8 Weeks Old

I think the best part about an 8 week old is the reliability of their "Social Smiles". Baby B smiled at me the first time (a real, "Yes Mom, I'm Looking at You" kind of smile) when he was 5 weeks old. But I could not always elicit a smile from him then. Now that he is 3 weeks older, and so much more mature, all I really have to do is Coo at him and I get some of the sweetest toothless smiles I have ever seen. Here is proof!

Baby B, had his 8 week doctors appointment yesterday, He was declared amazingly cute! The doctor even picked him up and hugged him for a while after she made him cry.

Here are his current stats-

Height- 22 1/4 inches- 28th Percentile (I have never had a short child before- it's odd- I am going to measure him in 3 weeks and see if he has grown)

Weight- 12 # 2 oz.- 69th Percentile (J was 1/2 pound more)

Head- a little over 38 cm- 15th Percentile (once again, like J, not big headed)

Should we see another smile? YES!
We love our Baby B, he is very sweet and he is learning and growing and making cute noises. Big Brother J really loves him too, in fact today he tried to give Baby B his blanket "Ditda" unfortunately Baby B was eating at the time and didn't really understand why J kept throwing a blanket at him, in fact it kind of annoyed him, but that annoyance was quickly overshadowed by Baby B's annoyance at J's attempts to help him burp. Brotherly Love, they well figure it out soon.

Poor Mr Potato Head

He must be sad that he is not as cute as my boys are!

J has been putting this particular Mr. Potato Head mouth on wrong this week, I told Mr. Head to quickly turn that frown upside down, but he just won't. Silly Mr. Potato Head. He looks so frustrated, he must need more sleep.

For some reason my boys think they are boxers, I had to get a picture when I saw Baby B in this position the other day.....

Because I knew I had a picture of J as an infant in almost the exact same position. The only difference being J had an actual target....I always thought he liked penguins....
A little update, Sleep, I am all about sleep, making sure that my kids get sufficient rest is a big thing to me. I believe that a well rested child is a happy child, and 90% of the time I think J is proof of that, 10% of the time he is just as much of a pill as any other two year old boy is.

So I have been working will Baby B, trying to get him "sleep trained" as some might call it. Basically my goal is to have him be able to go to sleep on his own, so that in the future when he wakes up at night, but is not hungry or sick, he will be able to return to sleep on his own- thus allowing his parents to get more sleep too. I have told you before about how I felt competent enough prior to baby B's birth, but that he had thrown me for a loop and had me all confused. Well, guess what? He has taken pity on me, or my training has actually worked. Quite often, in fact the majority of the times that baby B goes to sleep, he is put down drowsy but still awake, and he is able to go to sleep on his own. There is at lease one time per day that he protests, I think this is more my thinking he is sleepier than he really is, and so I have not faulted him for it. Another great sleep improvement has been that his naps are getting longer, today he had two 1.5 hour naps and one 3 hour nap. Last night he went to sleep at 8 and woke up at 1:15- that is 5 hours! YEAH!

I am still not quite getting enough sleep but I have hope, I have faith, I believe that things are going to work out just fine! There is a light at the end of the tunnel, I might not see it yet but I know it is there.

Oh and the best part of all- I weighed myself today and I have lost all the weight I gained this pregnancy! Now I will focus on the 10 pounds I still have from my first pregnancy, and then I will work on getting down to my goal weight....which I still have yet to choose. What do you think, what is a good weight for me? The range for a medium build is 139-154. (I have chosen medium build according to a calculation I found online measuring the size of the bone in your elbow). I have previously been told that I should try to maintain a weight on the lower end of the range....so what do you think? Give me a goal?

Mom's Team

Okay, so I don't quite have enough for a baseball team....yet.... chances are I won't get my own baseball team, but I can tell you this much, these boys are on MY TEAM and I love them. Even if they couldn't quite sit in normal positions or make cute faces for this picture.

