Big Ben

Yes, that's right, I let the Bee out of the bag. The Bumblebee's name is Ben. Around home he's also known as Benbee and Bubby. And he is my big boy. He'll be 15 weeks next Tuesday and he's already about 17 1/2 pounds. Just for the sake of comparison -- my daughter weighed 16 pounds when she was 9 months old.

In this first picture Ben is wearing an outfit that my husband wore when he was a baby. It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that the outfit is almost 40 years old! I took this photo almost 2 weeks ago and the outfit barely fit him. My husband wore the outfit when he was 6 months old.


Next a good sibling shot from a few days ago. My daughter is still in love with her brother and is constantly lifting him and kissing him and trying to do everything for him. Although given his weight she can't hold him for very long anymore.


And last but not least, a shot of the boy in his bouncy seat. He loves the darn thing so much that I'm replacing the batteries constantly!

Sleep

Guess who slept for 7 straight hours last night??? Give up? It wasn't me and it wasn't my husband, but the Bee slept from 10pm until 5am! I couldn't believe it. Not that I'm foolish enough to expect a repeat tonight, but still I'm so excited over the possibilities. Stupidly, both my husband and I stayed up late last night--until about 1am. He was watching a movie and I was reading. Even so, just knowing that the baby had slept for 7 hours made the getting up a lot easier.

12 Weeks

I can't believe that it's been 12 weeks since little Bee was born. I also can't believe how little I get done every day. I've got a thousand posts in my head, but never find the time to sit down and type out my thoughts. To be honest things have been a bit rough lately. We're still not getting great sleep; while it's a bit better than it was a 5 weeks ago, the Bee's sleep habits are really inconsistent and we still often have nights when he's up far too often. I know the lack of sleep is probably the main factor in why I've been feeling down -- not only am I exhausted all the time, but it definitely contributed to the entire family coming down with a cold. And let me tell you -- a baby with a cold doesn't sleep well! And because I'm paranoid about an 11 week old with a cold I took him to the pediatrician and it turns out he had an ear infection, so he's been on an antibiotic for the past week.

So we're all tired and grumpy. And while I may not be the most pleasant person to be around when I'm tired, my grumpiness is nothing compared to that of my husband and daughter when they are tired. I never knew anyone whose mood is more negatively affected by lack of sleep or food than my husband... until I met my daughter.

As a result of the tiredness and the colds and the grumpiness, we're not all getting along so well.

So the point of all this is that in addition to being frustrated by my own inability to get much done around the house (it is a disaster area), I'm feeling down and frustrated about my relationships with my husband and daughter. I know that this will pass, but still it sucks right now. It's also frustrating to know that it doesn't have to be so bad. My daughter spent the weekend with my parents, who love her but are definitely not blind to bad behavior. They described her as delightful the whole weekend. Within a few hours of returning home yesterday she was stomping her feet and acting generally rude because she didn't like what I was serving for dinner. And let's just say that it didn't end there. And today there's been more of the same. Sigh. And honestly I'm as frustrated with my own reactions to her as I am with her. So I just put up another behavior chart that we'll start using tomorrow. We used one from January until April with pretty good success, it gives her incentives to behave well and with a tool for monitoring her behavior I'm less likely to overreact when things don't go well.

But life is not all bad. The Ladybug has her good moments and these days a lot of them are with her brother. She adores him and is constantly wanting to hold him and kiss him and comfort him when he's upset.

As for the Bee. He is not exactly the easiest baby in the world, but not the hardest either. He's pretty vocal when he's unhappy, but I've figured out that he's generally only unhappy about three things -- when he's hungry, when he needs to burp, and when he's tired. The hungry I can satisfy, the burping might take a little while but can generally be resolved without too much delay, but the tiredness is tricky. He really can't/won't fall asleep on his own, so it's either I nurse him to sleep (most of the time) or we rock/sway/jiggle him to sleep. But all in all, I can't complain, he's pretty easily soothed. And he loves is big sister too. He probably gives her as many smiles as I get - and I feed him! He'll follow her around the room with his eyes and smile when she talks to him -- I think my husband might even be a bit jealous.

Well, both kids are asleep and so I'm going to bed myself. I'll finish with a few cute photos of my little man at 12 weeks.

2 Months!

Going by the day of the month, Bee was 2 months old yesterday! Feels like he just came home and I'm already 2 months behind on his baby book. ;)

Since I last posted we've had some positive steps forward with the sleep. Daytime is still erratic and there is not consistency in terms of when he naps or for how long, but he has been napping. BUT, the night sleeps are getting longer!!! Saturday night he slept for 6 straight hours - I couldn't believe it. Last night his longest stretch was 5. Heck I was happy with 4!

We had a great weekend here. My daughter had her ballet recital on Saturday and all the grandparents and one cousin were here for it. Ladybug adores her grandparents and always gets a kick out of having them all here. Of course the grandmas couldn't get enough of the Bee and I worried a little they might fight over who got to hold him (Just kidding, but seriously there was little tension--my MIL really was being a baby hog.) He performed well for the grandparents - slept all through the ballet and then was awake, lively and happy once we got home. He put on quite a show on his playmat.

Yesterday we had a very nice Father's Day. Daddy got to sleep in and the Ladybug and I made all his favorites for breakfast. Then the Ladybug got a last minute invitation for a playdate at her best friends house. She had a great time and it gave her parents a much needed break. All in all it was a great weekend and now starts my one and only summer getting to stay home with my kids.

