Recovering

Just dropping in to say we're still here!  Baby C and Mommy have both unfortunately been sick.  We've been spending a lot of time like this...

...and it's been kind of glorious. Luckily we're both on the mend now!  Back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly. 

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Sarah

Craft: Three Weeks Old

It's hard to believe it's already time for another update!  The days (and weeks) seem to be flying.  I thought things moved quickly when Lilly was little, but now that I have two I really can't figure out where the time goes.  We are coming up on feeding time so I will (try to) be brief (except really when does that ever actually happen?!)!

Weight/Length:  I should probably start removing this category and just adding it back in when we go to the doctor for measurements, because I have no idea.  He's not starving and his growth is decidedly not stunted, though.  Keep reading for photo evidence.

Sleep:  Craft had me fooled for the first two weeks of his life - the little chunker tricked me into thinking 5-hour stretches were normal!  I am not sure whether he hit a growth spurt or what, but this past weekend was rough - up every two hours (or less) to eat (not only at night but during the day as well) and it seemed like he was eating all. the. time.  My lovely lady lumps and I were beyond exhausted.  For some reason I thought Lilly was sleeping more at this point, but I'm not really sure that's the case - I went back and looked at the records I kept for her (yes, I kept records, nerd alert) and she was up less but she was not nearly as good at nursing (I do not miss that one bit!) and typically  nursed for an hour at a time.  Anyway, this week has been a little better, and C must have known I was going to blog about him being up a lot because last night he gave me a 5-hour stretch followed by a 3.5-hour stretch.  Let's keep up the good work, buddy, because Mama feels like a new person today!  Also a random sleep-related item: Craft does not appear to like being swaddled.  I tried to force it at first, because Lilly loved it and slept so well in a swaddle, but Craft seems to like having his hands out and near his face.  This changes everything I know about sleeping, so I am winging it!  Although I guess the good news is if he isn't swaddled it's one less habit we have to break later.  I have been swaddling him with his arms out, more for warmth than anything else.  He also likes to sleep on his side.  I know, the fact that I'm not following the rules ("back is best!") is shocking even to me.

Feeding:  This varies seemingly by the day.  Since my 2-week post Craft has been eating around every two hours and cluster feeding in the evenings.  However, for the past two days he has gone a little longer between some of his feedings, and then as mentioned above last night he went for 5 hours and then 3.5 hours.  Due to the longer stretches between feedings and the fact that I'm a cow anyway I am producing a lot of milk, and Craft is clearly really good at eating, so it doesn't take him too long to eat and we are typically up and back down in 20-30 minutes.  He is much better at nursing than Lilly was at this point, and I'm grateful for that.  However, I'm not sure whether I've mentioned it yet but this kid refuses to take a bottle.  The doctor told us to try to introduce it between 2-4 weeks for best results.  We started right at two weeks and we have tried quite a few times, but even if he's starving he wants nothing to do with it.  Lilly was the opposite - she was a champ at bottles but not good at nursing - so I am in uncharted territory with this one.  We have approximately one million Dr. Brown's bottles, so I keep hoping he'll learn to love them since we already have so many but so far he's seriously uninterested.  He needs to figure it out, though, because I am in a wedding in a few weeks and I don't know what I'm going to do if he won't take one by then (not to mention when I go back to work, but we have a while before we have to worry about that).  I ordered a few different types of bottles for him to try (including a MAM and a Comotomo, both of which have great reviews and are allegedly  more breast-like), so we'll see what happens...wish me luck.  And send me some tips if you've dealt with this too!

Developments:  Craft seems to be "waking up" more by the day.  He's been pretty alert from the day he was born, but he is awake and alert for longer periods of time now.  He also gets bored easily and likes to do different things every so often - so if he's in the bouncy seat for a while, he may fuss a little until I move him to the Mamaroo (thanks Aunt Meagan, Uncle Bo & Kinsley for letting us borrow it!) or the swing or his mat.  He just likes to be in on the action, I think.  He finds his hands quite a bit and has even started batting (not on purpose, I'm sure) at the toys that hang from his play mat.  His neck continues to get stronger and he is continually improving at holding his head up.  I'm sure it's a fluke, but he's rolled onto his side a few times as well, mainly in his sleep.  I finally figured out that he likes to sleep that way (actually, Dan figured that out) and both of us have been happier since that discovery.  

Firsts This Week:  First time meeting his bestie, Baby Stephen!

C looks even more huge compared to sweet little Stephen, ha!

The weather was SO nice over the weekend, we also went on our first walk.  I didn't get a pic of both of my babies in the stroller, but it was nice to get out of the house and the weather was glorious.  Craft seemed to enjoy it as well:

Also, we celebrated C's 3-week birthday by going on another outing - we took big sister Lilly to school for the first time today!  More on that later.

