16 Weeks

I don't even have a creative title for this week. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that great either (from a routine/sleep perspective). Dargan is over his illness and just has a little bit of a cough remaining. I can tell he feels much better though! He napped a bunch at daycare early in the week, so I'm sure he was still getting over feeling bad.

Early last week our A/C went out. Scott worked from home on Thursday to meet the repair guy who came and fixed it, but discovered we have a coolant leak and will have to do some major repairs ($$). We've tentatively scheduled those for the end of next week, assuming all of the parts come in. Unfortunately on Saturday we discovered whatever temporary fix the repair guy had done had stopped working. So now we are A/C-less again, and Scott is leaving for a work trip early Tuesday morning. Hopefully the weather will be cooler this week so Dargan and I don't melt!

On Thursday, Dargan got to go to Girls' Night with me - the plan was to eat at Compadre's then go to a Greenville Drive baseball game, but similar to the last time we tried this plan, we just ended up hanging out at Compadre's for the evening. It was fun though, and Dargan of course was a big flirt and loved smiling and giggling at all the ladies! :) I had hoped he would sleep really well after this because he hadn't napped all evening. We got home, he was still happy, nursed & put him to bed... and then I swear we were up every 1-2 hours. WHYYYY.

I felt like we were making such progress a couple of weeks ago and then he got sick and hasn't slept well since then. Doesn't seem to matter if he naps in the afternoon/evening or not... no clue what is making him wake up so much other than we've stopped swaddling him since he's close to rolling over. Kid better figure out how to sleep without a swaddle soon!

And now - photos from this week:

Smiley boy! I actually had him laughing at one point. So cute.

Evening walk & beverage.

Whatchoo lookin' at?

Airplane with daddy!

Home from Girls' Night at (near) the baseball game.

Out to dinner at Restaurant 17 - he actually let us have a peaceful 1.5 hour dinner!

Looking at the view.

Holding my clicky-twist toy all by myself!

This kid and his faces.

Holding my toy is funny!

Sweetly (briefly) sleeping

New play gym! A little overwhelmed...

Leo is also interested.

(Sadly my video this week wouldn't upload... will try to get it up another way. Dargan's been talking up a storm this week!)

15 Weeks - Down with the sickness

Well, the night of awesome sleep turned out to be a sign of things to come... but not in a good way. Poor Dargan had croup! :(

Sad mommy with sick baby

I noticed he felt quite warm on Thursday evening, so I checked his temperature and sure enough it was 101.5 and he was sniffly. I called the pediatrician's nurse line and she said to monitor him overnight, give him Tylenol, and bring him in if he's not better by morning. He got worse throughout the night, coughing an awful barking cough and wheezing, so I stayed awake/slept on his nursery floor to keep an eye on him - he didn't sleep well either. We kept him home from daycare per the nurse's instructions, so Scott went into the office to get our laptops early Friday morning and we worked from home. Took Dargan to the pediatrician's and she didn't like the sound of his breathing. Basically his airway was inflamed and his blood oxygen level was a little bit on the low side (low 90s) so they prescribed us Prednisone - hooray steroids!

We had another night of minimal sleep, but the next day I could tell Dargan was feeling SO much better. He had a follow-up appointment at the pedi's and his O2 sats were much better! His wheezing was gone, barking cough was gone, just a regular phlegmy type of cough.

Feeling better on the way home from the pedi's.

The rest of Saturday Dargan was WIDE AWAKE - he literally (and I don't use that word lightly) did not nap at all due to being hopped up on 'roids.

Checking out the music-playing bear hanging on his crib.

Wide-eyed!

The only way he tolerates tummy time = AIRPLANE TIME! :)

Giggling with Daddy

We had a great time at the Swamp Rabbit Brewery Beer & BBQ 5k Saturday evening. Scott ran with Dargan and ran a great time (under 25 minutes!) and I finished just under 30 minutes. Enjoyed hanging out with friends after the race.

"Why aren't we going faster?"

My favorite running buddy!

Pre-race pep talk with Daddy

On Sunday we went to church for a special Thanksgiving blessing for Dargan and one other new baby in the church. He didn't sleep like last time (still crazy from the steroids) but I was able to put him in the sling and he was at least calm through most of the service. We had to make a couple of hasty dashes for the exit when he started fussing, but at least didn't have any meltdowns.

"I got all dressed up fancy for church!"

The rest of Sunday was spent napping and relaxing. Dargan didn't really nap, but he has become incredibly interested in his hands recently.

"What is this?" 

Hoping his remaining cough and such goes away and we get back to our decent sleeping patterns!

Chatting with Dargan on Saturday:

Single Parenting success!

Well, I am happy to report that Dargan and I survived 4 days without daddy at home, but boy are we glad he's back!

Honestly it was both exhausting and super confidence-building to do everything on my own for a few days. Sometimes I'm not sure that I can handle the Tiny Human along with all the rest of my adult responsibilities, so it was nice to know I can at least keep my head above water for a limited time!

Early Sunday talking with Mr. Fox & friends

On Sunday, Dargan and I made it to church for the first time since he was born. He slept through the whole thing! I was so pleased.

That evening we went to Swamp Rabbit Brewery with Dale & Robin and he slept most of the time there, too.

Sunday afternoon smiles!

Monday and Tuesday were crazy busy days. I had chorus rehearsal both nights and had to bring Dargan with me. I would get home usually around 5:30 and it would be a non-stop rush of unpacking our bags, washing bottles, getting dinner ready, prepping his bottles for the next day, packing my lunch, getting my gym clothes packed, and making sure D was fed.

Monday rehearsal went really well. I nursed him as soon as I arrived (half an hour late) and then he was awake and happy the rest of the time. We sat in the audience during the uptunes, and Dargan bounced on my lap and even tried to sing along a few times! He smiled and giggled for everyone who came up to say hello - what a flirt. I put him in the sling and stood with the group to sing on the ballads. He did so well! Not a single fuss.