2 steps forward, 1 step back

Actually it feels like 1 step forward and 2 back! On the bright side, for the past 2 nights Bee has slept for his 2 longest stretches ever of 4 1/2 hours. I am truly grateful for that, but the other 19 1/2 hours of the day are a nightmare. I believe everything I've read says that babies this age are still supposed to sleep ALOT. And since Bee was 4 1/2 weeks early we might even assume his sleep patterns should resemble a 4 week old -- meaning he should sleep longer. Ha Ha Ha! Since about 7am this morning he's only slept for 30 minutes!(It's now Noon.) The kid clearly can't self soothe for shit. I do try to get him to nap as soon as he starts exhibiting signs of sleepiness, but if I put him down - anywhere - all he does is scream. I do the whole rocking/swaying, patting, shushing thing and it does work sometimes, but the big problem is getting him to STAY asleep.

Ok, so it's now 1pm and he's been asleep in his basket for a little over 30 minutes. I'll be thrilled if he makes it an hour. Sigh....

8 weeks old and other random thoughts

I can't believe it's been 8 weeks since Bee was born! A week ago I took him to the pediatrician because we were concerned that he so frequently seemed uncomfortable. He wasn't crying so much, but there was a lot of grunting, straining, and other expressions of discomfort that seemed distinct from those when he was pooping or farting. We were suspected reflux, and the pediatrician thought so too. She was wonderful as usual, saying exactly what I'd hoped, which was that while she doesn't like to throw medicine at infants a little Zantac wouldn't hurt and it was worth seeing if there is any improvement between then and we go for his 2 month appointment 2 weeks later. She also suggested putting him to sleep in his car seat, as I had also told her that he was not sleeping well. There were many nights (and days for that matter) when he would wake up every hour. While he's not sleeping for long stretches by anyone's definition, there has been some improvement since we started the Zantac and put him to bed in the carseat.

The Big surprise of our visit was his weight gain. He weighed in at 11 lbs 9 oz -- so he'd gained a bit more than 5 lbs in 5 weeks!!! The information sheet the pediatrician gave us at his 2 week appointment said that weight gain averages about 1 oz a day during the first several months. I figured out that Bee averaged 2.3 oz per day! Not that I should have been surprised -- one look at his thighs and double chin should have been a clue. I can't wait until his 2 month appointment – which is in one week - to see how long he is now and where he falls on the charts. Speaking of his thighs, his feet seem almost absurdly small on the end of his fat legs. ;)

This weight gain really shouldn't have been surprise for other reasons as well. The boy is an eating machine. He nurses constantly. He's such a loud and messy eater that he's gained a few nicknames. I call him milk face because when he comes off my boob his face is often covered with milk. He makes so much noise while eating that my husband calls him "smackers".

Having the low blood sugar when he was born was a blessing in disguise. Like his sister before him, my boy may not sleep but he can go from boob to bottle and back with no problem – and it doesn't matter if its breast milk or formula in the bottle he'll eat it! This allows me to get extra sleep, to run errands occasionally, and last weekend it allowed hubby and me to go out to dinner for our anniversary.

When he's in the mood, he loves his playmat, particularly the turtle with the mirror in its belly, and the octopus with the dangling legs. Like his mommy, he loves a nice warm bath, but not being removed from it!

The Ladybug remains in love with her little brother and is trying to usurp my role as mommy – good thing I have the boobs. She can often be heard repeating “my Bee” over and over again. She's constantly picking him up and holding him and in a very high pitched voice repeats “hey, little guy”.

Bee has been smiling at us for about 2 weeks now and the frequency is definitely increasing. There's nothing better than baby smiles.

His eyebrows are finally starting to show up.

For anyone not already bored to death, here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.

Anniversaries

I have a lousy memory for details, and that includes for dates. Nevertheless noting the passage of time and remembering where I've been and how things change (or don't) always makes me a little nostalgic and I do think it's important to recognize anniversaries and milestones.

That said, the most important thing about today is that our little Bee is 6 weeks old!


I can hardly believe it's been that long, but then again, it's hard to imagine life without him now. He is definitely growing. I don't know his weight (we don't go back to the pediatrician for 2 more weeks) but let's just say one look at this cheeks and thighs and it's obvious he's gaining weight. That comes as no big surprise to me. The boy is an eating machine; it often seems as though he eats ALL the time. In fact, as I type this he is having a meal courtesy of my left boob.

This morning I had my 6-week postpartum appointment. It was pretty routine and quick, except when I mentioned that my left foot and ankle are still quite swollen, though the right side seems back to normal. This earned me an appointment in about an hour and a half to have an ultrasound on my leg to make sure there's no blood clot. The doctor said it would be odd for the swelling to be the only sympton, but she wants to get it checked out nonetheless. I don't mind having the scan, but I'm not excited about hauling the baby along to another appointment today.

There are 2 other anniversaries of note in our house this week. We are just past the anniversary of the fresh IVF cycle that produced the 3 extra blastocysts that were frozen and later thawed and transfered -- one of which implanted and grew into the little boy currently draining my left boob. The other anniversary of note is our wedding anniversary -- 10 years on Friday!!! Now that is hard to believe. My in-laws are coming up on Saturday to babysit so we can actually go out for dinner and celebrate a bit. You can believe that I'll be pumping and dumping that night so that I can enjoy a glass (or two!) of wine.





As I typed the above it occurred to me that it was around this time of year that I started this blog. I checked and discovered that my 2 year blogoversary was almost exactly a month ago. How time flies!