J loves his baby brother B, he wants to help him, hold him, be near him and basically teach him all he needs to know to be a good boy, this is a picture of a rare moment when the baby was not distressed by J's presence. In fact J got him to smile a few times during this encounter. I loved it.
On Wednesday, Ken sent me off to a Relief Society meeting and he kept the boys, I noticed this new picture on the camera when I got back, they must have been good for their Daddy.
Since I came home from the hospital J has been OBSESSED with the new "Feminine" items in the master bathroom. He seems to think they have super powers, like Wonder Woman's bracelets, and he tries to wear them. He has also discovered that these coveted items are sometimes found in the diaper-bag, which recently lead to an interesting moment at the Office Max- do you try to explain to strangers why your son has pantie liners stuck to his arms?
Those are my boys, I love them, I am pretty sure they love me. We are doing pretty well. The baby and I figured out a few things and yesterday's and this mornings naps went pretty well, lets hope it continues that way, AND that he starts sleeping a little longer at night too!

Once upon a time......

…..there was a Mom who knew what she was doing. She had one precious little son, who she worked hard with as a baby so that he would know how to sleep well. And most of the time he did sleep well. That Mom was happy, so happy in fact that she wanted to have more precious little children. And soon she did. She wasn’t scared, she was a Mom after-all, and like I said in the beginning, She KNEW what she was doing.

Or so she thought. You see she forgot to take into account that when she was sleep training her first precious son, she only had to worry about him all day long. There were no toddlers running through the house screaming as she was so lovingly trying to sooth her sweet little baby. There was no one banging on the door to the nursery, just to see what would happen. How had she over looked the fact that her circumstances had changed? Was she really so focused on the new little son that she didn’t add the first son into her equation? Her math was all wrong and now she is one stressed out Mom who has NO IDEA what she is doing. She is living Nap to Nap, and SHE never ever gets one. She is reading and asking lots of questions. She is experimenting and trying to do her best. But she is quite often frustrated. What can she really do? Who is she to believe?

One trusted book is telling her that since her baby was born 3 weeks early, he is really going to be 3 weeks behind. This would mean that consolidated night sleep won’t come until he is at 9 weeks old and that regular daytime naps won’t come until he is 4 months old, or maybe even older. How will she make it through? She has been asking God for miracles, but she wonders if He puts a limit on just how many blessings you can receive in a day.

The new precious baby boy sleeps Okay at night, going for 4-5 hours between feedings once per night, then 3 hours on the dot for any other feedings. The problem is with the day time naps. Today she decided that she just didn’t care to much about what she should and shouldn’t do. If her 6 week old is really a 3 week old- sleep wise, then she should just get used to it. She should Hold him, Feed him, Revel in the 30 to 45 minutes that he does nap, and not worry too much about the 15 minute cat naps he seems to like to take, (or really he seems to hate taking and thus fights off as much as possible). If he wants to sleep in her arms every day at 2 pm, then that is where he shall be for a few more weeks…..maybe. Her resolve is not so strong. She really, really wants him to nap better, is 1 to 2 hours at a time really that hard to accomplish?

Oh, there will be a happy ending. At some point this Mom and her precious baby will understand each other. Eventually she will figure out exactly how to keep the older precious toddler busy while she soothes and puts the baby down for his naps. Sooner or Later (pray that it is sooner) the precious baby boy will sleep for 6, 8 or dare we say 10 hours at night. Yes, they will live happily ever after. Unfortunately for this Mom she is still dreaming of once upon a time, when she knew what she was doing…..

Life as we now know it....

