Day 12! Can it really only have been 12 days since I delivered this baby?! Only 12 days since I've met him face to face, carried him in my arms all day, taken care of him? It seems like so much longer. And yet the days seem to go by so very fast.
Last night Will and Katie tagged teamed me with a sleepless night. When one would finally go to sleep, the other would wake up. When that one finally fell asleep, the other woke up. Oh, and the poop! Will pooped at least four times last night and then Katie pooped in her sleep...it was dreadful. I slept between them, Katie in her crib and Will on the bed and I'd flip over to take care of one then flip again to take care of the next one. All. Night. Long. I'm guessing I got maybe 3 hours of sleep, but that's being very generous. Guess what both children are doing right now? Yep, they're fast asleep at 3:30 PM and have been sleeping for quite a while. Guess who can't sleep? Right again - it's me!
I can't wait for Will's circumcision to heal. So far it looks fine and I haven't had any problems, but I'm constantly stressed about it. Did I put enough of a giant glob of vaseline on it? Am I going to have enough to last me until someone can get it in? (Apparently this very common vaseline, which I'm supposed to only use this exact kind, is not in any of the three pharmacies we've been to. We're having one order it today, but they didn't say when it would be in and I have to make this tube last as long as possible while still giving him generous globs to make sure it won't stick.) The gel foam, which was supposed to last quite a few days, already fell off. Half of it was gone by early last night, and when he woke up this morning it was completely gone. It was so disappointing, as it's what made me feel better. I didn't have to worry about hurting him if he did get stuck on a diaper, because it would just be the foam stuck, not him. But now there's nothing between him and the diaper except what vaseline I put on. This may be why most of the tube is already gone. I can't wait to not have this stress! At the very least, his poop is calming down a tiny bit - instead of every half hour, it's every hour to hour and a half - still a lot but not quite as bad. His rash from the constant poop is gone and I don't need to use desitin anymore - which is great, since he can't have any while the circumcision is healing (nothing with zinc in it.)
On the plus side, I decided to try another 0-3 outfit on him today since he's suddenly sprouted up to 9 lbs and seemed to have grown in length as well. Finally, it fits him! This is really exciting as I have lots of 0-3 outfits and very few newborn outfits.
This morning I woke up to try to see if I could take care of the kids myself. I took the baby downstairs, went up and grabbed Katie to take her downstairs, got her juice and cereal with one hand, put on her shows and changed her diaper, changed the baby's diaper and got to nursing him after letting the dogs in and out. It wasn't too hard, except for now I'm back to bleeding again and my belly hurts. Just like two days ago when I had to walk to baby to sleep. I walked him for an hour and started to bleed again. Bill only has four days until he goes back to work and my body is still trying to tell me to sit down and not move. I'm tempted to get him to stay home for another week if this keeps up, but I'm still debating if that's what's best. It would take the last of our saved up money to keep him home. While it wouldn't break us, it would leave us without any fall back money, which I don't like. I'm not sure what to do yet.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
11 days PP
Today has been a long day!
We woke up early and I started getting ready for my and Will's doctor appointment while Bill called the birth center to double check and make sure they were still open (as many schools in the area shut down due to the below zero temps.) Unfortunately, they were still open, so I had to get a one week old and a toddler prepared to go out in -2 degree weather. Somehow, with struggling to get them ready as well as me, we made it on time to the center.
I have to say, I was fine about everything until we were actually sitting there, signing papers. The doctor was going over the circ'ing info and I got jittery. Despite one of the sweet old nurses comforting me, it was difficult for me to hand my baby to her. The doctor recommended staying out of the room, and while I was going to have Bill follow, I decided to have him keep Katie busy while I fretted. Luckily though, Will did great. He had his pacifier and while I heard him let out a few angry cries early on, he didn't cry once the procedure began. The whole thing took about fifteen minutes while Katie, Bill and I sat in the side waiting room and talked to some of the other nurses. The doctor came out first and definitely helped to break my tension. "That baby is a pooper!" He said, "he's not joking. I haven't seen that amount of poop come out of a baby in a very long time. He pooped, and then he pooped a few more times!" He told me that it looked very healthy though, but from the sounds of it, the baby really made a mess. I asked when Will would be coming out, and he said as soon as the nurse could finish cleaning him "He really, really knows how to poop well!"
