9 Month Appointment

Evan just had his 9 month appointment today although at this point he's closer to 10 months old than 9! His doctor, Dr. S, is SOOOOO busy. He's definitely the busiest doctor at the office we visit. I kind of wish we had gone with another doctor from the beginning, but Dr. S is really nice and great with Evan, so we'll stick with him. We can always see him at well visits (just not always "on time") and thankfully Evan hasn't had many sick visits.

They didn't do any shots at this visit, but they did prick his finger and collect blood to test iron levels. Evan didn't flinch at all! I don't know if he couldn't feel it or what, but he stayed very still while the nurse collected the blood. Such a sweetie! Everything looks great, I have a perfectly healthy son at this point. :-)

Weight: 18 lbs, 15 oz (25%)

Height: 29 inches (75%)

Head cir: 18.5 inches (90%)

Dr. S confirmed that Evan can eat anything as long as Matt and I aren't allergic to it. That includes egg whites, which is good since I just scrambled eggs for Evan this morning and didn't separate the whites. ;-) Also my mom scrambled an entire egg for him a couple of weeks ago. My goal for myself and for Evan is to eat fish once a week. We ate a lot in New Orleans and since coming home we've done mahi mahi and tuna. I bought some sea perch today. Never had it, but I figure I'll buy whatever's on sale at the grocery store and we'll try some new things. Any suggestions on good fish or good ways to cook fish (especially perch, since that's what I have right now!)? I know i personally love tilapia with mango salsa -- yum!! I've never made it, but I'm planning on getting around to it one of these days.

Dr. S also talked about weaning Evan. He said anytime after 10 months I can just start giving him whole milk instead of nursing him. Crazy that I'm so close!! I'm planning on waiting until he's a year old, then I will start weaning. Hopefully I can get him to take milk in a sippy cup instead of bottle at that point. I think he'll wean really well. I know not all babies adjust so well, but Evan doesn't have a lot of interest in nursing. I actually think he prefers not to, but too bad. ;-) At this point I'm only giving him a bottle of breast milk in the afternoon or evening after he's nursed as a supplement.

Evan has been waking up in the middle of the night since coming home from New Orleans. He actually wakes up at about 5:30 - 6:30. I've been feeding him because I thought maybe he was hungry. But it's getting old and I don't think he's waking up hungry...I think it's just becoming a habit. I talked to the doctor and he thinks the same thing and said I probably shouldn't keep feeding him because it'll get to be a habit. So in the morning I am not going to feed him. I'll let him cry for 20 minutes then I'll go in and rock him and put him back down. Of course this is the night Matt is out of town, but I want to fix this ASAP. He's been such a great nighttime sleeper since he was 7 weeks old with the exception of growth spurts or traveling. I think being in NO for so long threw him off and that's why he started waking up.

Speaking of traveling, we're going to Asheville next week (over Father's Day weekend) along with my family to visit my brother. Then next month Evan and I will be flying out to San Diego, CA to meet Matt and have a little vacation!! It'll be Evan's first time flying and I'm nervous and excited that I'll be taking him on the plane by myself. Matt will be in San Diego all week for business and I'll meet up with him on a Thursday so we can spend the weekend there. I'm so excited!!

6-7 month schedule

I've changed Evan's schedule since the last time I posted about it way back in November. At the end of February Evan didn't have his dream feed since Matt and i were out and my sister was babysitting. He ended up sleeping a lot longer and I decided to just stop the dream feed completely. He also went to a 4 hour schedule which put his last feeding at 8:00 pm and then he went straight to bed. However, he started waking up early (6:30 am) every morning so we decided to move his last feeding (and bedtime) to an earlier time. So this is working for now and we'll probably stick with this schedule until he's old enough to go down to one nap a day (can't remember when that is).

7:30 - 8:00: Wake up, nurse, solids (1/4 cup of rice cereal mixed with fruit - usually apple sauce or bananas).

8:30 - 9:00: Nap (he will take a longer nap if I put him to bed about exactly an hour after he eats. I've tried extending his morning wake time several times and it never works.)

11:30 - 12:00: Wake up, nurse, solids (3 cubes of veggies, rice cereal mixed with fruit).

1:00 - 1:30: Nap

3:30 - 4:00: Wake up, nurse, solids (3 cubes of veggies, additional fruit if he still seems hungry).

6:30 - 7:00: Nurse, immediately to bed (we have a bedtime routine of nursing, family prayer time, read a book, sing a song, rock for a couple of minutes, and then he goes down in his crib).


Today is actually the first time I've given him rice cereal for his midday meal. He doesn't always eat much at his last meal (when he just nurses) and I think it's because I overfeed him at the 4:00 feeding. So now I'm going to try the cereal at the first 2 solid feedings so he won't eat as much so close to bedtime.

It's sad to put him to bed so early (I miss him so much after a couple of hours!), but it's really better for him and us. We all get more sleep and are happier people in the morning! Matt is still able to spend time with him in the evenings after he comes home from work (that was my biggest concern). It isn't enough time, but at least he gets an hour to an hour and a half with him on the weekday evenings. Plus, he sometimes comes home for lunch and is able to see Evan for about an hour then too.

