4 month pictures... Finally!

Here are some pictures that I took a few days after Simon turned 4 months.

And one of my favorites:

First cold and sleep regression?

Simon and I have both been battling colds since last Thursday.  This is Simon's first cold and I'm pretty sure he got it from one of the people at work when we visited on Monday.  Other than incessant sneezing and a bit of a cough, he has been pretty good overall.  His nose isn't overly stuffed up and he has been eating just as much as ever.  

He has been a bit more fussy than normal and it's led to some pretty rough nights this past week.  I don't know if it is cold related or just the 4 month sleep regression that I've been reading about, but we have now transitioned him to his crib from the bassinet and stopped swaddling all in an effort to reduce the tears at bedtime.  It's almost like he knows it's time to sleep and if I'm not there rocking him or laying down with him, he screams bloody murder.  

It could also be over-tiredness since I took him to my women's group meeting on Wednesday and he was awake that whole time (from 7-10) when he is normally winding down/sleeping.   That same night he got up at 1:30 and was awake until 3:00 screaming.  Nothing helped, not even nursing which is usually my cure-all.  We thought it was his ears bugging him from the cold but I went to the doctor today and he is fine, so we can rule that out.  Teething can cause ear issues and general night time pain so we gave him tylenol last night but he still needed to be rocked to sleep.   Who knows?  All I know is that our good sleeper is no longer and it's kept me on my toes trying to figure out tricks to keep him calm and get him to sleep.

That being said, I thought that not swaddling was going to be a challenge to keep him from waking himself up either from the startle relex or just scratching his face, but to our surprise, our first night not swaddling, he did a 6 hour stretch and a 4 hour stretch.  It can be done.  Last night wasn't too bad either.  He was rocked to sleep, put down at 8:30 and slept until 2, nursed, put back down at 3 and slept until 7.  Can't ask for much better at this point.

Rolled over for the first time!

On Sunday (Nov. 16), Simon rolled over from tummy to back for the first time.  PP missed it even though he was sitting right there.  We were playing on the floor and I had put Simon on his tummy just to see what he would do.  Usually he starts to whimper and then cry but this time he looked over at me and just rolled over.

Then today, I had put him on his back on his playmat and then was checking email and watching him play and all of a sudden I hear him whimpering and I look over and realize that he was now on his tummy.  I missed him rolling from back to tummy for the first time :( I've been watching, with my camera at the ready hoping he'll do it again, but no luck so far.  Hopefully we'll get lucky soon.

4 months old today!

Simon turned 4 months old today and to celebrate we took him to get his second round of shots.  We're evil parents aren't we?  When we got there, we weighed and measured him.  He's up to 15 lbs 3 oz (with clothes on) and 24.5 inches long.  About the 50th percentile for a breast fed baby.  They asked us a bunch of questions about his hearing, vision, tummy time etc. and then moved on to the shots.  Since we opted out of the Hep B shot, he only had to have 2 pokes, both on his right leg.  He did really well this time, though, compared to when he was 2 months.  He cried for all of 30 seconds and then looked over at me (PP was holding him) and smiled.  

We then waited the requisite 15 minutes in the lobby with another set of parents and their 4 month old named Lyric (very interesting name, IMO).  Then a lady came in asking the receptionist to call 911 since there was a guy on the ground down the street from the clinic saying he was having a heart attack.  The receptionist hesitated to call 911 (I know, WTF) but eventually did and as we were driving away we saw the ambulance coming.  Hope the guy was ok.  

Simon slept on the drive home, had his bath at the usual time and fell asleep without any major issues.  Hopefully he'll sleep like he normally does and not fuss too much because of the shots, but we've got the Tylenol at the ready in case he does.  