Likes:  Not many changes since last week: sleeping.  eating.  having a clean diaper.  bath, especially the hair washing part.  the piano play mat.  the bouncy seat.  the swing.  the mamaroo.  pooping.  sleeping on his side.  being entertained.  peeing during diaper changes (only on mommy).  being outside.

Dislikes:  Again, no real changes here: being cold.  being hungry.  hiccups.  tummy aches due to not burping (ugh!).  the process of diaper changing.  

What I'm Thankful For:  Last night's 5-hour stretch!  I'm sure it was a fluke but I would not be unhappy with a nightly repeat performance.  :-)

What I'm Looking Forward To:  A visit from my parents this weekend!  Dan and Lilly are heading to Concord on Saturday evening to celebrate Erica's birthday on Sunday, so Mom and Dad are coming to visit for the weekend to see Lilly and Craft and to keep me company when Dan and L head out.  I'm excited to get to spend some time with them.

Next Pediatrician Appointment:  A week from today!  March 5.

How Mommy's Doing:  Better today, again I think due to a little extra sleep. I need to stop talking about it or it will never happen again, I'm sure.  With all of the nursing and the lack of sleep, my nerves were a little on edge and I have been feeling a little overwhelmed.  There was one day earlier this week where I genuinely did not think I was gonna make it.  I'll do another post on how we're adjusting later, but things improved drastically from that rough day and I'm feeling much better about life in general.  This has definitely been an adjustment for all of us, but I wouldn't change one thing!  OK that's a total lie, if babies would sleep 12 hours straight from the moment the exit the womb who wouldn't change that, but you know what I mean.  Ha!

Remember how I did a post on Lilly's many moods?  I feel like I should dedicate a similar post to the many faces of Craft, this kid is so expressive!

If you follow  me on Instagram, you've already seen this but I couldn't resist posting it here as well.  This was not posed, he did this all on his own.  I was laughing so hard!

We're halfway to the weekend, y'all!

Sarah

While you were (supposed to be) sleeping

I have been meaning to put this post together for a while now but have been too lazy to get together all of the videos I've taken of the shenanigans that happen in Lilly's crib when she's supposed to be sleeping.  Imagine my surprise when I recently received an e-mail from Tiffany at Dropcam asking if I'd like to participate in their "Tales from the Crib" campaign.  Why yes, yes I would indeed.  Perfect timing, right?  

I know I've mentioned before on the blog that I got lucky with Lilly in that she is a great sleeper.  At 2 years and almost 1 month, we are still getting 12+ hours at night plus a 3 or 3.5-hour nap (I know, it's hatred-worthy, I'm sorry!  Not really though.).  "Bed time" for Lilly is somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30 pm every night.  I say "bed time" because in Lilly's case "bed time" is decidedly not the same thing as "sleep time."  Most nights she doesn't actually go to sleep until 9:00 or 9:30 - I like to think she uses that hour or hour and a half to wind down.  And by "wind down" I mean talk, play, sing, giggle, or any variety of other activities other than sleeping (see below).  I've tried letting her stay up a little later but that never ends well - I think that she genuinely likes having that alone time to play and settle herself to get ready for sleep.  Luckily for us, that means that some of the things we catch on the video monitor are pretty entertaining.

I should also note here that Lilly is very aware that there is a camera in her room.  She asked me what it was at one point a while back and I told her that it was a camera and that Mommy and Daddy watch her while she sleeps.  Side note: Dan said that response was creepy and corrected me by telling her that we watch over her while she sleeps.  Whatever.  Anyway, I haven't been able to catch it on video yet, but often times Lilly will sit or stand up in her crib, look directly at the camera and wave and say, "Hiiiiiiiiiii camera!  Mommy and Daddy watch over Lilly sleeps!"  This kid, I swear.

If you're in the mood for a chuckle and have a few minutes to watch, check out some of my favorite clips below of Lilly's crib antics.  

DISCLAIMER:  SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR THE POOR QUALITY OF THE BELOW VIDEOS.  I AM CLEARLY NOT A VIDEOGRAPHER, AND TRYING TO GET A GOOD IPHONE VIDEO OF A MONITOR SCREEN IS HARD!

I like to call this first one "Lilly Singing."  You'll need volume to hear, but she's working on a beautiful rendition of a "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "ABCs" Medley.  Highlight: she applauds herself at the end.  "YAYYYYYYY!"

