Flying Solo February 28, 2011

Chris went back to work today which I find completely devastating. I honestly feel the government should give both parents the time off. Chris and I have been a well oiled machine for the past 3 weeks and him not being here feels almost like I’m missing a limb. I know Henry misses him too.

Henry started showing his displeasure at Chris going back to work last night by throwing up on the clean sheets that Chris had just just on the bed. He then was not happy that I was the one feeding and changing him during the night (since I had decided to let Chris sleep) and refused to go back to sleep after his 2:30 feeding. He wasn’t crying or anything, just was determined to stay awake. At around 4:30 am I was starting to lose it mentally since he was refusing to eat, didn’t need to be changed, just would not go down. Chris, being the awesome guy that he is, sacrificed his sleep and took Henry downstairs to let me sleep until he left for work around 5:45 (due to the freezing rain).

When I got Henry back, it was the same story. Chris had managed to get him to sleep but now once again he was wide awake and refusing to eat. I finally got him to sleep around 7:00 and promptly fell asleep myself until around 8:30. I think it being both of us is going to be a bit of trial and error. In 3 weeks time I had changed about 5 diapers. I’ve done 4 in the past 24 hours. I’m quickly learning the tricks. Like bringing him to the washroom and while holding him, I wash one hand at a time (thank god for pump soap that can be done one handed).

Now he’s asleep but who knows for how long. I may stick to wearing PJ’s all day today just to remain comfy and then make a base camp in the basement and watch tv or something.

And of course, no post is complete without pics of our little guy.

I find he looks so tiny in this picture. He also looks like he's wondering "where the hell am I?"

Kiss from papa sets everything right.

A nice pic of Henry and Chris

WE MISS YOU CHRIS!

Good good good, good vibrations February 24, 2011

We may have found a solution to Henry having to be glued to one of us during the day. The greatest invention in the world: The VIBRATING ROCKING CHAIR! We put him in it yesterday evening and it quieted him down right away. I did it again today when he started wailing in his bassinet and it seems to be doing the trick. We have to kind of rock him a bit first until he falls asleep then the vibrations take over.Thanks to Amy and Kevin for this great chair.

Henry asleep and Atticus wondering why he can't be in the vibrating chair

I’ve also been trying to capture Henry smiling on camera but it’s damn near impossible. He smiles a lot in his sleep but by the time I press down on the camera button, it’s often changed to a passive sleeping baby face or sometimes even a frown. These are the best ones I could get:

this is his "were you taking pictures of me while I slept? I feel so violated!"

and finally his "well if you're going to take my picture, let me give you my good side. I call this one pensive man"

In other news, I’m in the final stages of a job competition that’s been ongoing since last April. Yes, I had time to go to Haiti and have a baby in the time it took to run a job competition. Anyways, it’s the interview stage now and because of this little guy, I can’t attend the physical interviews so HR has offered to schedule phone interviews with interested managers. I got a call a few minutes ago to schedule an interview for tomorrow and Henry started wailing. I didn’t want to necessarily reveal right away that I was on maternity leave but it looks like Henry has other plans. Thankfully Chris is still home tomorrow so I can do my phone interview at 11:15 while Chris takes care of  the little guy. I may try and feed him right beforehand though since I’d hate to have to interrupt a potential employer to say “sorry, can you wait a sec, I have to unclip my bra so I can breastfeed my baby”.

Monkey Baby February 23, 2011

We may have unwillingly started a bad habit with Henry last Sunday with all our guests. He was passed around from one person to another for pretty much the entire day, sleeping on everyone and now it seems that during the day, he will only sleep on Chris or myself not in his bassinet. We have no problem getting him to sleep in it during the night but during the day… no dice. He’ll be in a deep sleep on my chest or Chris’ chest then we’ll put him down in the bassinet and within 5 minutes he’ll wake himself up and start crying/screaming to be picked up. At first I thought he was just hungry but after having unsuccessfully tried to feed him a few times I realized that the second we pick him up, he calms down and falls asleep again. I kind of feel glued to the glider during the day. I’m going to have to wear a baby sling at all times if I want to get anything done. I’m not sure I’m ready to just let him cry it out in the bassinet. His little cries break my heart. Already he’s got us wrapped around his little finger.