I forgot to post this a couple of days ago but we had probably the best sleep/night since Simon's been born on Sunday.  He went down at around 8:30 with no fuss and didn't wake up until 5.  He fed for about 15 minutes and then went back down until 7.  We've been getting nights like this periodically but always with either fussiness and tears to get him to sleep or he'll go down quietly and then be up in 30-60 minutes crying and we'll have to rock him to sleep again.  All in all, we've been pretty fortunate to have him sleeping these long stretches so early on.  I chalk it up to swaddling which is keeping his hands free of his face and his startle reflex in check.

I'll post 4 month pics as soon as I get a chance to take some LOL.  

My favorite pics over the past few weeks

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Simon taken over the last few weeks....

Prenatal class reunion

We had our class reunion for our prenatal class today. It was so much fun to see all the babies and compare their sizes and abilities. We had quite the spread of ages with Simon being born 2nd in the class. He was quite a bit larger than most of the babies there. It's funny to see the youngest baby of the group (only 6 weeks old) and remembering when Simon was that tiny not so long ago. Who knew that I'd already forget and miss those early days of him being so tiny and wanting to snuggle all the time. All the moms exchanged advice from feeding to bedtime routines, which was nice. Since it was a week before hallowe'en, we all dressed up the kids for the inevitable photoshoot. Simon went as Eeyore (something that no one could pronounce... who knew?). Here are some pics:

Baby shower at PP's work

Today, PP's work threw us and another guy and his wife and new baby a baby shower. Since PP was working that day, I ventured downtown on the bus for the first time to make it to the party. Let's just say that I failed epically at 2 things.

First, getting the stroller on the bus. Who knew that even with special low floor buses for people like me, it would be hard to tilt the damn stroller back enough to get it on the bus without tipping all the way backwards. The driver was this crazy lady who just stared at me as I struggled to get the front wheels high enough to get on the bus. I ended up having to practically lift the stroller up onto the bus as she stared at me and I cracked the "Can you tell I'm a newb at this" comment. She didn't even bat an eyelash at my lame attempt at humor.

Second, preparing for the actual ride and the subsequent weather once we got off the bus. Who knew that some drivers have no respect for new moms when they decide to start driving the bus at full speed while you're trying to get the stroller in position and the wheels locked. Needless to say that I went flying across the front part of the bus while trying to maintain a grip on the stroller so it wouldn't go flying as well. I have bad balance at the best of times, but this was ridiculous. The rest of the ride consisted of me having a death grip on the stroller as she drove the winding streets like a maniac. I swear the stroller, which was locked at this time, was about to tip to the side with the way she took those curves. Once I got off the bus, the weather turned from sunny to torrential downpour in seconds, and I did not bring the rain cover. Luckily my Zooper Waltz has a great hood on it and I had him in the carseat so I just brought both hoods up to cover him. I was wearing only a hoodie so I got soaked, just what I needed for my second meeting of PP's boss.

The party went well though. We got a giftcard to Zellers and 3 onesies and a pair of jeans from baby GAP. The onesies all have cute sayings like "If you think I'm cool, you should see my dad" and "live fast, nap hard". It was nice meeting all the people in PP's office and Simon was very well behaved and slept through the whole thing, again. I see a trend starting here :)

First day home alone

Today is my first day at home, alone, with no PP to keep me company. So far things are going well. I took Simon out for a walk because the weather was nice, and managed to keep the baby entertained the entire day . Simon has also picked this time to go 6 days without a poop which means I'm sure to be the one to change that messy diaper. The good news is that Simon is sleeping much longer stretches at night, only getting up once around 4 or 5 am for a feed which means PP won't be so sleep deprived at work.

First shots

We just took Simon for his first set of shots. The appointment went really well except for the part where I started crying when the nurse stuck his leg with the first needle. And then when I cried even more at the next 2 pokes. I always thought I could hold it together when my kid got shots but I was wrong, and I realize now that it's perfectly normal to cry more than your child when they get poked. I'm sure it'll change with the next set in November (ya right).