So this schedule makes it look like he always takes 2.5 to 3 hour naps. I wish! lol Some days he does take naps that long, but usually it's an hour and a half in the morning and then 1.5 - 2.5 hours in the afternoon. Sometimes he still does a 45 minute nap like he used to, but thankfully since cutting out the third late afternoon nap he's been sleeping longer for the other two. If he wakes early I just let him whine in his crib (or talk to himself or play, depending on his mood). Sometimes I put him in his swing and see if he'll fall back to sleep or at least lay there quietly). Sometimes I let him play on the floor for awhile. It just depends on his mood and my mood. But I try not to feed him too much earlier unless he's acting hungry or really cranky.

Follow up to "Weird" post

I had a question about what happened to Evan's early waking situation I wrote about in THIS post. I ended up cutting out the dream feed and the late afternoon nap (for the most part). Cutting out that late afternoon nap has helped significantly with getting him to sleep all the way through the night. For awhile he'd wake up and we'd go put his pacifier in and he'd go right back to sleep. Since cutting out that nap he sleeps the entire night without waking or making any noise.

However, he's still waking earlier than I'd like. Last week I read that putting babies to bed earlier actually makes them sleep later. Yeah, WEIRD! So I've been trying to get him to bed around 7:00 instead of 8:00. It seems like it's working!! He's been sleeping until around 7:30 every morning. I want to make his bedtime more consistent. That's the one sleepy time that I'm bad about making consistent and it's really the most important one. I also want to make our bedtime routine different than our naptime routines. So I'm hoping that will get him to sleep till 7:30 EVERY morning or maybe even until 8:00.

Right now our bedtime routine is: nurse, quietly talk for a little while (if I fed him a little early, otherwise it's straight to bed), Matt takes him and i kiss him goodnight. Matt reads him a book, sings him a song while rocking him, jiggles him and "sshhh"s him (that's an Evan thing, it helps him wind down), and then puts him to bed. However, I read to him before his morning nap as well as sing and jiggle him. So at night I think we are going to start adding a prayer time. That's a good habit to start anyway.

I've also discovered that the nights we give him a bath just before bed he sleeps later in the mornings. I only wish we could give him a bath every night, but it's too much to do at that time of day at this point. It'll be a little better when he's older and can help out a little. I remember giving the toddler who lived with my family a bath every night before bed. I loved it so much. Of course, he needed a bath before bed because it was summer when that was my "job" and he played outside before dinner every night.

Oh well, what has helped your baby sleep longer and better during the night? I will make sure to update once we become more consistent too!

New Experiences

Tomorrow I'm taking Evan to Sea.rs to have his 6 month portraits taken. I have never done professional portraits of him before!! We didn't even have the hospital photographer do pictures just after he was born because the first morning I was way too frazzled to think about that and then the second morning we were in the hospital the photographer didn't show up because she was sick or something. I was so upset about that and we talked about taking him to a studio to have newborn pictures done, but it was too much to think about with a new baby.

Twice before my dad has set up his camera and taken better quality pictures of Evan (1 month and 4 month pics), but this is the first time I've taken him anywhere and had a "real photographer" take his picture! As a matter of fact, this will be one of the first times I've been in a portrait studio since I can remember. So I'm a little intimidated about the experience.

Another new experience...Evan's new food is carrots. He's not impressed, but still likes them better than avocados. Just now he's eating them mixed with green beans for the first time because I hoped he might like them better that way. Matt is feeding him and it sounds like Evan is being a goofball...something he only does when he isn't impressed with food. ;-)

And another new experience...Matt and I going out and leaving Evan with my sister and her boyfriend. In November we left Evan with my mom for a few hours, but this is the first time we've gone out and left him for 2 feeding periods and left him with my sister. Matt and I went to a casino night party for his office. His office did the same thing last year and it was a big hit. This year was just as fun (maybe even more fun since I could drink. ;-) Last year I was pregnant). Also, we won a $50 gift card to Lo.we's with the raffle tickets we earned at the "casino." Yay! It's perfect because we're using our tax return to do home improvements and the gift card can go towards new windows.

We returned home much later than I had expected (we called Melissa to let her know we'd be late!) but all was well. He did great and I thought it was cute that my sister and her boyfriend were waiting on him to poop before changing his diaper and letting him to go sleep. They put him in his crib at 7:30 (his bedtime) but they stayed in there waiting on him to poop! lol I don't know why they thought that was going to happen...I didn't tell them to do that. I actually could have told them it wouldn't happen at all since he pooped 3 times during the day. Anyway, after 30 minutes of letting him sit in his crib in the dark with a light up music toy to keep him awake (while they watched him), they went ahead and changed his diaper and then put him back in his crib and let him go to sleep! He was probably sitting in his crib thinking, "why won't these people let me go to sleep!?"