Trial and Error February 22, 2011

Henry had another bath last night. So far, most baths have been quite the trial. He would scream through the entire process from the second his little body touched the water as can be seen from the pics from his first bath:

not a happy camper

When we got home and decided to bathe him in his own little bathtub, it was the most stressful event I’ve ever been through. I was convinced our neighbor would call Children’s Aid or something from the intensity of his cries. After that dreadful bath, we decided to sponge bathe him instead. We soon found out that sponge baths have their own issues, such as the fact that you have to do it sans diaper, meaning whenever a good gust of wind would come by, Henry would just release his bladder resulting in Chris and I being covered in pee.

Taking some Facebook advice, we decided to try and bathe with him. The first time was a nightmare but last night something magical happened. Henry was put in the water and he just sat there contemplating the sensation of the water on his body. Chris and I both breathed  a huge sigh of relief, not even realizing we were both holding our breath. Now the calm only lasted bout 5 minutes then he started crying but I feel we’re making progress on the whole bath issue. I’m hoping he learns to love it since I want to start swimming lessons with him in the spring.

Henry’s Favourite Toy… February 21, 2011

Well it’s not so much a toy as it is a painting. We have a painting that my mom made a few years ago that hangs in our living room. It’s abstract art which my mom says is a depiction of the Columbia space shuttle exploding (the one from 2003). Well Henry just loves staring at it. Whenever we’re in the living room his eye will veer towards the painting and he’ll get really quiet like he’s studying it and trying to figure it out. I think it helps also that the painting is on a red wall, so the red draws his eye, but the painting makes him linger.

Henry staring up at the painting after a feeding.

The painting in question

We had a fairly hectic weekend with lots of visitors on Sunday. My grandparents, my aunt Sylvie and uncle Pierre, our friends Nadia and Hugo (and they’re son Gabriel) as well as our friends Sandra and Doug. Chris’ family came over for dinner and made us some Indian food. Of course Henry slept through pretty much all the visits and woke up when they left and pretty much stayed awake until midnight. Then did two 4 hour stretches of sleep which was pretty nice. We then paid a visit to the RCMP today so Chris could introduce him to coworkers, where he slept again.

Just wanted to add this pic as well to show how much Ginger loves her little brother

Action Packed Day! February 19, 2011

Yesterday started off with a BANG! Unfortunately for Chris, he became collateral damage to that BANG. I was in our bedroom and Chris was changing Henry when I heard him yell “Oh Shit!” and then a panicked “Can you come here now!” so I went into the bedroom to find poor Chris covered in poo. He was changing the diaper and Henry just let everything go. That stuff gets a lot of distance. It was all over the change pad, Chris’ forearm, his bathrobe. So I took over while Chris cleaned himself up. I’ve been lucky enough so far to not get pooed on. Can’t say the same for peeing though. We were giving him a sponge bath the other day and I flipped him over and all of a sudden my chest got really warm and I looked down and it was soaking wet and Henry had this far off relieved look on his face.

After the whole exploding diaper issue, we went for lunch at Chris’ aunt Dawn and Alice. Henry rudely slept through the entire meal… sheesh, you try and teach your kids manners 🙂 We had hamburgers and french fries and it felt good to eat meat. We haven’t been eating much meat aside from the frozen meals my mom made for us (THANKS MOM!!!!) since it’s kind of hard to plan to defrost meat then cook it when you don’t know if 8 hours from now you’ll be dealing with a sleeping angel or a screaming devil (I kid, Henry’s cries are actually pretty cute).

We rushed home afterwards since we had an appointment with a public health nurse for a home visit but she called to reschedule since her own daughter was sick at school. She told me on the phone “yeah, it’s something you’re going to have to get used to”.

With our afternoon suddenly wide open, and it being such a beautiful day, we decided to take Henry for a walk in his pimped out stroller. If you’re looking for a stroller/car seat combo, I strongly suggest the Baby Trendz Expedition one. We were on a dirt/mud road yesterday and we were able to push it so easily. It was so easy to maneuver and Henry seems to like it. 

Ginger was so happy to have the entire family out and about

Chris and I always take this type of picture. I just love em.

