Milestones:
Since he was a few days old he would smile in his sleep and I just loved it. I thought he was dreaming about being in heaven again with all the angels but then I read that it's just a nerve reflex and they are not really smiling (way to burst my bubble!). But I think he started cooing at around 1 month old and started smiling (real, social smiles) at 6 weeks, which I guess almost every baby does the same thing. And at 2 months he really started babbling and smiling, and now he is just a little flirt. Whenever we talk and smile at him he just batts his eyes, smiles and makes cute sounds. Sometimes it even sounds like he is laughing a little, but I don't know if that's possible at this age? But it sure does sound like he is giggling. He loves when you kiss his neck and face, hehe. He has always been able to hold up his head very well, even when he was just barely born. For a while now he has been able to hold it up completely by himself without getting tired. He is getting better during tummy time, he is starting to push up on his hands and trying to roll from tummy to back. He sits up well if you give him a some back support. He is really good at pushing himself from a sitting position to a standing position and holding his weight up on his legs if you hold his arms or torso - this is from being in so much pain because he flexes his legs so much causing him to stand up!
Sleep:
At first we had him sleeping at night in his pack and play set up in our room. It was nice to be able to hear him breathing and know that he was okay. But I would put him in his crib in his room during day time naps so he would get used to sleeping in his crib as well. During the first 6 weeks I would wake him up to feed every 4 hours at night, so he would eat around 12:30 am and then around 4:30 am. When he was around 6 weeks old people kept asking me if he was sleeping through the night yet and I kept saying I didn't think I was allowed to let him sleep that long. When you leave the hospital they tell you not to let him sleep longer than 4 hours at night without feeding him so that's what I did. I started reading a book called On Becoming Baby Wise and it was saying how all babies (with some exceptions) should be able to sleep 7-8 hours between 7-9 weeks old. I got really excited about this because I really wanted a full nights sleep! When I talked to his doctor I asked her about this and if she thought it was okay to just let him sleep without waking him up at night and she said that he was old enough and we should just let him sleep. we did some sleep training and he started sleeping longer. We just took the pack and play out of our room last week and he is now sleeping in his crib at night. So far its working out well. I was nervous at first but his room is right next to ours and we keep both doors open. We just switched up his schedule a couple weeks ago so he is now going to sleep around 10:00 pm and waking up around 7:00 am. So he is sleeping about 9 hours, I love it! I don't want to let him sleep any longer right now to make sure we have enough time during the day to get enough feedings.
Feeding:
This was our huge issue. When he was 2 weeks old he started spitting up and crying after almost every feeding. He would arch his back and cry and didn't want to lie down or anything. It was really, really hard. After a few weeks we took him to the doctor and she said it was just acid reflux and gave us some prescription medicine. I was really hesitant to give it to him but I didn't know what else to do, he was in so much pain! The medicine seemed like it was working for a few days but then he started acting up again. So we had to make sure after he was done eating to hold him up for 30 minutes and sometimes put him on his tummy to calm him down. I talked to my sister's mother-in-law who is an amazing woman and mother. She was so eager to help me and I am really grateful for that. She told me it was probably something I was eating, like dairy, beans or tomatoes. So I tried cutting out anything that I thought might be upsetting his tummy. I did this for a couple weeks and did not see any progress. Then she suggested Colic Calm, a homeopathic gripe water. I read great reviews about it online and felt like it would help. Sometimes it seemed to help a little but not that much. He got worse. I also had tried another type of gripe water that I got from my sister too. Same thing, hit and miss. But the problem now was that he would cry during a feeding, instead of just after. So after trying to feed him for 30 minutes then giving him something to calm his stomach down, he would sometimes fall asleep. Then he wasn't getting full feedings. So this didn't work. I also tried putting warm rice bags on his stomach, I tried tummy rub, feeding him in different positions - sometimes I even had to feed him while he was in sort of a standing position leaning over my chest while I leaned back.. it was not comfortable for either of us. I tried going off my prenatal pill for a while, I started taking a supplement called Zypan to help with digestion. He was also very gassy and sometimes it seemed like he had gas while he ate causing him pain. So I tried gas drops, and helping him release gas before feedings. I tried giving him a bottle with pumped milk and sometimes he would take it, sometimes he wouldn't. It seemed like nothing was working consistently so I never knew if he was going to have a good day/good feeding or a horrible one. This made it especially hard to feed him outside of my home because I never knew how he would be. I was just anxious for him to get over this and hoped it wouldn't last longer than a few more months. We were starting to get kind of used to it and just thought this was the way things were going to be but 2 weeks ago it got really bad! All of a sudden one day it was like every single feeding every day was horrible, he would eat for maybe 2 or 3 minutes, pull off and start crying and I couldn't get him back on. It had never been that consistently bad before. That whole week was really rough, I was worried he would start to lose weight. He was getting dehydrated. I tried giving him formula and he wouldn't take it. I took him to the doctor and she said everything was fine, no ear infections or anything. She checked his sucking with her finger and said he doesn't seem to suck like he should but wasn't concerned. I was really upset and didn't know what to do. I had a follow up appointment with my midwife that week at my Ob-gyn clinic and she said she didn't think we had thrush and couldn't really help us either. She did however give me a brochure for a lactation consultant and said it might be helpful. I met with her the next day and I am so happy I did! She was really great, within a couple minutes she found out that Noah was tongue tied! She said that this was the culprit of all the issues he was having. I actually felt relieved! She referred me to an oral surgeon in Park City. We took him that day and he cut his frenulum - little piece of skin under tongue that was too tight. Poor little guy. This whole time he was getting so frustrated while eating because he couldn't suck properly. And since he couldn't suck properly he was swallowing so much air and causing him more gas and pain. And also causing ME physical pain! And distress! The procedure wasn't bad at all, he was fussy that night but the next day he seemed fine. But since he is so old now (as opposed to just born) it could take him a while to learn how to suck differently now. So I'm being patient and I have faith! It has been a little over a week and Sunday was the first day that he didn't cry at any feedings!!! Yay! I actually was able to stay for all of church for the first time since he was born! I realllllyy, really, really hope this makes a huge difference! It seems like it is helping and I can tell he is sucking better. This week has been really good so far :)
Here is some info on tongue tie (Ankyloglossia):
http://kellymom.com/health/baby-health/bfhelp-tonguetie/
http://www.lalecheleague.org/llleaderweb/lv/lvaprmay02p27.html
It's more common than you would think. It's actually hereditary. Afterwards we found out that Derek's uncle and grandma were both tongue tied too! I guess some doctors are against fixing the problem and think it's unnecessary. Many doctors don't even know much about it. Some people may think it's wrong to do the frenulectomy but I strongly disagree if it's creating problems. He's in pain, I'm in pain, it could cause dental and speech problems, and it could have caused me to give up the most beneficial thing for his health - breastfeeding!