Baby B is almost 6 weeks old, he weighs round 10 pounds and he LOVES to eat, which is probably why he is smiling in this picture, because he had just woken up, had just had his diaper changed and we all know what that means....well, if your also hungry it means....that food is soon on the way. I also like to think that he LOVES me, and that is the real reason he was smiling at me- smiling so sweetly for so long that I was able to get a picture.Little J has discovered that there are times that he is less supervised than he has previously been, he seems to think that this means he is an adult and should take care of himself. The other day I came out of the nursery to find J hiding in my pantry. I asked what he was doing and he said "Apple Juice".
I opened the pantry to find him scooping rice into the pitcher, he had previously put some sugar in there too, it looks like J's recipe for Apple Juice is 2 cups sugar and 2 cups rice.
On Saturday Ken and I went to a show at the Desert Start Theater. It was "My Big Fat Utah Wedding" and it was really funny. The Boys went to Grandma Turners house while we were at the show. I thought it would be fun to dress them alike, since we just happen to have matching outfits.

The Phantom Baby

It might have been called the Phantom Menace, but that name has already been taken. I am talking about the baby that I can hear crying, the one that doesn't exist. Does anyone else have this problem? When J was a baby I would wake up hearing a baby cry, it was a normal cry, I would get out of bed and realize that I couldn't hear the crying anymore, get back into bed and the crying would resume. I would poke Ken, he wouldn't necessarily wake up, but most of the time he would move and his breathing would change rhythm and the baby would stop crying again. It didn't take too long for me to figure out that the baby I heard crying was actually an odd combination of Ken's deep sleep breathing and the creaking of the ceiling fan.

Well last night I heard a baby crying. Ken was not in bed yet and I thought the baby was asleep. This crying was not your normal crying, it was horrible, colicky crying. I felt so bad for Ken and the baby that I got out of bed. No crying. Hmmm. Where is the baby. In bed, asleep. Hmmm. Ken heard me up and about and came up to see what was wrong. "I heard a baby crying, but I guess it wasn't ours...." and so I went back to bed. It wasn't too long before I heard the baby crying again, loud, rhythmic, inconsolable. I had to help that baby, so I got up. No crying. I was very frustrated I couldn't sleep because every-time I closed my eyes that phantom baby was calling to me. I don't know how to explain how I felt other than to say I was "Keyed Up" (I just looked up what that means because I wasn't sure it was the right word, "Nervous, Strained, Anxious, Tense" yep, it was the right word) AND my heart hurt, physically, it still hurts.

After a few minutes our baby did wake up, and he did start to cry and oddly, though he has never been as upset as the baby I could hear when I closed my eyes, he got kind of close to that inconsolable wail. This scared me even more. I was able to console him, I figured out that he was hungry (though it wasn't time really) and I fed him, right after he was done eating he fell fast asleep and stayed that way for 4 hours. I still heard the phantom baby when I closed my eyes, and to make it worse I had a song stuck in my head too- the chorus of "Can't carry on " by Crowded House, it was taunting me

Can't carry on this way (just go to sleep)

Before it gets too late (just go to sleep)

Doing damage to my brain

Well here we go again....

Over and over and over. I close my eyes, the phantom baby cries, I open my eyes and Crowded House is telling me to go to sleep or I will get brain damage. It wasn't fun. I started to sing primary songs to myself, and eventually I fell asleep.

So, once again, I find myself quite tired, and now I am worried that my baby will become Colicky and that I will never sleep again- well at least for 3 more months. I guess there is really nothing I can do, other than try my best to be a good Mommy. I can do that. I just wish the Phantom Baby would leave me alone, can't it tell that I have my own problems to deal with, as well as my own REAL, flesh and blood baby? Ugh.

On a happy note, there really has not been much crying today- in fact the baby has been taking a pretty good nap, sleep begets sleep.....hopefully for baby and mommy.

All By Myself....

Ken didn't have much time off after J was born. I was freaked out, of course, and tired and that first week we were home my Mom came and helped out in the mornings so that I could rest. This was very necessary because little J didn't realize he needed to sleep. Silly J.

