Noah has set a record for himself, but I'm not sure what the record is actually going to be. It's currently Monday and he hasn't pooped since Friday afternoon. I'm not worried about it, because it's normal for breastfed babies to go up to 10 days without pooping. But he's never gone more than 24 hours before.
I think he might be going through his three month growth spurt right now. He's fussier and sleeping more. He usually naps for about half an hour 3 or 4 times a day, making a total of about 2 hours of naps (yeah I know, not much). But this weekend was more than that. On Saturday he napped about 5 hours total. Everytime he woke up, he woke up fussy. Usually he's smiley and happy when he wakes up, but he would wake up and be grumpy. I just held him all day and let him sleep (he didn't want to be put down). When he would wake up, if he was fussy I would just pop his soother back in and he would drift back to sleep. It was very strange.
So if you combine the not pooping (no waste to eliminate) and the fussiness and increased sleeping time, it sounds like he's growing. If this is his growth spurt, it's very different from his other growth spurts where he just ate CONSTANTLY all day long. He's been sticking to his every hour to an hour and 45 minutes routine.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
First Roll!! (and other updates)
-Last night at 12 weeks 1 day, Noah rolled over! I don't think it will happen again for awhile though, because of the circumstances under which the roll occured. He was up on his elbows, and then when his arms slid out from under him his right arm ended up sliding across UNDER his body, so it was in a great position to facilitate a roll.
-After reading about a baby who was taking steps at 4 months, I decided to try this out with my little guy to see if he would do it. After all, he has very advanced legs, and has been standing since he was 3 weeks old. So last night I held him under the arms, leaned him forward a tiny bit, and off he went, marching across the bed! It was hilarious!
-I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but I measured Noah again at 11 weeks, and he is at least 25.5 inches. That is a conservative measurement. My kid is so tall. His 6 month Carter's clothing fits him perfectly in length, and that is the clothing that I use as the standard, seeing as it's the longest, skinniest clothing I've been able to find.
-After reading about a baby who was taking steps at 4 months, I decided to try this out with my little guy to see if he would do it. After all, he has very advanced legs, and has been standing since he was 3 weeks old. So last night I held him under the arms, leaned him forward a tiny bit, and off he went, marching across the bed! It was hilarious!
-I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but I measured Noah again at 11 weeks, and he is at least 25.5 inches. That is a conservative measurement. My kid is so tall. His 6 month Carter's clothing fits him perfectly in length, and that is the clothing that I use as the standard, seeing as it's the longest, skinniest clothing I've been able to find.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Little Jumper! (and other updates)
-Since Noah has been standing since 3 weeks and loves to push himself off his legs, I decided to break out the jolly jumper yesterday at 12 weeks old. (For those of you who don't know, a jolly jumper is a baby exerciser... it hangs from a doorway or a stand and the baby sits in a harness and jumps around). Noah LOVED it! He was hopping and spinning and making little excited noises. It was awesome.
-Last night he slept another 10 hour stretch, and then went back to bed for a little over 2 hours. He was overtired because Granny didn't listen to me when I told her not to put him to sleep at 6pm, and he ended up going to bed 2 hours later than normal but still got up at the same time. He was also feverish yesterday. Not sure why. His temperature got as high as 100.1.
-Noah's spending a lot more time doing "things" now. He plays in his exersaucer, sits in his bumbo, goes in the jolly jumper. It's nice to have "things" to do besides playing only with his mom... although I sit there and play with him the whole time he's doing these things, I still think it's good for him to be doing things other than sitting and standing in my lap.
-Noah doesn't get much tummy time because he pretty much hates it. But today he was up on his elbows with his head at a 90 degree angle a couple of times. Also, I put my hand against his feet so he could push off of me and he pushed his way across the entire bed! I'm not sure whether I think he'll crawl or walk first. A lot of babies don't crawl anymore because of the lack of tummy time. I guess we'll see!
-On Wednesay we went to a friend's house and met her baby who's 3 weeks younger than Noah. Noah was a little angel. He barely fussed the entire 3 hours we were there. He just happily sat and stood on my lap the entire time.
-I feel like I need to hop on here a little more often to write little updates on things Noah does, even if I don't have time for a long post. This blog is like my baby book.