Naps/Routine:
I have him on a routine of eat, wake-time then nap. We do this all day. His feedings are scheduled but flexible. Hunger always comes first, if he is hungry before his next scheduled feeding then I feed him early but that doesn't happen often, he stays on his schedule pretty well. He is eating about 6 times a day right now and usually has 5 naps. Since he is sleeping so long at night, for now I am still feeding him about every 3 hours (sometimes 2.5 hrs) to make sure he gets enough calories. His naps are usually 1-2 hours long. Besides feeding, the only other thing that I struggle with is taking him places when it's his nap time. Obviously I never do it intentionally, but for example if there is a family get-together or at church or something that lasts longer than a couple hours then it becomes a challenge. When he was really young he could just fall asleep anywhere, any time. Now that is he a little older, it's harder for him to fall asleep when there is a lot going on around him and when he is not swaddled in his crib. He gets fussy when he is tired, and gets over-stimulated easily. This makes it difficult for him to just fall asleep. But as he gets older and needs less sleep, I know this will be easier to overcome. Oh yeah and for a while he was kicking himself out of his swaddle blanket at every nap! It was annoying. He kicks his legs a lot. There were a couple mornings when we woke up and saw that he had worked his way completely out of the blanket. Little Houdini! I didn't want lose blankets in his bed. At the time we were using the Miracle Blanket, which we loved at first. He just grew out of it quicker than we thought he would. Since you just tucked in his legs in a pocket-like thing, it was really easy to kick out of once he got bigger. Now we use the Dream Swaddle because it has a zipper so he can't kick his way out!
Just Noah:
It's funny how easily you forget little things they used to do. The other day Derek and I were like remember when he used to do this, and this. For example he used to squeal ALL the time! He doesn't really do it anymore :( It was so funny, whenever he would wake up or stretch, he would make this high pitched squealing sound! I called him mousy but Derek said it sounded like a car "peeling out" haha. He still stretches a lot! But I don't think he stretches his head as much as he used to. Before, whenever I would wake him up to eat, it would take him soo long to stop stretching and actually be ready to eat. There was a couple weeks where I had to wake him up like 15 minutes early to give him enough time to stretch and he still would need more time! Or there were days where he would just be too tired to eat, so I would have to let him sleep longer and try again, and he just could not wake up, maybe they were growth spurts or something. He used to make the funniest faces when he would stretch too, Derek and I would just laugh and laugh because he looked so funny! He is still a little farty pants though. He has so much gas! And when he poops it's REALLY loud, and funny. But not so funny when it gets all over you (well kind of). This happened twice last week because we were using Huggies Diapers. They suck! His poop just runs right out the sides! We definitely like Pampers better. Everyone says he looks worried or mad all the time but I think that he's just curious. But he does look worried, it's funny, I used to make the same face. He has my brown eyes for sure. Mine used to be big like his too. He is actually a pretty happy and easy baby in between feedings. He really only has a hard time when he's eating, and sometimes cries when he's put down for a nap. At this point, it's really rare that he cries for no apparent reason, I almost always know why he's upset.
Thoughts:
I am so lucky to be able to stay home with my son. We were planning on having me go back to work at Cobble Creek part time for a while but we both strongly felt that I should stay home. And it ended up working out financially. Derek has such a great job and a wonderful, caring boss. I am really, really grateful for his job. It is perfect for our life right now. When we first got married he was looking for a different job because we needed more money but we are both so happy that he stayed at Sky Satellite. I mean things are definitely not like they used to be when I was also working, but it's so worth it to be able to spend every moment with Noah. Lately I feel so bad and guilty because with the transition I find myself thinking about everything I want that I don't have. I think about the clothes I wish I had, or how I wish my house was the way I would want it to be, or vacations I wish I could take etc. But then I feel SO ungrateful and horrible because I am extremely blessed to even have a house, or to even have clothes and shoes, and food, and a healthy family, and to be able to be a stay at home mom. We are truly blessed to live in a free country and to have so many opportunities and to have the technology we have, and especially to have everything so convenient for us. It's so easy to forget how blessed we are because we have so much. I really need to work on being humble and not caring about worldly things. In the end all these material things don't matter, what matters is our family and who we have become in this life.
3 months old
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