During the day, I have this chill, calm, adorable little boy. He never cries, he just sleeps and sleeps. This is a good representation of him while awake:
Like I said, pretty chill.
At night, though, he becomes wide awake and wants lots of lovin. Our three nights at home have been fairly rough. Part of the problem is the kid has my metabolism- he likes lots of light snacks and isn't too into meals. 8 minute feedings every hour or so. And 8 minutes- that's being generous- I have to poke him constantly, make him naked and cold, blow on him, wiggle him... just to get him to stay awake long enough to get some food.
And my poor chest- I'm pretty sure I have enough milk right now for three or four babies. It ACHES.
Last night, we decided to not allow the snacking (and the pediatrician confirmed this morning). If he wants to eat, it'll be more than two hours apart and hopefully he'll therefore want more. The problem with this is it means that once an hour he lets us know he wants to eat and I have to turn him down. I never thought I'd be into pacifiers but we'll apparently be using them plenty at least for now.
Kenny, bless his heart, is my knight in shining armor. There isn't much he can do at night, since I'm the one with the built in baby food, but finally last night I was breaking down from lack of sleep and he tookt he baby upstairs for 2-3 hours stints and kept him happy enough considering our new no-snacking rule. It was bliss- I got some sleep! Probably 6 hours total, and never for more than two hours at one go, but ah... it was great. Now Kenny is the sleep-deprived one, but the good news is he got 5 hours of Mario Kart in on the wii:). He goes back to work next Monday so I'm taking advantage of him while I can. Hopefully we'll have resolved some of the night issues by then.
This morning at the pediatrician they checked his biliruben levels for jaundice- at the hospital he was "slightly jaundiced". Now, he is glowing in the dark, apparently- his level was at 21.5 or so. 20 is when they start worrying the doctor a bit. Jaundice happens in about 60% of newborns and generally isn't a concern, just something to be aware of. But if it gets too high (30 or so) it can cause mental retardation and stuff, so definitely something to be aware of.
So they are giving us a biliruben light for a couple days- not sure yet if it will be the blanket or the tanning bed.
We've already had a couple outtings to get more baby things. Here he is dressed and ready to go:
And he had his first bath- it was just a sponge bath since his umbilical cord stump hasn't fallen out yet:
He's making some baby gang signs:).
Kenny and I are both so happy and so in love with our son. I'm healing quickly and Kenny is really getting the hang of being a daddy (though he still hasn't changed a diaper:)).
6 comments:
Here's hoping you can train that baby to be more into meals so you can get some sleep. Either way though, he is a cute little chap.
Congrats Jen. Daniel is very cute. Hope you are doing fine too.
Things get better - sleepwise and breastfeeding wise - I promise! When we came home from the hospital Jace thought bedtime was three in the morning...slowly, he came around to normal people time.
Jen (and Kenny, too!), he is just so adorably cute. Perfect and precious. Congratulations!
man, look at those bright blue eyes! he's really a cutie!
what a good mom and Kenny is terrific. Keep those lights glowing!
I sure feel for you right now. . .the first 2 months for me were a blur but I'm so glad things are going well (except for the sleep)! I know you will probably hear this a lot, but if you want to--a pump for extra milk was a lifesaver for me so I could keep breastfeeding longer (and not dry up)--Michelle did about the same thing.
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