First smile caught on camera

We finally caught Simon's first smile on camera!! Here it is, smiling at daddy:

Baby shower at grandma's house

This weekend, we traveled up to grandma's house, a 4 hour drive and hour and a half boat ride away, because she was throwing us a baby shower!

Our trip started at 4 am when Simon woke up for his next feed. After I fed and changed him, we got him packed in the carseat and got all our gear loaded in the car and decided since we didn't know how many times we would have to stop along the way, we decided to leave and try to catch the 10 am ferry. We were on our way at 5 am and drove almost halfway before Simon needed a change and to eat. It was pretty comical watching PP change Simon's diaper in the front seat of our car, with me waiting in the back seat to feed him. We got to the ferry with over an hour to spare so I fed Simon again and we waited. Simon was such a good baby the whole drive to the ferry and for the entire ferry ride.

The next day was the baby shower. All of Simon's great aunts and cousins were there and all got to hold him and oogle him. They spoiled him rotten, getting him so many cute outfits, a bunch of stuffed animals and a few practical gifts as well. Grandma S got him a cake with yummy custard and strawberry filling and a cute little lamb toy on top that said "Welcome Simon". Everyone had a great time at the party and Simon was on his best behavior.

We decided to stay an extra day just so we could visit some more with PP's parents. It was nice being able to hand Simon over to his grandma or grandpa when I needed a break. And there must be something about grandma's house that Simon likes because from the moment we got there, he started sleeping long stretches at night. Before we left, he would wake up every 2 hours to eat, and since then he has slept at least 5 hours going up to 8 hours before needed to eat again at night. Needless to say, we've all been a lot happier now that we're getting decent rest at night!!

A few more pictures from the shower.

All dressed up for the party. Wearing an outfit that we bought him when we found out we were having a boy. I never thought it would fit him this soon!!












Wearing a hat that grandma got him as a shower gift. He's trying to smile at PP in this picture and we almost caught it on camera.

36w3d- Holy crap we had the baby early!!!

Wow!!! What a crazy few days it's been. As you can see from the title of this post, we had the baby early!! A month early to be exact. Obviously it was totally unexpected but he's happy and healthy and all is well. Simon Matthew arrived on Thursday July 10 at 4:19 pm and weighed 5 lbs 13.6 oz. and was 18.5 inches long. Here is our birth story:

At about 3:30 on Wednesday (July 9) I was just leaving the lab to head home when I felt a gush. I pretty much knew right away that it was my water that had broken but I was praying I had just peed my pants because I was only 36 weeks 3 days along and knew it was a bit too early for this little guy to arrive. I called Proud_Poppa to come get me given that I was NOT going to ride the bus home and then called the midwife who told us to meet her at the hospital. We got to labour and delivery and they put me in a room to check on the baby and to see if it really was my water that broke. By then my midwife had arrived and pretty much broke it to me that it was my water that broke and that I wasn't going home until this baby was out. They sent me to ante partum to wait for the next day to be induced and because I hadn't had my group B strep swab they started dosing me up with IV antibiotics. PP at this time, was sent home to get me dinner and pack up my hospital bag because I hadn't done it yet. When he came back, we had our dinner, and then by 9:30 he had to leave because dad's aren't allowed in that part of the hospital at night. I was told to rest up because tomorrow I was going to have a baby and to enjoy my last night of peace.