The baby came out without his pacifier but still fine. I took him back and we went to a birthing room so I could nurse him. We sat in there and got lots of info gone over, and Katie played with her reflection until the sun came out. Then she kept asking "where's Katie? Katie, where are you?" She's become obsessed with her own reflection lately! It's funny, as it reminds me of when Anne (from Anne of Green Gables) used to talk to her reflection who was named Katie - which is one of the first places I fell in love with the name.
The nurse came in and gave me my check up. Everything looked fine, I weighed 138 lbs on their scale, and then she weighed the baby. She had to double check because he was 8lbs, 15 oz - and that was after he pooped ALL over the procedure room! In just 7 days, he gained nearly an entire pound. Once again I seem to be making cream instead of milk! I thought he was getting cubbier, but I really thought it was just in my head! He's starting to really grow into his clothing, enough so that he'll soon be in 0-3 - which is amazing, as this time last week he swam in them. He's really getting big quickly! He'll be a roly poly chubber in no time!
On the way home, we stopped by V&S and finally got my prized meal that I've been craving for nine months. While it wasn't my first meal after having a baby (again!) it was delicious today! I'm thrilled to finally have my Italian sub and cheese fries!
Now that the appointments are over, I'm hoping to hibernate for a while again. It's so hard taking a tiny baby and a toddler out in the cold, I'm hoping to avoid doing it again as long as possible.
We woke up early and I started getting ready for my and Will's doctor appointment while Bill called the birth center to double check and make sure they were still open (as many schools in the area shut down due to the below zero temps.) Unfortunately, they were still open, so I had to get a one week old and a toddler prepared to go out in -2 degree weather. Somehow, with struggling to get them ready as well as me, we made it on time to the center.
I have to say, I was fine about everything until we were actually sitting there, signing papers. The doctor was going over the circ'ing info and I got jittery. Despite one of the sweet old nurses comforting me, it was difficult for me to hand my baby to her. The doctor recommended staying out of the room, and while I was going to have Bill follow, I decided to have him keep Katie busy while I fretted. Luckily though, Will did great. He had his pacifier and while I heard him let out a few angry cries early on, he didn't cry once the procedure began. The whole thing took about fifteen minutes while Katie, Bill and I sat in the side waiting room and talked to some of the other nurses. The doctor came out first and definitely helped to break my tension. "That baby is a pooper!" He said, "he's not joking. I haven't seen that amount of poop come out of a baby in a very long time. He pooped, and then he pooped a few more times!" He told me that it looked very healthy though, but from the sounds of it, the baby really made a mess. I asked when Will would be coming out, and he said as soon as the nurse could finish cleaning him "He really, really knows how to poop well!"
The baby came out without his pacifier but still fine. I took him back and we went to a birthing room so I could nurse him. We sat in there and got lots of info gone over, and Katie played with her reflection until the sun came out. Then she kept asking "where's Katie? Katie, where are you?" She's become obsessed with her own reflection lately! It's funny, as it reminds me of when Anne (from Anne of Green Gables) used to talk to her reflection who was named Katie - which is one of the first places I fell in love with the name.
The nurse came in and gave me my check up. Everything looked fine, I weighed 138 lbs on their scale, and then she weighed the baby. She had to double check because he was 8lbs, 15 oz - and that was after he pooped ALL over the procedure room! In just 7 days, he gained nearly an entire pound. Once again I seem to be making cream instead of milk! I thought he was getting cubbier, but I really thought it was just in my head! He's starting to really grow into his clothing, enough so that he'll soon be in 0-3 - which is amazing, as this time last week he swam in them. He's really getting big quickly! He'll be a roly poly chubber in no time!
On the way home, we stopped by V&S and finally got my prized meal that I've been craving for nine months. While it wasn't my first meal after having a baby (again!) it was delicious today! I'm thrilled to finally have my Italian sub and cheese fries!
Now that the appointments are over, I'm hoping to hibernate for a while again. It's so hard taking a tiny baby and a toddler out in the cold, I'm hoping to avoid doing it again as long as possible.
Monday, January 6, 2014
10 days PP
Day 10! Hmm, what's new?
