Thankfully we had my Mom here for the past 10 days to help us through this giant learning curve, but sadly she left on Saturday and we're back to being on our own. It was so nice to not only have the extra set of hands to help with dishes, cleaning and feeding but our favorite was having someone who picked up a feeding shift at night.
So, what is this learning curve I talk about? What have we tried to mess with trial and error? The other day I asked Kevin, if you could give anyone going home with a newborn a piece of advice what would it be. He said it would be that you can't put a baby on a schedule, as we quickly (maybe not as quickly as we should have) learned.
They tell you that babies should eat every 2-3 hours, and between 2-4 ounces of milk at each feeding. We thought clearly we should force this child to wait 3 hours to eat and then we'd have this babe on a schedule in no time. Nope, not unless you want to listen to blood curdling screams for an entire hour while you make your child starve. Not only did we learn to feed on demand, but we learned that this boy can eat and just because they say they should be eating 2-4 ounces doesn't mean that it's the case with every baby. You feed until they are full and sometimes that's 3 ounces and sometimes that's 6 ounces. Lesson learned.
When Kev and I registered for Landon we had no earthly idea what we were doing, so we heavily relied on the help of the people at Babie's-R-Us and when the sales associate told us most babies prefer the vibrating chair over the swing, we listened and we didn't register for one. After several failed attempts of getting him to calm down in the vibrating chair (maybe he was hungry though?) we realized that maybe our baby would prefer the swing. So, thanks to Grandma Holly we trekked off to Babies-R-Us and bought him a swing, which he loves. Now mom and dad can happily get things done around the house as he coos happily in his Snug-A-Puppy. Lesson learned.
A little known fact (at least it is now) is that 3/4 of babies have issues with gas. What happens when you have a gassy baby? They scream as if someone stole their puppy, and then they scream some more. This is where the wonderful invention of Gripe water has come into our lives. A few drops of Gripe water and all is well in the world again. This miracle product was purchased late one Sunday night when no one could console this babe and we needed something, anything to get him to calm down. I could just kiss whoever came up with that goodness. Lesson learned.
I have decided that for our family, it works best when I pump milk, store it in the fridge and then I am not the sole person responsible for feeding this baby (which is wonderful when we have help and there are three people that can feed him a bottle.) Landon seems to have breast feeding ADHD and cannot focus when I try to feed him from the breast. He does so much better when feeding from the bottle. Because we're feeding him this way we have learned that not all bottles are created equal. A regular ol' Medela bottle was seemingly creating more gas, spitting up, and once again a screaming baby. So last night we headed to our new "favorite" store, Babies-R-Us and got Tommee Tippee bottles that help with gas, spitting up and colic. They seem to be helping so lets hope they continue!
We had our two week check up last Wednesday, and we got a great bill of health! Since Landon was born he's grown 3/4 of an inch, which makes him 21.75 inches long and in the 83% percentile. He's gained a pound so we're now 8.6 pounds, and puts him in the 37% percentile. The doctor said we seem to have things all figured out, and to keep up the good work. (He clearly isn't at our house during melt downs from both baby and parents.)
Sleep at night is getting better. Thankfully I think that my mom was here to help with the brunt end of it. (Knock on wood.) Since she's left we seem to be on a (sorta) sleep schedule. Kev wakes up and does the 10:30/11:30 feeding, I wake up and the 2:30/3:30, and then Kev gets up and does the 6:00/6:30 feeding. Last night to seem to go extremely smoothly, I say this now, however tonight will probably be a terror.
We've been really bad about where Landon sleeps for naps. He LOVES to sleep on Kevin's chest and in the swing. Today's goal has been to get him to nap in his crib. It went okay the one time I tried it today, we'll work on it little by little. He's currently napping on Kev as he takes work calls, which happily gives mommy some free time to do what she'd like :)
Landon's had some adventures out and about in Atlanta. Thankfully he loves to ride in the car and by the time we get to where we need to go he's either happily looking around with his big blue eyes, or he's zonked out and sleeping peacefully. So far he's ventured out to trips to the grocery, Target, Babies-r-Us and to dinner twice. Lets hope we have a child who continues to cooperate when we go out in public.
Puppy Brother, Vedder, has been such an amazing pup. He continues to check on Landon in the night, and sometimes will even come in during my feeding shift and sits with me in the chair. He's given Landon kisses twice on his feet, which we have deemed the seal of approval. He does try and put his toy next to Landon when we have tummy time or we're playing wit him on the floor. He doesn't quite seem to understand that he can't throw his toy for him.
Okay, now that I've officially written a novel I will get to the good part... pictures! Enjoy!