Anyway, Evan still has his dreamfeed at 9:00 every night, but I told Melissa not to bother waking him up and feeding him then. So I was concerned that his last feeding was at 6:30. I expected him to wake up in the middle of the night. But he woke up at 6:30 am! He went 12 hours between feedings and he slept great all night! I'm excited....now I'm more ready to get rid of the dreamfeed since I know he can make it 12 hours.

Weird

Babies are weird. It's just crazy how many things affect them and change their behaviors!

The past week Evan has been waking up early every morning. Like around 6:30 - 7:30 when his normal wake time is 8:00. He's sleeping all night, just waking early. And he's happy when he wakes up, so I don't think his sleep is being interrupted by anything. So I read up on my Babywise books (I now have the second one too) and all kinds of things can cause him to wake early. It's just ridiculous to try to figure it out! I've decided that it could be caused by his dream feed (that I am still in the process of dropping) or his late afternoon nap. So the past 2 days I decided to try to skip that last nap to see how it goes.

Yesterday afternoon he stayed awake until we drove home from a friend's house. He fell asleep in the car. However, he stayed awake later than usual (until about 5:30) and he did sleep "later" this morning (he woke up at 7:30). Today we were at home all afternoon and I decided to skip that nap. Ha. I am seriously wondering what I'm going to do with him when he really does drop that nap! I'm exhausted. And that's after all of the independent play he did. lol Anyway, he started crying and so I decided he needs a nap.

At this point I'm feeding Evan a little before 9:00 pm every night and then he goes straight to bed. When I get him down to 8:30 (which I'm hoping will be in the next 2 or 3 weeks), I plan on going to a 4 hour schedule (where I feed him every 4 hours instead of every 3.5). Then his last feeding will be at 8:00 pm and he'll go to bed just after.

Oh yeah, and thanks to those of you who commented on my last post and said that babies don't officially choose a hand until 2 - 3 years old! I had thought I heard that somewhere, but wasn't sure. It will be interesting to see if Evan continues to favor his left hand when he starts feeding himself, writing, etc. I'm hoping he really is a lefty like my brother and cousin. :-)

Nap time & cry it out

What do you do before you put your babies down for naps? Like, do you sing to them, rock them, play music, put a pacifier in, etc? For awhile I was just sticking Evan in his bassinet with a pacifier. He'd go to sleep. However, I read that one reason some babies don't take long naps is if they are put down to sleep without any "prelude" to the nap. That you should have a routine that you go through before every nap. Also, he has now become dependent on the pacifier to go to sleep. That isn't so bad in my book, but I think that might be the reason he wakes up after 30-45 minutes. I think the pacifier falling out wakes him up. So I'd like him to go back to taking naps without the pacifier and see if he'll sleep longer.

Right now I hold him and walk around with him while I softly sing a song or two. Then I just jiggle him and "shhh" him for a couple of minutes. Then I put him in his bassinet. I've been putting the pacifier in, but this time I didn't. He cried for about 10 minutes. Now there's silence...I'm hoping he's asleep!

This is also the first nap he's taking in his crib in the nursery. A few weeks ago I tried getting him to nap in the nursery, but every time he'd spit up all over himself. I'm not sure, but I think it's because he was flat on his back. His bassinet mattress bends slightly under his weight so he isn't completely flat. Anyway, it seems like it's working...oh wait...nevermind....he's starting to fuss again.

*sigh* I've been trying to let him cry it out the past week. I think I'm finally to the place where I can handle it. Several times he's cried for about 5 minutes and then fell asleep while going down for his naps. However, since starting to let him cry it out, he's started amping up his crying halfway through with this horrible gasping scream (only sometimes, not every time). It was new and so I was always going to comfort him when he did it until this morning. This morning I was in the shower when he started that kind of cry. Plus, I've become used to it, I know it isn't a pain cry or a dirty diaper cry or an uncomfortable cry. I think it's a mad cry. So I let him cry it out since I needed to finish my shower before my chiropractor appointment. He cried for about 10 - 15 minutes and then fell asleep.

For those of you who have tried this (cry it out), whether successfully or unsuccessfully, i'd love to hear about your experience. Did it work for you? How long did it take before your child would go to sleep on a regular basis without crying? Does your child still cry while going down for a nap or bedtime? Do you let him/her cry it out if they wake early from their nap? If cry it out didn't work for you, I'd like to know too. Was there a specific incidence that made you stop letting your baby cry it out? If you don't want to leave a comment you can email me at: christmasinmarch {at} gmail {dot} com.

Okay, he's quiet again. I think he might really be asleep this time since it's lasted several minutes! *fingers crossed*

Growth Spurt

I'm not going to go into details about the growth spurt now, but it was a rough week!! It's over now, but today he has hardly napped. So even though I'm not feeding him every 2 hours, he's still waking up and fussing unless I put him in his swing. He's never been great at napping, but it's been worse the past couple of days.

I'm actively working on fixing this "problem." It might not be something that can be fixed or even should be fixed, we'll see. At this point I'm trying to keep nap time as nap time, even if he isn't sleeping. I either keep putting his pacifier in while he's in his bassinet or I put him in his swing (he still doesn't sleep in his swing, but he's quiet). One thing I need to start doing is putting him in his crib for naps instead of in his bassinet in our bedroom.