Will had his first bath yesterday, as his cord stump fell off the day before and he had managed to spit up into his hair - the smell of sour milk was not something I could just wipe off! So out came the little blue whale tub that we used for newborn Katie to try out on Will. When I put him in the water, he let out one single "waah!" before realizing that he actually liked it. After that it went pretty smoothly. Of course right when I tried to get him out, he decided to pee (only at the most inconvenient times does he try to pee!) but at least it all went into the tub.
We got out his big swing today, the one we got for free when Katie was a few months old from an Influencer. Katie loved it from the moment she was put in it. Will had other ideas! His first time wasn't happy, but since then he's grown to like it. I managed to get a nice long shower - the first one that wasn't rushed through and lasted about 5 minutes - because I put him in the swing, gave him a pacifier, wrapped him up in his fuzzy blanket and had Bill watch him. He did get fussy by the time I was done, but at least it wasn't two seconds after I got in the water! He hasn't been a fan at all of the bouncer - it worked great for the two days when he'd sleep no matter what, but since then if I put him in it while sleeping, he wakes up instantly and gets upset. If I put him in it awake, he gets upset right away. So hopefully the swing gives us better results!
Tomorrow is the second time we're venturing out with baby (first time was for his doctor's appointment, and we weren't gone for long!). I have basically taken to hibernation since baby was born and I'm reluctant to break that, but there's baby's appointment and mine tomorrow. I'm going to back the new diaper bag tonight as I know I'm going to want to pack the whole house!
I finally got the courage to take belly pics. I'm not shrinking as fast as last time, but it is slowly getting smaller and my weight is slowly going dowm. I think I'm so nuts about still being this big because it feels like its been weeks since I had the baby! I keep thinking I should be much farther along, then I realize it's barely been over a week!
Here's me at 10 days PP:
Will had his first bath yesterday, as his cord stump fell off the day before and he had managed to spit up into his hair - the smell of sour milk was not something I could just wipe off! So out came the little blue whale tub that we used for newborn Katie to try out on Will. When I put him in the water, he let out one single "waah!" before realizing that he actually liked it. After that it went pretty smoothly. Of course right when I tried to get him out, he decided to pee (only at the most inconvenient times does he try to pee!) but at least it all went into the tub.
We got out his big swing today, the one we got for free when Katie was a few months old from an Influencer. Katie loved it from the moment she was put in it. Will had other ideas! His first time wasn't happy, but since then he's grown to like it. I managed to get a nice long shower - the first one that wasn't rushed through and lasted about 5 minutes - because I put him in the swing, gave him a pacifier, wrapped him up in his fuzzy blanket and had Bill watch him. He did get fussy by the time I was done, but at least it wasn't two seconds after I got in the water! He hasn't been a fan at all of the bouncer - it worked great for the two days when he'd sleep no matter what, but since then if I put him in it while sleeping, he wakes up instantly and gets upset. If I put him in it awake, he gets upset right away. So hopefully the swing gives us better results!
Tomorrow is the second time we're venturing out with baby (first time was for his doctor's appointment, and we weren't gone for long!). I have basically taken to hibernation since baby was born and I'm reluctant to break that, but there's baby's appointment and mine tomorrow. I'm going to back the new diaper bag tonight as I know I'm going to want to pack the whole house!
I finally got the courage to take belly pics. I'm not shrinking as fast as last time, but it is slowly getting smaller and my weight is slowly going dowm. I think I'm so nuts about still being this big because it feels like its been weeks since I had the baby! I keep thinking I should be much farther along, then I realize it's barely been over a week!
Here's me at 10 days PP:
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Day 8 PT 2
His cord stump fell off! I don't think anyone is actually excited over this, but I AM! His cord falling off means I can stop worrying about infection, diaper changes can take less time now that I don't have to be careful and work around it, I can start using his better fitting clothing like onesies now that I don't have to worry about irritating it, I can pick him up and touch his belly without worrying that I'm hitting or pulling the cord, I can give him baths now...it's a whole new world with no stump! (yes, I may need some sleep, I realize this.) Anyway, it's an exciting development for me. And his belly button is adorable!
In addition to that, his butt is getting better. The area is smaller now, probably less than half the size it was, and it hasn't had any little bleeding spots in days. It's healing, though he's pooping almost just as much. I'm hoping that in the next few days, it'll completely be gone.
