... GET TIRED AND GO TO SLEEP!!! It is 9 pm. It is way past bed time. In fact, it is pretty much my bed time. Yet you are still putt putting around your room, in jammies, in the dark, chit chatting like bed time is a foreign concept. Oh good. You just whimpered. I swear you were rubbing your eyes an hour ago... Oh thank goodness, you are rubbing your eyes again. Perhaps you will sleep soon.
Love,
Mommy
PS: if we could avoid the late night/early morning slumber party tonight, that would be delightful. Smooches. Go to bed.
Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Santa and Hank
Just wanted to add Hank's first picture with Santa. "Firsts" are coming fast and furious these days, and keeping track of them is fun. Another first this week was the first real bath. I had reall worked myself up into a lather over what this was going to be like. I was really anxious about how it would go -- would he hate it? would he get hurt or burned? Turns out he was just kind of amused by the whole thing, and very mellow. I don't know what I was woking myself up about because in the end it was nothing remarkable. It was fun however to watch Hank encounter the water. He seemed a little puzzled, but also somewhat familiar with it -- maybe he was remembering what it was like to float around in his amniotic sac?
Another first this week was Hank grabbing my hair and tugging it. He's done this a few days in a row now, so I am convinced it was not a fluke.
One Month Old!
Hank turned one month old yesterday. He celebrated by entering a growth spurt, which means nearly non-stop eating, sleeping when he is not eating, and generally just being pretty upset when not doing either. It makes me so sad to not be able to calm him, and I can't imagine what it must be like to have a baby who is colicky, as this is hard enough! I hope the spurt only lasts a day or two more, because it is starting to wear me out (which I feel sad saying, but it is the truth). I think we are probably in the home stretch as he did have one brief period this evening where he was his friendly, mellow self, and I was like "my sweet little baby boy, you are back!!" and then he got hungry and upset again. :( so we are just trying to keep him fed, calm, and clean, and hoping that he'll get through this all with flying colors. He's certainly gotten bigger in the last few days...
We also celebrated by picking up Grandma and Grandpa and going to meet Santa! It was so much fun! Hank was a champ -- he actually slept right through the whole thing. The Santa was really good with him, and held him really gently and carefully, and we got great pictures.
I also spent a lot of time yesterday thinking about the birth again. I re-read Hank's birth story and kind of marveled at all that happened on that single day, and all that has happened since then. On one hand it feels like time has flown by in the last month, on the other hand it feels like it was a reall, reeeeaallly long looooonnngg month... But life is good, and we really don't have anything to be complaining about.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Three Weeks and Four Days
Well, over here we can't believe we've made it through the first few weeks. We got through the first two weeks, which so many people had warned us would really be the worst, and things did start to get easier and more predictable. I'm still having trouble finding time for myself (hence me sitting here posting to the blog at 4 in the morning while the baby is sleeping --- and I should be sleeping too!!), but the trade off has been worth it for now and I am sure I'll be able to strike a balance one of these days. I've been feeling guilty because I haven't managed to make time to write and send thank you notes to all those wonderful people who have given us things for Hank, and have done so much to help us get through these first few weeks. Hopefully in the next couple of days I can manage to get started on that. Hank still sleeps a lot, and I'm getting more comfortable wearing him in a sling/pouch contraption, which frees my hands up for other things -- like writing thank you notes!
I've truly been overwhelmed by people's generosity and their desire to help and support us these days. It has actually really touched me deeply and I've been so grateful. This can be a really difficult time, sometimes feeling lonely, and it has helped so much to have people drop by with meals or just to say hello. I really don't know what we would do without my parents these days. Last weekend I actually spent a night in the emergency room, and Hank spent the night with my parents. We were really lucky to have them here, and although it was so sad for me to spend a night away from my baby, I knew he was safe and in good hands with my mom and dad. We've spent a couple more nights at their house since then, and those nights have been really restorative and restful for me and for Henry. Hank sleeps in the Pack N Play in my parents' room, and my mom brings him to me for night feedings, and helps out with the bottle and changing him. It has been good for me to spend the time there, and Hank has been having fun with his Grandma and Grandpa.
The emergency room, you say? Why yes... Last weekend I was experiencing excruciating back and abdominal pain, and when I started vomiting we decided something was really amiss. So Henry took me to the emergency room where they kept me all night long as they did some ultrasounds which ultimately revealed gallstones. I was much more upset about having to leave Hank for a night than I was about having gall stones! It actually really broke my heart. I knew he was in good hands, but I certainly had never imagined that my son would spend his first night away from me at only 2 1/2 weeks old. He did beautifully, though, and as for me, no surgery is necessary at this time. I'm modifying my diet a bit, and doing some investigation into whether the gall bladder problem played any role in how sick I was during the pregnancy. If I find out there is any link, I will schedule the surgery and make sure it is done before we try to have another child.
