My incision healed up about 5 days ago- no more hole!!! 😀 It’s an ugly looking thing though. I had my follow-up OB visit today. Just in time for getting a girly infection. Ugh. She thinks my incision is looking fine though. I got a nifty one dose applicator of cream antibiotic for the infection. Yeeouch- good thing I have insurance for a few more days or it would have cost me $100!!
Another thing, I seem to have hurt my neck. I can bend forward and mostly to the sides just fine, but I can’t tilt my head back or back up without my neck hurting. It kinda hinders my dozing while nursing. Haha.
Andy is having some goods days here and there now. It’s surprising to us when he is awake and just hanging out not needing anything lol. Still rare though. I put him on his tummy a few days back and he got mad and promptly rolled over onto his back. I remember Bren did that once really early on as well.
I’m going to have to buy a Pump In Style. I can hardly pump 1/2 an ounce with my Avent and Medela manual pumps. It’s so odd but apparently I just can’t get a letdown with either. I have a 25% off coupon for any Medela pump and accessories at Baby Depot. I sure hope it isn’t a misprint. $80 off is a pretty good deal.

50 pounds now gone, gone, gone.
It’s noon and only 67 degrees outside.

He has a quirky little cowlick on his forehead that is going to be a pest when his hair gets longer. His hair is dark like Bren’s started out. I do think it is getting lighter though- and, like mine, can appear reddish when outside.
He was born with grayish ocean colored eyes that have actually gotten bluer… maybe he’ll actually have blue eyes? Supposedly he has a 50% chance of brown, 25% chance blue (donor) and 25% chance green (my mother). Andy looks a lot like Brendan did except for his eyes. Definitely not my eyes.
His skin is very pale and he is prone to all kinds of red spots and little bumps and such that go away just as quickly as they come for the most part. He was born with a square patch of little white bumps on his nose that finally went away a few days ago. He has 2 large red birthmarks on the back of his head and neck plus a red eyelid birthmark just like Bren’s (except the other eye) and 3 reddish lines on his forehead that I think are birthmarks too.
He has smiled “for real” twice now. Once to me in response to my smile and once to daddy while playing the “stick the tongue out” game.
He gets so excited when it is time to nurse. He’ll thrash his head from side to side with mouth wide open at the sight of my nipple. It’s cute. 🙂 He often cluster feeds during the morning or evening. Nursing is the only sure-fire thing that will calm him. Thank goodness he can be calmed but some days it is very draining on me (haha). He likes to have his head caressed while eating and it puts him to sleep-lol.
He’s a kicker and a flailer- very active. His legs were very curved from being balled up inside me and still are. He still likes to ball up when held- it makes him seem so small.
He somewhat likes the swing and definitely likes to be held chest to chest and patted on the back. He sleeps pretty well in the car or in a shopping cart in his car seat. He also sleeps pretty well at night in his bouncer even though he gets up every 2 to 4 hours to nurse. He has nights where his tummy just hurts to much to consider sleeping much.
He has said “a-goo” a handful of times but mostly he just grunts. He makes a “hic” sound too but doesn’t rapid fire them out like Brendan did.
I weighed Andy yesterday at the lactation center and he is now 10 lb 14 oz. He’s doing fine there. He only gets a 3 oz bottle on evenings when I’ve fed him over and over for several hours and get too exhausted to go any longer. He’s had 5 or 6 of these. Soon 3 oz isn’t going to cut it as enough to calm him down. He has grown out of a few of the smaller 0-3 month footed outfits. We measured him and he has grown an inch since birth- 21 1/2 inches now.
In addition to his Zantac and Reglan, Mylicon gas drops seem to help a lot. I have never seen a baby have gas and tummy issues like him. The drops are an awful pink color that gets on everything though. Ugh. We also tried gripe water last night and he went to sleep about an hour later and slept for a rare 5 hours. Hopefully they gave him some relief. He goes through more than 12 diapers a day.
He’s definitely a Mama’s boy… most of the time no one else will do and he lets them know it! 😀
Edited to add: Ix-nay on the rare 5 hours… DH recalls a 1 a.m. feeding as he was going to bed. Boo-hiss. LOL.