Our little Henry all bundled up

After our walk, on our way home, Chris and I saw this dog just wandering around our street with no owner. We have a fairly busy street which is on a OC transpo route so we brought Henry and Ginger home and Chris went out to check on the dog. He ended up bringing the dog home since none of our neighbors knew who he belonged to. We called the Humane Society who told us to bring the dog to a local vet to see if he was microchipped. So Chris brought him to the vet then came back about 30 minutes later to say he did have a microchip and was registered to the Humane Society. So back to square one. We called them again and told them the chip number and then they asked for all of our info since they can’t tell us the name of the owners. At around 5pm they called and said that they had left a message with the owners but hadn’t heard back and that we should bring the dog to them. So around 6pm Chris drove all the way to the Humane Society to drop off a dog who may very well live 2 houses down but due to privacy laws, we had no idea. For all we know, the entire family was out scrounging the neighborhood looking for him. Turns out his name is Caleb and I’m hoping the owners turned up to pick him up. He was such a sweetheart. He seemed well trained and loved playing with Ginger.

awkward introductions...

And then last night, we had a bit of a regression to feedings every hour from 9 until 2am. At least there was no crying though. Just a “give me food” rooting going on. I think we’re gearing up for Henry’s 2 week growth spurt. Oh and to other breastfeeding mom’s out there. Did it ever happen to you that while feeding, you’re reading a fairly interesting magazine article and then the feeding is over but not the article and you have this debate like “do I finish reading this or do I go to sleep?” I chose sleep each time but I still had the internal debate.

Whole lotta shaking going on… February 16, 2011

I must have lost 5-10 pounds last night from shivering alone. They don’t really tell you that after having a baby, your body goes through a bunch of different changes, it’s like a little secret they try and hide from you. I mentioned it to my doctor and he told me “well yeah, your body had 9 months to slowly adjust to the changes then it has to re-adjust within a few weeks, it’s going to wreak havoc on you”. He was right. I felt like a junkie last night in withdrawal. I couldn’t stop shaking. Poor Chris was holding Henry, getting him ready for bed and trying to comfort me at the same time. Between teeth chattering though I told him to take care of Henry first. Chris piled on a bunch of blankets on me and put a heading pad near my legs and it took a good hour for me to stop shivering. It’s quite the workout! I kept all the blankets piled on top of me for most of the night much to Chris’ chagrin. Apparently I was overheating him. He told me I was cooking his internal organs with the heat coming off my body so he lay half under the blankets for most of the night.

Henry had another good night and seems to be learning the difference between night and day. He woke up at 8am and didn’t go to sleep until around 11. I can’t believe how much his little face is changing already. A lot of the expressions he makes remind me of my Papa K (my grandfather on my dad’s side).  Funny since we had considered calling Henry, Kinsey (the K in Papa K). There’s just something about him that reminds me of him.

The lack of sleep hasn’t only been rough on us, it’s been rough on the animals as well. Atticus is used to sleeping a good 23 hours a day and now it’s down to about 20 hours. Poor little guy’s eyes are always bloodshot. Purrl naps when she can:

and of course, no post would be complete without a shot of our little guy:

Henry's favourite morning activity, tummy time with dad. He becomes so zen listening to his dad's heartbeat.

So Long Mr. Hyde February 15, 2011

Henry granted us a reprieve last night. Chris and I got about 8 hours of sleep last night  with the following two caveats

1) this 8 hours was separated in 2-3 hours bouts, not all at once

2) We went to bed at 6:30pm and got up around 8:30am

He was just a perfect angel yesterday which makes me wonder what was wrong the night before.  I believe it may have been what I had eaten for dinner which was lasagna. I had it again yesterday morning to see if it was that and Henry was fussy all day so I’m cutting out lasagna for a while. Unfortunately lasagna is a multi-layer food so pinpointing the ingredient within that upset him is going to be tough. My guess is the onions that were in it. I know for certain it’s not the cheese since I’ve been eating quite a fair bit of it since giving birth and it doesn’t seem to bother him.

