn cry while in mom's arms" and I came across this whole thing called "crying in arms".  The premise is that crying can be good for babies, as long as they're in their parents' loving arms.  Just like sometimes we just need to have a good cry, so do babies.  If we're constantly stopping their cries with jiggling, nursing, "shhhh-ing", etc, they just keep trying to cry because they need the release.  And often letting them cry while you support them by holding them makes them happier babies overall, and better sleepers.  I found this really interesting, especially now that I saw that Isaiah was happier and did sleep better.  Here are a couple of links if you're interested:  http://www.awareparenting.com/highneedinfants.htm, http://www.awareparenting.com/comfort.htm)

Isaiah at 6 Weeks

Isaiah is 6 weeks old today, and I am going to be very honest in this post.  I think I glossed over a lot of the bad stuff when I wrote updates about Noah, and if I'm going to have another baby I would like to have a realistic memory of what Isaiah was like as a newborn.

He is fussy.  He is a freaking fussy baby.  If he's awake, it's almost guaranteed that he's fussy.  Sometimes he's okay for the first 5 to 10 minutes that he's awake, but after that?  Fussy.  He must be walked around the house constantly.  Do not bother to sit down and rock him.  He will cry at you.

I have not made a proper dinner since he's been born.  Chicken strips, chicken burgers, french fries, tater tots, frozen lasagna... these are all staples in our diet right now.  If we have real meat (ie. chicken breasts or steak or pork chops), it's because my husband is cooking it.

Justin and I cannot eat dinner at the same time unless Isaiah happens to have fallen asleep in the wrap at the exact right moment.  Even then I am rocking back and forth, otherwise he will wake up. Either that or I am eating dinner off the island and pacing around the house between bites.

At night, he still will only sleep 2-3 hours at a time.  Sometimes 1.5 hours.  He has never slept longer than 3.5 hours, and that happened exactly once.  At this age Noah was sleeping one 5-6 hour stretch at night.  I don't know why I hoped that by now Isaiah would at least be sleeping 4 hours once a night.  Call me crazy.

During the day, for the past half a week or so, Isaiah will not nap for longer than half an hour unless he is being held.  If he was decently happy when he was awake, or even half the time he was awake, this wouldn't be so bad.  I have already dealt with a baby who only ever slept half an hour at a time from 2 months to 12 months.  I can handle it without stressing.  But for Isaiah, awake = fussy.  And awake = I can't get anything done.  I can't tell you the last time I went to the bathroom during a week day without a baby strapped to my chest.

Furthermore, since Isaiah was one week old, it has been incredibly difficult to get him to go to sleep for the night.  For some reason he just STAYS. AWAKE.  For hours.  And stares at you while you're pacing around the house or rocking him.  He'll start to fall asleep, and then within a couple of minutes he'll FORCE his eyes open so that he will. not. fall. asleep.  Because heaven forbid a 6 week old go to sleep.  Again, this wouldn't be so bad if he would just sit there with us, and if I wasn't pacing or rocking for hours.

He hates the swing.  And the bouncy chair.  And the carseat.

He smiles occasionally.  But not much.

He could be a lot worse.  But he's certainly not easy. I know "this too shall pass."  But WHEN?

At least he doesn't scream through every diaper change anymore.

And at least he's really cute.

Just make sure you don't stop moving.

Feel free to pass along stories about your own fussy babies.  I could use a good dose of "Thank God I'm not the only one."

I Went

I went to the doctor's appointment yesterday.  Admittedly, the driving was pretty crazy, but I decided I just couldn't wait to try and get a prescription for Isaiah.  Listening to him scream is too hard when I'm thinking it's from real pain.  If he really is in pain from reflux, I wanted to be able to deal with it.

My doctor is convinced that reflux doesn't hurt babies, and that the prescription will do nothing.  I didn't argue, even though I think that's bull.  I was just glad he gave me the prescription at all.  I know most babies aren't bothered by reflux - Noah spit up like CRAZY as a baby.  He would puke at least 30 times a day, often very explosively, like a volcano.  But he was never bothered by it.  Isaiah, on the other hand, always swallows his puke.  If he let it out he would probably be throwing up 30 times a day as well, but he almost always swallows it back down.  And he does seem very bothered by it.  Plus there's the writhing, back-arching, fussiness and squirming while nursing (I realize that is often from my fast letdown, but other times it doesn't seem to be at all), crying immediately after nursing (when there's no way he's hungry), sometimes screaming, excessive grunting, poor sleep, etc etc.  He certainly seems to fit the profile of a baby who is bothered by acid reflux.  And if he isn't, oh well.  Spending a short period of time on medication isn't going to hurt him.

