I have the best husband.
He scheduled a 3-hour spa session at Nordstrom for me today…because he knew how exhausted and stressed I’ve been. :.
So I left Owen with the grandparents and fully enjoyed my salt-scrub massage and facial. The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if I would have been able to stay there on the table and sleep for about 12 hours.
Dad and Lin have been here since Saturday and it’s been very nice… they take the evening shift, so Tom and I can go to bed around 9 or so and hopefully sleep until Owen is ready to eat around 1 or 2am. Needless to say some nights have been better than others!
In other news, dad claims Owen rolled over today. He was having belly time when dad shouted at me to come look, but by then it was too late…so I won’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes!
He was up every two hours last night, which means after feeding for an hour or so, I got an hour of sleep at a time.
I am exhausted.
So, YAY! Last night was wonderful!
And by wonderful I mean he slept well, ate well, and went back down well! ❗
He got fed and went down at 10:30 and I didn’t have to get up again until 3am! He went down at 4, then was up again at 6:30! And then to make it even better, he went down at 7:30 and slept until 9:30!
HEAVEN!
Of course, he kind of made up for it by being completely fussy for the next three hours, LOL, so I couldn’t get much done around the house—but I’ll take daytime fussy vs. nighttime fussy anytime!!
Let’s just hope this continues…
So I was just at Target and pulling in, a woman coming towards me stopped and put her blinker on. I notice the empty spot she was eyeing, and motioned her in (I needed a spot near the corral so I could snag a cart to put the boy in—but I wouldn’t have taken the spot anyway. But that’s neither here nor there).
So I go to a space about 10 slots down, go grab a cart, unload the boy, get the cart and his diaper bag situated, and start towards the store. The woman, who so desperately wanted that space, was STILL pulling in. Apparently, there were a bunch of carts in that spot, and she took the time to stop pulling in, move them ALL into the roadway, then pull her car in—AND LEFT ALL THE CARTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE >:XX >:XX LANE.
So I get in the store and am printing out a bridal registry, when she comes in and stops at customer service—of course jumping ahead of others waiting to tell the clerk that someone needs to go out and get some carts that are in the middle of the road.
What a >:XX asshat.
It’s 65 out today. And sunny. And gorgeous. And she was maybe 35 and looked to be in good health. Yet she needed that closer spot and then felt the need to be annoying and push all the carts into the middle of the lane so that others would be inconvenienced, and then cut in line no less to tell someone to go take care of it.
I hate people like her.
So yesterday Owen slept in until almost 9:30 and then slept most of the day. YAY, I thought, as it allowed me to run my errands (I had to return the hospital’s breast pump and get a few groceries) and rest a bit.
But then night came.
Our least favorite time.
And other than sleeping from 9:30-midnight, that was about it. I fed him from midnight-1am and then was up—off and on, feeding and calming—for the NEXT THREE HOURS. XX(
He finally went down sometime after 4am and then I heard Tom feeding him (well, I heard Owen screaming to eat—and then quiet) around 6:30.
We have GOT to get him on the correct day/night schedule…
Two hours.
Two STINKING hours is all I get to see my husband on his long days. He gets home around 7:30 and then either I am (or both of us are) in bed at 9:30. Owen might get to see him an extra half hour if Tom feeds him a bottle in the morning (if the timing works out right).
No, it’s not like that every day… but for at least the first week (or two) of every month it is. And Saturdays until 4 or so.
Ugh.
>:XX
Owen had has one-month check-up today…and he’s doing well. He now weighs 8 lbs. 2 oz. which is an increase of just over 1# since we had him weighed two weeks ago! The doc was happy. His head size, weight, and length are all in the 25th percentile.
I asked her opinion on how to get him to sleep more at night, and all she basically said was “He should be sleeping between 3-4 hours at a time. Make sure he eats enough before you put him down.”
Ooookay, that didn’t help much. You told me what he should be doing (which he does sometimes sleep 3-4 hours at a time) and something I am already doing (making sure he eats enough). Interesting.
She asked how long he feeds and I said anywhere between 15 minutes an an hour. She said that was not good—he should feed for a max of 20 minutes (each side) and should never eat for an hour. Ooookay. So, we’ll try it and see.
She said she is okay with the pacifier.
