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Better late than never, right? Just humor me, cause that’s what I’m telling myself these days! The last six weeks have seriously been a blur, but a good blur.
I’ve been lucky enough to spend every day of these past six weeks getting to know my little guy. And I am so in love with him.
He’s grown so much. It’s hard to believe that he’s close to ten pounds these days!
His baby noises have evolved, too. He’s still doing his fair share of grunting, but he’s started cooing regularly as well. And he’s mimicking facial expressions. So when I smile at him, he’ll smile back at me. It’s such a wonderful feeling to see him smile his big, open-mouthed smile back at me! Words cannot express!
Oscar has been keeping close tabs on his little brother. He rarely leaves his side, but is still a bit skeptical. I’m sure they’ll soon be the best of friends.
Oh, and Ari is still colicky. It’s exhausting and, at times, really frustrating, but I feel like we’re coping with it as best we can. Because his colicky period is usually very late at night, we’re still sleeping in shifts. Chad will stay up from 9pm to 2am so that I can sleep during that time. Then I stay awake with Ari from 2am on. Yeah it can suck at times, but it works for us. If I’m lucky I’ll get to doze off for an hour during my shift. Last night, of course, was not one of those nights.
Ari and I make it a point to get out of the house every day. Even if it’s just running to Starbucks or Target for a hot minute. But it’s good for us to get out of the house. And now that I’ve had my six-week postpartum follow up appointment yesterday, I’m cleared for exercise! I am beyond excited about this! Time to lace up my running shoes and get my yoga on!
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this yet, but I’ve gone to great lengths to discuss it on Twitter, but because Ari was tongue tied when he was born [which has since been fixed], he had a problem latching to nurse. After a week of not being able to seem to satisfy his hunger, I started to pump and bottle feed. That way he’s still getting all of the nutrition and benefits from the breast milk. At first it wasn’t ideal, but it’s working out well for us. He’ll latch on now, but at times, it’s easier for us all to bottle feed.
It’s hard to believe that I will have to go back to work in less than 5 weeks. But I’m trying not to think about that right now. Back to enjoying my little man. 🙂
I don’t have much daycare experience with colic since most babies are grown out of it by the time they reach daycare age and even those that haven’t rarely exhibit the “symptoms” during the standard daycare hours, but I was a terribly colicky baby when I was born. My dad said that for me its primary cause was overstimulation. I would just get too wound up and lacked all the tools to settle down again. (It must be traumatic for parents, because I *still* hear about it from my parents!) He found two things helped me a lot: Keeping me away from stimulation several times a day and especially in the hours leading up to my “witching hours” and white noise (anything really: a running vacuum, a fan, putting my in my baby seat next to a running clothes dryer, even just static turned low on the radio). That and time (the other factor is believed to be an immature digestive system compounded with an immature nervous system in newborns and young infants) were the only true cures for me, but with his two secret weapons, he could usually get me to settle down more quickly and then he lay down on the couch, lay me on his stomach and the two of us would get some shut eye. I hope you find the secrets to soothing Ari soon! (My dad found mine by trial-and-error and attempting anything and everything til something worked.)
Trial and error is where we’re at now. We know certain things seem to work and others are a lost cause. Mostly we’re just trying to survive 🙂 The white noise is a HUGE plus! Not only does it help Ari sleep, but it’s been helping me nod off too 😉
Hi Rachel! New follower and new Mommy! I hope Ari kicks this whole colic thing! I had it bad as a baby and I am hoping CJ doesn’t inherit that from me!
I have nominated you for the Leibster Award – check out my blog for details.
Look at that face, so adorable!