Nathaniel Rolls From Back to Front

This morning I put Nathaniel on his back in his ‘playground’ while I washed some dishes. For a couple weeks now he’s been pretty close to rolling over from back to front. Normally Nathaniel rolls until his arm is in the way – and that’s as far as he goes. But today I guess he really wanted to be on his tummy. It might have helped that he could see himself in the mirror.

Perpetually Sick

I’ve had a cold since … well … the beginning of May. It seems to mutate every week or two. Just as I think I’m almost better, I develop new symptoms. “Hmm. Sinus infection. Excellent.” “Phew. Sinuses have cleared. What’s with this nasty cough?” Alice had a bacterial eye infection, and I managed to contract that as well. Her eyes are mostly cleared, and so are mine. Nathaniel had a mild eye infection, and he’s mostly better as well. On Thursday I told someone at work that I was amazed Corinna hadn’t been sick. Apparently I spoke too soon. Friday morning she awoke with a really nasty cold too. Alice is mostly healthy, and Nathaniel has cruised through almost unscathed. If Nathaniel was sleeping through the night, I’d probably be fine. The immune system on a sleep-deprived adult isn’t worth much.

4 month vaccinations for Nathaniel May 30th

Last Friday we went to the south calgary health centre for Nathaniel’s 4 month shots. He weighs 14 lb 1 oz, and length is 25 3/4 inches. He’s still 55% for weight, but is now 75% for length- since he is a Murray, this is sure to change to a more “average” percentile. Nurse Carol had all sorts of advise and things to watch out for ie/small toys baby could put in his mouth, grabbing hot drinks off the table…hello- have ya noticed I already have a child? Been there, done that. Thanks for the advise but we just came for the needles! And have you noticed my first child is the age of 3, which means, “hurry up!” She was an older nurse, old school. Long gone are the days she’d remember hauling baby with toddler in tow…

Nathaniel rolls over!

Today Nathaniel rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time. And he did it several times, it was so cute! He’s able to push himself up so he’s not face planting on the floor, which makes tummy time much more enjoyable for him. Today we also gave him pablum for the first time too; in hopes this may help him sleep better at night. One can always hope!

Easy Peasy

For all of those who think having kids is easy (these people don’t have any children, or know of anyone who does!), or those who have a child and think 2 would be better: Here is our life at 4 months post-partum: Alice is 3 1/2, still wears pull ups at night. She rarely naps, but when she does her bedtime gets shifted accordingly. Given our nights with baby, we are not pushing potty training at night yet. Alice has an eye infection and needs eye drops 3x/day. These take about 1/2 hour to do, and end up with a full on hold with her kicking and screaming. The up side is I do eventually get some medication in her eye, and the infection is clearing up quickly. I’ve been sick almost steady for the last 2 months (2 nasty colds and 1 stomach bug). Don has had a cold for the last 2 weeks, and has a sinus infection. Yesterday Alice slept for 2 hours in the afternoon (of course her nap did not coincide with Nathaniel, so I didn’t get to lay down- this by the way, has only happened twice since having baby. Yes, that’s right, there have been a whopping 2 days in the last 4 months where all 3 of us have had a nap). Last night she didn’t fall asleep until after 11pm… Once I finally got her to bed, I went to bed. At 11:30pm, Nathaniel woke for his feeding. He was pretty tired, so it was a quick feed, I was back in bed shortly after midnight. Just as I fell asleep, he woke again at 1am, go downstairs to heat another bottle. Decide not to change baby since he was just changed less than 2 hrs ago, maybe he’ll stay sleepy enough and fall back asleep right away. After feeding him, burping him, I put baby back to bed. I don’t even get out of his room before he starts squealing (his latest fun activity to do in the middle of the night when we’re not sleepy). Luckily, this doesn’t last long and he falls quiet before 2am. I go back to bed. 2:30am: Alice wakes up and says she’s hungry. I go downstairs and get her a banana. She has 2 little bites and I tuck her back in. 3:00am: Nathaniel wakes for yet another feeding. I can’t believe he’s up AGAIN! Feed baby, try to keep my eyes open, change baby. Burp baby, more squealing. How can he be so happy at this godforsaken hour? By 4:30am, he finally falls quiet. But I hear Alice coughing, so I went into her room and she was laying in bed with her eyes open; she said she couldn’t sleep because she was coughing. So I gave her a soft cough drop to help her throat so she could sleep. Then I go downstairs to the playroom to turn Don’s monitor on (Don has started sleeping downstairs so that we can take actual shifts in the night- neither of us are getting any sleep!Also, his squealing is so loud it wakes up Alice; so lately I’ve been bringing baby into bed with me during this stage of the night until he’s sleepy enough to go back to his crib). I go to bed, put my ear plugs in and go to sleep. 7:30am: Alice wakes up and says “Good Morning, Mommy!”. I need to start drinking coffee; dark, dark coffee. And Don says I should have waited to go back to work until Nathaniel is sleeping through the night. Who needs sleep???!!! Maybe we’ll get some in 17 years… So, doesn’t that sound like fun?

