Getting Outside and a Cute Baby

1. What are two or three expectations you have of yourself?
Okay.... To get outside for a walk whenever possible, and to keep adding more content to this blog and get to posting more frequently. Shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.

2. In what way does your outdoor space need sprucing up this spring?
My outdoor space is currently a park in my neighborhood, and the streets around it.

I do however have a bird feeder that we put up on our fire escape last year that really needs to be taken down.

3. According to this site (Roadtrippers), six of North America's most wondrous waterfalls are-Webster's Falls in Ontario, Upper Whitewater Falls in North Carolina, Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon, Multnomah Falls in Oregon, The Lower Yellowstone Falls, and Niagara. Have you seen any on the list? Which one on the list would you most like to visit? Prettiest waterfall not on the list that you've seen in person?
I've been to the Grand Canyon, but cannot recall the falls. And I've also been to Niagara, but honestly wasn't all that impressed. I prefer a secluded area with falls to a crowded attraction. But, if you are going to Niagara Falls, I recommend going to the Cave of the Winds. You might even find a pot of gold if you hop over the fence.

4. Looking back, what's something you wish you'd done as a teenager?

I would have gone to prom I guess. I remember working that evening at Wendys, and serving my classmates who thought it would be ironic to come dressed up and order burgers :)

5. Ham...yes please or no thank you? If you said yes please which of the following do you like best-baked ham with all the trimmings, a ham and cheese sandwich, prosciutto with melon, a ham biscuit, a bowl of split pea and ham soup, or a slice of pizza topped with ham and pineapple?
Okay.... ham isn't my favorite, but I do love Hawaiian pizza.

6. Are you typical of your generation? How so?

No. I was one of the first of my friends to get married, and now I'm a mother with everyone still dating around and climbing the corporate ladder- which means there aren't many who I can relate with. The world seems to glorify putting yourself first, and then when you achieve everything, you can "settle" down and do all the boring stuff. I always knew that I'd want to be staying at home with children, and that raising them would be an incredible privilege and joy. That doesn't seem typical of my generation.

7. April rolls in at the end of the week, and in keeping with that theme...'act the fool', nobody's fool', a fool's errand', 'could have fooled me'...which foolish idiom most recently applies to you? Explain.

I would hope that I am nobody's fool, the other seems like ones I would prefer to avoid.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Daniel is teething. And he has little white bumps where they are starting to push up through the gums. I'm going to miss my baby with his gummy smile. And, would you just look a this little guy? I hate to see him uncomfortable.

So tell me...

Do you feel like you fit into your generation?

How do you help soothe a teething baby?

                 
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Daniel at 3 Months

Daniel turned 3 months old this morning, at 4:39am. So this morning we sat down and struck up an agreement with him that he can learn, walk talk and all those things, but he can't keep growing. He has to stay this size forever. Which is 25 1/4 inches long, and 15 lbs and 11 oz.

This month he's been working on using his hands to grab things he wants, block or swipe at objects when he's unhappy with them and has been putting them in his mouth constantly. His feet have been used to kick toys, the air and people. I've been assaulted with his razor nails (that I swear grow an inch overnight) and currently have 4 large scratches on my chest from a hungry baby that woke at 5 this morning, frantic for some food.

He's learned how to smile not just because he's happy, but because he wants to entertain others and get us to smile. Of course I spend most of my day trying to extract smiles from him, but it's time well spent. He's very good at answering a smile for a smile, and has started to do other things like smirk, huh-yuk (laughing soon, maybe?) and howling like a coyote. WoooOoo!

We've gotten into a routine, one that starts with him sleeping in his nursery and then around 7am when he wakes up, coming into bed with mom. Of course, sometimes dad hasn't yet woken and I get photos like this, of Daniel trying to wake dad with his cooing.

We've been blessed with some amazing weather this month, and have taken several walks around to nearby parks. Daniel always sleeps through them (and generally sleeps for an hour or more after coming home), so we go whenever possible.

