Sleeping through the night

We are currently trying to get CJ to sleep through the night. Everyone keeps telling me "he's 4 months, he is capable of sleeping all night". He may be capable but he sure isn't willing. He also hardly naps at all during the day. He's trying to kill me I swear. You gotta understand, I love sleep. LOVE. I love dreaming, I love that feeling where you're almost awake but still sort of asleep. Granted, I haven't felt that feeling for 4 months, but I still love it.

I've been reading Pantley's "The No-Cry Sleep Solution". The first thing we are doing is implementing a "sleep routine". CJ's is bath, massage, book, eat (and hopefully sleep). Last night was the first night. He went down at 850 (usually he goes to bed at 11) and slept til 1138. He still got up a few times during the night, but went right back to sleep.

We just did the routine for the second night. Well my husband did because I wanted CJ to understand that no matter who does it, it is still bedtime. He fell asleep feeding like he usually did, but woke up as soon as he hit the crib. And now he's wide awake. Both the husband and I went to go calm him down but he's wide awake. So we brought him downstairs. We'll try again tomorrow. I think the problem is that he just doesn't nap. I tried like crazy to get him down this morning from 11 to 12, he finally fell asleep at 1245. Then was up at 1250. He finally took a two hour nap that started at 230. Like I said, he's trying to kill me.

Breast is best (IMO), Part 1

I previously wrote about the horrific birthing experience I had, and how I got separated from him for 3 days. When we finally were reunited, he had been getting 2oz bottles pretty much every time he cried. The doctor told me on that third day, oh by the way, maybe you should pump. I was like really? Now you tell me? When we finally allowed to see each other, we were still kept in separate rooms. I was in the "Special Care Unit" and he was up on the maternity ward with my husband. They let him come down every once in a while during the day to visit but I only got to try to breastfeed a few times.

When I was finally brought back up to the maternity ward, he had breastfeed maybe 5 times in 5 days and never for a long period of time. The nurse who was on duty was trying to "help". This is how she did it. First she informed me that it was going to be "practically impossible" because he had been on the bottle for so long. Then she informed me that I have inverted nipples (which I don't). Then she told me I was holding him wrong. Then she told me he wasn't latched on properly. Then she told me since I was going home the next day she wasn't going to help me at all so I would learn to take care of him on my own. Keep in mind that I still couldn't get up on my own and he was still in the bassinet. So suffice to say, we were both frustrated. And we all know that when you're frustrated, it makes breastfeeding harder. So he pretty much refused and I was stressed and he kept getting the bottle. I felt like a failure.

On the day we were being discharged, my husband went to bring the car out to the front of the hospital. Everything was packed including the bottles and formula. And CJ started screaming at the top of his lungs. So I did the only thing I could think of, I put him on the breast. And CJ went to tooooooown. I started crying. My husband came in and was like wahoooo!! I was so happy that I could feed my own baby.

Poor Sick Baby

So my poor poopaloo has an unexplainable rash and a UTI. We were at my aunt's house and it was unbearably hot when we first noticed the rash. So we assumed it was just a heat rash. But when DH's mom (who's a nurse) saw it and didn't think it looked like a normal heat rash, so we called the doc. Since it was a saturday, the on-call nurse said to take his temp and it turned out it was 100.6 degrees. So we had to take the poopaloo to the hospital. The doc there had no idea what the rash was, but it seems like it's a viral rash. They ran a bunch of tests and it turns out he has a UTI. Poor thing. He wasn't acting any different, still as happy-go-lucky as ever. We did remember after they said that he has a UTI that sometimes if he's asleep and he pees, he'll start screaming as if it scared him. So it might have been burning :( Poor thing. Since it's very uncommon for circumcised boys to get UTIs there, going to have run some tests to make sure there's nothing structurally wrong with him.

In happier news, he slept IN HIS CRIB, for 7 hours!! We had to comfort him a few times and re-binkie him, but he did it. :)

PS. The pic is of him in his tie onesie watching TV with dada. I'm a little displeased that the baby we weren't going to allow to watch TV is mesmerized by it.

Two Month Checkup

So CJ had has two month checkup last week. He weighed a whopping 12lbs, 10oz and was 23 3/4ths inches long. He's ginormous. He also eats every hours approximately. I'm feeding on demand, so he eats a freaking lot. I am breastfeeding, even though I now have a (TMI ALERT!) blister on one of my nipples. Hurts like whoa, but the child has to eat. This is a pic of him after the doctor's office. He had to get a bunch of shots and he made this face like he was going to scream at the top of his lungs. You know the one, the silent scream. But right after the nurse left, he got the boobie and he was a happy camper. He's easy to please this one. :)

Well CJ is now 5 weeks old and I haven't blogged once since he was born. In my defense, it's been a busy 5 weeks. It was a busy birth too. Possibly one of the worst births ever. I don't want to scare people with my birthing story, but here it is.