Nathaniel at 3 1/2 months

So, our little man has changed quite a bit since his earlier days… At this point, he started to laugh, and laugh out loud a lot! He likes to be tickled around his neck, it’s so cute. He can also blow raspberries, oh, and the drooling! He has begun teething already, and when he’s on a finger chewing spree, your shoulder will be soaked within minutes! He is a chewer, not a sucker- Alice loved (more than life itself, I think) her dooters- Nathaniel shows no interest unless he can chew on it. Most teething toys are too big for his little mouth, so they just frustrate him. But these toys are certainly helping him with his hand coordination and grasping skills- he wants to chew on something every waking moment- so he has no choice to get good at grabbing things. He is also a kicker- he loves to kick! He kicks when he gets excited- Alice is his most favorite person (even more than Mommy, I think!)- he’ll kick and laugh, smile and giggle for her- he watches her every move! He also kicks lots when in the bonus room and we turn the celing fan on- the big mobile in the sky! (He loves his mobile in his crib- lots of kicking for that always) We not only don’t swaddle him anymore, but also can’t put him in footed sleepers, zippered or snaps- he will kick his way out of the snapped ones, and with the zippered ones, he ends up with his legs out of the leg holes. He also can roll onto his side (usually when he’s mad), and can move around his crib or the floor through his kicking. He still wakes 1-2 times/night for feedings and usually wakes for the day between 5:30am-6:30am. Still his father’s son… This means that Mommy and Daddy have 16 hour days- Alice’s schedule is off 2 hours- her day is usually 8am-8pm; Nathaniel is 6am-6pm. We’re in bed an hour or so after Alice, so we don’t get much child-free time. Not that we mind, of course. But it will be nice once baby starts sleeping through the night! I just got over a nasty cold that lasted 12 days, 2 days after which I got the flu. I was still quite sick last week cooking for my clients on Wednesday, and had a hors d’oeuvre party for 9 on Thursday, plus delivery for 3 clients’ meals that day… Don caught my cold when I got the flu- it wasn’t fun. Alice and Nathaniel both remained healthy. Not that being sleep deprived would have anything to do with us getting so sick… Although Nathaniel just got over a case of eczema on his head; it started out as dry skin, which he’s had on his scalp since he was born; the dry skin changed to almost craddle cap- which Alice had as an infant; so I brushed his little head to get it off (daddy hates when I pick; mommy’s always picking!) But the brushing wasn’t quite enough, so I’d brush then put oil on his head. And it would still get dry; the dryness changed to a raised red patch of skin on his forhead, which must have been incredibly itchy, and Nathaniel would scratch incesantly, leaving little scabs. Finally I called Dr.Pow and we got a RX for some cream which cleared it up in 2 days. Good, because that patch on his forehead spread to other areas on his head and face…. so dry! Now he’s all good. and mommy feels much better. We have Post Natal Helpers come when I work now; I work Monday’s and Thursday’s and we have Megan or Sydney as our helpers, both whom we like very much. It’s nice because they come when I need them, and when they get here I leave to do my thing, and I don’t worry! I love not having to put Nathaniel in a day home while he’s still so young, and I’m glad that we can keep Alice home as well. She’s still in preschool, and will continue through the summer and then in the fall- this is her only structured activity, aside from soccer. (She started soccer 2 weeks ago, every Saturday morning).

Nathaniel's 3 month visit with Dr. Pow

Alice, Nathaniel and I went to Dr. Pow’s yesterday for his 3 month check up. He weighs 12 lb 7 oz and is 24 inches long. No concerns, no problems. He is such an easy baby, I don’t know what we’d do if he wasen’t; we’re run off our feet as it is! Alice is much more work than baby; it’s a much simpler life when you’re little than when you’re 3.

Nathaniel's 1st vaccinations March 28th

Okay, I know it’s April 24th, only 1 month after this event… I have 2 kids! The excuse I plan to use for about the rest of my life! Alice, Nathaniel and I went to the South Calgary Health Center, and both children did very well.. Alice wasen’t too sure what to make of it all, though, when Nathaniel got his needles- her job was to ring the bell in his ear, but when he got the first needle and started to cry, Alice didn’t really know what to do; and of course, he got the other 2 needles in his right leg, so more crying… But she did ring the bell, and I think she felt good that she helped her brother. His measurements were: 10lb 13 oz. 23 1/4 inches long 40 cm. head circumference He was 50th percentile for weight and 55th for height- exactly in the middle, which means he is perfectly proportioned. That’s my little guy!

Nathaniel at 8 weeks

For the last couple weeks, Nathaniel has been cooing up a storm! He’s so cute, these little smiles and sounds. Makes child birth all worth it :-) You forget all this, these stages. They grow through them so fast, and get big so fast. It’s hard to remember Alice when she was a baby. I keep looking at her, thinking she’s huge! I ask her “Where did my baby Alice go? Where is my little girl?” And she replies “You can still call me your little girl mommy!” Tonight was the first night he learned how to splash in the bath. Time to move his baby tub out of the kitchen sink and into the bathtub!

