Memorial Day Weekend & Braxton’s First Unscheduled Doctor Visit

Over Memorial Day weekend we went to a little BBQ with our neighbors at the clubhouse on Saturday night and then went to meet my parents in Park City on Monday. We shopped for hours at the outlet mall and Braxton just slept the whole time with a little break for a feeding and diaper change in the middle. He was so good. He loves the car seat/stroller.

It was so fun to see my parents and go to dinner. I wish Brian didn’t have class so we could have stayed with them for a night or two in the condo. Also that weekend Braxton started showing signs of serious discomfort. We thought he was just having a hard time having a bowel movement and it has progressively gotten worse over the week. He has become very fussy—even after eating—and won’t take naps during the day because he is so uncomfortable. Then he cries all evening because he is so tired from missing his morning naps.

Finally on Friday we decided to call the doctor and ended up at the doctor’s office. He had us give him a suppository and he is now having regular bowel movements, but the discomfort and fussiness is getting worse every day. I am reading On Becoming Babywise and yesterday I got to the part that outlines colic and reflux and Braxton is showing all the signs of colic—bummer! I am calling the doctor again tomorrow to talk to him about it because I want to make sure it isn’t something more than colic. He just acts like he is in so much pain. It is heartbreaking! Here are some pictures I took during his few calm moments today:

Oh the Things She Does For Attention!

Tasia has adjusted to Braxton’s presence so much better than we thought she would. For the most part, she doesn’t want much to do with him—especially when he is crying. But, every now and then we will catch her ‘babysitting’ him like this:

As much as we have tried to make sure she still feels loved, she has dropped down the totem pole when it comes to mommy and daddy’s attention. So, she has started climbing to new heights to claim our attention like the top of our closet on my cowboy hat, the top of the mirrored dresser, and the worst—above the cabinets in the kitchen. We noticed the greenery starting to fall down one day and after fixing it only to have it fall down again the next day, we realized that it was her. It makes me so mad because to get up there she has to break the rules by walking on the countertops. But in order to stop her from doing it, we had to catch her (and take a picture first for proof) and then teach her that it is wrong. Here are some pictures:

As for Braxton, he is starting to put on a little weight, but is still probably only 7 lbs something. Here are some new pictures. Oh, and can someone help us figure out how to do ‘tummy time’? He falls asleep every time we put him on his stomach!

First Bath

I know, I know. Technically Braxton's 'first bath' was in the hospital, but I wasn't there to witness it and although we have been doing 'baths' with a washcloth, I don't count those either. This morning we gave Braxton his first official bath in his little bathtub and he was so good! He fussed a little, but didn't cry. I think he is going to love bath time. Here are some pictures:

What I love the most is that 1 hour after bath time he had completely wet himself and the swing. Brian's mom is going to Babies R Us today to get us some 'piddle pads' because washing the swing cover or the bouncer cover every day is getting ridiculous. We now think that the newborn diapers are just not absorbent enough for how much Braxton puts out.

My cousin Amy and her two girls, Annalyce and Erica, came to visit and were there for the first bath. They were so sweet with him. Thanks Amy for coming to visit! Here are some pictures of the girls with Braxton:

Happy Mother's Day

It was my first real Mother's Day! I love being a mom. Braxton got me some beautiful roses (thanks hon) and we were so lucky to be able to have both of our mothers here for dinner. We love our moms so much and appreciate all they do for us--especially during the last couple weeks as they have taken care of all of us as we adjust to this new life. Thanks for all the meals, batches of laundry, and diaper changes. We love you moms!

Two Week Checkups

Well, it has been two weeks since Braxton entered our lives and it was time for both of us to have our two week checkups. Braxton was so good during his appointment AFTER peeing all over the front of my shirt—lovely. I swear he is either too little for size N newborn diapers or one of us is putting them on wrong—my bet is on the latter since neither Brian or I have changed diapers before Braxton. He didn’t like the doctor shining the light in his eyes or the nurse taking blood for the PKU test. He is finally back to his birth weight, which was a great relief to both of us. Here are the stats:

Weight: 6 lbs. 9.5 oz. (6th percentile)
Head Circumference: 13.25 inches (5th percentile)
Length: 20.5 inches (45th percentile)

We have such a tiny little guy! To illustrate, we put him in the swing yesterday and he can’t even see over the tray—so sad! Here are pictures:

Braxton is such a good boy. We really could not have asked for a better baby. He only cries if he is hungry or needs his diaper changed. For some reason I thought all babies cry for no reason and that you have to let them ‘cry it out’ a little. So far, we haven’t had that problem and we are very grateful. The one struggle has been to get him to eat. Despite latching on okay, he does not like to suck very hard and forgets to swallow. This has led to many tearful feedings as we tried for days to get him to nurse. Finally after almost 48 hours of literally starving my baby because he refused to eat from me, we decided that it was better for all of us to resort to pumping and feeding him my milk out of a bottle. It was a very emotional decision for me because I wanted so badly to have the experience of breastfeeding, but we have learned throughout this entire pregnancy and delivery that we can’t control how things turn out. We just have to turn to the Lord and pray to accept the challenges and paths set before us. Since this decision, we are all happier and my mom no longer thinks I need to talk to my doctor about getting something for the baby blues.

As for my two week checkup, my outside incision is healing well according to the doctor. For the most part, it doesn’t really hurt or bother me, but now that some of it is starting to scab over, it itches a bit. My inside incision is still REALLY painful. Basically I can barely touch the skin from just below my belly button down to the outside incision. When I do, I have discovered that I have a section of my stomach all the way across that has no feeling at all. I have read that this can happen because they have to cut through the nerves and muscles and that it can take up to a year or more to get feeling back, but I didn’t expect it to be such a large area. It is kind of weird. On the up side, I am doing so much better at getting around and doing things without help. I can finally pick Braxton up out of his crib and I can pick stuff up off the floor if I go down to my knees first. It is amazing how much I now appreciate the small things when it comes to mobility. Every day I feel better and more independent.

1 Week Birthday

I can’t believe it has been one week since Braxton showed us his sweet little face. In some ways it seems so much longer than that because our lives have changed so much. The days are flying by and the nights drag on with little sleep. Braxton is so adorably sweet and good during the day—squirmy and hungry at night—and we love him so much! Feeding is getting easier and less traumatic for both of us as each day passes. He is getting cuter every day! Here are some of his 1 week old pictures that we took this morning:

For an update on me, I am still in a lot of pain from the C-section and am starting to get impatient with the length of the recovery period. Sometimes I try to increase the time between pain pills because I am feeling okay when the time to take one rolls around, but when I start feeling the pain come on, it is too late and I am sobbing by the time it takes effect. I am also frustrated because I still can’t pick my own baby up out of the crib, get myself dressed, or get up out of a chair without help. I am so grateful for how patient, understanding, and helpful Brian and my mom are with helping me. I really could not do this without them. Despite my physical pain, I love this new life. I love my baby and my new little family so much and having Braxton in our lives has brought me and Brian closer together.

Bringing Home the Baby

Yes, I watched plenty of TLC episodes of this show during the last few weeks, but it has not prepared me for the craziness of the last few days. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions to say the least. Some days are so great—Braxton is so sweet, eats a lot, and he lets us get lots of sleep. And some days it seems like EVERYTHING has to be difficult at the same time. Friday was a wonderful day. I was feeling so much better, Braxton let us sleep almost 7 hours between feedings, and he actually started sucking on his own (we had been using a syringe to feed him). However, Saturday he started to get jaundice and had to be put under the lights. Here is a picture of him with his little goggles that he took off literally every 10 minutes:

He was miserable and it seemed like my recovery pain was getting worse so very little sleep was had that day. We checked out of the hospital on Sunday and we had another really good day. Brian was excited to sleep in our own bed since this is what he has been sleeping on for the last few days:

Braxton loved being home and it was so nice to ‘do our own thing’ without nurses/doctors coming in every 10 minutes telling us what we were doing wrong and need to do better. His jaundice levels also dropped significantly and they told us they had changed their minds about bringing the light bed home. No more lights! We were all thrilled. Here are some pics from our departure and homecoming:

Tasia (our cat) wasn’t sure what to make of the new little, noisy mover. We took our first ‘family’ picture. It looks like Tasia is ready to attack, but she was just looking and it was actually really sweet—the camera didn’t capture the moment. She is curious and is SO happy that we are home. She didn’t like our parents taking care of her without us there. She also was very unhappy about being locked out of the ‘action’ during the night and whined at our door every time she heard us talking.

The first night at home was just like I pictured the first night to be—sleepless and miserable. We are exhausted today running on maybe 1 hour of broken up sleep and hoping for better nights ahead. I am getting around the house better than I thought I would and feel good today despite the exhaustion. Oh, and just for those who are comparing, here is the picture of me after coming home from the hospital in the same outfit—so much better!