So yesterday was Valentine’s day. In pre-Henry days, Chris and I would sometimes go away for a weekend to a cheesy hotel or go to dinner at a fancy restaurant like Beckta’s

Last night instead we had a quick cheese fondue straight out of the warming pot with a baguette that we ripped with our hands while watching old episodes of ER on our laptop and hoping we’d have time to finish before Henry woke up from his nap. Then to top it off, we went to bed at 6:30pm. Chris had planned the fondue for Valentine’s day so even though we were both overwhelmed with lack of sleep and a fussy baby the night before, he took the time to highlight February 14th for me. What a sweety!

Speaking of sweety, how cute is this onesie?

Go to sleep little baby… February 14, 2011

Last night was hell. Henry had lulled us into a false sense of security by being so great at night for the past week that we were not prepared for last night. He woke up to feed around 10pm and then all hell broke loose and he would not go back to sleep. He was just screaming his little head off and demanding to be fed every hour on the hour until around 3am. We tried everything to soothe him. Rocking, bouncing, swinging him, singing lullabies, changing… nothing worked. It’s like he couldn’t get enough to eat. The worst was that he’d psyche you out and look like he was about to fall asleep after nursing and we’d put him down in the bassinet, then like clockwork, in less than 5 minutes he was screaming bloody murder. I had these baby books opened up all night looking for solutions and Chris was on the internet trying to figure stuff out. We got him in the swing which seemed to work but since you can’t keep them in there all night, we took him out after about 20 minutes and the wailing started up again. Around 3 I fed him again and then Chris turned on the humidifier for the white noise which seemed to do the trick. Or maybe Henry was just exhausted by then himself and decided to sleep no matter what.

It sucks feeling like a hostage in your own bed at night. When we’d put him in his bassinet, we’d both be silently praying that he doesn’t wake up and I found myself holding my breath from time to time also. It’s a good thing he’s so freaking adorable, I couldn’t be mad at him. I know it was just as rough a night on the little guy as it was on us. I’m also really thankful for all the help Chris has been offering. He sacrificed more sleep than I did last night and would take Henry after a feeding and bring him downstairs and tell me to try and sleep a little bit.

Here’s hoping these nights are few and far between.

Here are a few more updated pics of our little man. I find his features are changing already. They grow up so fast!

during sleepier times

wearing the cardigan I knit him and the snowpants Lolly and Pops got as we got ready for a walk around the block

Bonding with Mom

Nap time with Dad

His "put em up"fighting stance

Welcome to the Milk Bar February 12, 2011

Today we are serving a vintage 29 year edition brought to you by our special reserve.

So I kind of feel like a bit of a dairy cow these days. I’m always amazed that there’s more to give. Not so amazing is when Henry wants to eat every hour and a half which is what he did yesterday afternoon/evening. It’s amazing how quickly your mood can change after having a baby. Yesterday around 8pm I was about to throw in the towel and go prepare some formula, I was just so frustrated. Poor Chris has never really seen me like that where I can’t really focus on anything except my frustration. But then, if you look at this morning, I feel euphoric since we got a good 5-6 hours of sleep last night. After the cluster feeding that lasted until 8pm, Henry kind of toned it down a bit and let us sleep for 2-3 hour periods here and there for which I’m so grateful.  They weren’t kidding when they said it would be a rollercoaster ride.  At around 4 this morning Chris was saying “can you imagine doing this while having another child as well” and honestly at 4am, I couldn’t.

Anyways, we went to a breastfeeding clinic yesterday to have Henry weighed and he’s gained 4 ounces from his discharge weight, so is now 7 lbs 5 oz. Also while at the clinic (which is at the Queensway Carleton Hospital), as I was undressing him to get weighed, his umbilical cord fell off. At 5 days!!!! I had a panic attack but the nurse said he looked fine and everything was ok. I can’t believe how much this kid is in a rush to grow up. First he delivers himself, then he loses his cord stump days before the norm. My sister Steph joked that by next week we’ll be coming downstairs on a Sunday morning to find him working on the New York Times crossword puzzle while sipping expensive coffee and having just hung up the phone with his financial adviser.

Well I’m going to try and get a bit more shut eye before the day really starts.I’ll post more pics of Henry later on. I’ve decided to take (at least) a picture a day of him to see how much he changes.