-Last night he slept another 10 hour stretch, and then went back to bed for a little over 2 hours. He was overtired because Granny didn't listen to me when I told her not to put him to sleep at 6pm, and he ended up going to bed 2 hours later than normal but still got up at the same time. He was also feverish yesterday. Not sure why. His temperature got as high as 100.1.
-Noah's spending a lot more time doing "things" now. He plays in his exersaucer, sits in his bumbo, goes in the jolly jumper. It's nice to have "things" to do besides playing only with his mom... although I sit there and play with him the whole time he's doing these things, I still think it's good for him to be doing things other than sitting and standing in my lap.
-Noah doesn't get much tummy time because he pretty much hates it. But today he was up on his elbows with his head at a 90 degree angle a couple of times. Also, I put my hand against his feet so he could push off of me and he pushed his way across the entire bed! I'm not sure whether I think he'll crawl or walk first. A lot of babies don't crawl anymore because of the lack of tummy time. I guess we'll see!
-On Wednesay we went to a friend's house and met her baby who's 3 weeks younger than Noah. Noah was a little angel. He barely fussed the entire 3 hours we were there. He just happily sat and stood on my lap the entire time.
-I feel like I need to hop on here a little more often to write little updates on things Noah does, even if I don't have time for a long post. This blog is like my baby book.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Sleeping Record and Growing Up
Noah set another record. On the night of June 6 to June 7, at 11.5 weeks old, he slept 10 hours straight. 10 hours! It was crazy. He didn't get up to eat until almost 6am. Then he was up for good. I tried putting him back down after feeding him. I didn't talk, I kept all the lights off, I treated it just like it was the middle of the night.
He wasn't fooled. I laid him in his crib and he started smiling at me. Ridiculous:)
Here's a picture of my little bambino from a couple of days ago:
He wasn't fooled. I laid him in his crib and he started smiling at me. Ridiculous:)
Here's a picture of my little bambino from a couple of days ago:
I can't believe how much he's growing up. Last night I was looking at some pictures I took of him from when he was 4 days old. He was so scrawny! I knew he was tiny, but I had forgotten HOW tiny he was. His newborn diapers were HUGE on him! We had to fold down the tops of them so they wouldn't go on his umbilical cord, even though they had the "cutouts" for the belly button. And the tabs were overlapped sooo far.
Now that I look back at these pictures I'm not surprised that he was 0th percentile for "weight for height." the percentile charts for his height didn't even start until 8.5 lbs, and he was 7lbs 12oz. People would say "Oh, that's a good size!" as if 7lbs 12 oz was a big baby. Not my little scrawny chicken! He was just so tall that all that weight was spread out and he had no fat!
To be honest, it's making me a little bit depressed that he's growing so quickly. I feel like time is just passing me by and I have no control over it. I wish I could PVR my life, so I could go back and experience the tinyness whenever I wanted. I love Noah's stage right now. I love his adorable smiles and giggles, and how interactive he is. I love watching him learn and grow stronger. But I really miss my tiny little newborn.
I could cry right now.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sleep and Naps at 10 Weeks
I've said it before and I'll say it again: as soon as I think I have my kid figured out, he goes and changes things.
I dont even like writing these posts, because I feel like as soon as I do, Noah changes what he's doing. But I want to remember what he was doing at each age, so here I go.
Noah has decided that napping is for babies, and that he's not one. Unless he's in his swing, or being held, or in the car, he won't nap for more than 15 minutes. It doesn't even matter if he's swaddled. He just doesn't like napping anymore. In the swing I can eek 45 minutes out of him. But even the swing doesn't always work (although it's working right now which is how I'm writing this post). At the very most he will nap 3 hours collectively throughout the 13-14 hours that he's up during the day. This makes for a very tired baby.
Bedtime has gotten a lot earlier since he has decided he doesn't nap. He used to go to bed between 8 and 9. Sometimes I would even wait until 8:00 to start his bedtime routine (bath, swaddle, feed, sleep). Now I often have to start it at 6:30, because he's so tired from not sleeping during the day that he's fussing. The only thing that'll soothe him then is eating or walking, and both of them make him fall asleep, so bathtime happens early. He still loves his bath, and calms down as soon as he's put on the towel on the floor. I could probably get him to bed by 6:30 if I wanted, but then his nighttime feeding and morning wake up would be even earlier, and I don't need that. There's no way I'm going to bed at 6:30 myself.