This time Ken was able to take Paternity Leave, and he was home for 3 weeks! It was blissful, but I think I should have taken more advantage of the opportunity to nap while he was here, because now I am very tired, and I am all by myself with two very sweet boys. I didn't feel as much need to nap while Ken was here with us because he helped out with the baby at night, so I could get more sleep. Monday night I took care of the baby all by myself, this wouldn't be so bad, but I, myself, had a bad nights sleep, I couldn't get my brain to turn off when it needed too, and I lost at least 1 precious hour of sleep worrying about the carpet- that is right, my dirty carpet kept me awake.

That loss of sleep, combined with the fact that this sweet little guy.....

sleeps for 4 hours between 8 and midnight, and then is up every 3 hours (which includes the time it takes to eat and return to sleep) made for one very tired and pretty scared Mom when Dad left for work yesterday morning. Prayers were said and tears, many tears, were shed and I walked out into the unknown. Luckily for me, God Lives, and he heard those prayers and sent miracles! Here is our story.

Ken left for work around 6:30, I had been up with Billy for almost an hour, and I got him to go to sleep as soon as I possibly could (this was Miracle #1 because he slept for almost 2 hours) then I was able to say my personal prayers, read my scriptures and close my eyes for 15-20 minutes before J woke up.

I started making breakfast and thought I would do the dishes while my eggs cooked. For some reason I had to leave the kitchen, upon my return I found J making his breakfast, or so he thought. He had taken a bowl out of the dishwasher- it was the bowl that we usually use to scramble our eggs- and he had taken the eggs out of the refrigerator, he looked at me and smiled and said "Eggies, Yum!" at which point I told him that yes, eggs were yummy but he wasn't allowed to make them himself and I took the eggs away. He was soon pacified with a portion of my eggs that had just finished cooking. After breakfast I continued to do the dished and J played in the front room, I could hear him playing with the phone but I didn't think he could actually call anyone. After all he usually hits the "END" button after every 2 or 3 other buttons he pushes. Well, I was wrong. A few minutes later Ken called from work to tell me that he had just received a call from one of the people he carpools with, apparently J had managed to make a call- to the last person who had called us- and it just so happened to be Ken's carpool buddy. I am sure there were plenty of laughs about that at CHG. I was able to laugh about it too. It was right about this time that Baby B woke up. With a SNOTTY NOSE!

Miracle #2- I was actually able to use the nose bulb thing- and the baby wasn't congested the rest of the day!

I got J settled downstairs, watching episode after episode of Little Einsteins and I was able to get the baby fed, changed, cuddled and down for his second nap by 10, this was Miracle #3 because the baby had not gone down for 2 naps so easily since he got over his newborn sleepiness. And it was perfect timing because within the next hour J would appear to test my faith and patience in a big way.

I heard him calling for me, "Mom, I need help!" he said. "Help with what?" I asked as I walked toward the stairs, he came around the corner at the bottom of the stairs, COMPLETELY NAKED. "Poop, need wipes" he said. I felt calm, in fact I think I even giggled a little, and J and I worked together to get him cleaned up and then we had some one on one time. I think this was Miracle #4. Little J needed some time just with Mommy. We read books. One of J's current favorites is "If you give a Moose a Muffin", we read that one 3 times and then J asked for a muffin, and then another, and then another.

It wasn't too long before the baby woke up. We all had lunch and I marveled that I had made it through so much of the day with out any major frustrations or crying spells. After Lunch, J took some pictures, this one was actually pretty good.
I thought I might actually get a nap, but I was wrong, as soon as I got J down for his afternoon nap, baby B woke up from a nap and wanted to be held, I find it hard to sleep while holding a baby. It wasn't too long after that that Ken came home. The evening progressed nicely and we were able to get both the boys down for the night.
Don't they look happy? J loves to have kisses from "buba" as part of his bedtime routine. I think they are the sweetest brothers I have ever seen.

I slept better last night- probably from exhaustion. Today has been good, I think I can handle this. I don't expect to ever feel like a perfect mother, but yesterday I felt competent, and that was Miracle #5.