We have tooth!
Brendan finally has a tooth. I discovered it this evening, as he was in super-crabby mode. I stuck a finger in his mouth, and realized as he gnawed on me that there was something sharp in there. It's already broken through, which explains why he's been grumpy and fussy the past week or so. It's obviously been breaking through for several days at least. He was pretty tired and fussy tonight, so I gave him some Tylenol before giving him his last bottle for the day. Hopefully he'll sleep well.
Pool Time
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
It's about time
Brendan FINALLY slept through the night. At least, he never cried. Or if he did, I didn't hear it. And considering how hypersensitive I've been to the baby monitor, I'm pretty sure I would have heard it, regardless of how tired I was. I know he changed position at least once last night, since he was most definitely not where I left him (he ended up at the very top end of his crib, lying across the crib, on his tummy). So he managed to wake up enough to change position without waking up enough to cry about it.
I'm pretty sure this isn't going to happen every night for the rest of his life; as a matter of fact, I'm expecting tonight to be payback for last night. But at least I know he's capable of doing it.
I didn't completely freak out when I woke up, either. I actually got up and went to the bathroom, then got back in bed and stayed there for another five minutes, before deciding to get up and check to make sure he was still breathing. I guess that cements my disqualification from Mother of the Year from yesterday.
So, after about 17 months (since my first symptom of pregnancy was needing to pee in the middle of the night), I finally got a completely uninterrupted night's sleep. I am glad to know that I still can sleep through the night. I thought I might have lost the ability.
I'm pretty sure this isn't going to happen every night for the rest of his life; as a matter of fact, I'm expecting tonight to be payback for last night. But at least I know he's capable of doing it.
I didn't completely freak out when I woke up, either. I actually got up and went to the bathroom, then got back in bed and stayed there for another five minutes, before deciding to get up and check to make sure he was still breathing. I guess that cements my disqualification from Mother of the Year from yesterday.
So, after about 17 months (since my first symptom of pregnancy was needing to pee in the middle of the night), I finally got a completely uninterrupted night's sleep. I am glad to know that I still can sleep through the night. I thought I might have lost the ability.
Monday, July 11, 2011
So much for the Mother of the Year award
I did something extremely stupid last night. When I put Brendan to bed, I forgot to put the side of the crib back in place. The crib is not a drop side crib; the top eight or ten inches are hinged to the rest of the side and secure to the corner posts at the top with deadbolts. My father-in-law made the crib for my niece, and we have it on loan to use for Brendan. When Brendan was little and not mobile I didn't worry about putting up the side. Ever since he got big enough to sit up on his own and get on his hands and knees, I've put the side up when he's been in it. And now, of course, he's mobile enough to stand up in the corner of the crib and potentially try to climb over the side. So this was a pretty dangerous thing for me to do. And then, to top it off, I made this a "cry it out" night; I did not go in to check on Brendan when he woke up and cried but instead let him put himself back to sleep. He work up at least four times from the time I put him in there, which meant at least four possible times for him to fall out of the crib. I am soooooooo glad he never got worked up enough to kneel or stand in the the crib last night.
As evidenced by the above, we're working on sleep training. Unless he really gets worked up and starts sobbing, we're letting him cry during the night. The last few weeks I've gone in if he's awakened after about 2 am and given him a bottle, figuring he'd be pretty hungry. But he needs to get weaned off of a nighttime feeding, and so last night I decided I was going to wait and let him cry. If he got really agitated, I would have gone in after him (and probably gotten him a bottle too; and I would have discovered my mistake with the side of the crib), but he eventually tapered off and went back to sleep. I'm hoping that he'll wake less and less over time, or at least cry less and less, until he gets to the point where he's shifting positions without ever actually waking up. We are still working hard to get him to bed at bedtime. He fights it pretty hard, and we're not exactly following what everyone recommends, which would be putting him down in the crib while he's still awake and letting him go to sleep on his own. I'm hoping that after he gets to the point where he's easily putting himself back to sleep in the middle of the night, we'll be able to start putting him in the bed while he's still somewhat awake. We'll get there.