Interestingly, since he stopped napping during the day, he's stopped being able to go to sleep if he's in his crib drowsy but awake. Every night for the past week or more I've put him in his crib asleep, but he'll always wake up within a couple of minutes and cry. As soon as he's picked up he's fine, and he'll drift off to sleep within a minute. Usually this only happens once, but occasionally it happens more often. I think it happened 4 times last night.
Despite that little hiccup, Noah is a very good nighttime sleeper. Knock on wood. He's consistently sleeping about 8 hours straight at the beginning of the night, so his nighttime feeding is around 3:30-4:00, depending on what time he made it to bed. He's waking up around 6:30 these days.
We just bought room darkening curtains. He had blinds, which I thought would be enough, but his window is east facing and there is a giant field behind our house. Nothing to block out the sun. So we just went and bought heavy foam backed brown curtains. I thought this might cause him to sleep longer. It didn't. Joke's on me. But they do darken his room a lot, so it helps when we're putting him to bed 2 hours before it actually gets dark out!
Speaking of going to bed before it's dark, I've been heading to bed at about 8:30 each night. Justin finds it hilarious that he leaves our bedroom, which is very dark (because we also have room darkening curtains... I can't sleep in a bright room... or even a semi-lit room), walks into the rest of our house and is blinded by the dazzling sunlight. It's like it's lunchtime. We have huge windows on the east and west sides of our house, so sunlight streams into our house all evening. It must be very strange for your wife to go to bed when there's still a good hour of full daylight left.
I dont even like writing these posts, because I feel like as soon as I do, Noah changes what he's doing. But I want to remember what he was doing at each age, so here I go.
Noah has decided that napping is for babies, and that he's not one. Unless he's in his swing, or being held, or in the car, he won't nap for more than 15 minutes. It doesn't even matter if he's swaddled. He just doesn't like napping anymore. In the swing I can eek 45 minutes out of him. But even the swing doesn't always work (although it's working right now which is how I'm writing this post). At the very most he will nap 3 hours collectively throughout the 13-14 hours that he's up during the day. This makes for a very tired baby.
Bedtime has gotten a lot earlier since he has decided he doesn't nap. He used to go to bed between 8 and 9. Sometimes I would even wait until 8:00 to start his bedtime routine (bath, swaddle, feed, sleep). Now I often have to start it at 6:30, because he's so tired from not sleeping during the day that he's fussing. The only thing that'll soothe him then is eating or walking, and both of them make him fall asleep, so bathtime happens early. He still loves his bath, and calms down as soon as he's put on the towel on the floor. I could probably get him to bed by 6:30 if I wanted, but then his nighttime feeding and morning wake up would be even earlier, and I don't need that. There's no way I'm going to bed at 6:30 myself.
Interestingly, since he stopped napping during the day, he's stopped being able to go to sleep if he's in his crib drowsy but awake. Every night for the past week or more I've put him in his crib asleep, but he'll always wake up within a couple of minutes and cry. As soon as he's picked up he's fine, and he'll drift off to sleep within a minute. Usually this only happens once, but occasionally it happens more often. I think it happened 4 times last night.
Despite that little hiccup, Noah is a very good nighttime sleeper. Knock on wood. He's consistently sleeping about 8 hours straight at the beginning of the night, so his nighttime feeding is around 3:30-4:00, depending on what time he made it to bed. He's waking up around 6:30 these days.
We just bought room darkening curtains. He had blinds, which I thought would be enough, but his window is east facing and there is a giant field behind our house. Nothing to block out the sun. So we just went and bought heavy foam backed brown curtains. I thought this might cause him to sleep longer. It didn't. Joke's on me. But they do darken his room a lot, so it helps when we're putting him to bed 2 hours before it actually gets dark out!
Speaking of going to bed before it's dark, I've been heading to bed at about 8:30 each night. Justin finds it hilarious that he leaves our bedroom, which is very dark (because we also have room darkening curtains... I can't sleep in a bright room... or even a semi-lit room), walks into the rest of our house and is blinded by the dazzling sunlight. It's like it's lunchtime. We have huge windows on the east and west sides of our house, so sunlight streams into our house all evening. It must be very strange for your wife to go to bed when there's still a good hour of full daylight left.