The meds weren't available from the pharmacy until 7pm because they had to compound them.  Therefore, I wasn't able to give them to him until way after his crying period began.  Today I'll give them to him in the afternoon and see how that works.

He wouldn't go to sleep until 10pm last night.  However, he had an excellent sleep after that!  He had 3 stretches of 3 to 3.5 hours of sleep!  I only had to get up with him TWICE!  That has never ever happened.  He never even sleeps a 3 hour stretch.  He was also very quiet compared to how he usually is.  I didn't hear him grunting and groaning more than a couple of times.

Of course, I didn't get nearly as much sleep as he did, but I did get at least 5 hours, so I am happy with that.

I don't know if it was the reflux medication, or the fact that he was sleeping on his tummy with the head of the mattress elevated for the second night in a row.  I also burped him for a lot longer than I normally do - up to 20 minutes each time (I usually stuck with 8-10 minutes before), which kept him upright longer than normal.  The first night I put him on his tummy he slept quieter and for slightly longer stretches (about 2 to 2.5 hours), so maybe it's a combination.  Or maybe it was a coincidence.  Or a fluke.  I guess we'll find out when we see how his nights go in the near future.

I hate that he's sleeping on his tummy, and it totally stresses me out.   I admit, I am often peering closely at the video monitor to detect his breathing.   But he really is a lot more comfortable that way, and the baby needs his sleep.


Alright, I'm off to get some more stuff done before Isaiah wakes up from his nap.  I will leave you with this picture:

Yesterday Isaiah was crying as I was carrying him around in the Sleepy Wrap (honestly I think I wear him at least 3 hours every day).  I put this hat on him, just to show Justin how cute it was, and after protesting loudly for about 20 seconds, he totally went into a trance.  It was hilarious.  One of those moments where you're like "Were you seriously just screaming because your head was cold, or was that a coincidence?"

(For the record, Isaiah is 5.5 weeks old right now)

What to Do...

We've been hammered by Sandy since yesterday evening.  Our particular city has received the worst weather in our entire province.  Wind is blowing at 100km per hour.  I know our house has lost siding and shingles, but I can't tell the extent of the damage because there's no way I'm going outside at this point.  Some people have lost whole sections of their fences, trees have been uprooted, a woman was killed by a flying street sign... it's crazy out there.

Now here's the thing... I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for today.  It's been scheduled for the last month as a follow up for my sleep medications.  I don't really need the appointment, and rescheduling would be fine for me.  BUT, as of yesterday I was intending to piggy back Isaiah on the appointment to talk about attempting some reflux medications for him.

Last night was awful.  Not the overnight part, but the 2 hours leading up to it.  Isaiah woke up from a nap and for 10 minutes he was perfectly content and happy.  Then I nursed him, because he was hungry, and after nursing for a couple of minutes he was MISERABLE.  He started screaming and writhing.  It was awful.  I hated it even more than usual because I was thinking about how he might actually be in pain, and not just crying inexplicably.  Yesterday I realized that this is ALWAYS what happens... partway through nursing he starts to get upset and acts like he's in pain, and in the evenings it's the worst.

So, that was rough.  However, overnight went okay.  We raised the head of his crib mattress, took him out of the swaddle, and put him to sleep on his tummy all night.  He did much better than he's been doing lying on his back swaddled.  I got up with him 5 times (4 times to nurse, once to get a burp out and soothe), but he was less scream-grunty than he has been.  I got 4 or 5 hours of sleep, which I am happy with.

Now, the question is whether to keep the doctor's appointment or not.  I really don't want to go out in this weather, and I'm actually concerned about the safety of driving on country roads for 25 minutes to get there.  But I would really like to talk to my doctor about Isaiah's possible reflux.  It kills me to think he's in actual pain from acid reflux, and not just uncomfortable from gas.

