Reflecting on Nolan's second week
It's typical that newborns between one and three weeks of age go through a growth spurt which can (and for us, has!) include:
* only sleeping 30 minutes to one hour at a time through the day (and some times the night)
* waking to eat every hour
* inconsolable crying for lengthy periods of time
* a general uncomfortableness
* only comforted by swaying, rocking, bouncing, and being held
And while tough and exhausting, every moment is truly a blessing that we are so grateful to have.
Do all second time moms feel this way?!? :)
There's really no pattern or predictability with Nolan right now, some days he sleeps two to three hours at a time throughout the day and sleeps a four hour stretch at night and other days he sleeps less than an hour at a time in a 24 hour period. We just take each hour as it comes, not expecting anything more than what he gives us and when we are really tired and feeling defeated, we remind ourselves that this is just a phase and will pass all too quickly.
Reflecting on this past week, we've had great fun and learned a lot:
6/12 - I broke out the BOB jogging stroller with infant car seat adapter for the first time and, once I fed, burped, and changed Nolan, mom, Emily, Nolan, and I set out on our first trip to the park! Emily loves to ride on the very front of the stroller but her additional 38lbs helped coin the term "beast", which I am now lovingly calling my stroller. ha! Nolan seems to really love his car seat and the motion of the walking, he slept the entire two and a half hours we were at the park. He seems to be a very gassy baby: he needs to be burped during feedings and immediately after, kicks his feet and cries until we get the burps out, and spits up A LOT. Ugh :(
6/14 - Nolan had his two week well-check today, which you can read all the details about here. He was a real champion (did you know Nolan means champion?!?) and because he fell asleep on the way home from the Pediatrician's office, I decided to grab mom and Emily from home and head to Target, our first trip, to pick up some much needed baby items! I needed another box of breast pads, washcloths (we use these to cover his penis during diaper changes, no more being sprayed with pee!), another box of Huggie's diapers size: Newborn, and a turtle-shaped bath buddy that you soak in warm water and place on baby's torso to keep them warm during baths. Nolan slept the entire three and a half hours. Later in the evening, our neighbors and friends Amy & Josh brought by dinner; what a treat not to have to cook! Nolan's gas is so tough on us all, he really struggled this evening to get comfortable and fall asleep but when he finally did, he slept four hours.
6/15 - Emily had School Skills at Gymboree this afternoon so, after dropping her off, mom and I indulged in a mani/pedi session just up the street. Nolan slept the entire time, over three hours, and boy did it feel good to get a little extra pampering for myself. Unfortunately, the high of the day was trumped a bit by what we are calling the "witching hours" (coined when Emily was this age): between 5pm-10pm nearly every night this week, Nolan is just unhappy. See bullet points above. He cluster feeds, is gassy, doesn't seem comfortable in any position, cries almost non-stop, and then, finally passes out. He likes to sooth on the breast, like all babies, and absolutely looses it when he's sucking and is about to fall asleep when my milk lets down again. Out of desperation to find some way to comfort him, we offered him a pacifier for the first time tonight. He didn't want anything to do with it! He swatted at it and forcefully spit it out, crying even louder. Talk about an epic fail. I swear it took twice as long to calm him down after that. Ugh. :( We have the Gumdrop newborn pacifiers, which seem stiff and hard to me... maybe we need a different brand. We'll give it a try some other time. To try something else, we decided to move the swing from our bedroom down here, to the living room, and move his bassinet up to our bedroom. David and I have been camped out in our living room for the past two weeks because it's just easier for us to move around and for me to be up to nurse him at odd hours of the night. Excited to try the swing for naps tomorrow and to sleep in our bed tonight!
6/16 - Nolan slept in his bassinet next to our bed last night and slept four hours. Yea! My only complaint: I don't like breast feeding in our bedroom... at all! Our bed is super plush which translates to zero support while trying to nurse (I even tried side-lying... fail!) and there's really no other place to sit (must get a chair in there!). I ended up coming downstairs for two and a half hours to nurse him, burp him, change him, and rock him to sleep before returning to our room and placing him back in his bassinet. He slept three more hours. Over all, a successful night of sleeping upstairs in his bassinet! Also today, his umbilical cord stump fell off and Emily thought it was so neat, she wanted to keep it. Gross. ha!