I mentioned he sleeps well on his stomach sometimes (like for a nap, or after belly time) and she said he should never sleep on his stomach. Ooookay. 🙄 I mean, I know technically it’s not recommended, but I don’t think doing it here or there is going to do any harm. I mean, a few years ago, sleeping on the stomach was recommended. That said, I know she is just telling me her opinion…and she is being nice about it…but I still feel like I’m getting a mini lecture and it kind of irritates me. 😐
His next appointment is in a month and she expects him to gain another 1.5#. At the piggish rate he’s been eating lately, I don’t see that being a problem.
I feel like that’s my motto now. :yes:
He’s sleeping…
Quick, let me throw in a load of laundry.
Quick, let me take a shower.
Quick, let me grab a bite to eat.
Quick, let me write a thank you.
Quick, let me change the laundry.
Quick, let me pay a bill.
Quick, let me sanitize the bottles.
Quick, let me refill the wipes.
And last but not least…
Quick, let me try to grab a nap.
…poop normally again? 😮
I never thought I would take pooping for granted. But I did.
They gave me stool softener in the hospital and I have been taking vegetable laxatives every day since I’ve been home, and it’s still not easy. Swear to god it’s almost like I’m giving birth again. If I can even do it. XX(
(Hey, I warned you it was TMI.)
Needless to say Tom has instructions to get me something different at Target tonight.
The joys of parenthood, right? 🙄
This is what happens when I leave Tom alone with Owen for a few minutes…
The doc says everything looks good and I am healing well. I am still sore, of course, and she says I could be sore for a few more weeks.
I have also lost 28# according to their records. YAY! (I have been wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans for a week or so now.)
Be sure to turn your volume up!
Last night at about 4am, I told Tom “No more babies.” It was that bad. :no:
Now, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that bad but it was bad enough at that moment I was totally serious.
We went on our date night dinner (our first night out since he was born) last night and Owen apparently slept the whole time, plus ate his 4oz bottle. We got home at 7:30 and he was ready to eat. Out of the next hour, he nursed for about 25 solid minutes and was DEAD asleep…nothing I did would wake him up. So at 8:30 we started to go to bed, telling the grandparents to bring him up when he woke up/got hungry. We got to sleep about 9:30 and were excited when they didn’t come up until 12:30. THREE HOURS! YAY!
So then I fed him from 12:30-1:30. And then didn’t get back to sleep until 4:30. >:XX He was crying/screaming and then dead tired, so I’d put him in the crib, which would last anywhere from 2-10 minutes before he was screaming again. I tried feeding again, and that would last maybe five minutes and he didn’t want anything to do with it. I even broke down and got his pacifier (I only give it to him when I know he’s just eaten and not hungry) and that worked for maybe 10 minutes until he spit it out.
FOUR HOURS I tried to get him back to sleep and he was having NONE of it. I was a wreck.
I was up at 6:30 to feed him again (so, he slept for about two hours) and put him back down about 7:45 and he was crying again. My stepmom got up about this time and took him downstairs. I heard a few cries, but for the most part? Totally asleep. And it’s 9:57 and he’s still sleeping.
I really hope this ends soon and he starts to sleep more and/or get on the real night and day schedule, because this is making me insane. :'(
Tom and I wanted to celebrate two things: the rental of our house and the birth of our baby…and we wanted to celebrate in style. We had thought about going to Ruths Chris or Morton’s, but Tivo friends recommended another steak place, The Capital Grille, instead—so that’s where we went. Dad and Linda were here so they babysat while we went to dinner. What follows is the online review I wrote for our experience.
This is what 5-star dining is all about.
We went here for our celebratory “we just had our first baby and this is our first night out alone dinner” and it could not have been better!
Our night started with valet parking (why not?). We entered and the Maître d’ took our coats and seated us. Our waitress greeted us by name and spent quite a bit of time explaining the wine list and the menu (since we had never been there before). We probably could have saved her some time by saying we weren’t interested in any wine, but she was very nice and knowledgeable and it was interesting to hear everything. She then left us alone to agonize over all the delicious menu items.
When she came back to take our order, she also brought over a tiny shaker of their signature drink, the Stolli Doli (sp?), a pineapple-infused vodka, to try and tempt us into a real drink. We just enjoyed the delicious sample.
The appetizers came out very quickly and I was impressed. (I had for some unknown reason imagined that the food would take longer.) I had ordered the calamari (on the waitresses recommendation) and hubby ordered the lobster and crab cakes. We could have made do with just one of the orders, as the calamari was enough for probably four people! One neat thing was that the waitress had stopped by and asked if we wanted her to split/serve the appetizers—putting them on separate plates if we were going to share. We said sure! So when she delivered them, we each had two plates. Very cool. The calamari was a bit spicy but not too bad, and it was very good. I highly recommend those. The lobster and crab cakes were good, but I think I enjoyed the calamari more. (It was so good, we dove in and ate most of it before remembering to take a picture.)
