Merry (Belated) Christmas!

Merry Belated Christmas to all! Things are hectic as usual, but there are some things I want to share with you while my sweet prince snoozes. Let's see if I can get it all typed out and posted before he wakes up!

*** Ready? Set? Go! ***

Griffin's first Christmas has come and gone. Strangely, the day isn't nearly as blurred as our Christmas usually is, and that is all thanks to Griffin! Every other year we've gone to my mom's Christmas Eve, spent the night, gotten up at the ass-crack of dawn to do our Christmas, then headed over to my brother's house (in a fit of my mom's anxiety for fear of forgetting something at home and having to make a grueling 3-mile trip back) and had brunch and Christmas there. Then, in the early afternoon once we were sure everyone at my brother's house had opened their gifts from us and we had opened all of ours from them, we packed up the car and drove an hour and a half to Bry's mom's house (usually in cold rain or heavy fog like last year) only to arrive and have had his family who said they would be having dinner have decided to eat early before we got there and then offer us a sandwich hours later (don't get me started...) during the annual hearts tournament. Moving on....we just stayed at my brother's for the day and then came home. So much nicer to not travel so much - and all thanks to Griffin! Mommy and Daddy refused to subject our wee man to all that traveling. As for Santa, he and our family were good to Griffin. He got a few toys, lots of books and some clothes. He had no idea what was going on though since he's you know, 7 weeks old (omg, really?  already?!?!) and was asleep on Mommy most of the day.

Rewind to the Tuesday before Christmas. December 21st. Griffin turned 6 weeks old that day, and I had my post-partum check up. The incision is all healed up, my uterus is fully back to normal and I am free to resume my normal activities. Oh wait though, I had a fever of 100.5 the night before and an aching, red boob. Yes, obviously mastitis, though not a terrible case of it. Still, antibiotics were in order. That's where it gets interesting. I have so many drug allergies that the "only thing" they could give me was an IV of vancomycin. And a 23 hour hospital stay. And a home health nurse twice a day for the next 5 days to administer meds in the IV line I'd be going home with. But wait! Thankfully, due to the new home health people the hospital forces the docs to use requiring a picc line for ALL home infusion therapy - even 5 days worth - my doctor decided that was not in my best interest and sent me home after only 8 hours and one bag of vancomycin with a prescription for oral clindamycin. (I'm not even going to attempt to understand why he wouldn't give that to me in the first place, especially when I asked for it.) He then proceeded to tell me that I absolutely 100% would get diarrhea and was likely to get a nasty C. diff infection. I don't want to jinx anything, but day #9 on the clindamycin here and none of that has happened. Thank you probiotics!

And lastly for today, since the prince is starting to stir, making my typing time is severely limited, I have to tell you about daycare. He starts Tuesday. I'm not happy. Besides having to go back to work and leave my precious baby in someone else's care whom I don't really know, we have one issue that has cropped up. He sleeps in his carseat because of the reflux. They don't allow kids to sleep in their carseats. They don't allow the carseats in the room with the babies at all. He HAS to sleep in his crib, but we can prop it up. Yeah...that doesn't work. Unless someone knows how to prop a crib mattress up at a 60 degree angle while simultaneously keeping a baby in place and not rolling down to the bottom of the crib, someone at daycare will have very tired arms or severely lack the ability to hear by the end of the day. Part of me wants to try in the next 4 days (omg only 4!!!!) to get him used to sleeping in a crib propped up and have him be ok with it. And by "ok with it" I mean not squeal and scream in pain while throwing up the entire contents of his stomach all over himself and his crib, and then continuing to throw up/dry heave once being picked up. The other part of me wants to continue with the status quo here at home and let daycare deal with it since they are the ones who refuse to let us put his carseat in his crib there. (With the amount of money we are paying them, they should allow it while also presenting Griffin with a potty seat made of gold.) Perhaps a few days of that will make them change their minds? Alas, I don't know if I can stomach sending him off to daycare knowing he will be having such a horrible time and not being there to comfort him. Looks like my last 4 days of maternity leave will be sleepless and puked filled.

Happy New Year! Next post, I will have Christmas and New Year's pics :)

New pictures!!!

Sorry for the delay. Also, sorry these aren't from the camera and are phone pics. We can't find the card reader, so the pictures are still stuck on the camera. Here is a quick update before the pics:


Stats: 11lbs, 11.25oz; 22in long; still cute as can be (see pics below!)

Health: Prevacid seems to be working pretty well, but he still squeals in pain some.

Milestones: Smiles and laughs in his sleep. Smiles while awake. Laughed once or twice while awake (apparently, we aren't that funny...). Starting to reach for things. Great neck strength/head control. Follows objects with eyes (when he's in the mood to).

