7 Weeks Old

Hello, my name is Dargan and I sleep like a champ during daylight hours!

Night time is a different story.

Over the past week it seems like things have gotten worse, not better, as far as the nighttime sleeping. We made a big move this week and have evicted little D from our bedroom. So far he's done pretty well with the crib, and at least it lets us sleep through his little grunts and non-urgent 'FEED ME' cries.

First night in my crib!

It also seems we had a habit of a morning poopsplosion - this happened at least 3 mornings in a row where there was a blowout and both he and I needed to change clothes and bathe.

Pretty pleased with myself!

I wore this outfit for approximately 10 minutes before I pooped all over it and mommy!

Yes, I do realize that it's summer in South Carolina and he's in long sleeves & pants... but we have a few newborn outfits like this that he's never worn and he's about to outgrow (sniffle!) so I wanted to at least have him wear it once.

One night he pooped through his only two sleep sacks, so we had to put him in one of his nightgowns for the rest of the night. I think they make him look like a cute little glowworm. :)

Morning snuggles!

He basically has three modes:

1) Awake but content (this is the rarest and most short-lived of the three)

I just stare at walls.

2) Asleep and angelic

I even fold my sweet little hands.

3) Awake and very unhappy about it

I scream. Loudly.

We're working on having more of #1 and less of #2 during the day, which hopefully will help have less of #3 all around. So far, success rate is minimal, but we're working on it.

We did get the OK from the pediatrician to let him go in the swimming pool, so we tried that out yesterday. He wasn't sure about it, but he didn't hate it. I think it might have been too cold for him, so we didn't keep him in very long. He spent the rest of the afternoon swaddled in a beach towel and was fairly content.

After this week of awful sleep, we decided to try going back to only bottles at night, thinking that his issue is still that he falls asleep mid-feed when nursing and then wakes up hungry sooner than he would if he'd gotten a full belly. Last night he got a bottle at 10, slept til 1:30 and got another bottle, then awoke again at 4:30. I nursed him then and he didn't really fall solidly back asleep but I got about another hour of sleep between then and when he woke up at 7 wanting to eat again. So... not great, but not terrible. We'll try this system for a while and see how it goes. I really want to get to where he will nurse exclusively, but right now our sanity and sleep is going to have to take priority. 

This morning he was happy and awake for a while, so we played on the floor and he's sporting another one of his newborn onesies (I love this one - it has little monster footies!).

Monster on my butt!

Edited to add:
I almost forgot some exciting news from the weekend - I went for my first run! We parked at the Swamp Rabbit Trail near Furman and ran up to the farmer's market in Travelers Rest, then back to the car. Total of about 2.6 miles and I ran the whole way! It was a slowwwww run, and Scott pushed the stroller, but it felt great to get back to running!

6 Week Post Partum Checkup

Had my post partum checkup with the midwives today.

Good news: Stitches and such are healing up very well, so they have cleared me for physical activity! Time to bust out the running shoes! Ok, maybe not quite back to that level yet... but YAY!

Bad news: I have mastitis again/still. She took one look at Righty and was like "Yep, that's mastitis alright!" I'd felt feverish again last night so I knew something was up. She suspects it never 100% went away, so she prescribed me some antibiotics. She said that sometimes exhaustion can make it flare up... I said that was a cruel joke given that we have a newborn at home - when are you not exhausted?? She told me to take Dargan and curl up in bed for a few days, feed him on the infected side as much as possible (draining it helps the infection go away and isn't harmful to baby), and drink lots of water. Given that it's 95+ degrees all this week, I don't think that will be too difficult to obey!

And instead of complaining about how terrible Dargan's sleeping & eating schedule has been so far this week, I'll just post some gratuitous cuteness and call it good:

6 Weeks Old - Firsts!

6 Weeks Old today!

Mr. Man has really taken off this week. We had a pediatrician's appointment on Friday for his 1 month checkup (was postponed from last Friday) and he is now 8lb 10oz and 20.5" long. He is officially on the curve of all growth charts for height (2.5 percentile), weight (6 percentile), and head size (12th percentile)! He's about to outgrow his newborn size clothes and diapers, so we are getting our final wears on a lot of things. Can't believe how quickly that happened!

I'm not sure I enjoy Tummy Time

Turtle tummy time!

"Hey, Ladies..."

He's been decent schedule-wise this week... have had a few rough nights but in general he's been doing really well. Still eating about every 3 hours, sometimes closer to 2 and occasionally he'll give us 4 hour stretches. Those are really nice when they come at night!

"But I'm so cute, you don't really care if I sleep... right??"

