8w2d. My little Bren will be 2 months old in 3 days! He is a big boy compared to when he was born! He has cute pudgy thighs!! He sleeps through he night now- often 10 ½ hours straight! The secret was giving him 6 oz bottles during the day. He eats enough in the daytime to make it through the night without eating! He doesn’t have goopy eyes anymore either- woohoo! He wears size 2 diapers and goes through about 10 a day now. Boy, I wish he still had breast milk poopies- woooooooweeeeeee! Can we say creamed spinach?! Yuck!! And he poops up! I figured it’d go up his backside! So I have an extra tough time cleaning him. For the record, my own bleeding stopped at 6 weeks.
We tried him out on his Fisher-Price musical light-up gym a couple of weeks ago and he was overwhelmed a bit. He like it now. We pull it up to his bouncer seat and he kicks at the toys that make the music and colorful lights come back on. His skills here improve every week! In the beginning, I wanted it to play continuously and actually had to search the net to find out how to do it! It’s parent-proof, apparently. It turns out that it isn’t a button, but moving the toys that hang down!! That’s a neat way of doing it! He has started to attempt to grab things too- like my hair! His range of sounds is great- I’ve heard him say “ah-goo” and “ah-ba”. He makes spit bubble raspberries too. He gets so excited watching his mobile, his musical teddy bear & loves ceiling fans and lights of any kind. His vision seems very good- he’ll watch me from a couple of yards away!! And he SMILES now!! He started at 7w1d. Darrell and I drove up to the mailboxes to get our mail. I was in the backseat with Bren, chucking him under the chin and making cutesy noises. All of a sudden, he flashed me a smile. I was stunned for a bit then started yelling for Darrell to get back in the car! He jumped in the backseat with us and his comical talents earned him official smiles #2-4!!! He was slow to build up to “Smiley Cat” status, but yesterday was a good smiley day and he fits his nickname now!!! His smiles melt my heart! I try to bring him outside a bit each day. I read that it takes 4 minutes per day in just a diaper or 17 minutes a day clothed for babies to get all the vitamin D they need from sunlight. And it doesn’t have to be direct sunlight.
We had our first train ride and visit to Grandma & Grandpa’s house. Bren slept just about the whole trip! I felt bad later, because I think he got too hot in his car seat. He was in his PJs the whole time because we left the house about 6:30 am. I’ll know to dress him lighter this time. Brendan and I are going up to train up for a visit again tomorrow and are staying for a week.while Waynell is recovering from some eye surgery. I think the “recovering” is an excuse!!
The weaning process was easier than expected! It only took 2 days before I could make it without pumping. I did leak at bedtime for about a week more though. I am happy to have my normal “hoozits” back but I still wish Brendan got breast milk instead of formula. Also, it is SO much more difficult to maintain my weight now. Argh! Lissy, from Meese’s board, emailed me to congratulate me on how well I handled weaning him. I went back and reread what I had written and I really did not emphasize enough how hard of a time I had coming to that decision. I really beat myself up over it for a couple of weeks and I *still* feel sad that it’s over. I had wanted that closeness between us that nursing creates and all the other benefits but it just wasn’t in the cards for us. I wonder if I’ll even attempt breastfeeding with baby #2. The process of birth and/or breastfeeding really whacked out my hormones and kept me in an intensely emotional state. I am still too emotional some days and I hope my hormones level out soon.
For Mother’s Day, we went to a family barbeque at my grandparents’ house. As soon as we walked in my Aunt Sue FLEW out. She’s really mad at me for not inviting her to my c-section. She’s a bit messed up in the head right now (and those are MaeMae’s words) and apparently can’t see the unreasonableness of her anger. She couldn’t possibly have been in the OR with us and never told me she even wanted to be there. She just assumed she would be since I was there with her and her daughter as her granddaughter was born. Sigh. She ruined her own Mother’s Day holiday. Which is really too bad since she just found out she is diabetic and several of the dishes were made sugar-free just for her. Other than that, the day was great! Darrell bought me a beautiful gold “Mom” locket that I need to put pictures in still. Bren “gave” me a card too. He was held and oohed over by my whole family while we ate countless homemade desserts. :o)
While visiting, MaeMae asked me if I knew the family diaper rash secret. She told me to brown white flour in a dry skillet and use that on diaper rashes. Hmmm. I was skeptical- sounded like a big joke on me, but apparently it is real and several aunts chimed in to say how great it wworks. I’ll have to try that some day! She also talked about a book she used to read to her kids about naming the fingers (spelling is surely off here) “Tink, Tark, Mack, Mark and O’tooley”. If anyone out there knows where I can get this book or knows the title of it, please email me!! I’d be really thankful!
“The Matrix Reloaded” movie came out last Thursday. Darrell has wanted to see that ever since we heard about it since “The Matrix” is his favorite movie. So, we had our first “date night” away from Brendan. It was hard to leave him but we knew Aunt Cathy would be great with him. I just don’t think my heart can take too many separations right now!!! The movie was excellent!
Bren had his 2 moth doctor appointment yesterday. Both Darrell and I guesstimated too high on how much he weighed! Little B weighed 13 lb 1 oz, is 24 inches tall & has a head circumference of 41 cm. Seems to be right on track! The lady on the phone told me not to give him Tylenol, but the nurse said to give it to him (.4 ml) right away. When Dr. Gulde came in, he said he could take .8 ml so we gave him more.
The doctor *pissed* me off when he saw my list of questions on the table, picked it up and rapid-fire answered them all. It was WAY to fast to comprehend and he was trying (succeeded) to get my goat. I finally did get them answered one at a time, but I felt so RUSHED. I hate that!! The doctor didn’t offer much in the way of cradle cap remedies. He just said to “scrub it”. His red spot on top of his head is indeed a birthmark and he thinks the redness on his eyelid may be a different form of birthmark too. How about that?! He said we’ll discuss cereal & juice next time at his 4 month visit. He did find a little problem though. Bren’s penis had started growing back where it was circumcised, so he had to pull it apart a bit. So we have to pull it down a little and use Neosporin again for today and he’ll look at it again next time. He says often when a baby has this it occurs over and over again before it stops trying to “repair” itself.
The doctor did say he looked great and must’ve thought I was uncertain of that or something because he did reassure me twice that I was doing a good job and if I wasn’t, he’d tell me! Haha.
So, the nurse comes in with this tray loaded up with syringes. I was already teary, knowing it was coming. I have to say, she was very fast! I sat beside Bren’s head and held his hands while she gave him the shots, alternating thighs. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! She was not very gentle so I was not surprised when he screamed. But he (and I) calmed down quickly and we had a bottle all ready for him. The nurse said to call if he had a fever of a 100 degrees or more. That was it for the visit! His next appointment is July 21st.
He proceeded to be fussy and extra sleepy for the evening. About 11:00 I took his temperature with his neato (and accurate) pacifier thermometer. I saw it climb to 99.6 and about freaked, but it backed down to 99.1 after that. So he did get a mild fever from his shots. Poor guy is tender under his two blue Snoopy band-aids!!
We got back Bren’s 1 month portraits and I LOVE them!