Happy boy after chorus rehearsal!

Snuggles before bed

Tuesday rehearsal also went well, but totally different - he slept soundly almost the entire time! He woke up towards the end, around 9pm, and even though he wasn't fussing I knew it was getting close to feeding time so we headed out around 9:30.

Silly selfies at home - proud of my well-behaved boy!

Both nights he slept pretty well, too. Mostly 3-4 hour stretches, with one middle of the night wake-up and one early morning wake-up.

Scott got home yesterday afternoon and picked Dargan up from daycare. He sent me this photo of D's most recent artwork:

*heart melts*

We got home and blessedly had nowhere to go in the evening. Got to eat dinner and just hang out! D seemed to be a little sniffly/sneezy, had some red eyes, felt warm though didn't measure as having a fever... just generally could tell he wasn't feeling 100% so we gave him a half dose of Tylenol before I put him to bed at 9:15pm. I woke up around 2:30am and thought "wow, he hasn't woken yet - this is great!" Checked on him and he was sleeping soundly. *happy dance* So I got back in bed, and next time I roll over it's 4:45am! WOW! Again I went to check on him and he was starting to stir a bit. I waited as long as I could, but at this point I needed him to wake up and nurse! At 5am I went in and turned off his white noise machine, turned on one light, and unswaddled him so he could wake up on his own.

Waking up is hard!

He finally woke up and I could tell he was a little groggy and was thinking "Man I'm sleepy... wait, and I'm REALLY HUNGRY!" He seemed much happier than the night before... and boy so was mommy! Nearly 8 hours of sleep for the first time in I can't even remember!

I'm not officially counting it as his first sleep through the night since it may have been drug-induced (somewhat) but if this is a sign of things to come, I am excited!!

14 Weeks - Getting into a routine

This week has been such an improvement over last week!

Last weekend's sleep routine was awful, and I was afraid we'd lose all of the progress we'd made the previous week. But nope, we got back to daycare and had a great week of sleeps!

Sunday Night - terrible! up every hour or two
Monday Night - better! down at 10, up to eat at 1:30 and 4
Tuesday Night - YAY! down at 10, up at 3 and 5
Wednesday Night - decent. down at 10/10:30, up at 1 and 3:30
Thursday Night - another YAY! fed at 10, in crib at 10:45, up at 3:40 and 5:15
Friday Night - (I forget, but it was pretty good)
Saturday Night - my first solo night with D! fed at 9:45, in crib 10:45, up at 2:15 and 5:45

Really pleased with last night getting two long(ish) stretches. Usually the second block is never more than 2 hours but we got over 3!

So other than sleep, the week has been good...

Monday: Turned 3 Months Old!

Happy 3-month-old boy after daycare

We brought a swaddle to his daycare for them to use at naptime and Ms. Sandy said he slept SO much better! They even had to wake him up to feed him. Such an improvement!

"Really mom? It's so early..."

"Oh okay! I do love my dino-feet pants."

Notice that we took out the infant insert for the carseat... it's only supposed to be there for babies up to 11 lbs. and I'm pretty confident we've surpassed that by now! My growing boy!

On Thursday we went to the Commerce Club for a charity auction & dinner, so Dargan got dressed all fancy, complete with sweet Chuck Taylors "shoes". He was SUCH a good boy through the event!

This week at daycare, Dargan completed his first art project:

Dargan's painting of an eggplant.

And we did some reading on Satuday afternoon:

This week will be full of new challenges since Scott is away on business until Wednesday... Mommy and Dargan flying solo for the first time! One night down, so far so good. Grannie is on call for backup if needed! :)

And here is a video where Dargan discovers himself in a mirror.

13 Weeks - Adjusting to the new normal

Last week, being the first week for me back at work and for Dargan at daycare, I would overall call a success! He improved so much throughout the week, and his "teacher" at daycare, Ms. Sandy, even said that she was amazed at how quickly he is adjusting to the daycare schedule. His napping (and crying) improved greatly throughout the week, and so did his sleeping at night! Sandy also said that he's quickly becoming the daycare favorite... all the other teachers stop by the infant room to visit and want to know, "Where's Dargan??"

I'm a charmer!

That's my boy... charming them from day 1 (ok maybe day 3)  :)

So far his daily reports from daycare have shown steady appetite and improved sleep. Monday he slept no more than 45 minutes at a time (once) and a total of 80 minutes the entire day. Friday he took such a long nap (10-12:30) that they had to wake him up!

Of course, this weekend we've gotten him off schedule so he's slept terribly (no more than 2 hour stretches) at night, but hopefully he'll get back into the routine when they can keep him awake and occupied during the day.

I think that's one of the biggest conflicting things... during the day, it's best if he's awake and active and entertained, but that's also when we want to be out accomplishing things (errands, exercise, etc). When he's in the stroller or a wrap/carrier, he almost always falls asleep... which is great because it makes errand running much easier, but also means he's not active. It's a hard balance to strike for sure!

Yesterday was a busy day - in the morning we met with Robin & Dale for a 5 mile run on the Swamp Rabbit, then a bite to eat at the TR Farmer's Market.

D's exercise outfit

After that we took Dargan to the Switch-a-Roos consignment sale and stocked up on winter/6 month clothing. He needed some more long sleeves/pants for daycare because they keep the AC cranked up pretty high and I think he gets chilly. (That's part of why I think he didn't nap well the first few days). That sale is incredible - most clothing items are $1-5 each, and there are racks after racks of stuff! We didn't even look through it all!

All this for less than $60!

In the afternoon we went to the pool, and Dargan enjoyed it as far as we could tell!

Such a cool dude!