A month has passed and it feels just like yesterday that I was hating pregnant life. I'm most definitely glad that I'm not pregnant anymore, but a newborn has its own set of stresses.
We love little Cooper to death, but she sure is a handful. As a newborn, Axl didn't cry real tears. I remember asking people, "When do babies start crying real tears??". I don't think I actually wrote down when he started but it was well into his first year. I knew I was in trouble when I saw those first tears roll from this little drama queen's eyes IN THE HOSPITAL.
Don't get me wrong, she really does have a lot to cry about. She has been diagnosed with reflux and put on Zantac (1.5 mL twice daily) due to projectile vomiting and pretty constant discomfort. All the crying leads to gas and more gas so she gets several doses of Mylicon a day which doesn't seem to make a lick of difference. She has a definite "fussy" period each night, usually lasting about 2 hours starting at 7 or 8. This consists of inconsolable crying which breaks my heart/drives me entirely insane. :(
In the past couple of days though, we have seen our first smiles. The Zantac has brought us atleast a little bit of pleasant waketime throughout the day. She nurses about every 3 hours. A couple of nights during this first month she tricked us into thinking she would sleep five hour stretches...but it was just a tease. :) Dad will often bring her downstairs after a middle of the night feeding when she is confused and wants some waketime/screamtime. (btw Tyler is being very helpful! Much more helpful than with Axl, which is saving my sanity.) We're pressing on with Babywise (a different experience for me since I didn't start it with Axl until he was like 2 or 3 months old). She hasn't gotten the hang of it yet, but I'm hoping things will work themselves out in the next couple of weeks.
Axl and Cooper have a love/hate relationship. One second he wants to kiss her, and the next he is in attack mode; charging across the room, hand raised, ready to smack her. I'll take an opportunity here to check in with our little man. Boy, did he have a rough first week. The first two days he was totally enamored...crouching down beside wherever the baby was and talking in a high pitched little squeal. Then it was a like switch was flipped. He started acting out, trying to hit her at times, and just generally sour. Tantrums galore and really worrying us. The weeks since though he has made leaps and bounds of improvements. I don't feel as guilty as I did at first; I spent many nights crying. Feeling as if I'd taken his "babyhood" away before we could really sit down and reason with him what was going on. All he knew was that every time he looked over I was holding this new thing and unable to hold his hand and let him take me somewhere (his favorite thing to do). Each day seems to go a little smoother and I'm extremely grateful for that. I know in years to follow, they will both be happy they have a sibling so close in age.
Of course, before Cooper was born, Daddy and I went and made a "Cooper Bear" in order to continue with the same monthly pictures. :) And Axl's gift to Cooper in the hospital was her own pink "bunny bear".
One Month Old 6/21/2010
We love you, little girl, and hope we can help you to feel better soon! :)
One Month Old 6/21/2010
We love you, little girl, and hope we can help you to feel better soon! :)
7 comments:
1 Month already?? Wow, time really does fly! She's adorable and so alert! You're a great mom, don't feel guilty :)
SHE IS sOOO GOOD
That last picture of her is so cute! I can't believe that it has been a month already! As soon as I saw that last pic I immediately thought of Axl's pictures like that. It amazes me how big he is getting!
She is very cute. It sounds like she has colic. My boys had it when they were newborns and it was definitely not fun. If she really does have colic Babywise might not work until she's 3-4 months old. We didn't start letting ours cry it out until they were 16 weeks because everything we read about colic said it was best to wait to try sleep training until the colic had passed. Good luck though! I hope it gets easier for you.
I LOVE her one month picture! How do you manage to make those so cute!? I have tried and tried with Abby and have failed miserably! Anyways...good luck with the Babywise. You know you can always call me and I will talk you up and down about it...Erica is who I always call. I think in Abby's first six weeks I spent half of the time on the phone with her trying to figure out my options since Babywise is really so open to different interpretations. But I do know there are alot of support group/blog/discussion boards out there. Maybe search a few of those and see if they have and answers. And if you ever need a break, just call and I will come give you a breather!
p.s.-I think it is cute that you are taking her pics in onesies! John and I argued back and forth over that...he says that because Abby is a girl we can't show off her boobies! I told him that she is a BABY and doesn't HAVE BOOBIES!!! I wanted to be able to see every little new fat roll each month. But John really appreciates that you put Cooper in a onesie, and has proceeded to give a very hard time about putting topless photos of our daughter on the blog!
She's a DOLL!
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