Friday, May 28, 2010
The Intrusion
Well, my colonoscopy is done. It went okay. The prep wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although it was a good thing Justin cancelled his clients for the evening because Noah was waaaaay overtired from only sleeping 2 hours in the 13 hours he was awake yesterday (my son naps like CRAP) and would not have been okay with being put downa s I sat on the toilet.
The colonoscopy itself sucked, because I'm not so great with sedatives. When I was sedated for my laser eye surgery it just made me more anxious. The sedation worked for about 5 minutes and then I was in major pain. I just kept telling myself "It's not as bad as labour, it's not as bad as labour."
Then afterward the air that they put inside you was causing me incredible pain along the right side of my body all the way up to my shoulder. One nurse told me to stay on my left side, but I was crying with pain and could barely breathe because breathing hurt so much. Eventually a different nurse told me to roll over onto my right side, and almost immediatey the pain went away. I resent the nurse who told me to stay on my left side. Grrr.
While I was "recovering" (a.k.a. waiting for the stupid surgeon to come talk to me so I could go home since I was wide awake already), I heard Noah crying. It had been 2 hours since he was last fed, so I figured it was from hunger. It was killing me, but I had been told to pump once before nursing so I technically wasn't supposed to just give him my boob, even though that's all I wanted to do. The nurses told me my mom was trying to give him a bottle. But the crying continued. Eventually it stopped, and I figured that he had gotten used to the bottle.
What really happened:
Noah was perfectly happy, but seemed a bit hungry. I had given my mom instructions to give him the bottle at that time, since I was told I had to pump before breastfeeding again. I didn't want her to wait until he was crying because then I knew he wouldn't take the bottle.
So she tried to give it to him. Thinking it was his soother (it has the exact same nipple), he sucked on it a bit. But as soon as he realized my breastmilk was coming out of it he got so pissed off! He was like "Get lost! That's not supposed to come out of there! Do you think I'm retarded?!"
He absolutely refused to take a bottle. When I finally got home I pumped and then tried to feed him about half an hour later (kind of hard with empty breasts). He went 4 hours between feedings, which is 2 1/2 hours longer than normal because he REFUSED to take the bottle. And then the feeding he DID get was pitiful. He hasn't really had a decent feeding in 6 hours because of the bottle refusal and my boobs having a hard time filling up completely between feedings that are close together because my boobs aren't filled up completely. Confused? It's a vicious cycle.
So my child loves my breasts, and refuses a bottle. I knew he would, too. I'm okay with it. I didn't want to give him a bottle anyway, and there's not really a good reason for me to have to. My "good reasons" (being in my brother's wedding and having a colonoscopy done) have come and gone and we survived with no bottles. I don't care about getting out of the house baby free for longer than an hour and a half. I don't want to leave my baby with someone else for longer than that anyway. If I cared about being so tied down, I would have introduced a bottle sooner.
Oh right, the colonoscopy results. I have colitis. No surprise there. I knew that's what I had. I knew it wouldn't be Crohn's because my symptoms didn't fit (my blood was fresh, I didn't have cramping, and I wasn't getting sickly thin because of lack of nutrient absorption... plus I grew a healthy baby while my symptoms were at their worst). I knew it was colitis. But I did this mostly for my mom's sake, and to check to make sure I didn't have tumors or cancer.
We're all good. Well, I guess we're kind of not, because I do have colitis. But it's not the end of the world. I'll figure it out.
The colonoscopy itself sucked, because I'm not so great with sedatives. When I was sedated for my laser eye surgery it just made me more anxious. The sedation worked for about 5 minutes and then I was in major pain. I just kept telling myself "It's not as bad as labour, it's not as bad as labour."
Then afterward the air that they put inside you was causing me incredible pain along the right side of my body all the way up to my shoulder. One nurse told me to stay on my left side, but I was crying with pain and could barely breathe because breathing hurt so much. Eventually a different nurse told me to roll over onto my right side, and almost immediatey the pain went away. I resent the nurse who told me to stay on my left side. Grrr.
While I was "recovering" (a.k.a. waiting for the stupid surgeon to come talk to me so I could go home since I was wide awake already), I heard Noah crying. It had been 2 hours since he was last fed, so I figured it was from hunger. It was killing me, but I had been told to pump once before nursing so I technically wasn't supposed to just give him my boob, even though that's all I wanted to do. The nurses told me my mom was trying to give him a bottle. But the crying continued. Eventually it stopped, and I figured that he had gotten used to the bottle.