Like I said last night, my doctor is the opposite of a pill pusher.  If he doesn't give me reflux meds to try on Isaiah, I'm finding someone who will.  I'll go see a pediatrician, or go to a walk in clinic, or ask my midwife who else I could get a prescription from.  I mean, maybe he doesn't have reflux.  But if the meds don't work, they don't work.  At least we tried instead of letting him suffer!

Burning Out

I am not having a good day.  Last night I didn't get a minute of sleep.  Isaiah's sleep has been going downhill instead of getting better, which I was expecting it to do since he is over 5 weeks old now.  Instead, he either sleeps for really short periods of time, or he's super super super grunty and I can't sleep at all.  His grunts are so loud on those nights that even if I turn the monitor off, I can still hear him from across the hall even though I have a loud fan on right next to my head.  His grunts are LOUDER than his cries.  So how am I supposed to sleep?  Seriously?

Last night I had him in bed with me for all but one stretch of his sleep.  If he is in bed with me he will go 2.5-3 hours between nursings.  If he's not, he'll be up crying like 10 times.  But when he's in bed with me I can't sleep.  However, last night he was so loud that I couldn't sleep with him in his own room anyway.  So in bed with me he stayed.  So, yeah, NO sleep for me.

And seriously, not only is Isaiah an insanely, incredibly loud sleeper, but after 12pm, if he is awake, he is MISERABLE.  I hoped it would start getting better, but it's only getting worse.  I'm starting to wonder if there is something actually wrong with him, something he won't be growing out of soon.  Like reflux.  He arches his back and cries like he's in pain, especially right after nursing, plus a whole bunch of other things that are symptoms of reflux.  Unfortunately my doctor is the opposite of a pill pusher, so getting reflux meds from him to try might be really really difficult.

On top of all that, Noah is being a whiny pain in the butt today, which is really bad timing considering I have no patience from the no sleep thing.

I feel burnt out.  I need a good night's sleep.  I need someone to sit with Isaiah and put their hand on his tummy or head anytime he sounds fussy, and only bring him to me when he really needs to eat.  I need the fan on high, my door shut, and I need to not have the monitor on.  Justin can't do this because he can sleep right through Isaiah screaming his head off, so I'd never be able to fall asleep because of wondering if Isaiah is awake and crying or not.

If tonight goes like last night, I might actually see if my mom or mother in law are willing to do this for me. At least so I can get 4 or 5 hours of sleep.

Who am I kidding?  I don't think I'd ever actually ask them to do that.

Isaiah is One Month Old!

Isaiah was 1 month on October 22.  I wanted to write an extended post like I did with Noah, but with 2 kids, one of whom doesn't nap, and the fact that I have to go to bed as soon as Isaiah goes to bed, I really don't have time for an extended post.  Here's an update on my littlest man:

-He got weighed at the midwife's on October 22, his one month birthday, and he was 10lbs 9oz (naked).  He gained 3.5lbs in 3 weeks.  Hopefully he'll slow down a bit this coming month!  It's crazy to me that some people give birth to babies that are his current size.

-He is now 22 inches long (he grew 2 inches).

-His head circumference is close to 15 inches now.

-Isaiah is exclusively breastfed, of course.  Just from the right side so far, (Noah has the left side, because the letdown on the side is crazy).  No bottles, and I don't expect him to ever have one.

-He's still super grunty, groany, moany, and shrieky, but I may be seeing slight improvements in that area.

-To attack the gruntyness (I know that's not a word), Isaiah is seeing the chiropractor, now on a weekly basis instead of every few days, and I bombard him with homeopathic colic remedies.  He doesn't have actual "colic" (crying 3 hours a day, 3 days a week, for at least 3 weeks), but his gruntyness stems from gas and all those remedies are geared toward gas.  I think I see some improvements when I give them to him.

-He takes the "witching hour" very seriously.  Well, witching "hours".  From about 4pm (or whenever he wakes up from his last nap) until he goes to bed sometime after 8.  He won't go down for another nap after that, although he does have short 10 minute snoozes in our arms.  Thankfully he is quite content if he is being held and walked around, so we don't have to listen to screaming as long as we're doing that.  We're doing quick and easy suppers and either take turns eating or I wear Isaiah in the Ergo and eat my dinner off of the kitchen island while bouncing around between bites.  This is a tiring phase, but thankfully we know from experience that "this too shall pass," and that makes it a lot easier to deal with.