Staring at that baby in the mirror has been a real thing this month. He seems to understand that this baby moves when he moves and Daniel has great fun provoking this baby to bounce around or scream along with him. Trying to understand just how that other baby in the mirror got there and looks just like him. It's been a busy month.

And lets not forget to mention that he is teething. I've no clue what to look for but his doctor after feeling around inside his mouth said 'yep, I feel some buds coming up!'. Wish I had thought to ask where and what to look for, because the only thing that seems different is his gums are less gummy, he's gnawing on his hand and seems miserable and pulls at his face and ear. Poor guy.  I'm excited to see what new things he'll learn this month, but don't want him to grow up any more.
I'm guessing that's a common thing for moms to say. 
                 
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Crazy Colic Days

I've made it no secret to those around us that Daniel has colic, among the other five-letter words such as 'reflux' and 'gassy'. We found out around 3 weeks that the unexpected fussiness and general discomfort was due to reflux, which our doctor said is likely causing part of his colic.

Needless to say, following a blissful two weeks, it has been a rough two months.

I never expected to have a colicky baby. Since it was not even on my radar, learning how to cope with a sad and uncomfortable baby was a long journey, one that I can say seems to be nearing its end. And, while all the baby books and internet searching has helped, my pediatrician has been the one to teach me how to keep him comfortable and happy.

Basically, I've been keeping him sitting upright (for the acid), telling myself this will pass eventually, and doing lot of a lot of babywearing/cuddling.

But I can tell that the end is near! So here are some general truths that I've found to be pretty much accurate.

1.  Colic generally shows up around 2-3 weeks of age, and goes away around 3 months. It peeks around 6-8 weeks of age, and of course, every baby is different and these numbers are general guidelines.
   
   I have to say though, that his colic did show up at 2.5 weeks, peeked at 8 weeks exactly, and most people who I've spoken with said their baby seemed to 'miraculously' get better at 3 months old. I sure hope so. 11 weeks today, so we're almost there!


2. Colicky babies tend to be more miserable in the evening hours. This was true to some degree for us. In the beginning weeks, we noticed that he was fussy after 5pm, until bedtime and that he was always a happy baby in the mornings. Then around 6 weeks, his fussy time expanded, and anytime after noon you could expect him to start fussing and then 
   
   eventually the relentless crying would begin. But always happy in the mornings.
   
   From weeks 6-8, he found a entirely new level of colic, where he screamed nonstop from noon until bedtime. Oddly enough he kept going to bed at his regular time. He never had colic at night, which was a huge blessing. At least we could get some sleep. And, since he was exerting so much energy crying he started sleeping longer period of time. On Feb 9th, he slept 6.5 hours and then 2.5 hours. And, we ordered Hyland's Colic Tabs, which seems to soothe his tummy and calm him down even more. Of course, it took us until he was screaming bloody murder to find something that helped, and by that point he was getting better. Figures, right?
   
   
   
   
3. Gas is a certainty with colic. When a baby cries, they suck in air and get very gassy. Which is uncomfortable, and means that they will cry more and become even gassier. So one of the best tricks that the pediatrician taught me was to give him TONS of tummy time (as much as he would permit) and to massage his lower abdomen whenever I held him. She also said not to bounce or jiggle him but to sway him instead. Would you like to be bounced around when you have an upset stomach? Neither would I.


4. Colic is unexplained crying, and nothing you do caused it. My pediatrician said that she and her father (also a pediatrician) were talking about colic one evening, and thought that it could very likely be something as obscure as infant growing pains. If teenagers grow several inches in a short period of time, imagine the insane amount of growth that newborns do in their first few months. Granted, she said, we'll never quite know what is tormenting them.
   
   Daniel is a big baby, no question. But he's a pretty long baby too, and at 10 weeks he measured 25 inches long and at the 97th percentile for length. He was born at 19.5. Maybe there's something to this theory, but more importantly, it shows that we'll never be able to ask the baby what's wrong and where it hurts, if anything hurts.

