Pool Fun

Mary and I attended a Women's Retreat with her church last night in the Poconos. Today, during the afternoon free-time, we hit the indoor pool to give Elias his first go at it. Since he loves his baths, I figured he would like the pool, though the cooler water might come as a bit of a surprise. We eased into it, and he loved it as you can see in these pictures below.

Routines

Two months old and still no set schedule. That's to be expected, I guess. I've been reading a lot about getting your baby on a schedule. After reading some people's stories, I consider myself blessed to have a two month old that sleeps through the night (at least for now, I hear it could change). He is a fussy baby, I won't deny that. But sleeping at night helps me get through the day better. As I get to know Eli, I have a lot of patience with his fussiness. It only comes from God that I can say that because there are still times when I'm at my wits' end and I'm tired and frustrated with all the crying. Since he's been on Zantac for his acid reflux, though, there's been a marked difference with his temperament. He's happier longer; he can eat better without having to pull off, arch his back and wail. All in all, he's doing better. And that makes for two happy parents. He's still fussy, but definitely better.

Yesterday, he slept a good portion of the day. I let him as I'm trying to really watch what his needs are when it comes to sleeping and eating. I wanted to be sure that it wasn't me that was keeping him up a lot during the day. As it turns out, he just doesn't need as much sleep as many infants do. He was up once out of the norm last night and woke up a little earlier than usual. He's still sleeping now, though. He tends to sleep the morning away, but stay up a good bit later in the evenings. I'd like to switch it around: have him turn in earlier and get up earlier. Although I must say, I do like the mornings to myself. Figuring this thing out is a challenge!

Any moms out there with advice on routine? I'd also like to hear about any types of "playing" you do with your baby at this age.

Alfalfa

Aunt and Uncle Maremy

Last evening, Eli and I went to Maremy's (that's short for Mary and Jeremy's) to hang out with Aunt Mary. When Uncle Jeremy came home, we decided to order pizza and wings (and let's not forget about the pizza fries) and have Dan come straight to their house after work. So that's what we did and we had a marvelous time. Eli was really well-behaved too. Maremy are working their way through the Harry Potter movies that we loaned them, so we watched the third one with them. When we got home, I put Eli down for the night and he didn't wake up until after 6 this morning. And the only reason he got up then was because Mommy woke him up to feed him. Then about 8:00, I put him down for another nap as he was falling asleep anyway and it's been all I could do to keep him awake since. I'm afraid that he won't sleep tonight if he keeps this up! We've been sick with colds this past week, so nights haven't been terribly great. He had begun to sleep through the night before he got a little cold. I'm so proud of him! He's doing so well!!

Glorious Pachebel

Glorious glorious Pachebel. As overplayed as it is, I absolutely love Pachebel's Canon in D. Apparently, so does Elias. This evening, I was listening to some Moby when Eli began fussing. His fussing turned into cries as it often does at this time of day. I picked him up and put in Pachebel's Canon in D. He calmed down immediately and drifted off to sleep. Now one could argue that it was because I picked him up, but I chose to believe it was the choice in music. I very shortly put him back in his swing and left Canon on repeat. He is still asleep. That's the lulling and calming affects of classical music, my friend. It can work wonders.

Spiked Hair

A Happy Boy

He's been smiling for some time now, but I've never been able to catch them on camera. I was finally able to catch a bunch of smiles this morning. I was so happy that he was smiling, I just kept on taking picture after picture and he just kept on grinning away. It's amazing how fleeting his emotions can be though. One minute he can be perfectly content and happy, the next minute he decides that he wants to be held. I'm learning to decipher his cries and body language as well as anticipate his needs before he starts informing the media of them. It's quite rewarding as a mother to be on top of it, when I am.

Sleepy Baby

I just liked the play with stripes in this picture.


I had to wake the little guy this morning around 7:30 to feed him. He woke up once during the night for a brief feeding before we were back to sleep until morning. Two days ago, Eli slept all day and all night. I couldn't believe it. He fell asleep before 11:30 that evening, and didn't wake up until I got him up around 6:30 the next morning. I absolutely couldn't believe it.

No Excuse For Pictures

Baby's First Bottle

I began pumping on Saturday. I must say, I was quite nervous about the whole process. I seriously felt like a cow. But once I got the hang of it, I was fascinated and loved it! I can pump so that Dan can feed Eli! We took a bottle to his parents' on Saturday and Dan tried feeding him for the first time. He took it right away. I couldn't believe it. He drank the whole thing and then I needed to feed him some more. Our little guy has one rambunctious guzzler, I tell you what. It's no wonder he's growing so fast. I have no way to guage how much he eats unless I pump. It's fun to share the tasks of caring for Elias with Dan. As you can see from the picture above that Dan thinks so too!

