He Drives Me Crazy…. March 31, 2011

Lately Henry has been driving me nuts during the day. He won’t sleep past 6am-ish and during the day he grabs 20 minute naps here and there but nothing long enough that I could nap as well. I feel like my sleep reserves are rapidly dwindling.  I’m eagerly looking forward to the weekend where Chris can take him (since he wakes up at 6ish also) and I can sleep in between feedings.  I don’t know why he refuses to nap longer than 20 minutes. He’ll startle himself awake to make sure I’m still around. He also will fight falling asleep like crazy, thus becoming incredibly cranky. If I calculate all the sleep he’s getting, it’s way below what he’s supposed to be getting, by at least a few hours which brings me to my next point.

Anyone heard of the “witching hour”? I had not heard of it at all until I described that Henry cried for 3 days straight between 4 and 7pm and a few people told me “yeah, that’s the witching hour”. I had never heard of it before. It seems like it’s something that should be taught. It’s basically the time of day where you baby cries like crazy and nothing consoles him because he’s just too far gone in his tantrum.  It’s really frustrating and you feel like  a bad parent who can’t help their baby settle down. Thankfully the pat two nights have been tantrum free but I feel that I now hold my breath between 4 and 7 out of fear that it starts again. Also, why call it the witching hour when it lasts longer than that?

I’m hoping Henry it’s not the witching hour thing and that his tantrums were due to growing pains. Over the weekend he’s grown a few inches and barely fits in his 3 month sleepers now since he’s so long. He only has about 6 inches of free space in his bassinet also so he may be graduating to crib sooner than I thought if he keeps growing like this. He’s all length and no chub. I keep expecting him to get chubbier and it’s not happening. He’s going to be tall and skinny like his dad.

I’m off to the movies again today. Possibly with Aline if she can make it, if not, I’m going on my own to see the movie Paul.  I can’t pass up a Simon Pegg movie!

His not so subtle message to us when he is sleeping...

The Scoop on Poop March 28, 2011

Lately Henry has been playing a game with us similar to Russian Roulette where the stakes are just as high. Chris and I call it “Poo Bomb” (I apologize ahead of time if some find this post offensive). When Henry was younger, he’d pretty much poo all the time but they were small manageable things. Now that he’s older and digesting the breastmilk a bit better, he has basically one giant poop a day and it’s a doozy. We never know when the poo bomb is going to go off. I always pray it will be when Chris is home in the evening since he does diaper duty then and Chris hopes it’s during the night or day. They say breastfed babies make less offensive poops but man, when this thing goes off, it’s a hell of a lot of cleaning involving a haz mat team, several wet wipes, most likely a diaper cover change and followed by severe hand scrubbing under scalding hot water. The tricky part is containing it to the diaper area which is difficult when you have a squirmy baby who keeps wanting to dip his feet in it all the while looking at you with a grin on his face like “yeah that’s right, I own you!”

 

who me?

Splish Splash I was taking a bath March 27, 2011

Last night I gave Henry a bath for the first time. Now before you freak out and call Children’s Aid that we only bathed him once in 6 weeks, let me clarify. Usually, Chris takes a bath with Henry however with Chris being sick this weekend, it was time for me to step up. I was pretty terrified about the whole ordeal since babies are so tiny and slippery.  It actually turned out pretty well.  I think Henry is starting to enjoy his bath. He was kind of kicking his legs around in the water and pushing himself around. I agree with everyone who suggested you bathe with your baby. It makes it much easier.

So as mentioned above, Chris caught Henry’s illness so it was a bit of a rollercoaster weekend. Especially Friday night. I was up with either Henry or Chris pretty much the entire night. I’ve never seen Chris sick like this before so it was a tad nerve wracking.

Henry’s now going through a major growth spurt so he’s eating a lot and sleeping a lot.  During one of his sleep spells yesterday, we got to watch a movie in its entirety. We saw The Kids Are Alright. I really enjoyed the movie.  Great acting all around and the relationships seemed so genuine.

Heya....

As you can see, Henry’s loosing his hair. He’s got the Jude Law hair thing going on now.

Let’s go to the movies…. March 25, 2011

Let’s go see the stars… in this case, Matt Damon in the “Inception-Lite” movie the Adjustment Bureau where basically the main character is trying to alter the planned course of his life while being chased by what looks like 1960’s ad men. They even have Roger Sterling from Mad Men in the movie. Too bad Don Draper wasn’t in it, I probably would have enjoyed it much much more…

The movie was ok, I just kind of felt that the ending was tacked on. I was expecting some giant reveal and got a “meh” instead. It was great to go out and see a movie though and nice that there were a bunch of other moms there with their babies and it was relatively quiet throughout the movie. I went with my friend Aline and her son Jakob who shares the same passion for everything pop culture that I do, so it was nice hanging out with a like-minded person and having an adult conversation. Jakob was so cute as well. He’s such a flirt. During the beginning of the movie, he’d reach over to touch me when he thought I wasn’t paying enough attention to him.