-I do a LOT of babywearing with Isaiah - more than with Noah.  This is out of necessity, seeing as I have a toddler to take care of as well.  But Isaiah loves it.  I find he is more content on the days that I wear him a lot, not just when he's being worn but also when he's not being worn.  He's more chill.

-He is hit and miss for naps.  He'll have a couple of good ones if I hold him for long enough after he falls asleep.  He will NOT go to sleep on his own anymore.  That was done back at 2 weeks old.  I do allow him to fuss to see if he'll fall asleep on his own, but the fussing always turns to crying and I am not going to let a newborn cry it out.

-Things change on a bi-weekly basis, but lately during the day Isaiah takes most of his naps on his tummy in the bassinet of the pack and play in our living room.  He used to take them swaddled in his crib, but that stopped working out so well.

-Night time is frustrating.  It's hard to get him down for the night.  He either doesn't fall asleep for hours, or he does fall asleep but wakes up within 5-20 minutes of us putting him down.  And he doesn't just fuss, he CRIES.  Last night we had to put him back to sleep about 10 times.

-Once he's "down for the night" he generally sleeps for 2 to 2.5 hours, sometimes reaching 3 hours, but never longer than that.  Last night he had two "stretches" of sleep that were only 1.5 hours.  Boo.  He normally sleeps for at least 2 hours though, so I'm hoping those super short stretches were just flukes.  I am waking up to nurse him either 3 or 4 times each night.  3 times doesn't bother me.  4 kind of does.

-(Sometimes I wonder if God gives me crappy nights like last night just to make me appreciate the other nights more, since it's fairly easy to wish your child would sleep longer than 2 or 3 hours at a time.  However, 2-3 hours feels pretty good compared to 1.5 hours!)

-He's had 2 haircuts already.  His hair is quite light, like a light light brown or dark dark blonde.

-His blue eyes are lightening, so I'm pretty sure they'll stay blue.

-His skin tone is darker than Noah's was at this age, so he might have his Daddy's dark Italian skin.

-He loves when I wrap him in a towel and hold his head over the sink to wash his face and hair.  He closes his eyes and looks so content.

-He gets all his baths in the kitchen sink.  Whether he enjoys it or not depends on the day.

-I wash his face and hair everyday, but actual baths only happen a couple of times a week.

-Isaiah started smiling on his one month birthday.  We only get a few smiles per day at this point, but we'll take them:)

-He is mostly wearing one-size diapers now, on the smallest settings.  He doesn't wear the Kissaluvs fitteds anymore because he pees right through them.  Anything from the bumGenius family (4.0, Elemental, Freetime, and Flip) fit him nicely back at 8lbs.  Thankfully I have a big stash of these, because none of the Kawaii pockets fit him, even the Pure and Naturals, which are supposed to fit from 6-22lbs.  They're way too big around the waist.

-Isaiah absolutely hated diaper changes for the first couple of weeks and would scream the whole time.  He's chilled out in this area now, thankfully!

-He has a very strong trunk and neck, and holds his head up very well.  He's also pushing off things with his legs now.

-Both of Isaiah's testicles were undescended when he was born, which stressed Justin and I out majorly (the cause of Justin's infertility is an undescended testicle that wasn't corrected until he was 5).  However, they both descended by the time he was 2 weeks old.  HUGE RELIEF!  It must have just been because he was 18 days early.


I just realized I've been really bad at taking pictures lately.  I think it's because Isaiah is at the stage where if you put him down he is not happy.  That doesn't give a lot of opportunity to take pictures!  These are the ones taken within the past few days:

Cuddling with Daddy:

Tummy nap!:

Okay, that wasn't as bad - by bad I mean short - as I thought it would be.  Now I'm off to feed myself and Noah before Isaiah wakes up, which could be any minute now.

What Life Has Been Like

Isaiah is 4 weeks old today, and I really haven't posted anything about what our life has been like.  For my own benefit, I'd like to recap what the past 4 weeks were like.