Speaking of that, I still haven't started putting him in his crib for nights. :-( I think I'm ready though. It's been hard for me to think about him being in another room at night. Right now his bassinet is right next to my side of the bed. I leave the bathroom light on so I can see him at night. Not that I've been looking at him at night though. After I go to bed I don't look in because he rarely makes a sound at night. So it's getting easier to imagine him not being right next to me at night.

Oh well...I am tired and have a headache. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I've found a playgroup and have been doing things with them. Tomorrow is the first time I'm going to someone's house for a playgroup meeting and it's 30 minutes away. Then in the afternoon I'm meeting a friend who will then come over for a movie night at our house. So I'll be busy from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed.

We decorated our tree on Saturday:

Schedule

8:00 AM - Wake up & eat
Wake time - During this time I hold him on the couch for a little while, then put him on the floor to play for awhile. I also wash his face, brush his hair, and do any other necessary cleaning like his nose, ears, etc. We do a few minutes of tummy time and sometimes listen to music. I take the most pictures of him during this wake period. I don't have much energy to do anything else. ;-)
9:30 AM - Nap time (If I have time, I take a nap now too)

11:30 AM - Wake up & eat
Wake time - He spends some of this wake period alone while I get ready (wash face, contacts, get dressed) unless I had something to do in the morning and got ready during his first wake time. When he's alone I like to put him under his play gym or in his swing with the mobile on and music playing. He also spends some of this wake time on his blanket on the living room floor and does some tummy time.
1:00 PM - Nap time

3:00 PM - Wake up & eat
Wake time - Once again, he spends most of this wake time on the floor since that's what he loves the most. I try to hold him on the couch and walk him around the house a little bit. If it's nice we'll go on a walk outside with his stroller. This is the best time for visitors since I'm already up and about and he's awake.
4:30 - 5:00 PM - Nap time

6:30 PM - Wake up & eat
Wake time - Daddy is home to entertain baby. He usually spends some of this time on the floor or in his bouncer while we eat and watch some TV unless we eat after 8:00. Put on his sleeping gown just before his nap so that we won't have to wake him up any more than we have to after his last feeding.
8:00 PM - Nap time

10:00 PM - Wake up (kind of) & eat
Immediately goes back to bed and sleeps all night until 8 the next morning!

Obviously this is just a day that I don't go out, which is becoming quite rare. I plan outings around his feeding times and I try to spend some of his wake time at home before going out. I hate to feed him and then put him in his car seat to spend his entire wake time. If it's the beginning of a nap time it's nice because the car will put him to sleep and *hopefully* he'll stay that way when we arrive at our destination (usually if it's in the middle or the beginning of his nap time he will), if it's towards the end he'll wake up and if he falls asleep in the car seat when it isn't his nap time, he'll wake up at our destination and then be really fussy and not go back to sleep.

The next step according to Babywise is to eliminate the "dream feed," our 10:00 PM feeding. However, if we take that out, he'll be down to eating only 4 times a day....which is the step Babywise recommends taking after 4 months old. I guess we are ahead by only eating 5 times a day at this point. So anyway, I'm not sure what to do. It's recommended that they start sleeping 12 hours from 3-4 months and Evan is 3 months and one week old now and is going 10 hours at night. Anyone else run into this same situation? Most of the blogs I've read say that their baby started going to 4 feedings around 7 months...so it seems like 3 months is pretty early compared to what most people do.

This is what I think we will do. Start eliminating the dream feed by feeding him slightly early each night. Like, I will start to do the dream feed at 9:45 PM instead of 10:00 for a couple of nights. Then 9:30, then 9:15, then 9:00, etc, until we reach 8:00 PM. So at some point he will be eating at 6:30 PM and then again at 8:00 (does this mean that he doesn't have any naps in between feedings??). I may keep a 9:00 PM last feeding for a couple of months until he's a little closer to the recommended age for going to 4 feedings. After he's used to going 12 hours we can start the 4 hours between feedings, which would mean only 4 feedings a day.

The problem with the 4 hour schedule is that then Matt will never be able to see Evan awake during the week. He'd have a 4:00 feeding, nap time at around 5:30 or 6:00 and then go to bed right after his 8:00 feeding. Matt usually comes home around 5:45 - 6:00. So he might be able to see Evan just before nap time, but still, it wouldn't be for long. Kind of sad to think about....it's one reason why I haven't even started to eliminate the dream feed yet.

So I have things to figure out and if you know any of the answers to my questions please answer them! And if you have any questions for me I'd be happy to try my best to answer them as well.

Our Babywise Experience

First of all I just want to say, I know that Babywise isn't for every parent and is not for every baby. Secondly, I don't appreciate any negative or unhelpful comments or opinions. If you don't agree with schedules, fine, but this post isn't the time to tell me that. Maybe you tried a schedule and it didn't work or aren't a schedule/routine type of person, that's fine, you can tell me. I just don't want to hear that I'm wrong and you're right, etc. Third, I'm not strictly following Babywise (obviously...Evan still sleeps in our room in his bassinet!). I believe that Babywise has great scheduling guidelines and that with some aspects you can pick and choose what is right for you and your baby. That's what I've done and it's worked great so far.