This next clip is entitled, "Lilly Gymnastics."  My sweet family gifted us a new monitor prior to Craft's arrival so that we can keep an eye on both babes and it picks up even the slightest noise so it's hard to hear over the sound machine, but you don't really need volume to see what an excellent gymnast my child is.  2020 Olympics?  You betcha. Highlight: it's a toss-up, but I think the flip followed by, "I did it!" takes the cake.

The next clip was in the running for my favorite clip of Lilly's crib antics of all time until yesterday. Dan and I just happened to catch this before bed one night and laughed so hard!  It's appropriately entitled "Lilly Ballet," and the highlight is definitely the curtsey (which happens prior to the twirl because I couldn't get my phone out quickly enough to video the first three twirls).

Last, but certainly not least, I give you the mother of all of the "Tales from the Crib" clips.  You are welcome in advance.  Carney was lucky enough to catch this gem yesterday when Lilly was supposed to be napping.  It ALMOST makes the tantrums we endured last night due to a nap that was not nearly long enough worth it.  Again, the quality makes it kind of hard to tell, but someone has clearly been taking notes about how baby brother eats.  Behold the clip below, where you will find L pulling her shirt up to breast feed her lovey.  Seriously.  Quinn warned me that this might happen, and it was every bit as funny as I thought it would be.  I wish the sound machine wasn't so loud so we could hear what Lilly is saying to lovey, because I'm sure the commentary is equally as hilarious as the video itself!

On a kind-of-related-but-not-really note, this is my view of the monitor these days:

Even though it's been almost three weeks, it is still surreal to me that I am now a mother of two (well three if you count our fur child, Layla).  Best feeling ever?  I think so.

If you have any stories of your kids' funny crib antics, I'd love to hear them.  Don't forget to check out Dropcam, and if you have any "Tales from the Crib" of your own to share, shoot me an e-mail or leave me a comment and I'm happy to put you in touch with Tiffany!  

Stay tuned, I promise to try to get back to more regular blog posts when I get used to being exhausted.  :-)

Sarah

Craft: Two Weeks Old

I'm a day late again on this one, sorry in advance Craft for when you get older and discover that Mommy is a slacker.  :-)

Weight/Length:  We had our 2-week well-check yesterday.  If you recall from Craft's one week post, the doctor told us at his first weight check that we could skip this appointment and just come back for his one-month well-check if we wanted to since he was already back up to birth weight 2 days after leaving the hospital.  We decided it couldn't hurt to keep the appointment just to check in on things and make sure everything is okay.  Plus, there was an incident with his circumcision (more on that later) that I wanted to discuss.  Anyway, they didn't check his length but I can tell you from looking at him that he's already getting longer.  And, drumroll please...my little chunker is up to 10 lbs 11 oz in weight!!!  Yes, that is serious.  The nurse checked his weight three times on three different scales to make sure it wasn't an error.  She said, "I'm sorry to make you keep weighing him, I just want to make sure - I've never seen anything like it."  It didn't seem like that big of a weight gain to me but I guess it is, because I could hear the doctor outside of our room before she came in saying to the nurse, "Wow, is that weight for real?"  When Dr. V came into the room she said, "Man I feel so sorry for you, you have such issues with milk supply and malnourished/failure-to-thrive babies..."  I guess I should take it as a compliment that she had no concerns considering she just snuggled him for the next 15 minutes and let me ask a few questions.  After reporting his weight to family and friends, I had several responses of, "you must produce chocolate milk, or maybe straight cream."  HA!  Big boy.

Hooray weight checks!  And greasy hair eek.  It's so hard not to touch it all of the time!

C has been finding his thumb a lot.

Weight checks are exhausting.

Sleep:  Little man spoiled us for the first week and a half by giving us 4-5 hour stretches at night...I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop!  We had a two-night period at the beginning of this week where Craft decided that he wanted to cluster feed from about 12am-4am (or in one case he just wanted to be held while he pooped), but last night he was back to 3-4 hour stretches and was only up twice.  I'm of course tired but have no complaints at all because I know it could be much worse!  I read in a sleep guide that at this age he should be sleeping around 16 hours a day - Craft definitely sleeps more than that.  I have been working to keep him awake some between feedings to see if it helps at night.  So far I can't really tell a difference but he's so alert when he's awake, he just takes everything in and it is the sweetest.

I have also been experimenting some with the swaddle.  Big sister Lilly LOVED to be swaddled and once she started sleeping through the night, getting her to sleep without it when she outgrew it (read: was breaking out of it) was really (luckily) our only challenge.  Craft has not been very jerky with his movements and also seems to like to have his hands up near his face, so I have been swaddling him with arms out - more for warmth than anything else.  Last night, I tried the swaddle, so I'm not sure if that contributed to better sleep as well or what but I'll keep experimenting and report back.

