Well, the boy had his four-month checkup this past week. He was 15 lbs 6 oz, and 25 inches long (although I think he's a bit longer; he was squirming quite a bit while she was trying to get the measurement). Both of those are 75th percentile for his age, so he's a pretty good size I'd say. He got more vaccinations, and this time he seemed to react a bit more to them. Last time he just slept a lot and seemed out of sorts; this time he seemed to run a bit of a temperature, which I know is not uncommon, and really seemed to not be feeling well. Thankfully, by the next morning he seemed to be over both the fever and the grumpiness.
He must be going through a growth spurt right now, because he's doing what they call "cluster feeding", where he eats a number of times in a short period. All the literature says it's pretty common, and while I feel like I must not be making enough milk, the books also say that part of the reason for the multiple feedings is because suckling is soothing and helps him calm down. He does fall asleep much more easily at the end of a feeding while still attached to the breast, rather than when I put him down when he's still fairly awake. He might wake up a bit when I put him down after feeding, but generally if I gently hold his arms still for a minute or two, he's down and will stay asleep for a few hours.
Unfortunately he's also eating more at night, which is wearing me OUT. I am so freaking tired I can't see straight. Several nights straight I've just broken down at some point and cried while feeding the baby. One night I'd already been up with the boy four times, got back in bed and happened to glance at my alarm clock, to discover it was only 1:30 am and I'd only been in bed for two hours. That was one of my "break down and cry" moments. I think Brendan has had gas for some reason lately, and the gas pains have woken him up a few times. I've been trying to let him cry a little bit before going in after him, in the hopes that he'll go back to sleep. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But it still doesn't help my sleep pattern, because I lay there listening for the sounds of stirring. Combine my ready-wakefulness with my husband's snoring, and I've got a recipe for no sleep at all. It definitely is wearing me out. A friend of mine with a newborn is having her son do a sleepover with someone else (I think it's another family member, but I'm not sure from her Facebook post), and was looking forward to going to bed at 8 pm for a change. I'd love to do something like that, but at the same time I think I'd be so worried about the baby and whether or not he was having a good night that I probably wouldn't sleep well. I'd rather he just start sleeping through the night here.
One thing I'm hoping will help him sleep better is the introduction of solid food. Our pediatrician said it was OK to try him with rice cereal, so we've given him some the last couple of nights, mixed with breast milk. I can't tell if he likes it or not. He squeals the whole time he's being fed, and I'm not sure if it's happy squeals or angry squeals. It's easier to get more of the cereal into his mouth (rather than all over his face) if the baby is reclined in his pillow rather than sitting in his Bebepod, at least for now. He's getting better at not thrusting his tongue forward and pushing everything out of his mouth, but he needs a little more practice. He also seems to get annoyed when he has to sit up for long periods of time. We're working on it. Right now he's only getting one feeding of cereal, in the evening, but after a week or so we'll probably step up to two. I need to look at some of the "solid food schedules" to see what the recommended procedure is for the introduction of various foods. I do know the basic progression is cereals, veggies, fruits, and then meats, but I don't know if there's a specific order that is best to follow. We'll see.
I'll be happy to feed the kid whatever it takes so I can get some SLEEP! I realized that it's been a full year since the last time I had an uninterrupted night's sleep, since the first symptom of pregnancy I noticed was having to get up and pee in the middle of the night, when I was about a month along. That is way too damn long to go without sleeping straight through the night. I'm due, dammit!
Pool Time
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Born to be riled
Well, we did three night of one-arm-swaddled, and then went ahead and left both arms unswaddled the last two nights. It does pose some challenges, since the boy likes to "flap", which wakes him up if he's starting to doze. It seems to help if I hold his arms still for a minute or two when I put him down; I guess it lets him get settled. He's less grumpy when he wakes up, at least, I guess since he's not having to fight the swaddle. I can hear him gurgling and cooing, and whining a little but not out and out crying like he has in the past. The biggest downside to being unswaddled seems to be that his little hands get cold, since they aren't all wrapped up. I tried putting baby socks on his hands, but he doesn't seem to like that, and he can get them off pretty easily. Last night instead of the HaloSack swaddle I put him in a Carter's bag sleeper made of fleece. I thought it might keep him a little warmer than the HaloSack, which is sleeveless and cotton. His room gets really cool at night; we set the temp in the house at 63, and I think it's probably more like 61 in his room. I should put a thermometer in there to satisfy my curiosity.