Since I was a week late, I went into the hospital on July 13th to be induced. My doctor was a midwife who I had never met before and her assistant, a midwifery student. They were both very nice people, but as we found out later, incompetent. The first thing they did was give me lactated ringers and gentamycin to keep my hydrated and to treat group beta strep that I had tested positive for. As soon as they gave me the ringers to hydrate, I inflated like a helium balloon. It took a while for us to get my wedding ring off. Next, I was given cytotec to soften and ripen my cervix which had absolutely refused to dilate up until that point. About 12 hours later, I still wasn't dilated. I was then given pitocin to speed up the process. My water broke at some point, I don't even remember when. It was night-time I know that. Even though my water broke, I still wasn't dilating. The midwife kept sticking her hands in me to check but to no avail. At some point during the night, I received an epidural cuz I was having painful contractions and a lot of back pain. When I'd checked in to the hospital, CJ had "dropped" but as the days went on, he climbed back up. Thirty-six hours after my water broke, they FINALLY decided to give me a C-section. The baby is supposed to be out within 24 hours of the "waters breaking".

At first, I kind of felt a little bit of relief that I was having a C-section because I figured it wouldn't hurt as bad as pushing him out. So I was brought into the operating room and I met the head of the department, a nice Jewish doctor (holy sterotype!). As soon as they put me on the table I was freezing and could not stop shaking. The doctor was explaining everything to me and I told him to stop because I didn't want to know. When he cut my belly, I didn't feel anything. As soon as he started to move around in there to get CJ out, I started screaming at the top of my lungs because it was the worst pain I've ever felt. It was the most intense pressure ever and it just felt like everything was being ripped out. I also felt like I couldn't breathe because of the oxygen mask they had over me. My husband tried to calm me down while begging the anesthesiologist to do something. I heard my husband say "Look at all that hair!" and then I was put me to sleep.

I woke up a few hours later, completely groggy and out of it. I could hear my husband telling me to open my eyes and look at my son to which I replied "I don't wanna." Not that I didn't want to see my son, I just didn't want to open my eyes. I did, and there was my perfect little baby. Seriously, I know I may be biased, but he is honestly the best baby ever.

I ended up getting two infections, spending 8 days in the hospital, my lungs filled with fluid and I had heart failure on the left side. So it was a rough ride for me. But like I said, CJ is absolutely perfect. I'd do the whole thing over again if it meant I'd get another CJ.

Well CJ's due date has come and gone with no word from the little guy. My family got here on his due date, the 5th, and have been patiently hanging around hoping he makes an appearance. At my last appointment, on the 6th, I was effaced but not dilated enough that she could even scrape the membranes. Since I was 20 days late, I'm guessing this runs in the family. Luckily, the US Army is on my side for once. They won't let me go more than 2 weeks late. So next Tuesday, if CJ hasn't come yet, I'll be induced. I hope he comes before then because my family is leaving on Monday. It would suck for them to have driven all the way to Kentucky from Colorado and not get to see him. Oh well. That's all the news for now. Hopefully soon this blog will get really exciting.

4 days away from due date!

As usual, I've been procrastinating with this blog. But I'm here now.

CJ however, is not. Yesterday was my birthday and I was sort of hoping he'd be my birthday present but he decided that wasn't a good idea. I had a checkup and the doctor said that I was only dilated about 1cm and so she couldn't get in there to scrape my membranes. She did say though that my cervix was much shorter and softer than it had been the previous week so stuff IS happening down there, just at a slow pace. I lost my mucus plug (at least I think I did) last Friday and then I had my "bloody show" yesterday (at least I think I did). Being that CJ is my first I'm not really sure if what happens is what I think happens. Like if I feel a pain, I'm not sure if it's a contraction or not. CJ continues to be very active in there though, so he's fine. Last night I woke up a few times cuz it felt like there was a lot of pressure in the upper part of my abdomen. Not sure what that means.

I hope CJ gets here soon. My aunt and her family will be arriving on the 5th. I'm pretty sure that my cousins are more excited about seeing my dog than they are the baby. They took care of my dog for 2 years while I was stationed overseas. My aunt and uncle however will be a little upset if they're here for a week and CJ doesn't bother to show up. Papa's mom will be here on the 14th and my mom will be here sometime around the 22nd I believe. It's gonna be a busy month.

Well I will do my best to keep this blog updated. Pray that CJ decides to make an appearance soon!

~Mama