Mom Post #6, My current Favorite products

        When Jake was born, I had no IDEA we would be running out to the store for SO many things we didn't have. Some things just make our lives so much easier, and in some cases livable. Now because they say every baby is different, this is my top 5 favorite items that have made life with Jake so much easier.

#5 Puppy pads. This may sound stupid, but these have saved our lives. The first several days Jake we had to do laundry daily. One of the main reasons was the change pad covers. We were having to remove the flannel ones almost every change and it was insane. Finally I told Cale to grab a pack of puppy pads at the store and it is simply a case of tossing it out when he has an accident.

#4 This Fisher Price Rocker. This wasn't even something on my radar when my Brother and Sister in-law sent this up to us. So Jake honestly sleeps pretty well in his pack and play at night, but he will NOT sleep in it during the day. He will however sleep in this rocker while I can do what I need to do around the house. If I'm gonna nap, I slide this over by the couch and we can both doze.

#3 My Cell Phone...not really a product for the baby, but early on we didn't have a white noise machine...we do now, but really not such a fan of it. My phone we've used youtube, but now we use the baby sleep app, and the baby tracker app, which take up less battery life, and the audio will still work when the app is closed. Not to say we won't be using the white noise machine (or getting a better one) when he moves to his own room, but for now, my phone works.

#2 My Brest Friend/ Madela Shield. I combined two into this one because they have both been helpful with breastfeeding, it has been a struggle, and it's only starting to work well now. We DID have breastfeeding pillows, plural, but I couldn't get comfortable with them. Fortunately they do have another purpose now, but this was the one I used at the clinic at the hospital, so I knew how comfortable I was with it. Also, Jake would NOT latch, so the clinic hauled out Madela shields for me to use, this is how I ACTUALLY got him to latch at all.

#1 The Halo Swaddle. I wasn't aware of the startle reflex, but it's a thing, and it was keeping Jake from sleeping solo. I used regular swaddle blankets, but he broke out of it constantly...it was like every 20 min he would wake up. A friend had a couple Halo swaddles that didn't fit her little one anymore and she saved the small shred of sanity we had in the beginning (we have a slightly larger shred now) These have been a life saver, and because of the way they wrap, and the strong velcro, we're not concerned about it going up over his face while sleeping.

        Those are the top products in my mind that are kind of saving us at the moment. There are other great things we use regularly, but these were like the life saver ones that popped up for us. What are your favorite products at the moment?

K, Luv Ya, Bye!

Nancy

Mom Post #5, What a day looks like

     

While I feel like we're adjusting much better, I think we're in another growth spurt. Jake is sleeping more, and we're feeding smaller amounts more frequently...during the day. Knock on wood, he's been quite kind at night. And while I can't bank on him sticking to a routine, I have seemed to find one that doesn't really follow a timeline per say, but follows his lead. Here is what my day generally looks like.

      He wakes up for his second feeding of the night around 3-3:30 typically. He usually has a good size feed at this point, which is good because it's the feed to carry him into the morning. I pump here too, generally one of my bigger pumps. Some times he nurses, we had one week where he was a super star, but where it's only like 50% of the time he nurses successfully, during a spurt it's almost impossible to nurse him. I still try but I only give him 5 min to try (or when the vein is popping out of his head because he's so angry) then dad takes one of my pre pumped bottles and handles it. This is also the feed where Cale starts getting ready for work, so I usually make a coffee for Cale, and get the coffee maker ready for when I get up.

     At 6:00 am, I get up. He usually wakes up around 6:30-7. This gives me time to get breast feeding stuff ready, his bottles, and my mommy fuel. When he gets up, we feed, and change multiple diapers...this is the point of day he goes through the most. Then I try and play with him.

    8:30-9 am is when he gets sleepy and takes a nap. I try and pump, eat and take my meds at this point ( I am still on meds, but they have reduced a LOT).

   9:30- 10am he wakes up and has another feeding. His timing is awesome with this, because it's when dad goes to lunch...usually the first thing he wants when he walks through the door is his son. If I'm nursing, he settles for the dog (sorry Alice). If I am bottle feeding, he takes it from me and lets me pump. Dad also takes on the diaper duty (no pun intended) when I pump too. There is a little play time in here too.