Henry did pretty well for his first movie. I had decided not to bring the car seat in and strapped him to me in the cuddle wrap carrier that Gillian lent me (it’s basically a really long piece of fabric that you wrap around yourself a few times then plunk the baby inside). Henry did not like the transfer and I felt that maybe I should have brought the car seat in. Once inside the theater though he settled right down. I think the design of the Coliseum intrigued him since he kept looking around like “what is this place?”. He soon fell asleep and only woke up once during the movie to eat and then I had to walk him around a bit on the side of the theater to get him to fall back asleep, which he did within a few minutes. I’ll definitely be bringing him back soon.

The only remnants from Henry’s illness now is a bad diaper rash. Poor little guy. All I can do is keep putting thick cream on his bum and hope it goes away.

All tuckered out after his outing.

And now, since I used a few lyrics from the movie Annie in this post, I really want to watch it. Guess I know what I’m doing this morning…

Goooooood Mooooorning Mooooooom! March 24, 2011

Things are going much better with Henry. Yesterday he woke up with his usual smiles and then pretty much slept the entire day and nursed  a little here and there. He was somewhat cranky and fussy but his fever was gone which was a relief. I think the visit to CHEO traumatized him a bit since he cries now every time we change his diaper (probably expecting another catheter).

Yesterday evening he really woke up and decided he was hungry, so hungry that he refused to eat. I know it’s counter-intuitive and I tried explaining it to him but it’s difficult to have a rational discussion with a 6 week old about his eating habits. I had pumped some milk last weekend since I had a dental appointment on Monday and wanted to leave some milk for Chris in case he needed it. Turns out he didn’t. I didn’t want to waste the milk so I figured, well since he won’t nurse, I’ll give him the bottle. Big mistake. He got even angrier. He opened his mouth wide and I thought I’d put the bottle nipple in a bit deeper and that’s when I must have hit his gag reflex and got projectile vomited on. I had no idea a baby’s stomach could hold so much milk. It was all over me and no matter how much you love your baby, when you get puked on, your instinct is to hold the baby away from you and kind of try and wipe yourself down. Well throwing up settled him down a little however now I knew he was hungry and had a completely empty stomach. With him a bit calmer, he took to the breast fairly quickly and chugged back milk as quickly as he could. The way this baby can chug, I worry about how he’ll react to beer when he’s older.

I thought for certain Henry would be up all night last night since he slept all day but nope, he slept until around 4am (well with a feeding at 10:30 then at 1:30) and then it was all about crying an needing to be cuddled.  I was going on about 4 hours of sleep by then and was desperate for him to go back to sleep but no dice. Eventually around 5 am Chris woke up and took him downstairs to let me sleep. He brought him back up at 6:15 fast asleep but the second he put him down, he started crying again, so once again I fed him and then again at 7:15 and thankfully he slept until 9am. At one point during this time though I got really frustrated and told him in french to shut up and sleep for which I feel incredibly guilty but I’m told it happens often and it won’t be the last time. At 9am he was all smiles and cooing like if we hadn’t had a rough few hours.  Ahh babies…. gotta love ’em.

 

Off to the movies today!

 

Hell Morning March 22, 2011

Yesterday I felt something was off with Henry. He was sleeping much more than usual and wasn’t eating as much. We took his temperature yesterday evening and it was fine so we thought nothing of it, attributing it to his growth spurt.

Well during the entire night he was somewhat fussy. He wasn’t awake but he kept groaning and making noises and this morning he was really warm so Chris took his temperature and with a quick google check realized he now had a fever so off to CHEO we went.

We got there around 6:30am and were admitted right away. They did a barrage of tests on him which included obtaining a urine sample by inserting a catheter in him, a blood sample which was absolutely heart breaking to watch since the nurse couldn’t find his vein so she kept stabbing and stabbing him and eventually took his blood and put an IV drip in him. They then had to shove a tube up his nose to suction out any mucus for more tests and then sent us for a chest x-ray in which they have this tiny baby torture device where they sit him up and lift his arms above his head and strap him in like he’s a prisoner of war or something. Poor little guy was upset with every procedure, crying his little heart out while breaking ours. For most of the tests I was crying along beside him.