What really happened:
Noah was perfectly happy, but seemed a bit hungry. I had given my mom instructions to give him the bottle at that time, since I was told I had to pump before breastfeeding again. I didn't want her to wait until he was crying because then I knew he wouldn't take the bottle.
So she tried to give it to him. Thinking it was his soother (it has the exact same nipple), he sucked on it a bit. But as soon as he realized my breastmilk was coming out of it he got so pissed off! He was like "Get lost! That's not supposed to come out of there! Do you think I'm retarded?!"
He absolutely refused to take a bottle. When I finally got home I pumped and then tried to feed him about half an hour later (kind of hard with empty breasts). He went 4 hours between feedings, which is 2 1/2 hours longer than normal because he REFUSED to take the bottle. And then the feeding he DID get was pitiful. He hasn't really had a decent feeding in 6 hours because of the bottle refusal and my boobs having a hard time filling up completely between feedings that are close together because my boobs aren't filled up completely. Confused? It's a vicious cycle.
So my child loves my breasts, and refuses a bottle. I knew he would, too. I'm okay with it. I didn't want to give him a bottle anyway, and there's not really a good reason for me to have to. My "good reasons" (being in my brother's wedding and having a colonoscopy done) have come and gone and we survived with no bottles. I don't care about getting out of the house baby free for longer than an hour and a half. I don't want to leave my baby with someone else for longer than that anyway. If I cared about being so tied down, I would have introduced a bottle sooner.
Oh right, the colonoscopy results. I have colitis. No surprise there. I knew that's what I had. I knew it wouldn't be Crohn's because my symptoms didn't fit (my blood was fresh, I didn't have cramping, and I wasn't getting sickly thin because of lack of nutrient absorption... plus I grew a healthy baby while my symptoms were at their worst). I knew it was colitis. But I did this mostly for my mom's sake, and to check to make sure I didn't have tumors or cancer.
We're all good. Well, I guess we're kind of not, because I do have colitis. But it's not the end of the world. I'll figure it out.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Dreading Tomorrow
Tomorrow I have to have a colonoscopy done. I'm so not happy. Frankly, I don't really care about the actual procedure. I recently pushed a baby out of my vagina, I'm sure I can handle a tiny camera being snaked through my colon.
What I'm NOT happy about is several other things:
1) The prep I have to do today and tonight. I'm not allowed to eat all day today and then I have to take the strongest laxatives ever and spend the entire evening on the toilet. I'm a little concerned about it because I'm nursing. I don't like that I'm not eating food for an entire day, because what will that do to my milk supply? Probably nothing after just one day, but still. Also, I'M NURSING. How can I run to the bathroom every few minutes when I'm NURSING. I'll have to force Noah off the boob.
2) I realize that some children eat every 2 to 3 hours, or even longer. My child does not. He eats every hour, hour and a half. I'm VERY lucky to make it to 2 hours. If it happens, it only happens about once a day. Well, during this colonoscopy I will be completely unavailable to nurse. I'll be more unavailable than I was during the wedding two weeks ago. It's not like I can hop off the table with the camera in my bum and go feed him! I'm hoping my mom will be able to hold him off for two hours because I reeeeally don't want to give him a bottle. He's never had one.
3) During the procedure I'm going to be sedated with a combination of demerol and fentanyl. Fentanyl I'm not worried about, because I took that during labour and Noah was totally fine and alert. Demerol isn't terrible, but it's not as good as Fentanyl with the breastmilk. Noah would only be exposed to it for like, one nursing session, and all it might do is make him a little sleepy. But I'm still not happy. However, I think I'd rather keep him on the boob than give him a bottle.
I don't know why I so badly don't want to give him a bottle. I just really don't want to. I think it's partially because when he's upset, sometimes the only thing that calms him is the boob. I'll try a bunch of things first: swaddling, bouncing, jiggling, a soother, white noise, etc, but he'll remain squirmy and fussy, and sometimes still crying. But if I put him on the boob, he's immediately calmed. And these aren't even always times that he's really starving. Sometimes he just needs his mom's boob. And I know my kid. A bottle full of milk is not going to calm him the way milk coming out of my nipple does.