They tell you that babies should eat every 2-3 hours, and between 2-4 ounces of milk at each feeding. We thought clearly we should force this child to wait 3 hours to eat and then we'd have this babe on a schedule in no time. Nope, not unless you want to listen to blood curdling screams for an entire hour while you make your child starve. Not only did we learn to feed on demand, but we learned that this boy can eat and just because they say they should be eating 2-4 ounces doesn't mean that it's the case with every baby. You feed until they are full and sometimes that's 3 ounces and sometimes that's 6 ounces. Lesson learned.
When Kev and I registered for Landon we had no earthly idea what we were doing, so we heavily relied on the help of the people at Babie's-R-Us and when the sales associate told us most babies prefer the vibrating chair over the swing, we listened and we didn't register for one. After several failed attempts of getting him to calm down in the vibrating chair (maybe he was hungry though?) we realized that maybe our baby would prefer the swing. So, thanks to Grandma Holly we trekked off to Babies-R-Us and bought him a swing, which he loves. Now mom and dad can happily get things done around the house as he coos happily in his Snug-A-Puppy. Lesson learned.
A little known fact (at least it is now) is that 3/4 of babies have issues with gas. What happens when you have a gassy baby? They scream as if someone stole their puppy, and then they scream some more. This is where the wonderful invention of Gripe water has come into our lives. A few drops of Gripe water and all is well in the world again. This miracle product was purchased late one Sunday night when no one could console this babe and we needed something, anything to get him to calm down. I could just kiss whoever came up with that goodness. Lesson learned.
I have decided that for our family, it works best when I pump milk, store it in the fridge and then I am not the sole person responsible for feeding this baby (which is wonderful when we have help and there are three people that can feed him a bottle.) Landon seems to have breast feeding ADHD and cannot focus when I try to feed him from the breast. He does so much better when feeding from the bottle. Because we're feeding him this way we have learned that not all bottles are created equal. A regular ol' Medela bottle was seemingly creating more gas, spitting up, and once again a screaming baby. So last night we headed to our new "favorite" store, Babies-R-Us and got Tommee Tippee bottles that help with gas, spitting up and colic. They seem to be helping so lets hope they continue!
We had our two week check up last Wednesday, and we got a great bill of health! Since Landon was born he's grown 3/4 of an inch, which makes him 21.75 inches long and in the 83% percentile. He's gained a pound so we're now 8.6 pounds, and puts him in the 37% percentile. The doctor said we seem to have things all figured out, and to keep up the good work. (He clearly isn't at our house during melt downs from both baby and parents.)
Sleep at night is getting better. Thankfully I think that my mom was here to help with the brunt end of it. (Knock on wood.) Since she's left we seem to be on a (sorta) sleep schedule. Kev wakes up and does the 10:30/11:30 feeding, I wake up and the 2:30/3:30, and then Kev gets up and does the 6:00/6:30 feeding. Last night to seem to go extremely smoothly, I say this now, however tonight will probably be a terror.
We've been really bad about where Landon sleeps for naps. He LOVES to sleep on Kevin's chest and in the swing. Today's goal has been to get him to nap in his crib. It went okay the one time I tried it today, we'll work on it little by little. He's currently napping on Kev as he takes work calls, which happily gives mommy some free time to do what she'd like :)
Landon's had some adventures out and about in Atlanta. Thankfully he loves to ride in the car and by the time we get to where we need to go he's either happily looking around with his big blue eyes, or he's zonked out and sleeping peacefully. So far he's ventured out to trips to the grocery, Target, Babies-r-Us and to dinner twice. Lets hope we have a child who continues to cooperate when we go out in public.
Puppy Brother, Vedder, has been such an amazing pup. He continues to check on Landon in the night, and sometimes will even come in during my feeding shift and sits with me in the chair. He's given Landon kisses twice on his feet, which we have deemed the seal of approval. He does try and put his toy next to Landon when we have tummy time or we're playing wit him on the floor. He doesn't quite seem to understand that he can't throw his toy for him.
Okay, now that I've officially written a novel I will get to the good part... pictures! Enjoy!
Sucking our thumb after a night time feeding.
Getting ready to go on an adventure. I think he looks like Kevin in this picture!
Landon's first play date with Grant!
Puppy brother love.
His first, rainy, 4th of July.
Vedder keeping me company at 3:30 am.
It's seriously tough work being a puppy brother.
I mustache you where you got your shirt.
We will save this picture for their wedding day. Arranged marriages are normal these days, right?
Tummy time!
Landon was screaming bloody murder in this picture, as you can tell from Vedder's face.
Milk drunk.
It is certainly a game of trial and error and no one babe is created equal (or so I have been told). Gripe water is amazing! How does it work so fast?
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are settling right in to mommy hood. Landon is so cute and such a lucky little man!