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Did I call it or what? That was the longest night since we came home from the hospital (Night 2 of his life at the hospital was very long also). By long, I mean I no sleep. Though last night was long, it was not filled with wailing and too much unpleasantness. Mostly Maddox was just awake and refusing to go to sleep. Then I’d finally convince him to fall asleep and place him in his bassinet – then poof, awake again. Or he’d stay asleep in his bassinet for 20 min then wake up. Eventually (about 6 am), I decided screw that and let him just sleep on my chest. This waywe both could get a little rest. That lasted about 45 minutes, and then it was officially morning.

Basically during the night Dallas and I would both wake up. Dallas would change a diaper, I would prepare a bottle of lovingly pumped breast milk, Dallas would feed the baby, I would pump more milk, Dallas would go to bed, I would convince the baby to fall asleep, then I would wash all the bottles and nipples etc for the next round, climb into bed for 20 minutes and we’d do it all again. Surprisingly I’m doing okay today. I’m tired, but I can manage. I must be running on adrenaline or hormones or something. I’ll probably crash in a few hours – and either fall apart or fall asleep.

I’m hoping all this nonsense was just a result of the vaccinations and life will go back to normal soon.

The stats from yesterdays peds appointment…

Weight – 12lb 4.5 oz (5.570 kg) 75%

Height – 22.5 inches (57 1/4 cm) 50%

(Some cute unrelated photos)

Happy 6 Week Birthday Maddox!

Maddox turns 6 weeks old today! 6 weeks old is the magic age for many things – introducing a bottle, my hormones dropping off, a few other things I can’t remember at the moment, and the biggie – first vaccinations. 

I remember my friends saying that the 2 month vaccinations were heartbreaking. They didn’t exaggerate. Maddox had to get 3 shots today. The needle was about 3 inches long, and I’m pretty sure most of it went into his leg. I guess they had to go deep in the muscle. He wailed in pain like I’ve never heard! Poor baby had tears flooding his eyes. He was crying so hard and yelling, he could barely breathe. It was the hardest thing to be a part of. I hope he forgives me. All I could do was hold my hands on his face and chest and talk to him, telling him it would all be over soon and that mommy was there for him. I was crying almost as hard as he was. We just locked eyes and cried the entire time, together. After the ordeal I just held and rocked him and he fell asleep pretty quickly. The nurse told us he has to get vaccinations at every appointment which is every 2 months. Bummer.

All day he has been feeling pretty crappy. We were told the vaccinations would make him a little sick and could cause a fever. No fever as of yet, but a lot of crying and unhappiness (from both of us). We just picked up some baby Tylenol. Hopefully that makes him feel at least a little better.

We are going to introduce him to the bottle tonight. Not the best timing, but it has to be that way. The pediatrician put me on nipple rest for 2 days, due to pain etc. I’ve managed to pump a meal or two already, so we’ll see how it goes. I think it’s going to be a long night.

(That is a little self-inflicted scratch below his eye, btw)

Maddox just turned 4 weeks old on Monday, and today he is officially 1 month old. Its confusing how 4 weeks doesn’t actually equal 1 month. I guess you have to wait until the birthdate on each month to consider it another month of age. I think. 

I had a nice blog entry all written for his 4 week birthday, and somehow I deleted it. I blame the super sensitive track pad on my new MSI Wind Netbook. Anyway… I’ll try to summarize.

Maddox’s 4 week birthday was brought to us by the words Gas and Cranky. Pretty much the entire day was spent working on, and crying over burps and toots. It was a difficult day for all of us. Poor Maddox, all he could do was squirm and cry and try to scratch his face off. And all we could do was burp him, change him, feed him, and generally try to soothe him.

That night and every day and night since, has been trouble free – thank goodness. It really sucks when my baby hurts and there isn’t anything I can do about it. I know this isn’t a new sentiment, but I get it now.

We are still here. Maddox has been going through a growth spurt, which means he’s been feeding constantly. Good for him, no sleep for us.

One more week and I’ll be on my own with the baby. I’m a little nervous, but I know I can do it. My biggest worry is being out in public and him needing to eat. I still haven’t totally worked out nursing in public yet. Though I did it today successfully at the Halloween store. We were picking out a costume for the annual NDN Halloween party, and Maddox decided it was time to eat – so that’s what we did, right there on the isle between the devil costumes and plastic cauldrons. It was nice having Dallas there to help me arrange the blanket just so, and to help with the cart of stuff and car seat. Eventually I’ll get it down. Luckily I’ve already mastered nursing while standing, which is a big help.

Today while the baby was eating, instead of sucking, he decided to take a deep breath in and…BLOW! It sent my boob a vibrating and splatered both our faces and my chest with milk! Pretty funny.

Maddox is a good sport when taking a sponge bath. I guess the key is doing it while he is in a good relaxed mood. He just coos and makes cute little faces while I use a washcloth and get him all clean. Even though his stump fell of quite a while ago, the base of it (way down in his belly button) was still a little moist and not fully healed. So we have been waiting to do the full on tub bath. I’m sure that will be a whole other experience!

Naked babies are just so cute!

I just realized the other day that Maddox now fits into his second tier outfits. Its crazy how fast he is growing. Already he has outgrown the onesies he was wearing the first week. We love the outfits we purchased from ittikid, including this cute monkey onesie! We also have a race car onesie, and Dachshund jammies.

Things we learned at Maddox’s two week check-up…
(October 1)

– Length – 22 in, 95th percentile
   Weight – 9 lbs (4085 gr), 75th percentile

– He needs 10 minutes or so of direct sun exposure daily.

– He is a healthy eater and the Doc agrees he has a vicious suction grip (she remembers this clearly, back from when he was in the hospital and she put her finger in his mouth)

– Even though his umbilical stump fell off it is still wet deep in there which causes it to bleed a little so we need to put a drop of alcohol in it once a day for 3 days.

– We should expect a whole lot of crying for apparantly no reason from 4 wks to 6 wks (like one or more hours a day).

– He is a healthy baby and I’m doing a good job feeding him.

A while back I blogged about a new restaurant that is opening in the Cow Hollow district of San Francisco. We were lucky enough to be invited to attend a tasting dinner and a couple days later, a BBQ that featured most of the menu items in hors d’oeuvres sizes. The menu features things like crab cakes with house made potato chips, cioppino, clam chowder, shoestring potatoes, steamers, grilled mussels on rosemary skewers with chorizo, and bbq oysters.

Unlike most restaurants, and even bars in the city, they are open in that afternoon lull. Perfect for when you want a tasty snack and a beer but are in between meals. Go check it out if you are in the area! I highly recommend it.