My main concern for tomorrow is just getting him through the procedure (even though I'm the one having it) without needing to eat. I'm going to nurse him right before I go back. Then I'll nurse him as soon as I can afterward. In the meantime my mom will keep him busy and hopefully distract him from any hunger. I'll have a backup bottle of my breastmilk just in case, but I know my mom will do everything she can to keep him happy without giving him the bottle.
Hopefully it'll all work out. It always seems to.
What I'm NOT happy about is several other things:
1) The prep I have to do today and tonight. I'm not allowed to eat all day today and then I have to take the strongest laxatives ever and spend the entire evening on the toilet. I'm a little concerned about it because I'm nursing. I don't like that I'm not eating food for an entire day, because what will that do to my milk supply? Probably nothing after just one day, but still. Also, I'M NURSING. How can I run to the bathroom every few minutes when I'm NURSING. I'll have to force Noah off the boob.
2) I realize that some children eat every 2 to 3 hours, or even longer. My child does not. He eats every hour, hour and a half. I'm VERY lucky to make it to 2 hours. If it happens, it only happens about once a day. Well, during this colonoscopy I will be completely unavailable to nurse. I'll be more unavailable than I was during the wedding two weeks ago. It's not like I can hop off the table with the camera in my bum and go feed him! I'm hoping my mom will be able to hold him off for two hours because I reeeeally don't want to give him a bottle. He's never had one.
3) During the procedure I'm going to be sedated with a combination of demerol and fentanyl. Fentanyl I'm not worried about, because I took that during labour and Noah was totally fine and alert. Demerol isn't terrible, but it's not as good as Fentanyl with the breastmilk. Noah would only be exposed to it for like, one nursing session, and all it might do is make him a little sleepy. But I'm still not happy. However, I think I'd rather keep him on the boob than give him a bottle.
I don't know why I so badly don't want to give him a bottle. I just really don't want to. I think it's partially because when he's upset, sometimes the only thing that calms him is the boob. I'll try a bunch of things first: swaddling, bouncing, jiggling, a soother, white noise, etc, but he'll remain squirmy and fussy, and sometimes still crying. But if I put him on the boob, he's immediately calmed. And these aren't even always times that he's really starving. Sometimes he just needs his mom's boob. And I know my kid. A bottle full of milk is not going to calm him the way milk coming out of my nipple does.
My main concern for tomorrow is just getting him through the procedure (even though I'm the one having it) without needing to eat. I'm going to nurse him right before I go back. Then I'll nurse him as soon as I can afterward. In the meantime my mom will keep him busy and hopefully distract him from any hunger. I'll have a backup bottle of my breastmilk just in case, but I know my mom will do everything she can to keep him happy without giving him the bottle.
Hopefully it'll all work out. It always seems to.
Trickster
10 weeks
As soon as I think I've got Noah somewhat figured out, he changes things up on me.
He is so inconsistent with his sleep patterns. He's never been a huge sleeper. My mom has been commenting on that since he was born. Pretty much after those first 2 weeks were over he was awake. A lot. Frankly, since he was a newborn he's been awake a lot. My nephew basically slept and ate for the first 3 months of his life. Not Noah. During the day Noah spends much more time awake than he does asleep.
The only consistency in his pattern seems to be that about an hour after he wakes up in the morning he goes down for a nap. But his nap could be anywhere from half an hour to 2 hours (rarely is it 2 hours, but that does happen occasionally). And after that he's awake for an 1.5 to 2.5 hours at a time, and then has a half hour to 2 hour nap. Again, rarely two hours.
Yesterday from 6:45am to 3:30pm he only slept 2 hours. 2 HOURS! That's not much for a 10 week old. And that night he had only slept for a total of like, 9 hours. We finally put him in his swing and he had a 2 hour nap until 5:30. I kept him up after that, gave him an earlier bath than normal, and he was conked out for good by 8pm. He slept until about 4:10am (over 8 1/2 hours between feeds, over 8 hours of sleep), when I fed him. He might have put himself back to sleep at that point, but my right breast was engorged and hurting me, so as soon as he gave a little yell I went and got him. He was squirming and making little fussing noises, but his eyes were closed. So he might verywell have gone back to sleep for another hour or two. Oh well. I was lying awake anyway because of my sore boob.
He was back in bed by 4:30, and slept until a little before 7. So he got about 11 hours of sleep last night, but at 8:15 this morning he was asleep again.