Now if he would just sleep so wonderfully at night as he does during the day. He takes long 4 hour stretch naps during the day, but at night he's curious and wants to stare at me. And trying to keep him awake before bed does NOT work! But, I can deal with his sleeplessness as I can usually get him to fall back to sleep with nursing over and over. It's Katie's sleeplessness that's killer! I'm already dreading tonight!
In addition to that, his butt is getting better. The area is smaller now, probably less than half the size it was, and it hasn't had any little bleeding spots in days. It's healing, though he's pooping almost just as much. I'm hoping that in the next few days, it'll completely be gone.
Now if he would just sleep so wonderfully at night as he does during the day. He takes long 4 hour stretch naps during the day, but at night he's curious and wants to stare at me. And trying to keep him awake before bed does NOT work! But, I can deal with his sleeplessness as I can usually get him to fall back to sleep with nursing over and over. It's Katie's sleeplessness that's killer! I'm already dreading tonight!
Day 8
Day 8! This is going SO fast!
I'm pleased to say that my weight is continuing to go down. I don't think it's going down quite as fast as with Katie, but still - in just one week, I went from 163 lbs to 139. I'm out of the 140's! I only need to get to 125, because I'm trying to stay at a good weight and not slip right back into being underweight. So that's only 15 more lbs to lose, and I'm only one week out!
Will definitely seems older than a newborn. I feel like his adjusted age for being late is a few weeks more than he technically is. (adjusted age referring to how they adjust twins to their due date when they're born early, but this would be the opposite.) Will now has tears, which usually don't happen until a month old. He has these adorable big mouth smiles, the kind that Katie developed when she was a month old. He has no trouble lifting his head and turning it from side to side and keeping it up for quite a long time. In the long run, of course, two weeks doesn't make a difference in life. But right now it makes it seem like the newborn stage is rushing by me. It's like I missed two weeks of his life while he was hiding out inside of me.
He is, however, still a dinker baby. I have a huge supply of 0-3 outfits, and about 10 newborn outfits. I figured he'd be in newborn for a few days and then fit into the 0-3 - wrong! The 0-3 outfits all are giant. He completely swims in them, to the point where his hands and arms come out of the sleeves because they're so loose. I keep running out of newborn clothing all the time. In the opposite end though, his little scratch mittens, which he needs because he loves to claw at his cheeks and eyes, are way too small. His long fingers make the elastic ride up on the heel of his hand instead of at his wrists. Since they only make one size of mittens, there's not much I can do. He likes his hands to be outstretched, not curled up, so they're just not going to fit well.
I have discovered a magical tool though - the blue fuzzy Mickey Mouse blanket I just had to have back in July for him is the best $15 I ever spent. If I wrap him up in that blankie, he immediately stops being fussy and will usually just fall asleep. After the first two days, he decided he didn't like his bouncer at all and wouldn't sit in it. But adding the blanket to the bouncer? He suddenly sits for it!
I also tried his pacifier yesterday. I figured it would help reduce my supply a little bit as I'm still constantly engorged and still leaking the amount of half bottles at a time, and it might make him poop a little less. Since this baby nurses every half hour, (when the doctor said just to make sure they nurse about every 4 hours - yeah right!) it certainly won't hurt to add a pacifier once in a while so I can eat or take a shower (all of my showers have lasted about less than 5 minutes lately because he cries so much when I'm gone). I used it once last night, and he really took to it and with the combination of the blue fuzzy blanket and the pacifier, he put himself to sleep. I'm using it again today so I can eat some breakfast, and while he was less enthusiastic over it, he's been using it. He didn't want it until I covered him up in that blue blankie.