It was about this time that I mentioned why we were there celebrating…and the waitress got very excited! Turns out she was pregnant and loved kids and wanted to hear more about us and our baby, then said she’d have a surprise for us. She came back with two glasses of wine! Then she asked if we had a baby scrapbook and we said yes, so she asked if she could take our picture. We said sure, thinking she would email it to us or something. But she said she would print it out and give it to us! She was back within a few minutes with the picture printed and placed in a Capital Grille cardboard matte. Wow! She also took a picture with our camera (when she noticed it on the table).
The next course was french onion soup, which came out in a crock about the size of your head. And it was absolutely, hands down, the best french onion soup we’ve ever had. It was AMAZING. Unfortunately, we didn’t eat much of it since we figured that would do well reheating at home…and we knew we still had huge steaks coming! Before we could even think twice, it was boxed up and brought to our table in a bag.
Then, the steaks and sides. Wow, the steaks. I had ordered the Filet Oscar and wow, was it buttery. Cooked perfectly medium rare. The bearnaise was smooth and delicious, and the crab–oh, the crab! I have never seen such huge lumps of crabmeat on Oscar-anything, anywhere.
Hubby’s Porcini Rubbed Delmonico was also to-die-for. Sweet and savory, buttery, cooked perfectly rare. He barely made a dent in it, unfortunately, with all the food we’d already eaten plus the sides.
Oh, yes, the sides. The waitress had told us that all the sides were family style (and large portions) so if we wanted, she could do half portions. So we chose to do a half order each of lobster mac and cheese and augratin potatoes? The mac and cheese was so creamy and cheesy and filled with HUGE lobster chunks… I would definitely order that again. The AuGratin potatoes were good, too – but with all the other buttery cheesy food, I think some of the taste was lost on me. We took home leftovers of it all (except my filet, which hubby helped me finish).
Then, another on-the-house celebration surprise! Ricotta cheescake with a creme brulee topping and fresh fruit that was soooooo good. Wow was it good. Hubby, who doesn’t even really like cheesecake, liked it! I would definitely order that one again, as well.
Our waitress gave us her card and said to make sure we ask for her if and when we come in again…and she would love an update on our new baby!
So, overall, 5 stars for the atmosphere, 5 stars for the service, and 5 stars for the food. We just wish it wasn’t quite so expensive so we could go back more often!
Owen just had his first bottle (with breast milk, of course).
We did what we had been advised—I left the room so he wouldn’t be looking for me—and kept our fingers crossed that he would take to it.
And BOY did he.
Tom said he sucked it down like nobody’s business.
I just hope he still takes to me…as it’s much harder to get milk from me than the bottle.
My mom was here for the birth and a few days afterward. Then Tom’s mom was here for a few days. Then my Aunt Marge was here for a few days. Now my dad and Linda are here.
And it’s soooooo nice.
I love my baby, but it’s wonderful being able to hand him off and…
…get another hour or so of sleep.
…or clean up the kitchen.
…or do a load of laundry.
…or make my own sandwich.
…or write a blog entry.
But mostly the sleep. 😉
I guess it should be expected… but then again, I thought once he was sleepy or napping in my arms (or on me) I could move him to the crib or swing and be able to get stuff done around the house.
NOT.
He will be perfectly content—sleeping and snoring away, limp as a rag doll—so I will get up and place him in the pack and play or the swing… and I literally have less than two minutes before he’s SCREAMING bloody murder. On a bad day, it’s less than 10 seconds. On a great day, it might be 20 minutes. But more often than not, it’s two minutes or less.
Don’t get me wrong, I looooooooooove holding my baby, but I also hoped to be able to get something done during the day. (As I’m writing this, he is laying next to me, screaming at the top of his lungs. He is fed, burped, and has a freshly filled-and-changed diaper, so nothing is wrong other than he wants to be held.)
And at this point I’m not asking for time to scrub the kitchen floors or organize my closet—we’re just talking something as simple as going to the bathroom or refilling my water or grabbing three bites of food for lunch…or writing a quick blog entry. 😉
I try to let him cry, but it just kills me to hear it…so I don’t last too long.
He’s not even colicky, but I can see how the crying would drive someone insane.