* only sleeping 30 minutes to one hour at a time through the day (and some times the night)
* waking to eat every hour
* inconsolable crying for lengthy periods of time
* a general uncomfortableness
* only comforted by swaying, rocking, bouncing, and being held
And while tough and exhausting, every moment is truly a blessing that we are so grateful to have.
Do all second time moms feel this way?!? :)
There's really no pattern or predictability with Nolan right now, some days he sleeps two to three hours at a time throughout the day and sleeps a four hour stretch at night and other days he sleeps less than an hour at a time in a 24 hour period. We just take each hour as it comes, not expecting anything more than what he gives us and when we are really tired and feeling defeated, we remind ourselves that this is just a phase and will pass all too quickly.
Reflecting on this past week, we've had great fun and learned a lot:
6/12 - I broke out the BOB jogging stroller with infant car seat adapter for the first time and, once I fed, burped, and changed Nolan, mom, Emily, Nolan, and I set out on our first trip to the park! Emily loves to ride on the very front of the stroller but her additional 38lbs helped coin the term "beast", which I am now lovingly calling my stroller. ha! Nolan seems to really love his car seat and the motion of the walking, he slept the entire two and a half hours we were at the park. He seems to be a very gassy baby: he needs to be burped during feedings and immediately after, kicks his feet and cries until we get the burps out, and spits up A LOT. Ugh :(
6/14 - Nolan had his two week well-check today, which you can read all the details about here. He was a real champion (did you know Nolan means champion?!?) and because he fell asleep on the way home from the Pediatrician's office, I decided to grab mom and Emily from home and head to Target, our first trip, to pick up some much needed baby items! I needed another box of breast pads, washcloths (we use these to cover his penis during diaper changes, no more being sprayed with pee!), another box of Huggie's diapers size: Newborn, and a turtle-shaped bath buddy that you soak in warm water and place on baby's torso to keep them warm during baths. Nolan slept the entire three and a half hours. Later in the evening, our neighbors and friends Amy & Josh brought by dinner; what a treat not to have to cook! Nolan's gas is so tough on us all, he really struggled this evening to get comfortable and fall asleep but when he finally did, he slept four hours.
6/15 - Emily had School Skills at Gymboree this afternoon so, after dropping her off, mom and I indulged in a mani/pedi session just up the street. Nolan slept the entire time, over three hours, and boy did it feel good to get a little extra pampering for myself. Unfortunately, the high of the day was trumped a bit by what we are calling the "witching hours" (coined when Emily was this age): between 5pm-10pm nearly every night this week, Nolan is just unhappy. See bullet points above. He cluster feeds, is gassy, doesn't seem comfortable in any position, cries almost non-stop, and then, finally passes out. He likes to sooth on the breast, like all babies, and absolutely looses it when he's sucking and is about to fall asleep when my milk lets down again. Out of desperation to find some way to comfort him, we offered him a pacifier for the first time tonight. He didn't want anything to do with it! He swatted at it and forcefully spit it out, crying even louder. Talk about an epic fail. I swear it took twice as long to calm him down after that. Ugh. :( We have the Gumdrop newborn pacifiers, which seem stiff and hard to me... maybe we need a different brand. We'll give it a try some other time. To try something else, we decided to move the swing from our bedroom down here, to the living room, and move his bassinet up to our bedroom. David and I have been camped out in our living room for the past two weeks because it's just easier for us to move around and for me to be up to nurse him at odd hours of the night. Excited to try the swing for naps tomorrow and to sleep in our bed tonight!
6/16 - Nolan slept in his bassinet next to our bed last night and slept four hours. Yea! My only complaint: I don't like breast feeding in our bedroom... at all! Our bed is super plush which translates to zero support while trying to nurse (I even tried side-lying... fail!) and there's really no other place to sit (must get a chair in there!). I ended up coming downstairs for two and a half hours to nurse him, burp him, change him, and rock him to sleep before returning to our room and placing him back in his bassinet. He slept three more hours. Over all, a successful night of sleeping upstairs in his bassinet! Also today, his umbilical cord stump fell off and Emily thought it was so neat, she wanted to keep it. Gross. ha!
My new little boy is a gassy monkey too...and being a second time mom definitely has its whole own set of challenges. We are finally starting to fall into a bit of a rhythm and I'm sure you will too!! Amber :)
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