Archive for October 2013
After our sweet night of 6 hours of sleep in a row for Kaylor's one-month birthday, he continued to get better and better with sleeping. By 2 months of age, he could sleep 8 hours in a row at night and then back to sleep again for another 2-4 hours. The big milestone this month was his first real smiles at Mommy and Daddy at around 5 weeks....melts my heart! Maternity leave was wonderful, but went by way too quickly! We enjoyed lots of great days hanging out, running errands, and looking forward to Daddy coming home from work. Kaylor got to go to his first baby shower for our friends, the Zimmermanns, and he had visits from Uncle Luke and Aunt Heather and from Grandpa and Grandma again!
When Luke and Heather were here, we were pretty ambitious with all we did with Kaylor in tow. He had his first big shopping trip through Ikea on the way back from the airport, hiking to the top of Hanging Rock, out to eat a few times, and walking around Old Salem. He had a little bit of a fussy streak with all of the activity, but it was still very sweet time with his awesome aunt and uncle!
Feeding was still kind tough this month. We were doing supplementing with formula--some bottles and some with a supplemental nurser. It was helpful, but we were still struggling with it a bit. At the recommendation of the lactation consultant and his pediatrician, we went to ENT. Kaylor had his tongue clipped to see if that would make a difference with his feeding abilities. It didn't seem to make a huge difference, but certainly won't hurt anything. Later in the month, we went completely to bottle-feeding (needing about half of his bottles to be formula). It wasn't the plan, but it works for us!
Grandpa and Grandma spent time with him again before I went back to work. We didn't go out too much while they were here, but got to spend a little more time with all 4 grandparents together with Kaylor.
Grandma came along to his 2-month well child check. He was 11 pounds, 2 ounces (27th percentile) and 22 inches long (13th percentile). His head circumference was in the 78th percentile! Watching him get his immunizations was pretty sad, but we were proud of our strong and growing boy!
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"The diapers are below his bassinet. Good night."
You mean, we're in charge of this little person now? There is nothing in the world like getting thrown head-first into parenting with those words from the nurse. I had just spent a day in labor, and we were ready for our first night with our little man. Bryant was such a huge help in those first few hours in the hospital with changing diapers and bringing Kaylor to me to eat. It really was a blur, but we thought he was doing pretty well in the hospital. He was feeding well and getting everything checked off of his "list" to get discharged. It was such a joy to have our little man with us and to just stare at him, but we were SO ready to go home. The fold-down couch and hospital bed just weren't cutting it for getting any sleep (We knew we weren't going to get much at home, but still!).
Kaylor was born Monday night, and they weighed him at 7 lb, 3 oz in the delivery room immediately after he was born. Downstairs in our Mother-Baby room, they got him at 6 lb, 13 oz. They thought there would had to have been something wrong with the scale upstairs, because that was a big drop. Wednesday when we left the hospital, he was down a little more, but the pediatrician assured us that was normal. The lactation consultant visited us, and we felt good about how he was feeding. At our first pediatrician's visit on Thursday, Kaylor was down to 6 lb, 5 oz, and he still hadn't (pardon me for being blunt) pooped. So, they wanted to see us back the next day, and we were still waiting. We joked with each other about how badly we just wanted our son to poop, because we knew eventually we would dread having to change so many dirty diapers. After a couple of long days and long nights, we finally got some poop (yay!), but he was still not gaining weight well. He was only up to 6 lb, 9 oz by Friday, July 5th. We had been to see the lactation consultant and had a plan for supplementing and pumping, because we knew he wasn't getting enough. Those first few days of trying to get his feeding figured out were TOUGH. I had had people tell me that breastfeeding was difficult, but I guess I still had this vision of it being really natural and easy for us. Well, it wasn't, but we were slowly getting things figured out.
Meanwhile, my parents came to stay with us 3 days after we got home with Kaylor and stayed for about 10 days. Bryant's parents came over for the 4th of July, and we all celebrated Kaylor's first holiday! My parents were a huge help to have staying here to allow me to get a nap here and there, and they did a lot for us around the house. Bryant went back to work when Kaylor was about 2 weeks old. At his 2-week doctor's appointment, Kaylor was up to 7 pounds, and we were heading in the right direction. I honestly really struggled with the "baby blues," and had several difficult nights with Kaylor while we were trying to get to sleep for the night or just waking up an awful lot. But, God is good, and things got better! By the time Kaylor was about 4 weeks old, he was gaining weight a lot better, and we were even getting out of the house a little bit during the day. We celebrated one month old by even sleeping a solid 6 hours in a row! It was strange, but wonderful to wake up to Bryant's alarm in the morning instead of little man crying on the monitor.
Having a newborn is NO JOKE, but there were so many wonderful moments wrapped in there as well. God is an amazing Creator, Sustainer, and Life-Giver. Just when I really didn't think I was cut out to be a mom, He showed me through my husband and my little guy that being a mom was part of my purpose and calling. What a blessing it truly is!!