Feeding:  Clearly we are having no issues here.  Craft is nursing like a champ, and I'm so grateful!  During the day, he eats somewhere between every 2-3 hours (typically it's 2 or 2.5).  At night, it has varied - sometimes he's gone 4-5 hours and other nights he's wanted to eat it seems like every 30 seconds.  Last night he went down around 10:00pm and was up at 1:30a and 4:30a.  Overall, not too shabby.  I think I have discovered that on the nights he wanted to cluster feed, he wasn't really hungry as much as gassy/wanting to be held.  I have the HARDEST time getting this kid to burp, and I noticed that the two nights that were rough were nights where it seemed like he ate a lot but would not burp at all.  Last night I tried not laying him down until I got at least a small burp and he seemed to do much better.  Any burping tips that I may not have tried are greatly appreciated!  I have also been pumping once or twice a day - I hate it, but I'm trying to balance building a freezer supply and dealing with discomfort as well.  

Developments:  I'm sure it's partially because of his size, but Craft seems way older than 2 weeks to me.  I think he is an old wise little soul already, ha.  Craft is very alert and also holds his head up for short periods of time.  We also get pretty frequent smiles, but mainly when he's drifting off to sleep.  Still, they are so sweet.  There isn't too much to say for this category yet as he basically just eats and sleeps a lot. 

Firsts This Week:  First bath (well, first bath that wasn't a sponge bath, since both umbilical cord and plastic circumcision ring fell off)!  He was so relaxed, he could not be bothered to stay awake.

Craft loves having his hair washed!

On that same note, he also took his first bath with big sister.  I couldn't decide whether to just let Lilly help with bath or put them in together - I was worried she wouldn't like him being in her space, but surprisingly she loved it.  She was very sweet with Craft and wanted to help bathe him, and she even tried to have a tea party with him.  :-)

We also had our first "outing," even though it only lasted about 30 seconds.  After the doctor yesterday, Craft and I ran into Rite Aid to pick up a few things.  So glamorous.  AND we had our first photo shoot - Stephanie took some newborn photos for us on Saturday which I cannot WAIT to share with you, everything I have seen so far has brought me to tears and there seriously aren't enough frames in my house (or wall space for that matter) to display them all!

Behind the scenes

He keeps finding that thumb!  Wonder if he'll be a thumb sucker like big sister?

Likes:  Sleeping.  Eating.  Having a clean diaper.  Bath - especially having his hair washed.  The piano play mat.  The bouncy seat.  The swing.  Big sister showing him how to look in the mirror.  Pooping.

Dislikes:  The actual diaper changing process.  Being cold.  Being hungry.  Hiccups.

What I'm Thankful For:  Again, my sweet husband.  He has really stepped up to the plate and has been so, so helpful, which is so nice when it feels like all I do most days is sit around and nurse.  He cooks, he cleans, he grocery shops.  And he is so wonderful with Lilly.  It's been hard for me to give up my status as "favorite parent" (ha), but it has also been so sweet to watch them play together and do things together and to watch her further develop this sweet bond with her Daddy.  He's so good about including her in things that he's doing - whether it is cooking or a house project.  He's also getting really good at painting toenails.  :-)

What I'm Looking Forward To:  Warm weather.  We've gotten a taste of it this week here in Raleigh and it is glorious.  I'm ready for a glass of wine or a beer on the patio (Even more ready to consume aforementioned adult beverage on my new patio furniture, right Dan?!  Ha!)!  ALSO meeting sweet Baby Stephen NEXT WEEK (if not before!!!).  Can't wait for he and Craft to be best buds just like big sisters Hadley and Lilly are.  And while I don't want to wish time away, I can't wait for sleepovers.  :-)

Next Pediatrician Appointment:  March 5 with Dr. V for squishy's one-month appointment!

How Mommy's Doing:  No complaints here!  The scale yesterday revealed that I am down 30 lbs, thank you breast feeding.  Still have a ways to go to get to my goal weight and to get rid of the extra squish, but there's plenty of time for that.  Other than that, just tired!  But this too shall pass before we know it. 

I'll leave you with some more pics from Craft's happenings during week 2.  He is growing and changing so quickly already, I need for time to slow down!  I looked at Lilly yesterday and wondered to myself where my baby went.  She is such a big girl, and I know he'll be there too before we know it.  Ahh, make it stop!

"Mommy, I want to hold Craft and eat a snack."

Wise old soul, taking it all in!

Big sister reading to her little brother

"Playing" together

Bossing him around already showing baby brother the ropes

Snuggles

More bed time snuggles

Happy boy!

Squish!

More squish.

The lips!!!

 Happy Thursday!!!

Sarah