My next goal is to get him on an actual schedule during the day. Some days he naps, some days he doesn't. Sometimes it's a 15-minute nap, sometimes it's a three-hour tour.
My next goal is to get him on an actual schedule during the day. Some days he naps, some days he doesn't. Sometimes it's a 15-minute nap, sometimes it's a three-hour tour.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The right to bare arms
I haven't even bothered to weigh myself. I haven't made good food choices lately, eating the wrong stuff and a lot of it. I also haven't been working out at all. I suck. Completely and totally. It never really occurred to me how much easier it was to eat better when I was out of the house and working all day. Also, it's much easier to work out, because I'm out of the house anyway so why not swing by the gym? That sounds so stupid, especially since I have work out equipment here at the house: an elliptical machine, some hand weights, even Wii Fit. But it's also terribly easy to sit on the couch, watch TV, and check Facebook compulsively. I'm lame.
But enough about me. My husband is out of town for a couple of days, and my father-in-law isn't staying with us this week, so I figured it was a good night to experiment. When I put the baby down at a little after ten, I only swaddled one arm, his left one, since it seems like he has better control of his right, and also since he tends to rub his face with his left. Instead of sleeping for 3-5 hours, like he typically does, he only slept for 2 hours. I fed him and he fell back asleep pretty quickly, so I just swaddled the one arm again and put him back down. Again, he only slept for two hours, then woke back up. That time, I went ahead and swaddled both arms. He didn't sleep that much longer with both arms swaddled, three hours instead of two, then woke up again. After I fed him, I left both arms unswaddled, put him back in his crib, and went out to walk the dog. We weren't out of the house more than ten minutes, probably not even that long, and when I came back the baby was still awake, so we went ahead and got up. He's now snoozing on his boppy pillow next to me. Anyway, the result of the experiment seems to be that he goes to sleep easier with an arm unswaddled, with less fighting, but he doesn't stay asleep as long as he does when both arms are swaddled. So it doesn't really seem like there's an appreciable benefit to leaving one arm unswaddled, at least, not yet. It could be, though, that the more often I leave him partially swaddled, the more he'll become acclimated to it, and then it won't wake him up so easily. He'll get used to it. I will try it again tonight and see how it goes. I'd like him to get used to being unswaddled, so that I don't have the huge fight on my hands that I seem to have every night these days. It wears me out.
I had a bad parent event the other night. Brendan was fighting going to sleep, pretty hard. I finally plopped him down in his crib and walked out of the room. I needed to reset my internal thermometer; I was getting really frustrated and angry. I doubt that I would ever "snap" and resort to physical violence, but I wanted to yell at the baby to shut up. I figured it was better to leave the room and count to 100. I know it's better to do that than the alternative, but I would have liked to think that I'm not likely to get frustrated and angry like that. Oh well.
One more milestone to report. Brendan sat up briefly the other night. Saturday night, I think it was. I put him in the middle of his boppy, and he held his balance for about 30 seconds before tipping over. We'll keep practicing. I know it will be months before he can get up into a sitting position on his own, but it's nice to know that he's developing the strength and balance to do it. He's still not rolling over consistently. Sometimes he'll roll over right away. Other times he'll lay there and cry and get really upset. It's like he's forgotten that rolling over is an alternative. I'm sure he'll get better at it as we keep practicing.
But enough about me. My husband is out of town for a couple of days, and my father-in-law isn't staying with us this week, so I figured it was a good night to experiment. When I put the baby down at a little after ten, I only swaddled one arm, his left one, since it seems like he has better control of his right, and also since he tends to rub his face with his left. Instead of sleeping for 3-5 hours, like he typically does, he only slept for 2 hours. I fed him and he fell back asleep pretty quickly, so I just swaddled the one arm again and put him back down. Again, he only slept for two hours, then woke back up. That time, I went ahead and swaddled both arms. He didn't sleep that much longer with both arms swaddled, three hours instead of two, then woke up again. After I fed him, I left both arms unswaddled, put him back in his crib, and went out to walk the dog. We weren't out of the house more than ten minutes, probably not even that long, and when I came back the baby was still awake, so we went ahead and got up. He's now snoozing on his boppy pillow next to me. Anyway, the result of the experiment seems to be that he goes to sleep easier with an arm unswaddled, with less fighting, but he doesn't stay asleep as long as he does when both arms are swaddled. So it doesn't really seem like there's an appreciable benefit to leaving one arm unswaddled, at least, not yet. It could be, though, that the more often I leave him partially swaddled, the more he'll become acclimated to it, and then it won't wake him up so easily. He'll get used to it. I will try it again tonight and see how it goes. I'd like him to get used to being unswaddled, so that I don't have the huge fight on my hands that I seem to have every night these days. It wears me out.