We went on walks every day this week around the neighborhood ranging from 1.5 to 3.5 miles. It was warm outside, but we have a little battery operated fan for D on the stroller to keep him cool. Mom wishes she had one, too!

Love our morning walks!

Snuggle time with Leo.

We had several firsts this week, which were exciting...

First Family Trip to Barley's

We finally had our first family outing to Barley's on Friday night!

Babywearing in the bar!

Friend and Bartender James approves of tiny human.

Friend and Bartender Kimmie showing D some love.

It was fun to get to introduce him to our friends there! We even dressed him up (i.e. put pants on him for the first time) but he stayed in the wrap the whole time (slept like a champ!) so I had to take photos to document the cute outfit.

I have a car on my shirt...

...and a car on my butt!

First Race

Then on Saturday evening we headed up to Spartanburg for our first race! It was the R.J. Rockers Beer BBQ 5k - the first of a series of 3 races each sponsored/hosted by a local brewery. We walked  most of the race, though I couldn't help myself and jogged slowly a couple of times - finished just under 45 minutes and then enjoyed barbecue, beer, and live music afterwards! It was a great event. More about the race in my fitness blog which I'm very excited to start making entries in again. :)

Start of the race in the back of the pack

"On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm a 26.2"

Family post-race photo! Dargan is obviously thrilled.

 Excited for more races to come this summer and fall!

5 Weeks Old - Making & Breaking Routines

Last week started off promising.

Sunday afternoon by the pool.

Scott left for a work trip to Montreal on Monday afternoon, so my mom came to stay with me which was a huge help. I wasn't quite ready to tackle this little one on my own for 3 days!

"Who, me?"

Snuggles!

We started off by assessing a concerningly red behind... determined to be some gnarly diaper rash, so we established a daily routine of No Pants Tummy Time with Grannie! (Rest assured, Dargan was the only one participating in the "no pants" part). We also did some reading during this time, and Dargan seemed to be fascinated by books placed in front of him. 

Evening reading time.

The first night we decided to try taking shifts - my mom would give D a bottle while I pumped just before bedtime (10-ish) and would then address any fussing until the next feeding around 1am. At that time I'd nurse him, then mom would take any fusses until 4am when I would feed him again, then mom would keep him occupied until morning (next feeding at 7am). It worked out great! It was nice to just get to mentally check out for a few blocks of time. I felt so well rested the next day.

Tuesday was more of the same, just hanging out at home. We went for a walk around the neighborhood which was nice. 

Shiner investigates.

We did the same routine again Tuesday night and once again it worked great! 2 for 2! He stuck to the 3 hour routine throughout the day pretty well also. We figured out that 1.5 hours after he eats (ie the time it takes a baby to digest breast milk) is when he initially gets fussy. Originally we thought that meant he was hungry again, but really it's poop & gas related fusses. What a revelation! So we just try to make him as comfortable as possible while he works through that, and then he'll go back to sleep. Hooray!

On Wednesday we had an excursion out for lunch at Sidewall Pizza in TR, including a little walk on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. 

Aside from keeping him out past his usual 3 hours between feedings, resulting in some crying, he did very well! That night he even let me sleep until 5am (4 hour stretch!). Was definitely nice to get caught up on some sleep this week.

Wednesday was also the 10th - Dargan's 1 Monthiversary! :) Can't believe how fast the time is going by (well, some days).

On Thursday I took Dargan to the Midwifery office where they have a monthly breastfeeding support group meeting. Basically they open up the office so you can come, work with a lactation consultant, and use their high-accuracy baby scale to weigh your baby before and after a feeding to see how much milk they're actually getting per meal. Turns out Dargan can pull out about 3 oz in a feeding which is great. PLUS it turns out he has reached the 8lb mark! I was very happy to learn all of that. 

I got home and had a terrible headache, so I drank some water and laid down for a nap. Then I started getting chills and body aches and when I got up to feed Dargan, I took my temperature... 101.4! :( Thankfully Scott got home that night and took care of little D while I slept on the couch the rest of the day. 

Happy to have Daddy home!

We stuck with the new "routine" that night and it worked out great. Only change was that I took the fusses from 1-4am so that Scott could be rested for work in the morning.

Friday I woke up feeling somewhat better, but not great. I stayed in my PJs and napped on the couch as much as Dargan would let me. We did try some tummy time while he was awake in the morning, but by afternoon, I was back on the couch again and fever was at 102. 