After 5 or so hours a doctor came along and started telling us the possibilities of what it was and that she was waiting for test results. She mentioned that if a certain test came back positive, she’d have to do a lumbar tap to make sure it wasn’t meningitis. I freaked out when she mentioned that. Eventually everything came back alright and we were told he has somewhat of a chest cold and to monitor his feedings and his urine output and they discharged us. Even now at home, with my little guy all sick and upset, I can’t shake the “worst case scenario” feeling from me. Chris keeps telling me to calm down and that he’ll be fine but it’s killing me watching him so miserable and knowing it may be that way for a few days (and also knowing this won’t be the last time he gets sick).

So now my out and about plans for this week are on standby while I nurse Henry back to health (literally!). Here’s hoping he feels better soon. I don’t want to have to go back to CHEO again.

Midnight Mantra March 21, 2011

I’ve always been a tad superstitious. Like as a kid, I would make sure to never walk on any cracks in order to avoid possibly breaking my mother’s back. It became almost obsessive. I remember once accidentally stepping on a crack and became very anxious that I had harmed my moms’ back somehow. Anyways, as I grew older, I got a little less OCD about things like that but I find myself having a bit of a relapse.

A few weeks ago, after feeding Henry around 1am, I put him back in his bassinet and he started making “I’m about to wake up” noises so I started chanting in my head “please sleep, please sleep” over and over again and he quieted down. Now I know the two have no correlation between each other, but my mantra has been reinforced several times over the past few weeks where 90% of the time when I do my little “please sleep” mantra, Henry will quiet down. So now I’m thinking he must be reading my energy or brainwaves or something, whatever it is, I can’t stop now. I always have to do my mantra when he starts squirming. Again, I know that my mantra has nothing to do with him actually settling down, but for some reason I can’t help believing it helps a little and I’d rather have this:

do not disturb my slumber

than this:

Oh and today I woke up to Henry giving me the biggest smiles. I thought he was really REALLY happy to see me until I heard him fart for like 20 seconds straight, then he gave a little giggle. Men….

 

Out and About March 19, 2011

I find myself becoming much more confident going out alone with Henry. In fact, during the week, I somewhat crave it. On Friday I went to Pat and Marty’s for lunch with Chris’ family which was nice. Ginger got to play with a bunch of dogs as well. Then Friday night I got to go to book club and brought the little tyke.  He pretty much fussed and nursed during the entire time but I still got to go out and eat some of Nat’s delicious bacon wrapped watercress (YUM!)

This week I have a few playdates set up and will go see a movie with my friend Aline on Thursday. Can’t wait!

I can’t write much today since Henry is being very squirmy and chatty and I don’t want to miss out on this time with him. So here are some more recent pics.

Henry's favourite "strongman" pose

Big Smile

Concerned over recent world events

About Last Night March 17, 2011

Had a bit of an adventure last night but before I got into the story, let me explain a few things first.

1. With breastfeeding at night, I’ve found that it’s easier to sleep “au naturel” instead of fiddling with nursing tops in the middle of the night while Henry cries for food.

2.  We use a cloth diaper service and they pick up the giant santa size bag of dirty diapers on Thursday mornings early, usually around 6:30, sometimes earlier, so we have to put it out the night before.

3. Our cat Purrl is a bit of an escape artist always seizing opportunities to make a break for it. She’s our own “Cooler King” (Great Escape reference for those who love this awesome movie).

So if you can’t see where this is going, let me elaborate…

I was feeding Henry at 2am when I realized we had not put out the diapers. Chris had mentioned doing it when he woke up but I didn’t want to risk missing out on getting clean diapers so I thought once I was done feeding him, I’d bring the bag outside.  So once Henry was back asleep in his bassinet I set out to bring the diapers down. My bathrobe is inside our walk in closet, which is blocked by the bassinet so I figured I’d just run downstairs in the nude and dump the bag right outside our door since it’s so late, no one would see me and I technically didn’t have to go outside.

Well just as I open the door, I feel a tuft of fur on my ankle as Purrl sails through the door.  I launch the dirty diaper bag onto her to slow her down and it pins her on the top landing of our front porch stairs. Without thinking, I step outside and grab her and bring her back in, while looking around paranoid that a neighbor will see this crazy naked lady with a dirty diaper bag in one hand and a cat freaking out in the other.

It’s cold at 2am when you’re out in the buff!

The guilty party

Smile March 15, 2011

Finally caught a bit of a smile on camera:

More of a smirk really

I had to make a bunch of funny noises and have the camera on constantly, but was able to get this shot. He’s smiling more and more now and seems like he wants to chat with us often. I love how he’s discovering his voice (unless it’s 3 in the morning, then it’s not so great).

I love how busy this picture is with colour.