Happy one month Andy!!!
Andy had a pedi appt last Thursday. I was exhausted after a night of crying baby and no sleep so the dr got a good idea of how hard living is right now. He said he believes Andy is getting colicky and that how he pops awake whenever you put him down is the start of it. His only helpful advice was to take him outside- it seems to calm colicky babues. I thought he might be saying that because he was worried about me but oddly, it does seem to help Andy too.
He weighed 10 lb 4 oz. Only 1 oz more than a week prior at the hospital. Different scale or is he really not gaining much? Hmmm…

Hurricane Andrew has hit. Andy is 3 weeks old today. I feel like I’ve aged 3 years. Where did my happy (and sleepy) newborn go??
It is a real effort to simply survive right now. This reflux stuff is no joke. If Andy is awake, he is eating or crying. Wouldn’t be too bad if he slept well but 5 minute cat naps are his specialty. The best napping we get is when he sleeps on my chest… hardly a recipe for getting anything done. My shoulders have a permanent ache and I am constantly on edge with the increasing amounts of gagging and spitting up Andy is doing.
Thank God DH has 3 more weeks off. We were so spoiled with Brendan, lol. I maaaay have discovered a small solution, however. I had DH bring the glider out into the living room. I tried it out and the rocking seemed to soothe Andy very well. He is currently asleep in his bouncer. Fingers crossed it wasn’t a fluke. I may actually get to eat supper tonight.
He will turn happy one day, right?

Nope- not for me. My incision has yet to be seen. I think it might heal on its own though. Still leaks some but not as bad.
Nope, not Brendan. He’s fine though a bit sleep deprived as we all are.
Nope, not DH. Though he *was* involved in a bitty fender bender this morning.
That leaves Andrew. 3 occassions of choking and 2 hours of what seemed to be him trying to poop had us bring him to the ER. They didn’t seem to care about either too much- just that he had a fever.
Newborn + fever = 3 day hospital stay + every test imaginable run.
Diagnosis- Reflux. Feed upright. Keep upright. 2 meds. See him again in a week. Seems the fever was a fluke. :/
Frankly, I lost it in the end. Hopefully that slowly reverses now that we are home again. No more cords attached to alarms, blood pressure cuffs, needles, x-rays or nurses poking and prodding every d*mn minute night and day and a baby who understandably turned into Mr. Anxiety and refuses to be put down, awake or asleep. Don’t even ask about the nurse who told me I was nursing him too often.
Breathe in, breathe out. Just might be the perfect time for Daddy to introduce a bottle while mommy sleeps.
He weighed 10 lbs 2 oz this morning.

We have a belly button!!! Time for a bath! Whee!
Here is the traditional “ducky robe” first bath photo.

Yes, they do look a lot alike… the eyes are different though. Here’s Bren’s ducky robe pic.

And another cute shot.

I have an entire 4 lines of the birth story written. Sigh. I might as well tell you I ended up with another c-section though you’ll surely have noticed how I thoughtlessly posted about going to get my staples removed. LOL. Dumb-o is me.
Anyway, I’m now having complications from it. I have been swelling below my incision but thought nothing of it since I did the same after Brendan, just not as bad. Apparently it is a pouch of yellow liquid. Yak! Yesterday morning one of my steri-strips (think industrial butterfly bandages) came off and the liquid in there took the opportunity to bust free- leaving me a nice pinky tip-sized hole and a big goopy mess. According to the on-call dr, this was a good thing as the collected liquid would probably have gotten infected otherwise. She advised butterfly bandages and to see my dr on Tuesday if it got worse or started to smell. It is too late (though I don’t know why) to add another stitch and it’ll have to heal slowly on it’s own now.
Well, it continues to leak. I am wearing disposable diapers across it and it still stays wet all the time. All but one of my steri-strips have come off and the butterfly bandages are worthless. My pinky hole is now 2 pinkies and DH says he saw leaking from another spot as well. Frankly, it’s gross.
I’m going to try to wait until tomorrow when the dr office is open again but if it gets worse I may have to go to the ER. Obviously I am living on the couch right now. I have never seen more tv. 😉

I set Andy down on a blanket on the floor to go get myself a drink in the kitchen. Of course, he started to fuss. I saw Bren go over there and comfort him. When I returned, Bren had laid down beside him and pulled up his shirt. He was trying to get Andy to breastfeed from his belly!!! Oh I wish I had a picture!!! 😀 Hee hee!

My little Snuffles is 2 weeks old! How is that possible?? “Snuffles” is Andy’s most common nickname because he makes the cutest snuffling noises as he eagerly roots all around looking to nurse. He especially likes necks. I am also quite fond of “Mr Grunty” (he grunts all the time!) and “Andy muh man.” LOL.

My MIL is on the train ride home. She was wonderful… happy to settle a disgruntled baby, cook full blown meals, straighten the house AND do both the diashes and the laundry. Thank you Mimi!

Brendan continues to do well with the baby. No jealousy except he doesn’t want to share certain things- like his blanket. Understandable. He has taken his cue from us on how to handle the crying and instead of upsetting him, he pats him and tells him “It’s okay”. He loves to sit beside us on the couch as Andy eats. Since I have spent so much time feeding Andy (he is honestly insatiable), Brendan has had copious Mario Kart time as well. He can run the courses in true racing fashion now instead of just clowning around. He loves to call out what number he placed- and yes, “1” is often his number. It is quite amazing how good he has gotten.