I might be back at a later date with another post written on colic... but I sure hope not. We seem to be leaving these crazy colicky days behind us (but then again, don't ask me how yesterday went...) so pending future babies who suffer from it as well, I hope that I never have to think about this again.

And... I hope that as Daniel keeps growing towards a less clingy, more comfortable baby that he'll allow me to use the computer to write here more often :)

So tell me...
Did you (or anyone you knew) have a colicky baby?
How did you handle those early days?
Did it disappear by the 3-month old mark, or stick around longer?


                 
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The First Two Weeks

I wish I knew then what I know now.... despite the pain of recovering from childbirth and the new sleep deprivation..... the first two weeks of motherhood were EASY.


I say this because I had a perfectly happy, comfortably and healthy baby. Had... meaning that immediately after those two weeks, he started to whine, wince, cry inconsolably.

You are probably thinking "Oh no, that sounds like colic...", and you would be right. But not just colic, reflux induced colic which is a whole other brand of miserable. And then of course came along the GI problems and then the early teething.

But, those first two weeks were bliss.

Both Daniel and I were on the same schedule. We did all the same things.

Sleep. a lot. It took me until the New Year to finally feel rested up from the birth, and Daniel seemed to get sleepy from just being cute.

Eat. I was ravenous due to breastfeeding. Would raid the fridge after every feeding at night! I found myself one night eating hamburger buns because we were low on quick foods and I needed something I could eat without cooking.

Swaddle. I became a swaddle expert. I could swaddle you, if I had a big enough blanket. But as Daniel kept growing rounder, he just kept getting longer! It was insane, and he outgrew the pink-blue striped hospital blankets too fast, which I preferred to the velcro easy swaddles. And then he was too long for those as well.

It's obvious that he loved it as well, since now that he's on the verge of rolling over and swaddling is out of the picture, he flails around like he's trying to hail a cab. It's pretty drastic, and I wish that I could still swaddle him up. I used to call him my little burrito.

Cuddle. at every opportunity. I loved bonding with this little guy, and loved that he seemed to know I was more that just another set of arms.

One regret I have is that I do wish I had done more skin to skin with him. I love holding him in just a diaper and feeling his soft, warm baby skin.

But, I was pretty terrified of breaking a limb every time I changed his onesies... so I gave up the idea of skin to skin. I doubt my blood pressure could have handled the stress of his screaming through getting changed more than he already was. He hated it, but maybe it was because it took me 10 minutes to get him changed. He was probably just telling me to hurry up already, and not be such a pansy. Tom was much better at it.

 Play. I loved talking with him, trying to get any reaction he could manage in those early days. We'd wake up and I'd prop him back against my bent knees and I'd make faces at him. An hour or more would pass before we'd stop, when he was obviously sleepy and then we'd both go back to bed.

Pose for the camera. I became one of those people that you either love or hate. I took a ton of photos, of every phase and of course shared many to Instagram and Facebook. To the delight of family and most friends and likely the dismay of some of my still single friends. Oh well, it's the price you pay when you lead the pack towards marriage, then parenthood.

Learn our new roles. Granted, in the beginning I was pretty slow moving and concentrated on eating well and healing, but eventually I started to put away the items, organize some things brought home from the hospital and even cooked a meal. I really didn't utilize my in-laws during the first few weeks, and weren't called on to babysit.

I would feed him, diaper him and as he was drowsy I would deliver a calm happy baby into the arms as I came back to my apartment to do some cleaning, etc. Then Tom would arrive home and we'd go pick Daniel up an hour or so after he went over to visit his grandparents.

Little did I know how much I would come to rely on them in the coming months once the colic started.

Wait for daddy to get home. I loved when Tom got home, because then I got to take a shower, ask how life was outside our building, and get some actual conversation. Daniel likely didn't have much an opinion about it, other than perhaps noting that the diaper master had returned.