Nighttime has been hell lately. It's hit or miss really, but the bad nights tend to be really bad. I never needed my sleep more than when I'm breastfeeding, recovering from delivery and being up with the baby all day and night. But Katie has been having terrible night terrors. She's terrified of every shadow and movement in the dark. Yesterday she watched and sang along with her Big COmfy Couch episode that tells her to not be afraid of the dark all day long. It's all she watched. She dances to it and sings it joyfully, but it's forgotten at night time. She just doesn't want to go to sleep anymore, and she especially doesn't want to do it on her own. Her timing is just terrible, especially because she refuses to go cuddle with Bill and let him soothe her. Instead, she MUST cuddle with me, while I'm already laying there with a baby attached to me. I have to wait until she's asleep before I go to sleep because of the baby, so I've been spending lots of time laying in uncomfortable positions, where the baby is in front of me nursing and Katie is behind me using my hip or thigh as a pillow and curled up into me. I really hope this ends soon! The only time we get a good night's sleep is when she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night crying. If she actually sleeps through, then I just have to worry about waking up every hour to change the baby's diaper, to nurse the baby, and to clean up spit up and nursing spills.
It still feels so odd to have two kids. I absolutely love it, but it still feels like I'm babysitting sometimes. It's hard to grasp that this new child is part of our every day from now on! He's been such a great baby and I'm just adoring having him all day. While it still scares me at the idea of Bill going back to work and leaving me to take care of these two kids and the house and the dogs all by myself, right now is just heaven. Bill and I are really enjoying adjusting to our new family and splitting up the work between the kids and the house has made things pretty easy going. Why can't it just stay this way??
I'm pleased to say that my weight is continuing to go down. I don't think it's going down quite as fast as with Katie, but still - in just one week, I went from 163 lbs to 139. I'm out of the 140's! I only need to get to 125, because I'm trying to stay at a good weight and not slip right back into being underweight. So that's only 15 more lbs to lose, and I'm only one week out!
Will definitely seems older than a newborn. I feel like his adjusted age for being late is a few weeks more than he technically is. (adjusted age referring to how they adjust twins to their due date when they're born early, but this would be the opposite.) Will now has tears, which usually don't happen until a month old. He has these adorable big mouth smiles, the kind that Katie developed when she was a month old. He has no trouble lifting his head and turning it from side to side and keeping it up for quite a long time. In the long run, of course, two weeks doesn't make a difference in life. But right now it makes it seem like the newborn stage is rushing by me. It's like I missed two weeks of his life while he was hiding out inside of me.
He is, however, still a dinker baby. I have a huge supply of 0-3 outfits, and about 10 newborn outfits. I figured he'd be in newborn for a few days and then fit into the 0-3 - wrong! The 0-3 outfits all are giant. He completely swims in them, to the point where his hands and arms come out of the sleeves because they're so loose. I keep running out of newborn clothing all the time. In the opposite end though, his little scratch mittens, which he needs because he loves to claw at his cheeks and eyes, are way too small. His long fingers make the elastic ride up on the heel of his hand instead of at his wrists. Since they only make one size of mittens, there's not much I can do. He likes his hands to be outstretched, not curled up, so they're just not going to fit well.
I have discovered a magical tool though - the blue fuzzy Mickey Mouse blanket I just had to have back in July for him is the best $15 I ever spent. If I wrap him up in that blankie, he immediately stops being fussy and will usually just fall asleep. After the first two days, he decided he didn't like his bouncer at all and wouldn't sit in it. But adding the blanket to the bouncer? He suddenly sits for it!
I also tried his pacifier yesterday. I figured it would help reduce my supply a little bit as I'm still constantly engorged and still leaking the amount of half bottles at a time, and it might make him poop a little less. Since this baby nurses every half hour, (when the doctor said just to make sure they nurse about every 4 hours - yeah right!) it certainly won't hurt to add a pacifier once in a while so I can eat or take a shower (all of my showers have lasted about less than 5 minutes lately because he cries so much when I'm gone). I used it once last night, and he really took to it and with the combination of the blue fuzzy blanket and the pacifier, he put himself to sleep. I'm using it again today so I can eat some breakfast, and while he was less enthusiastic over it, he's been using it. He didn't want it until I covered him up in that blue blankie.