When Isaiah hit 3 days old, the baby blues hit me in full force.  This was the exact same day they hit me after I had Noah.  My version of the baby blues involves a lot of anxiety.  Not over any specific thing, but a general feeling of anxiety.  I would be fine in the mornings, but by mid-afternoon I'd be feeling really anxious.  I think a lot of it stemmed from not knowing what to expect overnight.  I never knew what my night with Isaiah would look like, where he would sleep, whether he would sleep, etc.  Plus, Justin becomes a complete zombie after he falls asleep at night, so even if he seems like he's awake and with me, he's really not.  He remembers none of it in the morning.  I find that really creepy and disturbing.  So that didn't help things.

Obviously childbirth, even completely natural in-your-living-room childbirth, requires recuperation.  But it drove me crazy that I couldn't go do the fun things Justin and Noah would get to do.  I hated when they left the house to ride bikes, go to the park, or go on an "adventure" (this is what Noah calls it when they go over to the construction sites and play in the dirt).  I didn't feel "obligated" to stay behind with Isaiah.  I loved to take care of him.  I just wished I was up for going out with the rest of my family.  Physically up for it, that is.

Justin only had 2 days off of work, so he was home for the Monday and Tuesday after Isaiah was born.  On Wednesday he went to work and my Mom came over.  She came over really early, because that Wednesday I had to go to an 8:15am doctors appointment to get some medication for my insomnia (which works, by the way).  I took Isaiah with me, of course, and I had to laugh at the difference between my first outing with Noah and my first outing with Isaiah.  With Noah it was a huge deal.  I had to have my Dad drive the 25 minutes to my house, and then drive my van to Noah's doctor's appointment so that I could sit in the back with Noah.  Ridiculous, right?  With Isaiah it was nothing.  He wasn't even quite 4 days old but I barely thought twice.  It was actually a lot easier to take him out at that point that it is to take 2 year old Noah out.

The Thursday following Isaiah's birth was my first day alone with my boys, and it went well.  There is really nothing to report.  A lot busier than with just one child, but it went smoothly.  However, by the time Justin came my anxiety was building.  I really hate that feeling.

That Sunday we tried going to my parents' house for dinner.  The hope was that I would feel more normal, less cooped up, and my anxiety wouldn't be so bad.  Unfortunately, it didn't work.  I was as anxious as every other day, and I could barely eat dinner.  I totally ended up in tears, too.  Over nothing.

I believe it was that Thursday, when Isaiah was 10 days old, that I started feeling better.  My anxiety started lessening a little more each day.  A large part of my baby blues was feeling like I wasn't living my own life.  I had a new baby, who I loved like crazy, but he was still new.  He was a new addition to our family, and my life didn't feel like my own.  I just really wanted my life to feel like my life.  That Tuesday was the turning point.  Each day after that I was feeling better, and by the time Isaiah was 2 weeks old I felt like a normal person again.

I have to say, my midwife was amazing throughout all of this.  She wanted to do anything she could to make me feel better.  At my final home visit with her she sat on my bed with me for a lot longer than normal, just chatting about everything that I was feeling anxious about.  She called me that Saturday, just because talking to her always made me feel better.  And she had me book extra appointments so I could talk everything out.  Looking back and realizing that the worst of the baby blues only lasted a week seems crazy to me, because it felt like a month.  I'm thankful they're over now, and I'm very thankful for the support of my midwife.  For some reason talking to her made me feel so much better - something I couldn't achieve when talking to Justin or my Mom.

Anyway, back to our new life.  I've basically been totally on my own with the boys all day long since Isaiah was 4.5 days old.  This was okay with me, because I missed spending time with Noah and I really did want to start feeling like my new life was my normal life.  Almost every day has gone well, but like anybody I've had a couple of rough days.

What I don't like is anticipating each morning.  I never know what my early mornings are going to be like!  Isaiah is no longer content to sit in his bouncy chair while I shower, so I have to shower when he's sleeping.  Unfortunately, he usually has a long awake period in the morning (although I never know what hours he will be awake), so I have to shower before Justin leaves for work at 7:40 (he's been leaving late for my benefit).  I also have to nurse Noah at some point early on in the morning because my left boob is exploding, but it has to be either when Justin is still home (if Isaiah is awake, since he is no longer okay with not being held), or while Isaiah is still sleeping.  So, between having to shower and nurse both children (Isaiah is usually up to nurse sometime in the 5:45-7:15am range) and then get some breakfast for myself and Noah and get a load of laundry in the washing machine, I feel like early mornings are a little bit stressful because of the balancing act.  Once I've accomplished all of those things, or at least had a shower and gotten Noah and Isaiah nursed, I feel fine.  But until then, I'm kind of a huge grump.