Wait, I mean INSANE.
I am pretty patient and thought I was dealing well with the crying—because he really IS a pretty good baby—but the crying has started getting to me (egads, and we’re only on our third week).
He will eat and eat and eat and eat and be falling dead asleep and nothing I do will wake him up to eat more—so I assume he’s satiated. He has burped and pooped and has a fresh diaper change, so that part is taken care of. So what’s left? Nothing. I mean, maybe it is gas or another burp…but I keep burping and waiting…and nothing ever comes, so he must be crying (SCREAMING) because he wants to be held. Which sounds great, except it makes for a looooooooong night when I am already exhausted and just want to get back to bed.
And then I think “Hey, let me just try feeding him again, just in case.” And he will suck it down like he hasn’t eaten in days! GRRRRRR!!
I know these frustrations will be over soon (and new ones will take their place) but in the meantime, let’s just hope for some silence. 😛
I have just completed Part 1 of Owen’s Official Birth Story. Click here or use the calendar in the right-hand column to click on February 3.
He seems to like the swing…so far. Thanks, Scott (a TiVo friend whose daughter hated the swing)!
Today we had to take Owen back to the doctor’s office to check his weight—in his first week home from the hospital, he had lost an ounce instead of gaining like he should.
And we had good news! He went from 6 lbs. 9 oz. to 6 lbs. 15 oz.—a mere two ounces less than his birth weight!
YAY OWEN!
…spit up!
To start from the beginning, though… It took a team effort to get my Aunt Marge down here for her long-awaited new-baby visit: my mom drove her to Bay City and then my cousins Lisa and Lori and my Aunt Marilyn drove her here from there. They didn’t mind, as they then also got to see the baby!
So I had just finished feeding Owen when they arrived. Everyone was taking turns holding Owen and he was lying on Lisa’s lap when OUT OF NOWHERE he spit up, projectile-style, VERTICALLY, right onto her shirt!!
What a stinker! Before that moment, he had never spit up AT ALL!
Unfortunately, I think it has started a trend…
What is it with shoe stores, where the shoes you try fit like a glove and feel like you’re walking on air? And then as soon as you buy them and put them on outside the store, they’re suddenly too tight, too small, and they hurt your feet? >:XX
I hope DSW has a good return policy (since I wore them outside). 😐
Last night took about an hour to get him to fall asleep—but he was in his crib!
An hour later, I was up feeding again…but then he slept for three hours 😀 and I had to wake him up to feed him!
After that, he slept another three hours 😀 and I got to sleep in until 9:30! (He then fed for almost AN HOUR! 88| I’m not quite sure what to make of that…but sometimes it just happens.)
So, overall, it really hasn’t been that bad. Once I made the decision to only let him cry for seven minutes, I can handle it better. If he hasn’t calmed himself by then, I go back in and try something else.
Daddy was playing games on the xbox and Owen was crying in the bassinet, so I suggested they use the time to bond, as Tom is going back to work soon.
Isn’t this the most adorable sight?
Owen was a trooper—he pretty much slept through the entire thing! That said, it wasn’t invasive (plus he had just eaten and taken a car ride) so he was good.
It was a quick, maybe five minute, procedure—and he loved lying over the towel on his belly. The tech took the pics to the radiologist and was back within two minutes saying everything looked good. :>>
The funny thing? Apparently babies get noticed, even in hospitals. Everywhere we went, people had to stop and look, ask how old, tell us how cute he was…
Oh, and we also got our first pacifier. The tech asked us if we had one and we said no, so she gave us a Soothie, saying it was highly recommended.
Not too bad, considering my expectations weren’t terribly high.
We had watched the happiest baby DVD so fed him then tried some of the 5 S’s (swaddling, side/stomach, shushing, swinging, and sucking) and put him down. He cried off and on for a few minutes then was out. YAY! For an hour. :no:
Sidenote: how the hell can he sleep four hours after a morning or mid-day feeding, but only sleeps an hour after a midnight feeding? Research apparently suggests that it takes babies a while to learn day from night, and it should begin to resolve itself soon.
So then I was up for almost an hour feeding/changing/comforting…and he was out…for another hour. :no: Another hour of duties…and he was finally out for about three hours. :yes: After I fed him, Tom took over and I got to sleep another two hours (until 8am).
So it worked, and he’s out of our bed. I’d hoped he would sleep in longer spurts (since I know he can during the day) but it went better than I’d expected.