We started Babywise from "day 1." The first week we didn't worry about a schedule at all, we fed Evan when he was hungry, no more than 3 hours apart during the day and no more than 5 hours at night like his pediatrician told us to do. Unfortunately those first few days he went more than 3 hours several times because of our problems breastfeeding, but he made up for it after that. :-)

The second week we loosely started the schedule. We started out by just trying to get him to stay awake for awhile after he ate. I think that was the most important thing. We also started feeding him every 3 hours during the day (most of the time we had to wake him up and keep waking him up as he ate) and at night would let him go longer (but no more than 5 hours) if he could. We didn't have long wake times, but they gradually got longer and longer each week.

After he was a month old we let him go longer than 5 hours at night if he could. His wake times were about an hour long after he ate. He really started getting into the routine at this point. He would wake up at exactly 3 hours to the minute wanting to eat.

At 6 weeks we went to from 3 hours between feedings to 3.5 hours. The way I knew he was ready to go longer between meals was because I'd have to wake him up to eat almost every time. Babywise says you can go to a 3.5 hour schedule between 5 and 8 weeks and sure enough, that's when Evan was ready.

At exactly 7 weeks old he slept through the night for the first time and has done that almost every night since then except for the week the time changed and for a few days that 7th week (growth spurt). I'm not sure if it was the time change or the fact that I was deviating from the schedule that caused him to start waking up during the night again the week of the time change, but after I got back into the exact schedule he started sleeping all night again!

Helpful things I learned:

• Feeding/naptime at the same time everyday is more important than the time increments. For some reason I was under the impression that feeding every 3.5 hours was the key. So if we accidentally slept late, I'd keep feeding him every 3.5 hours. However, the time is more important. So if you accidentally sleep half an hour late, you should then feed the baby again after 3 hours instead of 3.5 so that it's at the same time as normal. Sometimes if you get way off you can't completely get back on track until 2 feedings, but keep trying to extend or shorten the times between feedings (I usually do this in 30 minute increments) until you get back to your normal times.
  
• It's not imperative that you do things at the same time to the minute. I usually try to do it the same time, but don't mind feeding/nap time 15 minutes before or after the usual time.
• It took about a month to get Evan really into the schedule. Now he knows that wake time is after he eats. Occasionally he'll doze immediately after eating (before I even take him off my breast) and I'll let him for a couple of minutes (usually because I'm reading), but after I change him he's awake and will stay that way at least an hour.
• Evan has to sleep after about an hour and a half or he gets overtired. At the hour and a half mark I put him down for a nap even if he doesn't seem sleepy. I just rock him and walk him around and put his pacifier in until he starts getting drowsy.

Obviously I still have some work to do with the nap times. As far as I know, Babywise doesn't say what to do if your child just doesn't want to nap. Well, it does say to let them cry it out, but so far this hasn't really worked with Evan. I feel uncomfortable with him crying for more than 15 minutes at this point though, so I'll admit I haven't tried it much. But the thing is, he'll usually go to sleep just fine, but wake up after about 30 minutes and fuss. After that he'll only doze while the pacifier is in his mouth, after it falls out he'll start with the thrashing around and fussing again.

Next post I'll write down our schedule at this point and my plans for changing it to exclude the "dream feed" (last feeding of the day) and extend his nighttime sleep and to change his day schedule to eating every 4 hours instead of every 3.5.

3 Months Old

Thanks for your encouraging comments on my last post. I was feeling awful and I thought that maybe writing about it would help. And it kind of did. Want to hear something weird? My chiropractor mentioned in passing that he treats some kids for anxiety. I asked how he did that and he said there's a certain adjustment of the mid back that helps anxiety and that he also recommends a special diet to help. I never even thought about natural treatments for anxiety, my doctor just suggested meds that you can't take while pregnant or breastfeeding. I didn't tell my chiro about my anxiety, but maybe I'll bring it up next time. The whole thing seems weird to me though. Thoughts?

Evan is 3 months old! It's amazing how fast time has gone by. I meant to write a special 3 month post on the 23rd, but obviously didn't do that. I also want to write a post about my L&D experience...like more about my thoughts and feelings about it. I've had a lot of time to think about it over the past 3 months and I want to record my thoughts. I also want to write a post on "what to do next time" and my suggestions to people wanting an all natural delivery.

New things with Evan....

• He weighs 13 pounds!
• He's starting to grab things on his own, without me holding them up to his hands.
• The other day he grabbed his rattle and put it in his mouth.
• He's "talking" and smiling all the time!
  