As evidenced by the above, we're working on sleep training. Unless he really gets worked up and starts sobbing, we're letting him cry during the night. The last few weeks I've gone in if he's awakened after about 2 am and given him a bottle, figuring he'd be pretty hungry. But he needs to get weaned off of a nighttime feeding, and so last night I decided I was going to wait and let him cry. If he got really agitated, I would have gone in after him (and probably gotten him a bottle too; and I would have discovered my mistake with the side of the crib), but he eventually tapered off and went back to sleep. I'm hoping that he'll wake less and less over time, or at least cry less and less, until he gets to the point where he's shifting positions without ever actually waking up. We are still working hard to get him to bed at bedtime. He fights it pretty hard, and we're not exactly following what everyone recommends, which would be putting him down in the crib while he's still awake and letting him go to sleep on his own. I'm hoping that after he gets to the point where he's easily putting himself back to sleep in the middle of the night, we'll be able to start putting him in the bed while he's still somewhat awake. We'll get there.
Friday, July 1, 2011
And the angels sang hallelujah
FINALLY. After 8 months and one week, Brendan finally made it through the night without my intervention. He went to bed at 8:30 (with my husband putting him to bed instead of me), slept until about 5:30, took a bottle, then went back to sleep and slept until I got him up at 8:30. He did wake up a few times and cried a little, but each time he went back to sleep by himself. I did get up once, at about 4:30, because I thought he was going to get himself started and I figured he'd want a bottle, but by the time I mixed up the bottle the noises in his room had subsided, so I went back to bed. I'm sure this doesn't automatically mean he will now sleep through the night every night, but it's at least a promising start. Hopefully he'll get to the point where he won't wake up and cry at all. When he DID wake up at 5:30, he just SOBBED brokenheartedly until I got the bottle into his mouth. I don't know if it was because he was *starving* (I mean, this is a kid who is used to eating every 2-3 hours), or if it was because he was disoriented (I mean, all that sleeping can really take it out of you), or if he just missed me. No idea.
I could have slept longer myself--I got up at 8:00 because I knew I needed to get Brendan up and get him over to the sitter for the day. But it's nice to know I may get some sleep eventually.
On the weight loss front (and back, and rear, and thighs), I haven't done a very good job this week of eating better or exercising. I have taken the dog on a couple of good walks around the neighborhood, but that's been the extent of it. I've tried to eat a little better, but we ate out for dinner the other night, and I made brownies yesterday. I think I'm going to try to stop at the gym this afternoon, see if I can sign Brendan up for swimming lessons, and get a workout in. Hopefully next week will be a little easier. I did weigh in this morning at 232.6, which is a minor improvement. I only need to lose 1.5 lbs this week to be on track for my goal weight loss of 60 lbs by May 19, so I guess things are still going OK, but I need to be better. Maybe I should make a spreadsheet like the one we used to use, that recorded the daily weights and measurements, and then calculated the weekly totals and losses or gains. To do that, I should reprogram the scale with my starting weight and age. That's going to mean looking up on the internet how to do that, since I'm sure the manual is long gone.
Anyway, the sleep is a good thing, and hopefully the weight loss will be as well. Stay tuned...
I could have slept longer myself--I got up at 8:00 because I knew I needed to get Brendan up and get him over to the sitter for the day. But it's nice to know I may get some sleep eventually.
On the weight loss front (and back, and rear, and thighs), I haven't done a very good job this week of eating better or exercising. I have taken the dog on a couple of good walks around the neighborhood, but that's been the extent of it. I've tried to eat a little better, but we ate out for dinner the other night, and I made brownies yesterday. I think I'm going to try to stop at the gym this afternoon, see if I can sign Brendan up for swimming lessons, and get a workout in. Hopefully next week will be a little easier. I did weigh in this morning at 232.6, which is a minor improvement. I only need to lose 1.5 lbs this week to be on track for my goal weight loss of 60 lbs by May 19, so I guess things are still going OK, but I need to be better. Maybe I should make a spreadsheet like the one we used to use, that recorded the daily weights and measurements, and then calculated the weekly totals and losses or gains. To do that, I should reprogram the scale with my starting weight and age. That's going to mean looking up on the internet how to do that, since I'm sure the manual is long gone.
Anyway, the sleep is a good thing, and hopefully the weight loss will be as well. Stay tuned...
Monday, June 27, 2011
Vacation, all I ever wanted
It's been several weeks since I last posted. Had a few days where I had to work, then went on vacation for a week. So let's get right to the updating...