Nighttime has been hell lately. It's hit or miss really, but the bad nights tend to be really bad. I never needed my sleep more than when I'm breastfeeding, recovering from delivery and being up with the baby all day and night. But Katie has been having terrible night terrors. She's terrified of every shadow and movement in the dark. Yesterday she watched and sang along with her Big COmfy Couch episode that tells her to not be afraid of the dark all day long. It's all she watched. She dances to it and sings it joyfully, but it's forgotten at night time. She just doesn't want to go to sleep anymore, and she especially doesn't want to do it on her own. Her timing is just terrible, especially because she refuses to go cuddle with Bill and let him soothe her. Instead, she MUST cuddle with me, while I'm already laying there with a baby attached to me. I have to wait until she's asleep before I go to sleep because of the baby, so I've been spending lots of time laying in uncomfortable positions, where the baby is in front of me nursing and Katie is behind me using my hip or thigh as a pillow and curled up into me. I really hope this ends soon! The only time we get a good night's sleep is when she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night crying. If she actually sleeps through, then I just have to worry about waking up every hour to change the baby's diaper, to nurse the baby, and to clean up spit up and nursing spills.
It still feels so odd to have two kids. I absolutely love it, but it still feels like I'm babysitting sometimes. It's hard to grasp that this new child is part of our every day from now on! He's been such a great baby and I'm just adoring having him all day. While it still scares me at the idea of Bill going back to work and leaving me to take care of these two kids and the house and the dogs all by myself, right now is just heaven. Bill and I are really enjoying adjusting to our new family and splitting up the work between the kids and the house has made things pretty easy going. Why can't it just stay this way??
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Baby's 6th day
We're just one day shy of a week old now! It's a bit sad how fast it's going. The days feel like they stretch on forever, but it feels like the last week has just vanished. Will still feels so new, but it already seems like he's changing. I hate how time keeps slipping away!
My breastmilk is slowly starting to regulate already, which I'm very happy about. I still need to hand express and freeze some of it, but not nearly as much as I was and they're not getting engorged as quickly. Now hopefully they'll soon stop letting down so fast and overwhelming baby!
The only issue we're having right now is with Will's bum. It was great that he was pooping so often - his organs were all working great, he was definitely getting enough to eat - all good signs. But now his skin is angry at having so much poop happening. I change him immediately after poops, but this kid literally goes about every half hour. And more often than not, when I go to change his poop, he immediately poops five minutes later. I'll change him again, and sometimes he'll go yet a third time. Seeing that it takes me a few minutes to set up the changing station each time (setting up a folded baby wipe to keep him covered, setting up a baby wipe with Desitin on it, getting the diaper ready to put under the old diaper, separating baby wipes I'll need to clean with, etc) it really feels like I never get done changing poops! I can't change him any more often or faster, so I'm not sure how to make his butt less sore. It's quite red, and it seems like every time it starts to look better, it gets worse at night time. I've been getting up 3-5 times a night to change his diaper (which is about every hour or two all night) and it's still not enough. I'm at a bit of a loss. The poor guy has been woken up from so many naps and sleeps because I'm too afraid of letting him sleep long in case he has another poop and needs to be changed. When the doctor saw him the other day, she didn't say anything about it, so I'm sure it's nothing alarming, but it sure doesn't look comfortable and I don't like it at all. I just don't know how to fix it other than continue doing what I'm doing already.
I'm slowly catching up on sleep. I didn't even take a nap today, which has been so mandatory the last week. I'm slowly getting around better, though my pelvic, hip, back and tailbone all still hurt quite a lot.
We took our Christmas tree down today after getting a few pictures of the baby with it. I was hoping to get Katie in them as well, but she just wouldn't work with me. Will wasn't at all happy with getting laid down for the pictures, as he's suddenly turning into a mommy's boy. It's not even that he constantly wants to nurse, as if I just pick him up he's fine. As we found out though during my shower yesterday, this is not the case for Bill, who picked him up, rocked him, talked to him, etc and still Will screamed. I took him back and he nuzzled against me a bit and then fell right to sleep. I had hopes that he'd be a little boy that would let me put him down, but he seems to like his snuggles every bit as much as Katie did! Actually, with Katie I was able to take showers without a problem, she just wanted to be held. This one only wants mommy's arms!
Edit: Have I mentioned that this baby has my ears? No other feature, but he does have my ears! They're close to his head (Katie's and Bill's sort of stick out more at an angle) and they're not as rounded as Katie's/Bill's. Those are my shaped ears!
My breastmilk is slowly starting to regulate already, which I'm very happy about. I still need to hand express and freeze some of it, but not nearly as much as I was and they're not getting engorged as quickly. Now hopefully they'll soon stop letting down so fast and overwhelming baby!