• He shows his recognition of me by smiling. :-) I love it when he smiles at me the first time I see him in the morning!
• He is still sleeping through the night and is doing an awesome job! He rarely wakes up before 8:00 and if he does he goes back to sleep on his own. Also, when he does wake up he'll lay in his bassinet and just coo or move around for a long time before he fusses (usually I get him up to eat before he even gets to that point).
• He's still sleeping in the bassinet, but I think tonight will be his first night in his room.
• He stayed with my mom for many hours on Friday night so I could go to the movies with Matt and a friend for my birthday. My mom gave him a bottle and he did really well all evening. It was the longest I was away from him and I missed him SO MUCH, especially since we ended up sitting next to a girl with a 4 month old boy in the movie. I watched him a lot and missed Evan even more.
  
• I'm starting to figure this child out! He only wants to be held a little while during his wake time, then he wants to be on a blanket on the floor. Then after about an hour to an hour and a half he has to take his nap. He'll usually fuss just a little to let me know it's time. At that point I have to cradle him and walk him around the house, jiggling him a little. Then he'll either calm down enough that I can put him in his bassinet and he'll go to sleep, or he falls asleep while I'm walking him around and then I can put him down.
• He's independent. Like I said, he doesn't like to be held much when he's awake. He likes me to be in the room with him, but not holding him. If I hold him too long while he's awake he'll start squirming and then he'll fuss, then he'll outright start to cry if I don't put him down. Kind of the opposite of a lot of babies.
• So far he doesn't mind strangers, he smiles for other people and doesn't mind them holding him (unless they hold him for too long while he's awake).
• He still doesn't like his naps very much. A lot of times he sleeps great for 30 minutes, then wakes up and either won't go back to sleep or will keep crying every time his pacifier falls out. Some days he hardly sleeps at all. Like yesterday when he only napped for about 45 minutes total the entire day. -- I know there are different opinions on this subject, but what do you do when a baby wakes early in his nap and isn't hungry, but is crying? Let him cry it out, put the pacifier back in, take him out and hold him until he falls asleep again, check him all out to make sure he's clean,etc?
  
• I think he's ready to start eating every 4 hours and only 4 times a day. The book I take guidelines from says there's no rush to do this (and not to do it before 15 weeks), but I think he's ready and I think I'll go ahead and start changing our schedule to fit that next week. It makes me kind of sad to think about nursing less often, but I seriously think he's ready (I often have to wake him to eat and sometimes it's really hard to wake him for the 10:00 feeding) and maybe, just maybe, this will help with the whole napping thing? Of course, that may be why I have to wake him so often, because he doesn't nap for as long as he should. Hmmm... what do you think? Maybe I better work on his nap situation before changing his schedule??

Oh well, that's all for now!

What happened?

How did time fly by so fast? It seems like just the other day that I wrote about his 2 month appointment!

Everything is going GREAT! The transition to parenthood has been an easy one for Matt and me. Obviously being a parent is a hard job, but it isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. It's the saddest thing that so many people make parenthood into a negative thing. You wouldn't believe the number of negative comments we received while we were pregnant with Evan. Things like "Good luck, you're going to need it." "You just think you're ready to be a parent." "Say goodbye to sleep you won't get any for 18 years after the baby comes." "Just wait until your baby is screaming and crying, then you'll wish it was just the two of you again." "It's easy to make plans now, after the baby comes you won't be able to do any of those things." etc, etc, etc. It's just the whole negativity thing. I can't believe that people look on this as a negative thing. And if you've ever said anything like that to an expecting or new parent, shame on you!

I take great joy in proving those people wrong. I can be happy even if we have a rough night, I can be happy even when the baby has fussy days, I never regret our decision to become parents, I was ready to be a parent, I'm a great mom and Matt's a great dad, we're the parents and make the decisions. Sometimes we don't know what we're doing, but we're learning and we're confident enough in our ability as parents that we don't completely freak out (we've only freaked out a little a few times ;-)). I would never make parenthood sound like a negative thing, because it isn't. And I wonder what those people think, trying to take the joy away from expecting couples. Even if those people think expecting couples are naive, that's still no reason to try to make them feel bad or sad about the situation they are in.

I told my friend about how many people made parenthood into a bad thing and she said she feels like it's Satan attacking the most precious of things, starting a family and the joy that comes with it. Modern America makes having a baby into a burden, but I'm going to assure you, it ISN'T! Everyone has their own situations and I know mine is easier than some, but still, I don't see how anyone could regret the decision to become a mother or resent their child. Of course, there are people who don't make the choice or who make the wrong choice, but that's another story and I'm not talking about those situations.

Evan is also doing great, continuing to sleep through the night and eating like a champ. Last night he slept the entire night and woke up right on time (his first feeding of the day is at 8:00 now) cooing and happily squealing. There's no better sound to wake up to!!! I woke up with a smile on my face, how could anyone not smile at a happy baby? I laid there for a few minutes listening to him happily "talking" in his bassinet.