Brendan is a wild thing. He is crawling like crazy, and pulling/pushing himself up towards a standing position pretty often. He likes to use pant legs to pull himself up, but he'll also put his hands on something lower and push himself onto his hands and feet. He's tried straightening up with no support a few times, and just plopped over onto his butt. I suspect if he keeps at it, he'll be standing and trying to walk within a month. He's really fast at crawling, so much so that he gave himself a blister on the top of his foot (from it rubbing on the carpet as he crawled). Not a big blister, but definitely an example of the friction he generates. I guess I need to keep socks on his feet to protect him. He eats pretty well too. He's now entirely on formula--the final breast was the first night of our vacation, more to calm him down than anything else--and eating quite often. He's obviously getting a lot more liquid than he was when he was breastfeeding, which makes me wonder if he was not getting enough to eat when he was still breastfeeding. Unfortunately, the added liquid is making the diaper issue a problem: although his diapers are supposed to be "12-hour nighttime diapers", he has exceeded the absorbancy several times at night, and then once yesterday (after about 5 hours sitting in his carseat since the last change). Nothing quite like a soaking wet baby. What it means is that I am now having to change him in the middle of the night, which I hadn't been doing before. It means waking him up a bit more than I would like (when he would wake up previously, I would barely be awake, and feeding him would make him go right back to sleep).
Sleep has definitely continued to be an issue. Brendan is still waking up several times a night, and having a lot of difficulty going back to sleep. My husband and I got into a disagreement the other night (in the middle of a two-hour waking period), because I haven't done a very good job of encouraging Brendan to self-soothe. He is right, I haven't, but it's been because I've been the only one getting up with Brendan, and I've been more concerned with getting him back to sleep as quickly as possible so I could go back to sleep too. I call it "survival mode". I do know that it can't stay this way; I am beyond frayed and totally exhausted. So I've really tried the past few nights to let him cry for at least five minutes before I go in after him, and if he's not crying really hard to let it go and try to let him settle himself. But he's also started crying with a different quality than he used to. I can't really explain--my husband describes it as a "mad" cry. I think of it more as a "sad" cry. The corners of his mouth turn down, tears just pour down his face, he sobs...I don't know what the cause is. It could be pain, maybe his teeth or an ear ache or a tummy ache, or maybe it's that he's starting to have major separation anxiety. I have noticed that he has been a bit clingy the past few days. Not that he has avoided other people or anything, but he'll come to me, grab my shirt, and bury his face in it. Also, at night it has become difficult to get him to go down in his bed. This past week he's been sleeping in a pack 'n' play, and I've always had trouble putting him down in there without waking him back up (it's hard to reach all the way down to the bottom to set him down). This week he has started grabbing my shirt as I've tried to lay him down, which made it even harder to get him to go to sleep. Last night wasn't quite as difficult, because I was putting him in his crib, which has a higher mattress (but now that he's able to pull himself to a standing position, we should probably move his mattress to a lower level, which will then make it difficult to put him in it). Anyway, I'm not sure what the problem is with the sleeping, but my husband has agreed to at least help put him down at night, so maybe we can break his attachment to me and get him to sleep better. Because I'm pretty much fried.
Then there's me. Despite my assertion at the beginning of the month that I would be working on my weight loss, I have done NOTHING to improve the situation. As a matter of fact, I weighed in this morning at 233.6, which is my heaviest non-pregnancy weight. I actually put weight ON during my vacation, despite a little more activity than I have done recently (18 holes of golf and a bike ride, at least). And I now have something else that I need to lose weight for: my brother is getting married in May of next year (2012). I would really like to be 175 lbs or lighter by then. That is just over ten months away. Basically, I need to lose six pounds each month. That's about a pound and a half each week. I SHOULD be able to do that. Heck, I should be able to do better than that. But I need to get on it. I need to start hitting the gym several times each week, and going for a walk or jog with the baby and the dog every day, and cutting back on my eating. Why is this so hard?
Brendan is a wild thing. He is crawling like crazy, and pulling/pushing himself up towards a standing position pretty often. He likes to use pant legs to pull himself up, but he'll also put his hands on something lower and push himself onto his hands and feet. He's tried straightening up with no support a few times, and just plopped over onto his butt. I suspect if he keeps at it, he'll be standing and trying to walk within a month. He's really fast at crawling, so much so that he gave himself a blister on the top of his foot (from it rubbing on the carpet as he crawled). Not a big blister, but definitely an example of the friction he generates. I guess I need to keep socks on his feet to protect him. He eats pretty well too. He's now entirely on formula--the final breast was the first night of our vacation, more to calm him down than anything else--and eating quite often. He's obviously getting a lot more liquid than he was when he was breastfeeding, which makes me wonder if he was not getting enough to eat when he was still breastfeeding. Unfortunately, the added liquid is making the diaper issue a problem: although his diapers are supposed to be "12-hour nighttime diapers", he has exceeded the absorbancy several times at night, and then once yesterday (after about 5 hours sitting in his carseat since the last change). Nothing quite like a soaking wet baby. What it means is that I am now having to change him in the middle of the night, which I hadn't been doing before. It means waking him up a bit more than I would like (when he would wake up previously, I would barely be awake, and feeding him would make him go right back to sleep).