Of all the things we were learning to do, I was learning how to nurse, and Tom was doing every diaper when he was home (that is at nights too. Yep, he woke for every nightime feeding. What a guy).

It was a transitional period for me in learning how to be a new mom, but also for Tom in becoming a dad. It already feels like so long ago that Daniel was such a tiny thing, with his tiny arms and legs, wrinkly skin and little newborn cry of "El-La!".

Many things have changed but even though I look back and miss the first few weeks, I can't wait until he is able to interact with us and learn more about his world.





So tell me...
What do you remember about the first few weeks with your child(ren)?
Did you document those days, or are they as I've heard a lot of, forgotten?


                 
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First Week as "Mom"

First Day Home- Christmas Day

After being surrounded by nurses for two days, we were sent home with our wriggly little human on Christmas.... right into the onslaught of family dinner, gifts and an overwhelming amount of baby love.

I made my way upstairs, and when I arrived at our apartment everyone was in the nursery, surrounding the crib, where they had placed him. He was this tiny thing, freshly swaddled, and he was staring up at everyone. He soon started crying for his own Christmas dinner, and I shooed everyone out of the room. The festivities had started out in the living room, dinner was served, and neighbors were stopping in to see the new member of our building.

Day Two- What Do We Do Now?

We really had no clue how to care for this crying newborn. I knew how to feed him, and Tom had already taken over diaper duty with gusto. Other than that- we had no clue how to burp, dress him (in less than 10 minutes), or get him anywhere.

The doctors had told us that since it was a long weekend, and they wanted to check his jaundice levels (again), we needed to bring him back to the hospital Saturday evening for another blood test. We made the trip with Daniel riding along on Tom's chest in a baby carrier. It took us about 20 minutes to walk two blocks to the bus since Tom was sure that the carrier was either too loose, too tight or not letting him breathe. All of course were wrong, he was fine in there, but we kept stopping to readjust the carrier and so Tom could check that he was breathing. We all arrived there in one piece, were told his levels were still borderline, and to return the next day.
That evening we returned home to find my parents had cooked us dinner and the entire family came to eat and see Daniel get his first bath.

Day Three- First Day of Church

After a night of no sleep, we woke early to shower and get everyone ready for church. When we arrived, Daniel was screaming and needed to eat and be changed. Everyone we passed followed and wanted to see him, but seeing as how he was pretty miserable I told them I'd bring him around later. After changing him and nursing, he fell asleep and I was able to creep upstairs with him and listen to the sermon from the back of the church. He slept the entire time cuddled up on my chest, and it was nice to know that for the first few weeks, he should be pretty content to sleep through pretty much anything.

My parents said their goodbyes to everyone after church and took a few last photos of Daniel before Tom took them back to NJ so they could drive home. He came home only to return to the hospital with Daniel and get the jaundice test taken again. I stayed home, realizing that I really should not have taken the journey the day before and that staying in was important in healing.

It was odd, the first time that I didn't have my baby with me, on purpose. Tom came home later with Daniel, and told me that he had received a clean bill of health. That I didn't need to pump instead of breastfeeding, and that I didn't have to keep feeding him formula.

Day Four-  Nursing isn't Easy
Despite having my in-laws living in the same apartment building, when Tom left for work on Monday I felt suddenly on my own with this little baby. Now that we no longer were told to feed him formula, we spent the day learning how to latch and nurse correctly.

When Tom returned that evening, I was thrilled to see him so I could hand him his son, take a shower, and eat dinner. I had no idea at the time, but learning to do things 'one handed' was not as easy as I had imagined. The rest of the week I would be happy if I ate breakfast before 3pm.

Day Five- First Checkup

Today my mother-in-law and I took Daniel to the pediatrician to see how he was doing. He had already gained back most of his baby weight. The pediatrician made sure to ask how breastfeeding and sleep was going, and made sure to tell me to not shake the baby. Apparently you should definitely not do that.

