I'm a SMU Mustang Fan!

Bryce secretly told me this weekend that he really wanted to dress up and be a fan of the SMU Mustangs like mom. He even told me he would be considering this as a college to attend in 18 years. Too bad SMU didn't win on Saturday-- there's always next weekend!

Rolling Over!!!

In the midst of a "I'm hungry" crying fit, Bryce rolled over from his tummy to his back! I was able to capture it on my normal camera in video mode so the quality probably isn't so great.

Up next...walking. (Just kidding). :)

Good News / Bad News

Bad News First:

Okay, so I'm not sure how this happened, but I've somehow managed to get mastitis. Ugh. Last night I woke up shaking, chills, and with a very very very tender breast. At first I thought I was just getting sick, but after the chills wouldn't stop and I was in a bit of agony I got online and looked up mastitis. And yup, after calling my OB, she confirmed that this is what I had and promptly started me on antibiotics for ten days. All the symptoms are the same as the flu-- fever, chills, no appetite, but hopefully the meds will kick in and help out sooner rather than later. The plus side is that my parents are here, so that will help out a TON with Bryce.

So how does this happen? There are several different reasons this happens, including (but not limited to) a blocked milk duct, Bryce's saliva, and Bryce not finishing the milk.

Good News:

Bryce has started to go down at a consistent bedtime! Yay! He's getting the hang of just going to sleep on his own. I know it's a process, but we've started the adventure in bedtime. Thanks to all my friends' advice, it's been so encouraging.

That's all for now, going to put some heat packs on my chest. Ugh.

Some Pics

And we're out for a quick walk...

The stroller is still a bit too big without the car seat, but we go slow and steady.

And yes, his onesie does say, "Mommy's Super Star".

Tummy Time!! The idea is that he is supposed to be practicing lifting his head. Yum yah, after a few attempts, he proceeded to fall asleep. Look at that super cute pillow!!!

Bryce eating with daddy!

And We Have Colic

So much for my perfect baby...

My personal diagnosis: Colic

Evidence:

• Cries vigorously for long periods, despite efforts to console
• Symptoms occur around the same time each day or night, often after meal times, and usually ending as abruptly as they began
• Shows signs of gas discomfort and abdominal bloating
• Has a hard, distended stomach, with knees pulled to the chest, clenched fists, flailing arms and legs, and an arched back
• Experiences frequent sleeplessness, irritability and fussiness

Bryce is definitely a candidate here. The last two weeks have really taken a toll on mom (and dad when he's not traveling). He cries typically from 7pm until 1am and it's happening EVERY night (I only wish I was exaggerating here). I think there was one glorious night last week when it didn't happen. And, when he cries, he wails. He swings his arms like he is swimming and his legs go up and down, into and out of his chest. (If it weren't so sad, it would be comical.)

The worst is when he's awake all day, because it really doesn't give me a break from entertaining him (which is really a lot of fun)-- and then into the evening he just goes to town on the crying. You would think that since he's been awake all day he would be a good little sleeper, but nope, it's almost worse when he doesn't sleep during he day.

So there are a lot of different 'causes' for a colicky baby: my diet, him breathing in too much air during nursing, immature digestive system, among a few others. If the mom is aware of which foods is affecting the baby, then she is advised to stop eating them. I personally have no clue what may be bringing this on. Pretty much the only thing to do is wait it out-- this stops around three months. Yay-- two more months.

I know many moms and dads have survived this-- so can we. Ugh.

One Month Checkup

Bryce and Mommy today. He's gotta a gangsta face in that second picture! Ha!

Lots of stuff happening at today's pediatrician one-month check up:

Weight: 9lbs 1oz! Awesome! This puts him in the 26th percentile. Ironically the size of his head puts him in the 11th percentile. Weird.

Height: 21.5 inches He's officially grown an inch and a half in the last month! Wow!

Shots: 2nd Hep B Vaccine. I'm happy to report that Bryce let out a little peep and showed a really sad face, but DID NOT cry! Way better than me!

Other stuff : Bryce has a cradle cap (A.K.A. Dandriff). It's really annoying because his scalp is so flakey, so she told us to use anti-dandruff shampoo in combination with baby shampoo. I have also been using baby oil and brushing the flakes out, which helps (I got this advice from one of thousands of baby books). Baby acne is taking over Bryce's face! It comes and goes, but there are times when he should have been prescribed a dose of Acutane. I feel so bad for him, even though I'm sure it doesn't hurt. The doc said it could last two months.

Doc's orders:

1-- Tummy time is a must do when he's awake. We should put his upper body on top of a pillow and hold down his back legs so he can learn to lift up his head. She also said to put him on top of a bright and colorful blanket which will keep him entertained.

2-- No falling asleep on mom or dad. Rather, put him down when he's semi-awake. We've actually been trying that with limited success-- he's great at doing this during naps, but night time his worst time.

3-- Start giving more bottles during the day to prepare him for daycare. (He starts daycare in 3 weeks and I go back to work in 4 weeks! Crazy!!)

4-- Mom and dad and anyone around him for longer periods of time should get a flu shot.