I have no hope of scheduling him anytime soon. It seems like ever since he got his shots he's been all over the map with his sleeping and his moods. I'm glad he eats and sleeps on demand anyway, otherwise I'm sure I'd be going crazy. I really don't understand how some babies have such defined schedules. I guess Noah's consistency is INconsistency.
Yesterday I put Noah's high chair together. Two nights ago when Justin and I were having dinner Noah was in the swing next to me. That swing is portable, so it's very close to the ground (about as close as a bouncy chair). He started to protest being in there, so I picked him up and sat him on my lap while I finished. I really didn't think that would work, but it totally did. He just wanted to be up there with us, looking around at what we were doing. He just wanted to feel included.
I took that as a sign and decided that it was time to take the high chair out of the box so that he can sit in it while we're in the kitchen.
Noah is growing up so fast.
As soon as I think I've got Noah somewhat figured out, he changes things up on me.
He is so inconsistent with his sleep patterns. He's never been a huge sleeper. My mom has been commenting on that since he was born. Pretty much after those first 2 weeks were over he was awake. A lot. Frankly, since he was a newborn he's been awake a lot. My nephew basically slept and ate for the first 3 months of his life. Not Noah. During the day Noah spends much more time awake than he does asleep.
The only consistency in his pattern seems to be that about an hour after he wakes up in the morning he goes down for a nap. But his nap could be anywhere from half an hour to 2 hours (rarely is it 2 hours, but that does happen occasionally). And after that he's awake for an 1.5 to 2.5 hours at a time, and then has a half hour to 2 hour nap. Again, rarely two hours.
Yesterday from 6:45am to 3:30pm he only slept 2 hours. 2 HOURS! That's not much for a 10 week old. And that night he had only slept for a total of like, 9 hours. We finally put him in his swing and he had a 2 hour nap until 5:30. I kept him up after that, gave him an earlier bath than normal, and he was conked out for good by 8pm. He slept until about 4:10am (over 8 1/2 hours between feeds, over 8 hours of sleep), when I fed him. He might have put himself back to sleep at that point, but my right breast was engorged and hurting me, so as soon as he gave a little yell I went and got him. He was squirming and making little fussing noises, but his eyes were closed. So he might verywell have gone back to sleep for another hour or two. Oh well. I was lying awake anyway because of my sore boob.
He was back in bed by 4:30, and slept until a little before 7. So he got about 11 hours of sleep last night, but at 8:15 this morning he was asleep again.
I have no hope of scheduling him anytime soon. It seems like ever since he got his shots he's been all over the map with his sleeping and his moods. I'm glad he eats and sleeps on demand anyway, otherwise I'm sure I'd be going crazy. I really don't understand how some babies have such defined schedules. I guess Noah's consistency is INconsistency.
Yesterday I put Noah's high chair together. Two nights ago when Justin and I were having dinner Noah was in the swing next to me. That swing is portable, so it's very close to the ground (about as close as a bouncy chair). He started to protest being in there, so I picked him up and sat him on my lap while I finished. I really didn't think that would work, but it totally did. He just wanted to be up there with us, looking around at what we were doing. He just wanted to feel included.
I took that as a sign and decided that it was time to take the high chair out of the box so that he can sit in it while we're in the kitchen.
Noah is growing up so fast.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
First Date
Justin and I had our first date this past Sunday, when Noah was 9 1/2 weeks old. After church we went to my parents' house. I fed Noah as much as I could feed him, then we left him with my mom and went on a date. We had a nice lunch out on the patio looking at the water. Then we went and got icecream and went for a quick walk under the bridge (only people who are from here know what "under the bridge" means, but we live by some famous bridges that cross over into the U.S.).
We were gone about an hour and a half. I called my mom twice, and she called me once at the end of the date to let me know Noah was awake. He was awake and happy, but she knows me. She knows I'm not comfortable being out if he could possibly be upset because of hunger. So once he woke up, she let us know so we could come back. When we got back Noah was hungry, not smiley. Good thing we left when we did.
I didn't know if I would be able to enjoy myself on the date, but I did. It's hard to leave my baby with someone else - even my own mom - when he's exclusively breastfed and I don't give him a bottle - nor do I want to. I never know when he's going to be hungry.