Nathaniel at 6 weeks

6 weeks ago I went into labor…it’s hard to believe! Our little guy has grown so much, and is such a good baby. Our 6 week visit with Dr. Pow was on Monday. We haven’t blogged about him yet, aside from his birth story, so I’m going to write as much as my poor sleep deprived memory can remember. From the first moment I saw my little guy (without the mind altering drugs!), I closely studied my angel. The first thing I thought was, he has my dad’s neck! The back of his neck is all Chant. When I’d feed him, sitting on the edge of my hospital bed, I would burp him propped up on my knee and holding his face in my right hand; every time I did this he would hold up his left hand, in a fist. I called this his “strong man” pose, it was so cute. Of course everything he did was cute… His little fists reminded me of great grandpa chant. Whenever I hold his little hands, and he grabs on to a finger as he drinks his bottles, I always think that he has my hands. His eyebrows, forehead, eyes, and nose– all Chant! His body has very little hair on it, his back is very smooth. I often study his face and hands during those late night feedings, often the only time I have alone to admire my little angel. And, I must say, he is a little angel because he is always so relaxed! He hardly fusses at all- only when he’s tired, hungry or needs to burp. How easy is that? 6 weeks is typically peak fussiness for babies; Nathaniel has met this mark without a trace of anything unusual. He may look like a Chant, but I dare say his temperment is all Murray!!! The first week at home I had to set my alarm to feed baby in the night, otherwise he wouldn’t wake up! So different than it was with Alice… After this week he’d wake on his own, every 2-5 hours, usually 3-4 hours between feedings. He’d eat about 50ml, then we’d change his diaper, burp, then he’d slowly finish his bottle until he passes out. Then on to the next feeding. His most sensitive relex is the gag reflex: when he’s had enough or needs to burp, he will gag, sometimes to the point of throwing up everything he just ate (it’s essentially a very large spit up, I think). He started out on Similac advance- the same formula he had at the hospital. Our reason for this was that with Alice, we kept changing formulas as we thought her fussiness was because of what she was eating…I kept looking for the silver bullet that would change her into an angel baby. We never found it… Anyway, we thought if we kept things consistent, we’d be more likely to have success this time around. So, same formula, and same form (ready to use vs. concentrate or powder). Also, we kept him in his moses basket, swaddled and propped up in his crib, since that’s how he slept in the hospital. He was doing well with this, so after a couple weeks we lost the basket and put him directly in his crib. At 2 weeks his big toe on his right foot became infected. When he was born, Nathaniel’s skin on his big toe was grown over the nail a bit; but the next day it seemed to dry out and I didn’t think it would become an issue. I guess I was wrong! The day we discovered the infection Don took him to the walk in clinic (since it was a Sunday) and the Dr. gave us a prescription for cloxacilin. Since the infection was under his toe, we couldn’t get at the pus to get rid of it; the Dr. told Don we should go home and try to drain it with a pin or something. Ummm, isn’t this your job? Monday morning I called Dr. Pow and talked to his nurse Connie; she squeezed us in so we could get it looked at by a (real) doctor. We told Dr. Pow what the clinic said, and he told us that he wouldn’t do that to one of our toes, let alone a newborn’s. He took a look at it and worked it a bit and managed to drain the infection (without sharp instruments). This was a relief, since his toe was so big and red it must have just throbbed! I told Dr. Pow I was also concerned about his left eye- it had a discharge/pus in it since he was born, that wasn’t going away. He said it was a malfunctioning tear duct, and to just massage under the corner of his eye to help. We also mentioned concerns about his poor tummy (or tum tum as I call it!)- he didn’t poo unless we had brown sugar or prune juice in his formula. He recommended we switch formulas (oh no!) to Isomil Advance- the makers of Similac, but this formula is soy based- no casein or lactose, in case Nathaniel has a milk intolerance. So we switched, and in a few days he was regular on his own. Though soy based poops are a little different; lovely green/brown paste. Nice. (Only fellow parents can appreciate the poo comments!) At this point we also stopped swaddling him with his arms inside, since he’d just fight his way out of it, though he still seems to like the swaddle. By this point Nathaniel seemed to be liking his baths better- he no longer cried. At 3 weeks Don went back to work, so I was on my own. I was able to drive now at least, but being home by myself every day seemed daunting. Alice was getting better with her baby brother, so that part was easier; she still hadn’t much interest in him, though (better than throwing a blanket over his head to try to stop his crying!) At the 4 week mark, our little guy started to loose his hair; he had old man head! Plus he broke out with baby acne, he was a teenager and an old man all at once! His acne has since cleared, and his hair is starting to grow back as well. Measurements at 3 weeks: 9lb 8 oz 22 1/4 in Measurements at 6 weeks: 10lb 4 oz. 23 1/4 in He no longer fits into 0-3 month size clothes… At about 4 weeks he started to get a birthmark on his left leg, right above his knee. Alice has a similar one on her right hip, which started about the same age- perhaps this is the trademark of our children!