Sleep has definitely continued to be an issue. Brendan is still waking up several times a night, and having a lot of difficulty going back to sleep. My husband and I got into a disagreement the other night (in the middle of a two-hour waking period), because I haven't done a very good job of encouraging Brendan to self-soothe. He is right, I haven't, but it's been because I've been the only one getting up with Brendan, and I've been more concerned with getting him back to sleep as quickly as possible so I could go back to sleep too. I call it "survival mode". I do know that it can't stay this way; I am beyond frayed and totally exhausted. So I've really tried the past few nights to let him cry for at least five minutes before I go in after him, and if he's not crying really hard to let it go and try to let him settle himself. But he's also started crying with a different quality than he used to. I can't really explain--my husband describes it as a "mad" cry. I think of it more as a "sad" cry. The corners of his mouth turn down, tears just pour down his face, he sobs...I don't know what the cause is. It could be pain, maybe his teeth or an ear ache or a tummy ache, or maybe it's that he's starting to have major separation anxiety. I have noticed that he has been a bit clingy the past few days. Not that he has avoided other people or anything, but he'll come to me, grab my shirt, and bury his face in it. Also, at night it has become difficult to get him to go down in his bed. This past week he's been sleeping in a pack 'n' play, and I've always had trouble putting him down in there without waking him back up (it's hard to reach all the way down to the bottom to set him down). This week he has started grabbing my shirt as I've tried to lay him down, which made it even harder to get him to go to sleep. Last night wasn't quite as difficult, because I was putting him in his crib, which has a higher mattress (but now that he's able to pull himself to a standing position, we should probably move his mattress to a lower level, which will then make it difficult to put him in it). Anyway, I'm not sure what the problem is with the sleeping, but my husband has agreed to at least help put him down at night, so maybe we can break his attachment to me and get him to sleep better. Because I'm pretty much fried.
Then there's me. Despite my assertion at the beginning of the month that I would be working on my weight loss, I have done NOTHING to improve the situation. As a matter of fact, I weighed in this morning at 233.6, which is my heaviest non-pregnancy weight. I actually put weight ON during my vacation, despite a little more activity than I have done recently (18 holes of golf and a bike ride, at least). And I now have something else that I need to lose weight for: my brother is getting married in May of next year (2012). I would really like to be 175 lbs or lighter by then. That is just over ten months away. Basically, I need to lose six pounds each month. That's about a pound and a half each week. I SHOULD be able to do that. Heck, I should be able to do better than that. But I need to get on it. I need to start hitting the gym several times each week, and going for a walk or jog with the baby and the dog every day, and cutting back on my eating. Why is this so hard?
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Summer, summer, summertime
Ah, summertime.
Let's see...where was I...
Brendan has started crawling and sitting up independently. He still tips over every once in a while, but he's pretty much good to go on the sitting. The sitting has translated to the bathtub; we stopped using his little bathtub seat thingy, and now he's just sitting directly on the bathmat in a few inches of water. Makes it much easier to play when you can sit up and use both hands. He's got the crawling thing down, too, although sometimes he chooses to semi-crawl, using one knee and one foot. Not sure what that method is supposed to accomplish.
We haven't done much in the way of baby-proofing the house, but we really, really need to. Brendan is drawn to electrical cords (he loves the laptop power cords), the laptops themselves, the electronic equipment under the TV (Wii, Xbox, BluRay player, cable box, power conditioner), and remote controls. We have put a baby gate over the top of the stairs, and outlet covers over the outlet in the hallway, but there are so many other things we need to do. Toilet locks, cabinet door latches, doors over the video games and DVDs...we really have quite a bit of work to do. I'm hoping this summer that we can spend some time downstairs (we're going to work on framing in the unfinished part and getting the bathroom down there finished), since it's a bit more kid-friendly. The only thing he could really get into down there is a big built-in bookshelf unit. We need to move a bunch of his toys down there and get some of his stuff set up down there. It'll make a good play area.
I'm disappointed in myself: nine weeks of teaching didn't do anything for my weight loss at all. I weighed myself yesterday, and I was still 227. Guess teaching isn't as active as I'd like to think it is. I took a step to try to fix things: I got a jogging stroller. I'm going to try to walk/jog with Brendan a few times each week. I'm planning on taking Brendan to his sitter a few times each week, so on those days I will also try to make it to the gym. I really want to get this weight off.