   11:30...ish...This is when he zonks out again, I get the chance to grab lunch, and then I try and take a nap around noon.

   1:30-2pm  We wake up and do the feed thing again. Dad is off work at 2, so I get a chance to pump too. Then play time or snuggles.

   3:00-3:30 Nap time again. This is when Cale and I either pack him up to run errands, just go out for a drive (because for the love of god I need to get out of this house) get some house work done, or just hang out ( I've also encouraged Cale to nap at this time...but that generally doesn't happen)

   5:00-6:00 He gets more drowsy as the day goes on, so this is when we try and get supper done. Depending on when he wakes up it can be a juggling act, but typically I eat really fast so I'm ready when he wakes up. This is feeding time, but probably his shortest. This is the time of night we get Mr. Fuss Bucket. So he takes a slightly smaller feeding, which is fine because he will take a bigger one later. We generally can't get play time in here, so it's mostly cuddles.

   7:30 Typically bed time routine starts here. If it's a bath night, we man the battlefield, because he's not a huge fan of his bath...really depends on the day. But to date, we've only had one night where he hasn't started screaming as soon as he's out of the tub...I get it though, who likes to get out of the tub? it's cold. Either way we snuggle, get some lotion on him, and bundle him up in his swaddle for the night. A friend offered us her halo swaddles, which have been a life saver. Jake has that startle reflex and pops his arms up waking himself up without the halo swaddle, WE can't sleep without it.

   8-8:30 This is when story time starts, and a bedtime feed. Most of the time he falls asleep during story time.

   9:00 is bedtime. If I have anything I need to do (like y'know a shower or something) I do it here, but follow close behind him to bed.

   11:30-Midnight, This is generally when we see feed #1 through the night. Luckily we usually only have 2, and they last about an hour each.

    So this is what my day usually looks like now. We have an appointment today so it's gonna be way out of wack, and he's all over the place so that helps too. I work better when I can be on a schedule, so having this lined up helps me (so does my nap...and caffeine). He also seems less fussy with structure as well, so this timeline has been a bit of a security blanket too. It was helpful when I was an emotional wreck. I also think I had some postpartum depression, I did talk to some one, and they said it was the baby blues, but I'm not convinced. I luckily did have some supportive friends for that part. And then of course he and I have been getting used to each other. I'm not sure if he's at the point of happy to see me yet, but he's gotten used to me for sure.

K, Luv Ya, Bye
Nancy

Mom Post # 4 1 Month

       
        My plan was to do this post Tuesday, which is when Jake turned 1 month old. This is hard for me to wrap my head around because being in the hospital feels so fresh, and my emotions have not gone back to normal completely (they have improved, but we're not normal yet). When it becomes believable is when I look at how far we have come. How much easier things have gotten, because all 3 of us have gotten better.

        This being said, little man is getting angry at me now, so this will have to be a short post. gonna go see what his majesty wants lol

K Luv Ya Bye

Nancy

Mom Post #3, Emotional Roller-coaster

     

My last post was when my son was two weeks old...and here we are 3 days away from being a month old. I finally feel like I'm not about to self-destruct. We bought a ton of stuff and did all these things that was just us getting ready for his arrival, and when he got here, we realized just how much we weren't even close to ready for.

      I'm not talking about the countless runs to the store Cale had to make, hoping he was getting the right thing. I'm talking about the emotional toll.I had heard about baby blues, and postpartum depression, but couldn't wrap my head around what it would feel like. It took nothing to make me stress, or cry, and I was desperate to achieve some sort of rhythm. I felt like I was struggling to keep my head above water, except instead of drowning, I would do wrong by my son, which was far worse in my head.

     I needed stability, and comfort, and the support system that I've had. I don't want to say I'm not emotional anymore, because I can still look at him and burst into tears. I've accepted that one is probably sticking around. When I cry now I know why, and I think I'm likely to be stuck with these easily disturbed emotions, but I don't feel like I'm drowning anymore.

    This all being said, I get emotional when I look at my son, and see the things he's trying to do now, and as I pack up his newborn clothes. I still have a hard time believing, I'm a mom now, and I'm so lucky that this is my amazing kid. But we're all learning together.