Lorrell's Visit

My mom's BFF and long time family friend, Lorrell, was in Missouri this last week and stopped by to visit Noah (and us...sort of) before heading back to Florida. She decided she was not a fan of Missouri, but thankfully that didn't taint her opinion of our little guy! When she saw Noah, she said that I did all the work, but Matt is getting all the glory because Noah looks so much like him. She's absolutely right. He's a little mini-me of Matt. Lorrell brought Noah several gifts including some cute onsies with pants to match and wrist toys. He doesn't have many "toys" yet, so I'm looking forward to him playing with those. Thanks for visiting us Lorrell!

Also, a quick shout out to our friends the Gourley's for letting us borrow their Bjorn. Noah enjoyed walking around Taste of St. Louis pressed against his daddy's chest!

Holy Weight Gain and Lessons

So, I've been a little concerned as to whether or not Noah is getting enough nourishment from me when he nurses. Well, concern be gone. I took Noah to Cotton Babies today and weighed him on their baby scale. He has gained 14.5 ounces in the past 9 days! It did seem to me that he has been hungry A LOT. Is this amount of weight gain OK? Is he getting too much? Should I cut him off? I'll have a screaming baby on my hands if I attempt this, but I want to make sure he isn't gaining too much too fast. I plan to call the pediatrician in the morning just to check.

Today officially ends our first full week without mom (Grams) around. I've made multiple mistakes...most having to do with pushing Noah's limits when it comes to feed time. I've attempted to brave the public with him a few times and each time he's had a fit of rage because I couldn't feed him the second he started getting hungry.

Lessons from the first week alone:
-I learned that I just need to plan on taking 45 minutes to an hour out of my outing to feed him or else I may be deaf by the time Noah is two.
-I also learned to get super organized long before I actually need to walk out of the door.
-I realized that I get really hot while feeding him, so in order to not end up a pile of perspiration, I need to dress in cooler clothes.
-I learned to put Noah's shade down on his car seat so that the sun doesn't push him to the point of complete insanity, and also so that he doesn't end up sweaty by the time we reach our destination :( (I felt like such a crappy mom!)
-I learned to just smile and keep walking when strangers ooh and ahh over Noah.
-I learned that I need some "nursing" clothes that help make nursing in public a little less miserable.

Video of Grams and Noah in the Park

First Day Alone, Balloons and Yuri

Noah and Yuri...Noah not so much noticing the balloons, and Yuri, completely enthralled with them!

As the previous blog mentioned, my mom left early Friday morning. The day before, I moped around dreading her departure, and then Friday morning while she was preparing to head to the airport, we cried and said our farewells. I made a decision after feeding Noah that morning to try and embrace my new role as a legit stay-at-home-mom. Therefore, I followed the "routine" I had set in my mind...as if routines can even remotely exist at this stage of the game. Anyway, Noah and I had a little activity time (as my good friend Hannah encouraged), then we took an hour and a half nap together, later we listened to music, I ran a load of laundry at some point throughout the day, and of course there was much eating and pooping interspersed throughout it all. Later, Matt came home, and we met Michael and Yuri at Forest Park for the lighting of the hot air balloons. We hope to take Noah every year to this because it really is an amazing sight. The pictures came out a bit blurry, but good enough to get a decent idea of the coolness factor. Considering I had planned to be depressed for days due to mom's flight back to FL, I thought the day went pretty well.

Grams, Noah, and Sushi

Grams (my mom's official new name) left yesterday morning. She's been with us since August 27th, and she was an invaluable help as we transitioned into our new life with Noah. Needless to say, it was a rough morning for me and Noah as we said our goodbyes. Here are some special photos taken during her last week here. Matt and I insisted that she try our favorite sushi restaurant before she left, so we took her to Wasabi. She admitted that it was pretty good! (Before this, she was dead set against enjoying any sort of sushi.) This was also Noah's first trip to Wasabi. Grams also accompanied us to another one of Noah's doctor's appointments, and finally the night before she left, we got some great pictures of Grams and Noah in the park. We sure do miss our Grams!!! South Florida seems further away than ever.

Noah in his Bassinet

Always Eating, Seldom Sleeping

The first few nights of being at home with Noah were such a teaser. He slept for 4-5 hours at a time! Oh my, how those sweet few days have passed. Now, we're up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours it seems. My pediatrician told us to teach him the difference between day and night by waking him up every two to three hours during the day, and then let him sleep as long as he will at night. I've been doing this, but Noah still wakes up fairly often at night. Does anyone have experience with this method? Are there other methods for getting babies to sleep more during the night?