Night time... well, as I'm sure you can imagine, this is constantly changing.  For awhile he was sleeping in the pack and play bassinet beside my bed.  Most of that time he was sleeping in his bouncy chair within the bassinet, because he just didn't seem to want to sleep lying down.  However, now Isaiah is in his own room, where he's been since before he was 2 weeks old because of his grunting.  And to be honest, we are doing everything "wrong".  We have a pillow in the crib, which we use to prop him up on his side.  We also have a thick blanket folded that we prop his head on like a pillow, because even though he is on his side, he is swaddled and his head would flop down uncomfortably otherwise.  And occasionally I have even put him on his tummy when he has been very grunty (which he always is, but sometimes it gets even worse) and seemed extremely uncomfortable.  See?  We're doing everything wrong.

I go to bed as soon as Isaiah goes to bed, so many nights I am in bed by 8:30pm.  However, this time is not predictable because right now -and for the past couple of weeks - Isaiah is very hard to put to sleep for the night (and for naps).  Nights are easier now that I have the video monitor, but I do spend a LOT of time awake listening to his loud grunting and moaning.  For awhile I was waking up to nurse Isaiah 3 times, besides his nursing right before bed and his morning nursing after which I don't go back to sleep.  When he was 2 weeks old I was saying how awesome it would be if I could just get up 2 times.  I immediately regretted saying that out loud, because that night and every night for the week following that he took it upon himself to wake up to nurse 4 times each night (besides the nursings before bed and in the morning).  That was tiring.

Since we got the video monitor, though, he has been sleeping a little bit longer.  I think this might be because I can watch his face when he's making noise and see whether he's really awake or not.  He has slept for 3 hours a few times, and usually hits the 2 to 2.5 hour mark.  Unfortunately, he is extremely noisy for the 45 minutes before he's really awake, and often for awhile after I put him back down again, so it's not like I'm sleeping for that full amount of time.  But I'm hoping that as his belly gets used to nursing every 3 hours, that amount of time will lengthen and he won't be so noisy for so long before he eats.

Isaiah is exclusively cloth diapered.  I haven't been able to find anything that will last him right through the night, though.  He's about 10lbs now (according to our digital scale, which is pretty accurate but doesn't show ounces, just increments of 0.2lbs), but anything that's absorbent enough to last him overnight is way too bulky on him.  Like, the diaper reaches his knees and he can't even move his legs.  It's ridiculous.  I'm down to changing him just once at night, though.  I hate changing diapers at night for some reason, so I can't wait until I can cut out a diaper change all together.  I'm not opposed to using a disposable to make this happen, if necessary - I hate night time diaper changes that much - but at this point he'd leak right out of a disposable, too.  For now I put him in a Sustainablebabyish Snapless fitted (with both doublers) and a Blueberry cover.  Then, at this third wakeup/nursing, I change him into a bumGenius 4.0 double stuffed with their regular insert and a Thirsties hemp insert.  That combo actually lasts quite awhile, surprisingly.


As for the whole sibling-rivalry thing... it doesn't exist in our house.  Noah is IN LOVE with Isaiah.  His interactions with him are all extremely affectionate.  "I love you Isaiah!  Awe, he's so cute!  I'm your big brother, Isaiah!  Look at his nose!" (for some reason he's fascinated with Isaiah's nose).  There have only been a couple of times in the past 4 weeks where there was any hint of 'jealousy', if you can call it that.  One time Noah said, sadly, "I want to be Isaiah... I want to be a little baby..."  I believe this was at a point where I couldn't do something with him because I was nursing Isaiah.  It kind of broke my heart a little bit.  But really, Noah has adjusted seamlessly.  I'm very thankful for that!

Seriously, WHY does Blogger keep flipping my photos?

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I'm sure there is a lot more I could say, but this post has been sitting here for half a week, and if I don't publish it now it's going to be horribly out of date.  Sorry if this post wasn't cohesive enough... it was written over several days and I don't feel like going back through it again to try and make it perfect.  It's not like I'm being graded!:)