So here's my new goal...school will be starting up in about 11 weeks. I'd like to lose 1-2 lbs each week (that's all that's recommended for a nursing mother, which I still am, technically). So ideally I'd be at 205 when school starts. That would actually be my pre-pregnancy weight, as well.
We'll see.
Let's see...where was I...
Brendan has started crawling and sitting up independently. He still tips over every once in a while, but he's pretty much good to go on the sitting. The sitting has translated to the bathtub; we stopped using his little bathtub seat thingy, and now he's just sitting directly on the bathmat in a few inches of water. Makes it much easier to play when you can sit up and use both hands. He's got the crawling thing down, too, although sometimes he chooses to semi-crawl, using one knee and one foot. Not sure what that method is supposed to accomplish.
We haven't done much in the way of baby-proofing the house, but we really, really need to. Brendan is drawn to electrical cords (he loves the laptop power cords), the laptops themselves, the electronic equipment under the TV (Wii, Xbox, BluRay player, cable box, power conditioner), and remote controls. We have put a baby gate over the top of the stairs, and outlet covers over the outlet in the hallway, but there are so many other things we need to do. Toilet locks, cabinet door latches, doors over the video games and DVDs...we really have quite a bit of work to do. I'm hoping this summer that we can spend some time downstairs (we're going to work on framing in the unfinished part and getting the bathroom down there finished), since it's a bit more kid-friendly. The only thing he could really get into down there is a big built-in bookshelf unit. We need to move a bunch of his toys down there and get some of his stuff set up down there. It'll make a good play area.
I'm disappointed in myself: nine weeks of teaching didn't do anything for my weight loss at all. I weighed myself yesterday, and I was still 227. Guess teaching isn't as active as I'd like to think it is. I took a step to try to fix things: I got a jogging stroller. I'm going to try to walk/jog with Brendan a few times each week. I'm planning on taking Brendan to his sitter a few times each week, so on those days I will also try to make it to the gym. I really want to get this weight off.
So here's my new goal...school will be starting up in about 11 weeks. I'd like to lose 1-2 lbs each week (that's all that's recommended for a nursing mother, which I still am, technically). So ideally I'd be at 205 when school starts. That would actually be my pre-pregnancy weight, as well.
We'll see.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Tired
Couldn't even think of a witty title, I'm so tired. Still not sleeping through the night. Still not losing weight. Still not enough hours in the day to get everything done.
Work has taken a toll on breastfeeding. With my class schedule, I can only pump twice, and with grading, student questions, and other disruptions, some days I only pump once. Even with two-a-days, I'm rarely able to pump enough for more than one bottle. I was able to pump about 8 oz when I started, but now I'm down to about 4 oz, even while still taking fenugreek. This slow-down in production is corresponding to the boy starting to push me away after only nursing for a few minutes. I was wondering if it was because he wasn't getting milk fast enough; the sitter said he was doing the same thing to his bottle. So today the sitter used a faster flow nipple on the bottle, and he chowed down. Makes me think that my breastfeeding days are numbered. I've still got two weeks left of work, and I'm sure as long as I keep trying to pump I'll be able to at least make it until then. But I don't know if my supply will increase again after I'm able to stay home for a few days. Maybe I should just call it.
Of course, on the plus side, if I'm not breastfeeding anymore, I can start kicking the hubby awake to bottle feed the boy in the middle of the night...
Work has taken a toll on breastfeeding. With my class schedule, I can only pump twice, and with grading, student questions, and other disruptions, some days I only pump once. Even with two-a-days, I'm rarely able to pump enough for more than one bottle. I was able to pump about 8 oz when I started, but now I'm down to about 4 oz, even while still taking fenugreek. This slow-down in production is corresponding to the boy starting to push me away after only nursing for a few minutes. I was wondering if it was because he wasn't getting milk fast enough; the sitter said he was doing the same thing to his bottle. So today the sitter used a faster flow nipple on the bottle, and he chowed down. Makes me think that my breastfeeding days are numbered. I've still got two weeks left of work, and I'm sure as long as I keep trying to pump I'll be able to at least make it until then. But I don't know if my supply will increase again after I'm able to stay home for a few days. Maybe I should just call it.
Of course, on the plus side, if I'm not breastfeeding anymore, I can start kicking the hubby awake to bottle feed the boy in the middle of the night...
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