Yep, he's still in the bassinet by our bed. I have yet to move him to his crib in the nursery.... I keep meaning to do it every night, but it just hasn't happened. I think I've needed this time to prepare myself though. After he started sleeping through the night regularly I knew I should put him in his room, but I wasn't ready. I'm starting to get ready though. I know I will sleep better when I don't have to worry about accidentally waking him in the middle of the night when I toss and turn. And when he does wake up to talk to himself in the middle of the night I won't wake up too. So it's time.... maybe it will happen in the next couple of days...I need to wash the crib sheet first.

At this point our biggest struggle is nap times. He doesn't like to take naps and then gets over tired. We've had quite a few fussy days due to him being over tired but not being able to nap long. I'm wondering if "forcing" him to nap more often just isn't working. It's hard to tell if he needs more naps or less. And maybe we should have him sleep longer at night? The other night he went 11.5 hours between meals at night and slept most of that time. Usually he only goes 9-10 hours at night. He eats 5 times a day and takes 4 naps. I'm also wondering if we need to stop going out during his nap time. He doesn't sleep well when we are out and about. Sometimes he'll stay awake the entire time and other times he'll fall asleep in the car seat only to wake up as soon as we arrive at our destination. Even pushing him in the stroller doesn't put him to sleep. At what point do you only go out when the baby is awake? Is it normal to stay home during naps? I honestly have no clue about this subject, i just know that he used to sleep through anything and now he isn't.

I've been super busy the past couple of weeks and I don't think this week will be any different. As a matter of fact, a friend of mine should be here any minute, so I need to go straighten up the house for her arrival!

One Month Checkup

Evan had his one month doctor appointment on Monday the 28th. He weighed 9 lbs, 5.6 oz. Big baby!! The pediatrician was very pleased with his weight gain. He gained over 2 pounds in just 3 and a half weeks! He's 22 inches long, 2 inches longer than he was at his last appointment. Everything looks good with his development, no heart or lung problems or misshapen head. ;-)

I talked to the doctor about his spitting up and while he did assure me that spitting up is normal, he also said that if it looks like Evan is in pain (arching his back, screwing up his face, crying, etc) while eating, then there could be a problem with acid reflux. Well, that pretty much completely describes how Evan was acting during nursing times. So the doctor prescribed him some medicine to take that will hopefully help. He's been taking it for 3 days and already seems to be doing better.

For a couple of days we had a lot of problems with Evan being very fussy in the evenings and early nighttime. Not fun! We've been so used to a good baby that it was hard to listen to him fussing and crying. The other night he also had gas pains in the middle of the night and started screaming. I've never heard him cry like that before. :-( Needless to say, that was rough, but last night he was MUCH better and I only hope he'll go back to normal now. I don't know if it was gas problems or a growth spurt that caused all of the fussiness, I just know that the one middle of the night screaming episode was gas because after he passed gas he immediately stopped crying and went to sleep. Whew!

He has officially grown out of his newborn clothes and is in 0-3 month clothes. It makes me feel kind of sad that he's growing so fast. Part of me is excited, but part is melancholy to think of my baby growing up and getting bigger. At the doctor's office the other day I saw some very new newborns. I was like "Wait! MY baby is supposed to be a NEWborn too!" But it's obvious now from looking at him that he has grown out of that teeny tiny stage.

We're getting more and more comfortable with each other. I don't feel like I'm going to hurt him or do something terribly wrong all the time. I don't constantly worry and wonder if he's too hot or too cold or uncomfortable, I just know.

As for me...I went shopping the other day for some clothes. I'm actually officially back to my pre-pregnancy weight and fitting into my pre-pregnancy pants. But I still wanted to buy bigger size pants (one size bigger) and larger shirts. It's fun to have new clothes! I also had my hair cut today. I'm still trying to grow it out (remember my boy haircut?), but it needs to be trimmed to make it look less ragged as it grows. Now it has more of a style and I'm pleased with it although I can't wait to have long hair again!

Infection

I have pretty bad mastitis. Yesterday I visited the midwife and as soon as she looked at my breast she said, "That's definitely major mastitis." Ugg!! I'm allergic to the antibiotics that are normally prescribed to treat it, so the midwife had to prescribe a less effective antibiotic. She's afraid it may not work. If I don't see improvement in 24-48 hours I will have to go to the emergency room right away since it's the weekend and their office isn't open, so I wouldn't be able to go there first to be checked.

So far I haven't seen any improvement, but it's only been 21 hours since I started the antibiotics. Please, please pray that this will get better - quick! I really don't want to spend tomorrow in the emergency room, especially with a newborn. Plus, this is painful! My breast feels like it's on fire.

That being said, Evan is nursing much quicker, now our nursing sessions take about 20-25 minutes. He went through a growth spurt and for half of a day was nursing about 25 minutes total instead of 10-15. He had another appointment with the pediatrician yesterday and he's gained even more! He's now 7 pounds and half an ounce, almost back to birth weight. The doctor is pleased and we don't have another appointment for him until he's a month old.

All last night he woke up every 3 hours, when he was sleeping 4-5 hours at a time. I don't know what's up with that, but I think it might be a blessing in disguise because I'm supposed to keep "emptying" my infected breast. Not that he eats out of either for very long, only 6 minutes at the longest, so that's why I'm thinking it's good that he's eating every 3 hours even during the night.