I had a bad parent event the other night. Brendan was fighting going to sleep, pretty hard. I finally plopped him down in his crib and walked out of the room. I needed to reset my internal thermometer; I was getting really frustrated and angry. I doubt that I would ever "snap" and resort to physical violence, but I wanted to yell at the baby to shut up. I figured it was better to leave the room and count to 100. I know it's better to do that than the alternative, but I would have liked to think that I'm not likely to get frustrated and angry like that. Oh well.
One more milestone to report. Brendan sat up briefly the other night. Saturday night, I think it was. I put him in the middle of his boppy, and he held his balance for about 30 seconds before tipping over. We'll keep practicing. I know it will be months before he can get up into a sitting position on his own, but it's nice to know that he's developing the strength and balance to do it. He's still not rolling over consistently. Sometimes he'll roll over right away. Other times he'll lay there and cry and get really upset. It's like he's forgotten that rolling over is an alternative. I'm sure he'll get better at it as we keep practicing.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Super dooper pooper
No official weigh-in for me, because I haven't been working out or eating as well as I should. Haven't done much cardio, although I did crunches and flutter kicks today. I started on the elliptical machine this week, but I haven't done much (seriously; I started with one minute on Monday, two on Tuesday, three on Wednesday, and I need to do four minutes today at some point).
No official weigh-in for Brendan yet either, although he does have a checkup coming up sometime in the next few weeks. However, I did my unofficial "weigh myself holding him and then not holding him and do some math", and he's about 15 lbs. He'll be 15 weeks on Saturday. His weight puts him somewhere around the 75th percentile. Not too bad. Still, I kind of want to fatten him up a bit, and I've been feeling like I'm not producing as much milk as I need to keep up with him, so I've ordered some More Milk Plus, which is a supplement that contains fenugreek, a galactagogue that increases milk production. A good friend is using it and says it really helps. It's also been recommended to me by a number of people, so I figured I'd try it out. I don't have it yet, but I'll definitely blog about its efficacy.
Something unusual seems to be going on with the boy's digestive system. For some reason, he's not pooping regularly anymore. Over the weekend, he went two days without pooping. My husband even came home from the pharmacy with a laxative and a glycerine suppository in case we needed to "grease the wheels", so to speak, but he finally produced on his own (boy, did he. Yikes). But now, he hasn't pooped since at least Monday. He has farted off and on, although not more than usual, so I know things should be able to get through. I did give him a little of the liquid laxative this morning, only .25 ml. It says it should work in 6-12 hours, so I've still got four hours. I hope he doesn't exceed his diaper's capacity; he did move up to the larger size (size 2, 12-18 lbs) this week. If it's like it was last time, it'll be pretty impressive. Ew.
No official weigh-in for Brendan yet either, although he does have a checkup coming up sometime in the next few weeks. However, I did my unofficial "weigh myself holding him and then not holding him and do some math", and he's about 15 lbs. He'll be 15 weeks on Saturday. His weight puts him somewhere around the 75th percentile. Not too bad. Still, I kind of want to fatten him up a bit, and I've been feeling like I'm not producing as much milk as I need to keep up with him, so I've ordered some More Milk Plus, which is a supplement that contains fenugreek, a galactagogue that increases milk production. A good friend is using it and says it really helps. It's also been recommended to me by a number of people, so I figured I'd try it out. I don't have it yet, but I'll definitely blog about its efficacy.
Something unusual seems to be going on with the boy's digestive system. For some reason, he's not pooping regularly anymore. Over the weekend, he went two days without pooping. My husband even came home from the pharmacy with a laxative and a glycerine suppository in case we needed to "grease the wheels", so to speak, but he finally produced on his own (boy, did he. Yikes). But now, he hasn't pooped since at least Monday. He has farted off and on, although not more than usual, so I know things should be able to get through. I did give him a little of the liquid laxative this morning, only .25 ml. It says it should work in 6-12 hours, so I've still got four hours. I hope he doesn't exceed his diaper's capacity; he did move up to the larger size (size 2, 12-18 lbs) this week. If it's like it was last time, it'll be pretty impressive. Ew.
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