So much for my last night of peace.... Only a half hour after PP left, I started having contractions that were 10 minutes apart. I told the nurse and she didn't believe me. So I just figured what I was feeling was nothing. Over the course of the next few hours they started getting more intense to the point where they were 5 minutes apart and I had to breathe through them. I buzzed the nurse and she still didn't believe me because she said to take a couple of sleeping pills and sleep through them. I took those pills and spent the next 4 hours NOT sleeping, and breathing through contractions on my own with no labor support. By 4 am, I buzzed the nurse again and told her I was having contractions, and that I needed PP with me. She was pretty insistent that PP could not be with me on that ward and I insisted right back that she get him on the phone because there was no way I was continuing labor without him. She finally listened and sent me to the delivery room where I spent the next half hour on my own in the shower waiting patiently for PP and my midwife to arrive. Once PP was there, I felt so much better. He helped me through intense contractions but because I had been laboring all night, the contractions weren't really getting any more frequent because I was falling asleep for the 2 or 3 minutes between them. My midwife checked me at 11 am (12 hrs of labor at this point) and she said I was only 4 cm dilated and that it would likely be another 6 hrs before I was at 10. I knew that there was not a chance in hell that I was going to be able to labor through them. I felt like I had to push so much and there was no headspace I could be in that would stop that feeling. Believe me when I say, puh-puh-puh DOES work at least to a certain extent, no matter how goofy you sound saying it. At that point, I caved and asked for an epi. I knew I couldn't labor through another 6 hours of those kinds of contractions. The anesthetist couldn't come right away because he was in an emergency c-section so I labored at least another 45 minutes. Once the epi was in though, my god, the pain relief was amazing. I slept for another 5 hours while PP went home and showered up. When he got back, I had just been seen by the obstetrician and I was 9 cm. He told us that because he was so early, he and a pediatrician would have to be present at the birth to make sure everything was ok. An hour later, I was ready to push and 45 minutes after that, Simon Matthew was born. I have to say, the relief of having him out of me and happy and healthy was intense. He cried right away and the pediatrician said he was looking good. He weighed 5lbs 13.6 oz and was 18.5 inches long but because he was so small and so early, they had to send him to NICU instead of back to the mother babe ward with me.

My midwife was amazing and after checking me out (no stitches and no tears), she and PP wheeled me to the NICU so I could meet my little man. He was in an incubator and they told me that he might be back in the room with me within the next 2 hours. Well, it turned out his glucose levels were not regulating themselves so they had to keep him until he had 3 consecutive feeds with good numbers. I spent my first night in mother babe alone in a semi-private room with a, shall we say interesting, roommate who managed to turn the hospital gowns into a strapless dress and luckily had no issues with sending her screaming baby to the nursery so she and by default I could get some rest. The whole next day was spent pumping and dropping off my milk to NICU to get him to try and regulate his glucose levels. They warned me he may need a second night there and I was so upset. The nurses in mother babe totally understood and were so nice to sit with me and calm me down a bit. They also got me a private room so I could rest in preparation of baby Simon's release from NICU. At around 5 on Simon's second day in this world, they wheeled him into my room because he had finally passed his glucose tests. Since I was in a private room, PP could stay with me through the night and we muddled through feeding and caring for our new baby. We ended up staying another night because I felt I needed all the breast feeding help I could get. We put him on a 3 hour feed schedule and he ate like a champ both through bottles of pumped milk mixed with formula and through short spurts of breast feeding. We were released from the hospital on Sunday (July 13) and have been managing very well since then. I'm feeling great, but I think that's because he was so small and I didn't tear so I didn't have to deal with that kind of pain.

I wanted to say that the nurses at mother/babe are absolutely amazing and were all so willing to help us learn how to care for our baby. If you get a chance, look for Cynthia who is a lactation consultant and RN and helped us out so much during her day and night shift; she was so patient and had excellent advice for us.

13w5d- The best sound in the world!

We bought a doppler back at 9w and have been trying unsuccessfully to hear the baby's heartbeat since the day we got it home.  We limited ourselves to 1 try per week and up until now, could hear only my heartbeat and what we think are placenta noises.  Today, on a whim, PP asked if we could have a little listen.  Immediately after putting the probe down on my tummy, we heard a pretty fast heartbeat.  We both looked at each other and I knew it was way too fast to be mine, so we listened some more and then started counting to see how fast it was.  It clocked in at around 150 bpm (no way that could be my own heart) and we can now say we have a real baby growing in there.  I'm so relieved that everything sounds ok, and hopefully our midwife will be able to hear it again at our next appt. on the 12th.