On a similar note, on Saturday my friend and I had tea, SANS babies! It was great. This is the friend I was pregnant with who lives across the road. Our kids are 3 weeks apart, and we've started having "non tea" instead of "tea." We miss having our pregnant teas, because the babies are just so distracting. Especially her baby, because she's a crier.
So on Saturday I fed Noah, then left him with Justin and went across the road. Erin's husband was home so he took care of Aubrey and we actually had some consistent adult conversation. I was there for almost 2 hours! I told Justin to call as soon as Noah got hungry. When he did, I went home. It was great.
We were gone about an hour and a half. I called my mom twice, and she called me once at the end of the date to let me know Noah was awake. He was awake and happy, but she knows me. She knows I'm not comfortable being out if he could possibly be upset because of hunger. So once he woke up, she let us know so we could come back. When we got back Noah was hungry, not smiley. Good thing we left when we did.
I didn't know if I would be able to enjoy myself on the date, but I did. It's hard to leave my baby with someone else - even my own mom - when he's exclusively breastfed and I don't give him a bottle - nor do I want to. I never know when he's going to be hungry.
On a similar note, on Saturday my friend and I had tea, SANS babies! It was great. This is the friend I was pregnant with who lives across the road. Our kids are 3 weeks apart, and we've started having "non tea" instead of "tea." We miss having our pregnant teas, because the babies are just so distracting. Especially her baby, because she's a crier.
So on Saturday I fed Noah, then left him with Justin and went across the road. Erin's husband was home so he took care of Aubrey and we actually had some consistent adult conversation. I was there for almost 2 hours! I told Justin to call as soon as Noah got hungry. When he did, I went home. It was great.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Back in the Saddle... TMI Warning
So DH and I are back in the saddle. The painful saddle, that is.
You'd think that after pushing a baby out of your vagina things would be a little looser down there.
Definitely not.
My episiotomy hasn't been feeling quite right. Sometimes when I'm sitting and I shift my weight a certain way things feel... wrong. So we haven't done it, even after the 6 week mark. Last night, at 9 1/2 weeks, I was finally in the mood, finally willing to brave the intrusion.
And an intrusion it was! I felt like a virgin again! I don't know if my OB gave me a few extra stitches when he was repairing me but man, it took some work. It felt like a closed vault to me. Ouch!
I will say this... my O (prior to the actual deed) was quite possibly the best one of my entire life. My mom had mentioned something a few weeks ago about how sex was better for her after she had a baby, but I didn't think there could be any way that would be true. At this point, the actual sex isn't, but I can live with O's like that!
Here's a little piece of insanity for you: I have a 9 week old baby, premature ovarian aging, I don't ovulate on my own probably two thirds of the time, I am breastfeeding exclusively and obviously don't have my period back (nor do I have any fertility signs whatsoever right now), and my husband has male factor infertility, BUT after having sex last night I was praying it would end in a baby.
Clearly that is impossible, and kind of insane to hope for when you have a 9 week old. It was in no way why I went for it last night. But I freely admit that I prayed for it afterward.
Am I ever going to stop wanting to get pregnant?
You'd think that after pushing a baby out of your vagina things would be a little looser down there.
Definitely not.
My episiotomy hasn't been feeling quite right. Sometimes when I'm sitting and I shift my weight a certain way things feel... wrong. So we haven't done it, even after the 6 week mark. Last night, at 9 1/2 weeks, I was finally in the mood, finally willing to brave the intrusion.
And an intrusion it was! I felt like a virgin again! I don't know if my OB gave me a few extra stitches when he was repairing me but man, it took some work. It felt like a closed vault to me. Ouch!
I will say this... my O (prior to the actual deed) was quite possibly the best one of my entire life. My mom had mentioned something a few weeks ago about how sex was better for her after she had a baby, but I didn't think there could be any way that would be true. At this point, the actual sex isn't, but I can live with O's like that!
Here's a little piece of insanity for you: I have a 9 week old baby, premature ovarian aging, I don't ovulate on my own probably two thirds of the time, I am breastfeeding exclusively and obviously don't have my period back (nor do I have any fertility signs whatsoever right now), and my husband has male factor infertility, BUT after having sex last night I was praying it would end in a baby.
Clearly that is impossible, and kind of insane to hope for when you have a 9 week old. It was in no way why I went for it last night. But I freely admit that I prayed for it afterward.
Am I ever going to stop wanting to get pregnant?
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