In Hank's world, he's just been getting bigger and bigger. The initial problems he had with losing weight have been reversed -- this week at his check up he had gained all the weight he'd lost back, and then some. I am sure by now he is over ten pounds. He's just getting bigger and bigger. I look at him often and think to myself, 'soak this in, Sara, because he's never going to be this tiny again.' I noticed in the last couple of days that his nose and his chin have both grown and are no longer the teeny tiny nose and chin I gave birth to. He's also starting to develop and show signs of becoming a full fledged human being someday. Two days ago he started to figure out that his hands are in fact HIS HANDS and that he can use them -- for example he actually pressed a pacifier against his mouth to keep it from falling out, and he grabs on to things (mostly our fingers) and holds on as if for dear life. He also follows things with his eyes from one place to another now -- things like his little toy elephant that jingles when you shake it, and a set of big plastic keys. My very favorite thing he's done lately though was to smile at me when I came to get him yesterday morning. He actually, truly, looked happy to see me. It just warmed my heart.
Breastfeeding remains a big challenge, but we are doing the best we can. I'm taking fenugreek and reglan and drinking mother's milk tea and pumping a few times a day. It seems that I'm making more milk, but Hank is still a sort of lazy sucker. He latches on like a champ (and actually reminds me of a little prizefighter entering the ring when he gets ready to latch on), but he gives up sucking after only a few minutes, so we are still having to supplement him. We are seeing an ear/nose/throat doctor on monday to evaluate his tongue tie. What we've been told so far is that he is borderline, and this could be impacting both his ability to feed off the breast efficiently, as well as my supply. Clipping his frenullum would go a long way towards solving the problem for both of us, and apparently is really easy on the baby. So we'll see.
I've got to start taking more pictures and video of Hank. Henry takes a lot of photos, so we do have the beginnings of a pretty good archive. He just changes so much, so quickly, every day --sometimes even within the same day he's changed and grown. It is amazing to watch this happen right in front of my eyes. We are so lucky.
I've truly been overwhelmed by people's generosity and their desire to help and support us these days. It has actually really touched me deeply and I've been so grateful. This can be a really difficult time, sometimes feeling lonely, and it has helped so much to have people drop by with meals or just to say hello. I really don't know what we would do without my parents these days. Last weekend I actually spent a night in the emergency room, and Hank spent the night with my parents. We were really lucky to have them here, and although it was so sad for me to spend a night away from my baby, I knew he was safe and in good hands with my mom and dad. We've spent a couple more nights at their house since then, and those nights have been really restorative and restful for me and for Henry. Hank sleeps in the Pack N Play in my parents' room, and my mom brings him to me for night feedings, and helps out with the bottle and changing him. It has been good for me to spend the time there, and Hank has been having fun with his Grandma and Grandpa.
The emergency room, you say? Why yes... Last weekend I was experiencing excruciating back and abdominal pain, and when I started vomiting we decided something was really amiss. So Henry took me to the emergency room where they kept me all night long as they did some ultrasounds which ultimately revealed gallstones. I was much more upset about having to leave Hank for a night than I was about having gall stones! It actually really broke my heart. I knew he was in good hands, but I certainly had never imagined that my son would spend his first night away from me at only 2 1/2 weeks old. He did beautifully, though, and as for me, no surgery is necessary at this time. I'm modifying my diet a bit, and doing some investigation into whether the gall bladder problem played any role in how sick I was during the pregnancy. If I find out there is any link, I will schedule the surgery and make sure it is done before we try to have another child.
In Hank's world, he's just been getting bigger and bigger. The initial problems he had with losing weight have been reversed -- this week at his check up he had gained all the weight he'd lost back, and then some. I am sure by now he is over ten pounds. He's just getting bigger and bigger. I look at him often and think to myself, 'soak this in, Sara, because he's never going to be this tiny again.' I noticed in the last couple of days that his nose and his chin have both grown and are no longer the teeny tiny nose and chin I gave birth to. He's also starting to develop and show signs of becoming a full fledged human being someday. Two days ago he started to figure out that his hands are in fact HIS HANDS and that he can use them -- for example he actually pressed a pacifier against his mouth to keep it from falling out, and he grabs on to things (mostly our fingers) and holds on as if for dear life. He also follows things with his eyes from one place to another now -- things like his little toy elephant that jingles when you shake it, and a set of big plastic keys. My very favorite thing he's done lately though was to smile at me when I came to get him yesterday morning. He actually, truly, looked happy to see me. It just warmed my heart.
Breastfeeding remains a big challenge, but we are doing the best we can. I'm taking fenugreek and reglan and drinking mother's milk tea and pumping a few times a day. It seems that I'm making more milk, but Hank is still a sort of lazy sucker. He latches on like a champ (and actually reminds me of a little prizefighter entering the ring when he gets ready to latch on), but he gives up sucking after only a few minutes, so we are still having to supplement him. We are seeing an ear/nose/throat doctor on monday to evaluate his tongue tie. What we've been told so far is that he is borderline, and this could be impacting both his ability to feed off the breast efficiently, as well as my supply. Clipping his frenullum would go a long way towards solving the problem for both of us, and apparently is really easy on the baby. So we'll see.
I've got to start taking more pictures and video of Hank. Henry takes a lot of photos, so we do have the beginnings of a pretty good archive. He just changes so much, so quickly, every day --sometimes even within the same day he's changed and grown. It is amazing to watch this happen right in front of my eyes. We are so lucky.
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