Here's Chris enjoying his time with the family... or rather his piece of ice cream cake. I must admit, Dairy Queen does have delicious ice cream cakes.

The Bearded Bald Guy

Last week was Dad Simrak's birthday. He and Mom returned from the Bahamas on Friday evening. We celebrated his birthday together with the rest of the family and friends on Saturday. While he was gone, he grew a beard! He has a very distinguished look about him. I wish I had a better picture of him.

Bedtime Ritual

It's taken some time to figure out how we should do our bedtime ritual. With a newborn, nothing can be set in stone, but I've found that it's good to at least have something to work towards. After a week of long nights, we are finally starting to get things back to "normal" -- whatever that is. Tuesday night was the worst with each night progressively getting better. He's no longer crying inconsolably at night (occasionally in the evenings he will), but he's just hungry or more interested in being held and looking around than he is in lying in his crib and sleeping. However, I must say that now that we are more consistent in putting him in his crib, he is used to it and often doesn't mind lying in it awake.

To start off our bedtime ritual, I usually begin by feeding him. Then Mommy and Daddy together give him a bath using lavendar and chamomile bathwash. The scents from the warm water and the lotion I put on him afterwards tend to make him sleepy and relaxed. The lights go low, the white noise maker from the pack 'n play goes on (with the soothing sounds of night, complete with crickets), and Eli and I settle down in the nursery for one last feeding before bed. This is generally his longest stretch of sleep. If we can get through the last feeding without falling into a dead sleep, I try my darndest to get him to burp. Otherwise, I will pay later with the cries of a baby in pain and discomfort. The drops have definitely helped. I can tell a noticable difference when I neglect to give them to him. Hopefully, with the consistency of our ritual and with my persistence in putting him back in his crib after every night feeding, he'll slowly start sleeping longer. I'm encouraged that we have a ritual and that he is doing better in the night.



Aunt Tiffy gave these to Eli. We love them. They are so cute.

Our 9-lb Porker

I love Central Bucks Pediatrics. Everyone is so kind and helpful and they seem to all have a well-balanced view of things. For example, while they aren't breastfeeding nazis, they do promote it and prefer it over formula. I took Eli in today to see the nurse practitioner/breastfeeding consultant to have him checked out and to ask all the questions I posted in my last blog entry and then some. At 2:30, I was her last appt so she was able to extend our time for as long as I needed. She assured me that Elias is a healthy growing boy. He weighed in at 9 lbs! From 7.11 at birth to 7.4 when we left the hospital to 7.9 at one week and now at three weeks, he's 9 lbs even. What a growing boy! Being three weeks old, he's at the growth spurt time where he's going to be cranky and his eating/sleeping habits are going to change for a few days; they say to give it 48 to 72 hours for this to pass. Nancy Roe, the nurse practitioner, said she'd call in a few days to see how he's doing. What great service! She really instilled quite a bit of confidence in me telling me I was doing everything correctly and that we just needed to wait this out. Simethicone drops may help him or they may not. And they most definitely will not harm him whatsoever.

Thank you for your prayers. I was able to sleep a little this evening with the little guy on me. Dan came home and made dinner which was nice, so that I could continue sleeping. I hope we sleep better tonight...

Calming the Storm

Question of the week: What do you do when your 3-week old son is crying hysterically because of gas pains? How do you calm him when you've tried everything you know of to get rid of the gas? How do you remain cool, calm and collected when you're working on two hours of sleep in the past 24 hours?

OK, so that's more than one question. But I'm allowed. Seriously, the infant I have seen for the past couple days is not the same calm and content baby we brought home from the hospital. Last night was misery. The poor guy couldn't sleep for long periods of time without being woken by his little tummy hurting. The thought has crossed my mind several times: does he have food allergies like me? I know when my stomach hurts from eating the wrong foods, I want to cry. Just think of a little tiny baby having the same stomach cramps from his mommy eating the wrong foods! I've read and heard that researchers are saying that the foods I eat won't affect him as much as they once thought they would. But now I wonder if they weren't right in the first place. I've tried different burping holds, rotating his legs bicycle-style, warm water bottles, laying him on his tummy, laying him on his side, laying him on his back. I've even been giving him simethicone drops that my friend said worked wonders for her. To be precise, it "saved their lives." They seem to work better than when I don't use them. But even then, he has woken up, cried until it passed, then fallen back asleep. My heart really aches for him. All I can do is just hold him, cry for him, and pray. I'm taking him to the doctor today. Perhaps they will be able to give me some sort of advice and/or insight into the situation.