And today's embarrassing moments (yes, more than one):

Upon arriving at the doc's office Bryce had a dirty diaper. No problemo-- he has to take his diaper off anyway to get weighed, so changing him is no biggie. Except when mom forgets the diaper bag at home. I felt like an idiot asking for a diaper and wipes. The nurses had one size of diaper-- thank goodness it was newborn size, we lucked out.

And then when getting weighed he peed all over the scale AND the wall AND the nurse. Nice Bryce, real nice. Way to make a good impression.

The Past Four Weeks

The past four weeks have come and gone so quickly-- I can't believe that a month has already passed since Bryce's birth. I feel as though we just got home from the hospital. The time just flies (when you're having fun, or rather, sleep deprived). Four weeks from today I return to work, and even though I'm sick of 'The Today Show, Hoda and Kathy Lee' and am craving some intellectual stimulation, I know that these next four weeks will pass just as quickly as the first.

Some of my favorite times over the last month hasn't just been when Bryce is awake, but it's been at 4am when he's nursing. He's so peaceful and just such an angel, it makes getting up every three hours worth it. I will also say that I CANNOT WAIT for him to make it consistently to five hours between feeding times. He's also really starting to focus on our faces and use his eyes to track the toys on his mobile. We can't wait for him to start smiling at us and mimicking our facial expressions. Finally, it would be nice for him to finally fit into his 0-3 month clothing--I have put an outfit on every other day that is not a 'Newborn' outfit, and it still just swamps him! Oh well, he'll grow soon enough.

Here are some recent photos of our Bryce:

In a bucket! We wanted to compare him to a kid-size football!!!!

Love this face! (Catching flies again!)

Not so excited about the football on him!!!

Peaceful rest in a bucket!

Our little monkey is moving his arms and legs like crazy!!! He's a squirmy baby!!!

Bryce has learned to suck his thumb!!! This is actually a great pic because usually he'll have his thumb in his mouth with the rest of his hand spread across the face.

When there's 1 there will be a 2

No people, the title of this post does not mean I'm referring to having another child. Rather, it identifies the memorable moment Bryce created tonight.

He will be four weeks old on Thursday and his one month birthday is Saturday! It's crazy how time flies, I feel like I just got home from the hospital. Anyhow, I am trying to get Bryce to fall asleep in his bassinet around 7pm-8pm rather than falling totally asleep on me. So, I have been letting him doze off after he eats, and then I put him in his bassinet...inevitably, he cries. Sometimes he wails. I spend the next couple of hours trying to soothe him, then I feed him again and, finally, after another hour of crying after he's finished eating he falls asleep-- usually around 11pm. Anyhow, this exhausting process has been going on for the last several days. (I might add, that all day long he's a perfectly happy baby and barely let's out a peep-- these crying fits only happen during the evening.)

So, tonight I decided to try something else. I decided to give him a nice warm bath (which he LOVES), feed him, then put him down, thinking that he'll be nice and comfy and happy and he'll fall asleep easier in the bassinet. Usually I reserve his baths for the morning time, so I thought I would switch it up. Okay, so let me just tell you about the bath tonight-- you'll soon understand the title of this post. The thing about boys is that they shoot ya A LOT. Whenever we lift up that diaper, I at least get hit' 10% of the time. (Pee Pee T-Pees are really no help either....it shoots up like a fountain with a cap on when you use those.)

I am always ready for him to shoot me, especially when he's having a bath. No worries, I can handle this and I can control the direction of the shooting. What I can't control is him going number 2 in the bath. WTF?!?! Who poos in a bath? Of course my Brycie does! EWWWW! Immediately after he pees, he pooped-- in the bath tub! Yes, he did.

So, being the single mom I am this week (Sean is in Chicago for business). I pick up sopping wet Bryce, and hold his slippery body in one hand, while I'm trying to rinse out the darn tub and clean it with the other. Oh, and I think I forgot to mention, that this all happened at the end of the bath. Ugh. After five minutes of Bryce struggling and sliding around in my arm, and cleaning the tub out with the other, we started from scratch.

I'm sure Bryce will be embarrassed one day when I let him know what he did-- and probably more embarrassed to know that people actually read about it! Ha!

Ahh, the memories...I just hope this one doesn't happen again! Wow!

I have more pics, but need to charge the camera. I'll get those nursery pics posted too-- people have been asking to see it!

Lesson Learned-- Bottle Feeding

Yay! Bryce is three whole weeks today! And, at the weekly breast feeding class I attend, his weight gain this week was 10 whole ounces! Wow! So the week before he gained 12 oz and this week another 10 oz! This puts him at a whopping 7lbs 14oz! And, he's definitely getting longer too-- it's amazing how we can just literally see him growing before us.

Today was also another milestone because it was time to introduce a bottle to him. Apparently, this is how all this bottle feeding works (or this is what 'they' tell me):

1- Breast feed for the first 20 days-- your baby needs to get to know you and recognize you and also be able to latch well in order to get good nourishment.

Check. Nourishment is not a problem with our growing boy. (But you would be amazed at how many women and babies have this problem...we are certainly lucky and blessed that all is going well.)