The only issue we're having right now is with Will's bum. It was great that he was pooping so often - his organs were all working great, he was definitely getting enough to eat - all good signs. But now his skin is angry at having so much poop happening. I change him immediately after poops, but this kid literally goes about every half hour. And more often than not, when I go to change his poop, he immediately poops five minutes later. I'll change him again, and sometimes he'll go yet a third time. Seeing that it takes me a few minutes to set up the changing station each time (setting up a folded baby wipe to keep him covered, setting up a baby wipe with Desitin on it, getting the diaper ready to put under the old diaper, separating baby wipes I'll need to clean with, etc) it really feels like I never get done changing poops! I can't change him any more often or faster, so I'm not sure how to make his butt less sore. It's quite red, and it seems like every time it starts to look better, it gets worse at night time. I've been getting up 3-5 times a night to change his diaper (which is about every hour or two all night) and it's still not enough. I'm at a bit of a loss. The poor guy has been woken up from so many naps and sleeps because I'm too afraid of letting him sleep long in case he has another poop and needs to be changed. When the doctor saw him the other day, she didn't say anything about it, so I'm sure it's nothing alarming, but it sure doesn't look comfortable and I don't like it at all. I just don't know how to fix it other than continue doing what I'm doing already.
I'm slowly catching up on sleep. I didn't even take a nap today, which has been so mandatory the last week. I'm slowly getting around better, though my pelvic, hip, back and tailbone all still hurt quite a lot.
We took our Christmas tree down today after getting a few pictures of the baby with it. I was hoping to get Katie in them as well, but she just wouldn't work with me. Will wasn't at all happy with getting laid down for the pictures, as he's suddenly turning into a mommy's boy. It's not even that he constantly wants to nurse, as if I just pick him up he's fine. As we found out though during my shower yesterday, this is not the case for Bill, who picked him up, rocked him, talked to him, etc and still Will screamed. I took him back and he nuzzled against me a bit and then fell right to sleep. I had hopes that he'd be a little boy that would let me put him down, but he seems to like his snuggles every bit as much as Katie did! Actually, with Katie I was able to take showers without a problem, she just wanted to be held. This one only wants mommy's arms!
Edit: Have I mentioned that this baby has my ears? No other feature, but he does have my ears! They're close to his head (Katie's and Bill's sort of stick out more at an angle) and they're not as rounded as Katie's/Bill's. Those are my shaped ears!
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
New Year's
At only 5 days old, Will has already existed in two different years! We had a fun night at home last night, enjoying our brand new baby cuddles. It was a bittersweet time, as it's impossible to have this year's New Year's Eve not focus so much on Elizabeth. We talked a lot about her, tried coming up with ideas for what to do on her angelversary in ten days, and looked upon our Will realizing what a blessing he is and thinking over the crazy twists and turns of God's plan.
While Katie was too busy cuddling up with her Molly on the sofa watching her new favorite episode of Big Comfy Couch (which is the one I remember best from childhood - All Aboard for Bedtime, I think it's called and it's all about not being afraid of the dark and shadows, which she's recently become scared of), Bill turned on a live feed of the ball dropping from NYC. We sat together, me holding a peaceful sleeping Will and Bill holding Elizabeth's little lion as we held hands together and brought in another new year together as a newly changed family. It was a big moment for us - we've been through a lot this year. We went from some of the hardest, lowest points in our lives to some of the best, highest points. It's been a year full of a little bit of everything, and here we are putting an end to another year's chapter.
It was a great send off to a year that was both so rocky and so blessed.
While Katie was too busy cuddling up with her Molly on the sofa watching her new favorite episode of Big Comfy Couch (which is the one I remember best from childhood - All Aboard for Bedtime, I think it's called and it's all about not being afraid of the dark and shadows, which she's recently become scared of), Bill turned on a live feed of the ball dropping from NYC. We sat together, me holding a peaceful sleeping Will and Bill holding Elizabeth's little lion as we held hands together and brought in another new year together as a newly changed family. It was a big moment for us - we've been through a lot this year. We went from some of the hardest, lowest points in our lives to some of the best, highest points. It's been a year full of a little bit of everything, and here we are putting an end to another year's chapter.
It was a great send off to a year that was both so rocky and so blessed.
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