Prayers from you guys will be heard. If Christ can calm a storm by speaking to it, then He can calm the storm in Elias' body -- and keep me calm in the eye of it. I'll keep you posted.

Our Adorable, Silly Son

"First" Things

Everything is a first these days. With a new little baby in the family, dynamics have changed considerably. Dan and I are learning the art of "togetherness" even if there is a little one demanding so much attention. "Blessed are the flexible, for they will not break." But with the compromises and adjustments, we still find ourselves in awe that we are parents and that Eli is the perfect combination of Dan and myself. (We hope, anway. I suppose time will tell how "perfect" the combination really is.) Yesterday, we went to church for the first time as a family. Dan was holding Elias while we sang in worship. I looked over at him during one of the songs and saw that he was getting choked up as he looked at our sleeping son in his arms. He looked at me and said "I'm going to cry." Then of course, it was all I could do to hold it together. Sing louder. That always helps. It was just amazing for us to be in church together with our son for the first time singing praises to the Father realizing how blessed we are. We have so many reasons to be thankful. It's overwhelming.

Last Wednesday, we took our first family road trip to visit my family in upstate New York. Tim and Melissa were flying in from IL to see the little guy. Elias did very well: he slept or sat quietly the entire time we were in the car. We stopped once for a feeding and diaper change then booked it the rest of the way. We made great time considering it was our first time with Baby. We got a late start as we are still trying to figure out how to manage our time when it involves feedings and baby equipment.

As I mentioned above, another first was making the less-than-a-mile hike to church yesterday. To our surprise, we made it to church on time (though, barely). But we both acknowledged the fact that we were still earlier than we would have been without Eli. We knew we had to get up earlier and plan for more time. When it was just the two of us, we tended to sleep in to the last minute...or later.

Uncle Tim holding his first nephew for the first time.
Aunt Melissa holding her first nephew for the first time. She held him many many times in the next couple days. Eli really took to her too.

Aunt Angela holding a sleeping Eli. (Dan has labeled her "Aunt Peg" although she has never gone by Peg in her life.) My apologies for the poor quality of this picture.

It was nice to have people hold him while I got extra sleep or enjoyed other things. However, it caught up with us. I think Eli got tired of being held by so many people eventually. When we got home on Saturday, Dan went to work and I was home with a very clingy baby. By Sunday, he was back to his normal well-behaved self. I think a good deal of his fussiness is due to gas pains. Sometimes he seems to be clearly in a lot of pain from it. I just heard that laying his across my lap on a warm water bottle should help to soothe those pains. I need to get to a drug store to find a water bottle and try it before I'm up again during the wee hours of the morning trying to comfort him and work the gas out by working his legs and patting his tummy. Poor little guy. I feel so bad for him.

Random Pics

Elias and Friends

As you may have heard, Becky and Josh Sorensen had their daughter, Abby, on Elias' due date, Feb 12 - four days before Eli was born. And our other friend (that's right, we only have two friends), Wendi and Paul Johnson, had their son, Reed, on Feb 25 - nine days after Eli was born. Here are pictures of Eli's first meetings with each of them.

Poor little guy was overcome with emotion... Abby pretended not to notice him. Already she's playing hard to get.

As you can see, Reed and Elias took to each other right away. You know a good friend when silence isn't awkward.

Projectile What!?!

Well, I thought that I had seen it all. I really did. I mean, I'm kinda young and all, but I've seen a lot and I feel that up till this point that I had seen a lot of people, places, and things, but tonight my eyes were opened.
Here's the stage, Aunt Mary volunteers to change Elias. Elias our mild mannered son is quite docile at this point and gives no objections. Geniene and I finishing up our dinner offer our sincerest thanks and continue to eat.
Mary gets started on the diaper change and I quickly suggest she cover him up so that he doesn't pee on her. Alas, my warning was too late. Without notice a stream of pooh comes flying towards Aunt Mary and she dives out of the way.
Somewhat stunned, we all take a moment of silence contemplating the preceeding moments happenings.
Did that just happen? Did Elias just projectile pooh? Suddenly before my eyes are weird variations of the Exorcist. Is my child possessed? Now mind you, that this all happened within the space of about 45 seconds, and at this point he is still docile and content.
Fortunetely, the moment passed quickly and I realized that my dear child was not possessed. This was just one of those moments that we'll remember in the future and laugh. In the end everyone was okay; Elias kept sleeping, Mary was safe and the carpet was cleaned.
There is a moral here. When changing your baby, cover him up!