And now, what you've all been waiting for....

My new bed. Thank you, reflux!



Sleeping

Sleeping in my swing.

***But wait! I do more than just sleep.***

I chill.

I scream and flail.

I wear bears on my feet.

And I drive!

ENT update, etc.

Griffin is A-OK!  Nothing else seems to be going on, and nothing about the microcleft and deviated septum needs fixed. We go back in a year just to check in and make sure no other issues have cropped up, but other than that he's been pronounced perfect yet again. Yay!

The Prevacid is working well. We stopped the Zantac now that it has been a few days on Prevacid. He's in a little more pain tonight than he was yesterday, but I think that will subside in the next day or so.

Thanks to everyone who has given me suggestions on increasing my milk supply. Sadly, I've tried them all to no avail. I'm still pumping some and renewed my pump rental for another month on Monday. It just doesn't look like exclusive breastfeeding is in the cards for us. Griffin is growing wonderfully though, so I know he is ok, and I know I gave it a good try. If I had it to do over again, I would probably do things a little differently, but I can't dwell on the past and the missteps I took.

In other, but related, news: I wish I could be a stay at home mom! Today was such a great day. Even though I'm totally beat at this point and typing as fast as I can so I can snatch a few hours (hopefully) of sleep before my little prince wakes up again, I would just love to stay home with Griffin. If only I could get paid to do so! I don't have to go back to work until after the New Year, but I'm dreading it. I've been dreading it since the first moment I saw Griffin, and even somewhat before then. I am keeping my fingers crossed to a) remember to buy lotto tickets and b) win at least $500,000 in the lotto. A girl can dream....

Didn't I *just* pee on a sick?

Here we are with Griffin already a month old. It may be a cliche, but time really has flown by. How can a month have already slipped by???  I guess sleep deprevation will do that to you.

So, Griffin is a healthy little guy who now weighs 11lbs 2.5oz and is 22 inches long. He has reflux, which we have been giving him Zantac for, but it's not helping enough so starting today we are giving him Prevacid. Hopefully that will calm the pain down for him enough that he can sleep comfortably and just be more comfy in general. He also tends to get very painful gas, which we are giving him chamomile tea for. I know it sounds odd, but that was what the pediatrician told us to do. We replace one ounce of water with tea when we make him a bottle of formula.

Oh yeah...formula. My intention was to breastfeed. He only took the breast for the first 3 days. Each time he did, it was more of a fight to get him to stay latched on than it was the last time. By day 4, he refused and went to a bottle while I started pumping. Newborns should generally eat 2-3 ounces at a time. He screamed for a 4th ounce by the time we came home from the hospital. What can I say? He likes his food! Anyway, I have never been able to pump enough to satisfy him, so earlier this week I decided to stop. That decision was heartbreaking...and only lasted 24 hours at which point my boobs were screaming in pain and I just had to pump since I couldn't even pick Griffin up without pain. I decided I would pump when my boobs felt like they needed it, which has never been as often as I have pumped, and we'd go from there. He gets his Zantac mixed in with breastmilk though that will stop in a few days when the Prevacid kicks in. I hope to be able to pump enough to feed him one 4oz bottle a day. It may only end up being a 2oz bottle, but I know every little bit helps and is good for him.

In other health news, Griffin has a microcleft lip and deviated septum. The microcleft doesn't cause any problems - his palatte is perfect - and is just a cosmetic thing. The deviated septum is partially causing his snoring and waking him him when he stops snoring mid-snore and then suddenly snores again. Because of this, we will be seeing an ENT on Tuesday just to get a once-over and make sure there aren't any other subtle issues. Our doctor doesn't think anything can or will be done, especially at his age, but thought it would be a good idea to just get looked at, and I very much agree. I'll try to update after that appointment, but Bryan goes back to work on Monday so I'll be flying solo and might be totally insane by then!

Last night, at just one month and one day old, we left Griffin with a sitter and went to the movies (Harry Potter yay!) and then we got a full, uninterrupted night of sleep! Thanks goes to my sister for coming over to watch our little cutie and offering to spend the night to help us out. She got a nice dose of what it's like to be a new mommy. This is a very good thing seeing as how she's only 17 and we'd like to keep her from becoming a mommy for quite a few years! I think one night with a fussy baby is a fabulous form of birth control.

We still haven't pulled the pictures off of the camera yet, nor have we uploaded any videos. Once my laptop gets fixed and Griffin stays down for a nap long enough for me to eat, pee and then get on the computer I will at very least get them off of the cameras and ready to look through and post.

Hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving and is having an equally great holiday season!