2- Start pumping once a day at day 14. So, basically, I have to pump after Bryce eats once a day in order to build up a small supply.

Check. What a friggin hassle.

3- At day 21, let someone other than mom feed him via a bottle once a day. 'They' tell me that if you do not introduce the bottle as early as 3 weeks, then it's possible that the baby will never take a bottle. And, and if you plan on going back to work and pumping while at work, then you are out of luck if your baby doesn't take the bottle. So, to say the least, it's VERY important that Bryce take a bottle. Otherwise, we're screwed.

Check-- sort of. Let me explain the drama. At 5:30pm today, we decided to cross the bottle feeding milestone. Sean was going to have his first feeding! So I took one of the storage bags out of the freezer and defrosted it. I kept the milk chilled upon defrosting though, because 'they' tell me that babies really don't need warm milk unless he/she is just picky. Easy enough. Next, I put the defrosted milk in one of these nice and 'top rated' Dr. Brown's bottles that I got at one of my baby showers. I'm very excited because this is supposed to be so much fun for me and for Sean. (Freedom for me and bonding for Sean.) So all went well upon Sean feeding him except for one small hiccup. You see, it takes me nearly 25 minutes to feed Bryce. It took Sean five minutes (and that's generous). Yes, five short minutes. Bryce pretty much gulped the bottle. Hmmm...So, I did what any other new mom would do-- semi freak out, and then get on Babies R Us.com to look up these so called 'top rated' bottles. Sigh. So no one ever told me that I needed to order specific nipples for specific ages. The bottles that I received at my shower where 'standard' size, which means it was meant for babies 6months-12months. The difference between these and nipples for newborns is that the milk flows a lot slower through the nipple. So, it should still take Bryce at least 15 minutes to eat-- not five. I'm guessing that most of the milk just went straight down his little throat without even sucking.

We are still waiting for him to throw up...

Off to Babies R Us tomorrow for nipples...we'll retry again. I'm glad that it went well and that Bryce actually took a bottle, I just hope that we can get this bottle flow thing figured out.

Ugh. This new mom, new learnings thing is starting to get a little old.

He's Growing Up So Fast...

It's amazing how much Bryce has grown since birth. He gets another official weigh in tomorrow at my breast feeding class (Yes, I do go to the weekly meetings). Also, tomorrow officially marks his three week birthday, and I know for sure he has gotten longer, weighs more, and his little head has gotten bigger. His newborn onsies (finally) fit him perfectly. And now, instead of being frustrated that nothing fits him, I'm finding that I'm disappointed that it's only a matter of time until he'll outgrow the newborn clothes.

Although I'm actually kind of sad about how small he won't be, I'm also finding it very fun and exciting to see the little accomplishments he makes. For example, he can focus on my face. Sean and I get real close to him, and Bryce will actually study our faces. It's so fun to watch his eyes just study our eyes, nose and everything about our features. Bryce has also been trained (similar to Pavlov's dog) that mom means food. So literally, whenever I pick him up, he'll start turning his head and opening his mouth whether he's hungry or not. Tummy time is another of Bryce's favorites. Whenever Bryce isn't hungry, and thus not fussy, Sean will put him on his tummy and help him push up onto his hands. The doctor (and the web) says that learning how to do this will help him roll over and crawl faster. Bryce is really great at holding his head up for a few seconds-- we think he's so strong! Ha!

Let's address the other subject I brought up in the first paragraph-- breast feeding. Initially, I was very apprehensive in doing this, mainly because I really wasn't sure what to expect. I was never breast fed as a baby (okay, I was breast fed for a total of two weeks until my poor mom got frustrated) and Sean wasn't either, so clearly, my expectations of what to expect where limited. During the first couple of days in the hospital the nurses did a great job of helping him (and me) figure out the routine. Additionally, a lactation specialist came around to my room and gave me tips of when to start pumping, when to introduce a bottle, how many dirty diapers to count per day, etc. This specialist also has a free weekly class at the hospital where I delievered, so I decided that if this whole BF thing was going to work, I should attend at least one class. Let me just tell you how happy I was to do this-- there were almost 30 women in the class the first week I attended and their babies ranged in age from 7 days (my Bryce was the youngest) to 12 months. Tomorrow will now be the third time I'll attend the class, and Bryce will be 'weighed in' to make sure he's gaining enough weight each week. This is how the class works-- basically all the women get to know and talk to each other to gain 'best practices' if you will, and then the specialist comes around and individually answers our questions or helps us as needed. I think of this class as my support group because I don't think I would be as confident about BF if weren't for all these other women in the exact same boat as me. I have even managed to make a friend whose son is four days older than Bryce. It's nice to have someone to relate to as we are experiencing the exact same thing at the same time. The only downside is that I go back to work in November whereas she has until January.

I really think that for me BF is one of the most awesome and special things a new mom can experience. I think it has totally bonded Bryce and me. Also, I have started pumping, so tomorrow, Sean is officially allowed to feed him once a day with a bottle. He's pretty excited about the whole thing as am I, because it will give me a little break of Bryce's tough latch :) Stay tuned as I'll keep you all in the loop on how well Bryce actually takes a bottle! Hopefully it will be a success!!