Originally we'd planned to make our first family trip to Barley's, but since I still wasn't feeling well, we stayed in. It was a wise choice, because we had big plans for Saturday - babywearing group and a birthday party! I ended up feeling much better by then, thankfully, and both went well. I decided to order a Ring Sling as an alternative carrier for the summer. We love the Boba wrap but it's quite warm (will be perfect in winter!) so a lighter weight sling will be great to have. 

We went to Jeff & Deidre's house for Deidre's birthday party. The theme was Olympic Decathlon and we were told to come dressed in some kind of team spirit wear. Scott and I knew we'd be back and forth with D, so we didn't participate, but we dressed Dargan in his Florida jersey from Grandma & Granddad Trenor. 

Proud Father & Son gators

D says "Go Gators!"

He did really well throughout the party and everyone loved oohing and ahhing over him. Not sure if he was just overstimulated from the party or what, but that night something got off-kilter and Dargan was fussy a good bit of the night. He basically didn't sleep between his 1 and 4am feedings. Blah! And we'd been doing SO well. 

Scott took D for a run on Sunday morning so I could sleep some more, and we pretty much took it easy around the house the rest of the day.

Today is going well so far and D and I did a little over a 5k walk around the neighborhood! It took us about an hour and 20 minutes, but hey, we did it! It was good practice for the Brewery BBQ 5k that we're doing on Saturday. :)

Hoping we can get back into our routine more this week!

Happy Due Date, Dargan!

Today is June 7th - my original due date! But instead, we are celebrating Dargan being 4 weeks old today. What a wild ride it has been!

Today I am 4 Weeks Old

Last night was rough... I think he must be going through a growth spurt (again? still?) because he wanted to eat constantly. The past couple of days we've tried to go for exclusively nursing for feedings, but after 2 nights of very little sleep, we're back to bottles at night. It's just easier (I say "easier" in very relative terms) to get his belly full and get him back to sleep quicker than 45 minutes of nursing only to wake up 1.5 hours later.

But I sleep great during the day!

Some other highlights from the past few days have been:

Thursday, June 4th - Pediatrician appointment & Circumcision

Oh yes, it was a busy and stressful day for little Dargan. On a positive note, he's gaining weight like crazy still and is up to 7lb 5.5oz (+13oz from 1 week ago!). His circ went well and he doesn't even seem bothered by it - clearly it "hurts" mom & dad more than it does him. Not so good news - he has the beginnings of a yeast infection on his bum, so we're applying topical antibacterial at each diaper change. Lovely! :/

Friday, June 5th - First Bath!

Based on the care instructions from the pediatric urologist, a bath was in order for Friday. We got him in his little tub, cleaned him all up, and then snuggled him in a warm towel... he seemed startled at first when he got in the water, but eventually settled down and seemed pretty calmed by it.

Saturday, June 6th

I had my first extended time away from Dargan to attend front row rehearsal for chorus on Saturday morning. While it was nice to interact normally with adults again, I'll admit that I missed my little bug! He and Scott enjoyed a morning at the Farmer's Market, along with errands to the bank and to Sunrift - he got to meet all the folks in the bike shop, where he will obviously become a regular as soon as he can sit upright on his own. :)

This coming week, Scott has a business trip to Montreal, so my mom is coming down to keep me company while he's away. I'm just not ready for multiple days on my own with this little guy yet! Getting there, though.

Blue blanket made by Dargan's great grandmother.

Sweet sleepy babe

First Solo (duo?) Outing

Today I feel like Dargan and I crossed a milestone - we had our first venture out of the house together! We attended a La Leche League meeting and met a great group of moms that I think will serve as a great support for our continuing adventures in nursing. Dargan did SO well at the meeting - slept almost the entire time and only woke up just towards the end and needed a snack. He hadn't eaten since 8 in the morning, and we didn't get home until after 12 - so proud of him!

Proud of me, Mom?

This week so far has been pretty good - my first week solo at home while Scott is at work. His parents came to visit briefly over the weekend but started feeling ill on Monday morning, so they left to go back to Florida. We've planned a trip to visit them and the family in West Palm Beach over July 4th weekend, so it will be a busy holiday weekend!

Other than that, we've had some good days and some stressful days. He tends to have pretty calm mornings but by late afternoon he's awake and hungry and cranky and not sure what he wants. Hoping he'll continue to eat and sleep well and figure out a good schedule for himself and us!

My parents and brother came for lunch on Monday so that my brother could meet his nephew.

"It's a baby!"

Milk drunk.

Concerned about having the hiccups.

Also today, Rev. Dorian from St. Peter's came by to visit and give me a gift made by the St. Peter's Quilters ministry. It's so cute and thoughtful!