He also had a clogged tear duct the other day, which was stressful to me (especially at first before I knew what it was!), but it's a harmless condition. I just had to keep wiping his eye throughout the day. It's still a little messed up, but not nearly so bad. Of course I called the nurse to ask her about it, but she said it's common in newborns and that there's nothing to do except wipe his eye with a warm washcloth.

I hope all of you are doing well, I feel bad that I'm not commenting on your blogs as much. I'm trying to read as many as I can during my free time, but I don't always have time to say anything. I'll keep y'all updated

1 Week Old

I can't believe it's been a week already! The time has flown by. At the end of the day I wonder how it went by so fast...and then wonder WHY it went by so fast. It doesn't seem like I do much. Of course, I live 3 hours at a time. That's how often I nurse Evan and each feeding takes at least 45 minutes. Most of that 45 minutes is spent trying to wake him up to eat more. The past few days most of his actual eating times have been 13 minutes. And yet it still takes 45 minutes to complete that process.

Breastfeeding has been incredibly rough. I don't mind waking up during the night, I don't mind spending all of my time with him, I don't mind my life being consumed by motherhood and nothing else. But breastfeeding has made motherhood hard for me. He wasn't latching properly for a couple of days. I was bleeding and sore and dreaded nursing times. I was SO close to giving up. He was also nursing every 2 hours at that point, probably because he wasn't getting enough due to the latch. On Wednesday I ended up driving myself to the midwife's office to get checked because the lactation consultant I talked to on the phone said I should because I might have an infection (which I didn't, he just wasn't latching properly). I got a last minute appt and we didn't have enough time to get Evan ready, I walked straight out the door. After getting in the car and driving a little ways down the road I realized that I really shouldn't be driving. I drove so carefully all the way though. Later I actually read my discharge instructions that said not to drive until approved by the midwife. lol

Things have been CRAZY. This is only the second day that I've been home the whole time. It's also only the second day that I've taken a nap. Just last night I realized that I am drained and healing is actually going to take longer if I keep going like I have been. So today I was determined to relax. We still had visitors (my family), but I've made a point of laying back on the couch and not doing any bending, squatting, sitting cross legged, etc. Needless to say, last night I was very sore down there, I think I was doing too much moving around.

Evan has had 2 doctors appointments so far. One on Thursday. He had gained .4 oz, not enough for them to be sure he's really gaining. So we had to go back yesterday to make sure. He gained an ounce! When we were discharged from the hospital he weighed 6 lbs, 10 oz. Now he's 6 lbs, 11 oz. That's good news and his pediatrician (who I really like!) said that he's obviously doing fine with his feeding, even though he doesn't spend long actually eating. He said to go ahead and just let him eat for 5 minutes on one breast and then as long as he will go on the other. He's still having A LOT of bowel movements and he's peeing A LOT too! lol So I guess it's all good, although it worries me that sometimes he only eats less than 10 minutes total.

Nights are actually going really well. We don't wake him up every 3 hours between 9 pm and 8 am, we wait until he cries to feed him. So sometimes he'll go about 4 to 4 and a half hours between feedings. This child almost never cries. The most he cries is sometimes when we're changing him (cold wipes!). He doesn't even cry when he's ready to eat, he just makes fussy noises. It's actually kind of hard to read him. The doctor said to wait until he screams at night to feed him, but I don't think he ever will scream. I just wait until he actually cries. And usually he'll only cry for a couple of seconds and then stop and whimper or make fussy noises. I go ahead and feed him though because I just don't think he is a screamer or much of a crier. I'm SO BLESSED, I know! My mom is miffed, she said that after all the trouble I gave her when I was a baby, I should have a difficult child too. ;-)

Nursing is still hard, but I think I can make it. I'm starting to accept the fact that he just doesn't eat for long, so I think that will make things easier. I can stop spending 30 minutes plus trying to wake him up. I have to pump about every other feeding time to keep my breasts from becoming too full. Sometimes he won't eat unless I do that first. That's a bummer because it just takes up more time, but I'm hoping I won't always have to do that. We still have a lot to learn about feeding and things are only getting better, so maybe someday we'll both get the hang of it.

I feel very weak a lot of the time. I'm not all that tired, because I've been getting quite a bit of sleep at night (more than most mothers of newborns!), but I'm just weak. I'm going to try to relax more the next few days, but the nurse I talked to the other day said that if I don't feel stronger in a few days that I should make an appointment, I might be anemic. Matt has been a HUGE help, he changes most of the diapers, helps wake Evan up during feedings, swaddles him (I'm going to have to learn to do that better before Matt goes back to work!), cleans, does the laundry, cooks, etc, etc, etc. Plus he's just encouraging, especially about the breastfeeding. He's very involved in every aspect. He'd be the perfect stay-at-home dad. I only wish we could both stay at home all day with Evan! Matt is going back to work on Wednesday, he'll be out of vacation days by then. :-(

Okay, I promise I'm going to end this huge post! It's feeding time. :-)