In addition to this sleeping speed bump, Noah seems to want to eat A LOT. I mean every hour and a half or so. I went to a La Leche meeting a few nights ago, and the ladies there assured me that this was normal and that he would soon develop a more spread out feeding schedule. I'm just so stinkin' sore...which I can deal with just fine because breastfeeding is such a sweet experience, but I can't seem to get anything done during the day. Pre-Noah, I had heard stories of women who were lucky to get a shower in on some days, but I thought that seemed a little ridiculous. Now, I'm eating my thoughts big time. The only productive thing I got done yesterday was going through my mail that had stacked up throughout the week. No shower, and I was in my nightgown all day. Kind of hilarious. And this is with my mom HERE to help me out. She's taking care of all of the chores around the house, so I don't even have to worry about laundry or cleaning the bathroom. My responsibilities consist of feeding Noah and getting him to sleep. How does this take up literally all of my time? I don't know, but it just does. I'm sure I'll get all of this figured out soon...right? Right. I know I will. Any advice?

More midnight moments:

1. In the middle of the night, as I was putting Noah in his cradle, Matt calls me over to his side of the bed and asks, "Is there any leftover breastfeeding stuff?" I reply, "Honey, what breastfeeding stuff?" He says, "You know, like milk." I say, "Matt, are you awake?" He replies in an annoyed tone, "Yes." I say, "I'm sorry, I'm just not sure what you're talking about," and he says, "well, if you're just going to look at me like that then forget it." (He remembered none of this conversation the next day.)

2. This same night, I woke up to Matt looking under and patting the covers on our bed. I assumed he was looking for Noah, as this has happened to both of us multiple times. I said, "Babe, Noah's in his cradle." He said, "I'm not looking for Noah" and I reply, "Well, what are you looking for?" He said, "the thing that goes in his mouth." I said, "You mean his pacifier?" He said, "yes," and I giggled and told him that "Noah's pacifier was not in our bed." He looked a little more, and then fell right back asleep.

Server Dreams

If you've ever been a server at a restaurant, you've more than likely had server dreams. You know...the dreams where you can't ever catch up with all of your tables and every one is mad at you for not being able to pull it together. Well, now instead of server dreams, Matt and I both are having baby dreams. And not precious, sweet baby dreams, but rather "oh my gosh, have I suffocated my baby under the covers" dreams.

Midnights moments:

1. I've woken up frantically frisking myself thinking that I fell asleep while Noah was breastfeeding.

2. Matt has woken me up to ask me if he needs to go get "the breastfeeding stuff."

3. Two nights ago, I woke up to find Matt looking under the sheets for Noah. He asked me where he was; I replied, "his cradle," and he fell back to sleep. Minutes later, I again woke up to Matt patting down our comforter, again looking for the baby that he believed must have been buried somewhere in our covers.

4. I woke Matt up and asked him to take Noah from me...all the while, Noah was in his cradle.

I assume this anxiety will lessen when we become accustomed to this little guy, but right now, we worry so much.

We have a BABY!

1 WEEK

Noah was a week old as of last night! It's hard to believe that one whole week has already flown by. We've only been home for 4 days of his little life, but man, it has just raced by. My baby's growin' up so fast :) Thanks to the Malone's, the Gourley's, Eric Manske, and the Moore's for bringing us nourishment this week. Not having to worry about dinner has been super helpful! And thanks to everyone who has come to visit either in the hospital or here at home: my parents, Buz and Sandy McNutt, Matt's parents, Steve and Debbie Stark, Todd, Shanna, Jenn and Joe, Shanna, Steve and Andrea, EJ and Michael, Rodney and Gina, and Jesse and Kristin. (also the Bush/Garvey clan via flowers)

Happiest Baby on the Block Philosophy

We've hit the breastfeeding at full speed. Noah eats for about an hour 7-10 times a day. It takes up a lot of time right now, but I absolutely love it. It is so special to be able to provide for him in a way that no one else can. I also love just holding him. I've talked to several friends and read about various feeding and sleeping methods. After this research, I've decided to go with the Happiest Baby on the Block philosophy, which states that babies are missing a needed "4th trimester." Basically, I'm going to feed Noah when he gives me the cues that he's hungry, and I'm going to hold him as much as I want until he's about 3 months...Then I'll begin setting a schedule for him. I love this because it really does seem so natural and so instinctive. Dr. Karp, author of Happiest Baby, says that you can't spoil a newborn and that the reason so many American mothers struggle with colic (which from what I understand is when your baby cries a lot...reason fairly unknown) is because other cultures hold and keep their babies close for much of the day. He says that even if you hold your baby 12 hours a day, it is still 12 hours less than they're used to. This idea was completely confirmed by the lactation consultant I met with in the hospital. She really advocated holding and providing for your baby as he/she needs. Most newborns in the animal world are born much more capable than human babies, but we would be unable to birth our babies if we waited until our babies were as capable. Also, us American mothers are all about "independence." We want our children to do as much as possible as soon as possible. Perhaps my opinions will change, but I love Noah's dependence on me right now, and when the time comes, I will certainly give him more responsibilities and boundaries. For now though, I'm thrilled to hold him on my chest until he roots for food, and I'm thrilled to feed him every time he needs it, and I'm even a little bit thrilled to wake up at 3am to soothe him.