Day Six- Life Continues
Sleep is elusive, but I get the hours necessary to function. Daniel seems to be sleepy today, which scares me because I can only assume that means he will be up tonight. 

I take advantage of having both my arms free to make my first dinner since being a stay at home mom, and while I wouldn't say it was ruined, it was not good. Tom was gracious and ate the whole thing without comment. What a keeper.

Day Seven- New Year's Eve
Today I spent much of the day trying to keep Daniel happy and fed. I'm wishing for breakfast, the opportunity to clean up our crazy house as it's mess from Christmas. I bring Daniel back to the pediatrician today, and learn that is officially over his birth weight, and his jaundice looks as though it's gone.

Daniel continues to nurse all the time, and when walking the few blocks to the pediatrician, I find myself nursing him while babywearing and covering up with a scarf. My first public and mobile breastfeeding experience, and I'd say it was an unexpected success.

Tom gets home early from work because of it being New Years Eve, and I hand him Daniel and take a breather. The family comes over and we spend New Year's Eve eating homemade Indian food and watching one of the Mission Impossible movies. This entire holiday season has flown by, and definitely not been what I expected. It's circled around this newborn taking all our love and attention. It feels like we skipped Christmas and New Years this year, but that's fine. Just odd.


I gave Daniel my first kiss of the New Year, and Tom my second. Things have changed so much since the year before, and I've no idea where it's going to take us but I'm excited to see what comes.


I hear that the first few months of your child's life is a blur... whether due to sleep deprivation, emotions or amnesia- who knows. But this is my written record of the first week anyway. It wasn't what I expected, but then again I'm not sure what I expected.

So tell me...
Do you remember your first week (months?) as a new mother (or father)?
Did you know what to do or were you kind of shocked with the new responsibility?


                 
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Introducing.....

Meet Daniel.

He arrived on December 23, 2015.
He weighed in at 7 lbs 14 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long.

I am writing this as he is 6 weeks old, and he now weights appreciate least 13 lbs and is likely 24 inches long. He's definitely a growing boy. Yesterday we found ourselves buying 6-9 month onesies, because he's outgrowing some of his 3-6 month outfits already.

He was born with so much long brown hair that I joke that he came out needing a haircut. Also, the term 'wolverine' may have been used, since his eyebrows connected to his hairline for a few days. 

Mom and Dad are still getting acclimated to caring for this little guy, and while we did all the research and have waited a long time to be parents... nothing could've prepared us for the amount of love we have for him.

                 

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I'm Back... and I Brought a Baby with Me

Hey there!
I took a few months off of writing, to relax and enjoy life before baby arrived. He's here and I'm back!

I was finishing up my old life- of work, training a replacement, trying to spend quality time with my husband all before our baby came. While I've missed writing on here and keeping in touch with blogging friends made in the past few years, it was all for the best.

But now I'm back, and I plan on publishing and posting all the things that have been going through my mind in the past few months, weeks and days. You can't turn off of the mind of a blogger it seems. Posts about our baby-moon in September, Daniel's birth story, and how I handled being a mom for the first few days of his life are in the works and will be up shortly.

This space, while it will continue having content about the same things- travels, NYC centered tours and travel ideas, and posts on being a Christian woman- it will likely focus more on my learning how to be a new mom, especially in these first few months. I'm not one for scrapbooking, so what better way to record the blur that is the sleep-deprived days that I am currently living.

It's a complete shock that I am finally a mom, and that he is here. 
I look at photos from when he was born, and can't believe how much he's grown. And I listen to his cries and my heart breaks knowing how much they've changed from his little newborn cries. I cheer when he smiled his first smile and cooed his first baby babble words.

Knowing that he is growing older quickly and that this season of life is soon to be the past...

It's time to start doing what I love, and write it all out. 

So tell me....
Did you miss me? :)
Now that I'm back, how is the new year treating you?

                 
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