Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Purge

We're on the cusp of eight weeks. Faced with increasing baby fussiness, I'm embarking on a 7-10 day dairy purge. This is an undertaking and I am really, really grouchy. No cheese? No milk? No ice cream?

But L seems quite gassy and irritated. Some resources say milk proteins in the breast milk cause that; some resources say a rapid milk-eject response does that and if he's coming off gasping during nursing, he's swallowing a lot of air along with his milk and thus, gas.

But. I can't throw out the breast milk (formula? you're kidding, right?) or the nursing, so out with the dairy and we'll see what happens. We're stocked now with bagels and non-dairy buttery-like spread, so I'm going to give it a week at least to see if L improves. If not, then we can say, okay, it's probably the rapid eject on milk and there's not much to be done, bring on the ice cream. We see the doctor in a week for his two-month anyway.

A has announced to preschool that babies eat mommy's milk (so sayeth his teacher). He's been walking around here nursing his dolls and animals, so I can't wait until he tries that at school.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

First outgrown sleeper

L officially has his first item of clothing that's too small, a sleeper in the 0-3 month, 8-11 lb. range that I tried to put him in this evening and his little feet strained the seams in the little sleeper feet.

Sniff.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Conversations with the Three-Year-Old

"Mommy, you have a big belly."
"Excuse me? I have a what?"
"You have a big belly."
"Now?"
"No."
"I had a big belly when I was pregnant with L, when L was in my belly?"
"Yes. You had a BIG belly. Your belly was bigger than Daddy's belly. But now we have L and Daddy has the big belly."

Thanks, sweetheart.

Earlier today, I made A the deal that if L took a nap upstairs in his bassinet (instead of in my arms), A and I could have cookies and tea (and milk) together. I just brought L up now and laid him down. He was fussy but got suddenly quiet. A explained to me, "I put the monkey upright," which indeed, A had stood the monkey toy in the corner right on L's eye line.

L's now asleep, and A's grabbed me in a whisper: "Mommy, we have to go downstairs and eat chocolate stars NOW because L is sleeping." You betcha, kiddo.

Friday, January 22, 2010

First week of school

Last weekend, our fabulous friends the Bumps came to town and met Mr. L, played with Mr. A, and a fabulous time was had by all. They brought a quilt made by Mrs. Bump (the quilter, not the runner). L has a quilt made just for him! And it's gorgeous and useful in the cold we've been having.

All our visitors have had the sucky weather. Both the Bumps and the grandparents got stuck with the cold snaps, and now we're in the middle of the deluge. Today we even had bean-bag-filler hail, so it's pretty serious for weather here. No signs of flooding for us, which is good, and no signs of ants, which is the bad part about days of rain.

It was the training-wheel week this week, where A went back to school (happy A) while C had one more week before returning to work. I've been alone with L and alone with A and L a couple times, so we'll see how next week goes. A s so thrilled to be in school again and we're thrilled to be back on a more normal schedule for life and naps.

I realized this week that the thank you notes are still sitting half-composed in piles on our bookcases. Christmas cards are a lost cause. Oy.

L is six weeks old and quite the snuggler. He's having a growth spurt, because he's been nursing a lot and is unhappy to be out of my arms for very long. He's gassier than A was (is this rude to report?). I'm starting to eliminate the obvious gassy things from my diet (onions, broccoli, etc.), but I'm a-feared that there will be a dairy-fast in the near future. I have the diet of a Northern European milkmaid: milk and cereal, cheese and bread, cheese and apples, yogurt and fruit, and more milk. I'm not sure what I will eat for protein when I don't have milk (beans? that seems contraindicated by the gassiness).

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Four-to-five weeks

Eyelashes start growing in at two weeks and actually arrive in full-force by five weeks.

First voluntary, reactive smiles are at four weeks. Little happy sleep smiles happen all the time before then.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Saturday, January 09, 2010

One Month

Baby L is just over a month old and still sweet as pie. He's spending more time being awake and alert and he's starting to get some neck control. His eyes are starting to look seriously blue.

L had a one-month weight check this week since he hadn't regained his birth weight within two weeks (met the minimums for weight gain, but the doctor wanted to re-check to make sure he nursing alright). Within the last two weeks, he gained two pounds (!) to bring him up to a whopping ten pounds, four ounces. So I feel pretty safe in saying the nursing is going well and I think he's (we've) got the hang of it.

Big bro A is still sweet-as-pie himself. We went to a two-year-old's birthday party today and A shared away the contents of his party favor bag with all the other kids, then hugged everybody on the way out. Oh my, these are two sweet boys we've got. Just like their daddy.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Holiday recap

In retrospect, having a baby before Christmas is super and I highly recommend it as the ultimate experiment in letting go of all your expectations.

Christmas was very low-key here. Being the Type-A personality I am, all the critical wrapping for A was done months and months ago, so we went to bed pretty normally for people with a newborn on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning we actually slept in and stayed in our PJs all day.

Grandma and Grandpa came to town the next day, which was wonderful. They had snuggle time with L (Grandma is smitten), play time with A (so many many books read so many times), and cleaned our bathroom and kitchen (which is both mortifying and fabulous). Grandma and A baked cookies, which thrilled them both; Grandpa and A took a walk together, which was great. A had his new camera, the hit present from Grandma and Grandpa, and the entire walk is documented.

How's the sleep? Well, C fell asleep playing a video game in the middle of the day. Playing a video game. That's how the sleep is.

So far (note the caution), the only things that make L cry are wet diapers, diaper changes (so cold and rude) and city driving in the car (so stop-and-go). He's been super easy-going. He's been so easy-going that I've been worried that he's dehydrated and has brain damage, but he's got tons of wet and dirty diapers, super chubby cheeks, and periods of being awake and alert, so it's not that. He's just a mellow little guy.

I'm still healing. I hit frustration at the 4-week point, where I said, okay, I should be done with the healing because I'm sick of being out of commission. It turns out I'm not done with healing. I'm still sore, dependent on meds for activity, and easily tired. But C is still on paternity leave and we're taking things extremely easy, so I'm trying to just enjoy this time and focus on L.

Baby announcements went out, which was an accomplishment. Christmas cards were in various stages of being written when L arrived, so those may or may not make it into the mail. (I'm not re-opening already-written ones to add L's name and photo to the card. I'm not.) Babies first, parents next, everything else after that. You may be getting your cards in March.