Worth A Thousand Words

Health Kick Inititiated

I will have you know that I just did strength exercises (from Self magazine's Lose the Baby Weight Reach Your Goal Challenge) and am now eating carrots as a snack. I don't even like carrots. Luckily two tablespoons of this dip makes it tolerable. And it's only two Weight Watchers points per serving. Totally worth it, trust me.

That's right. I started Weight Watchers and exercising this week. The eating plan is going pretty well. I think it was MADE for accountants, what with all the figuring out point and keeping things organized. I am doing the online program and I actually love playing with the charts and stuff.

Exercising has never been my favorite activity, but it's going okay. Yesterday I did a 20 minute walk. I was going to do 30, but I was walking with the baby and my mother in law and they looked ready to go in. Tomorrow I'm going to shoot for 30 for real. The strength exercises "supposedly" take 15 minutes to do, but it took me 30. I think that is a good example of how out of shape I am. . . I wanted to quit pretty bad, but I just kept telling myself: This is easier than childbirth, so I can do it. Cheesy, I know, but it worked for me.

For the record, my goal is to lose about 40 pounds. Weight Watchers says about 1-2 pounds a week, so who knows how long it will take, but that's the goal. This may be boring for everyone, but my weigh in day is on Mondays, so I'm going to try and post the amount lost, gained, whatever for the week on that day.

Bullets, Completed

*Yesterday I decided I was done with breastfeeding. At the baby's doctor visit I asked about formula and was given tons of Enfamil sample bottles. We used formula for three feedings. And he took them just fine. But I was so uncomfortable. I sent my husband to the store for cabbage leaves to try and help soothe the pain, but he gets all the way home with just a magazine for me. Turns out the cashier put the magazine and cabbage in separate bags and only gave him one. At the same time the baby starts crying and I've had enough so I go ahead and breastfeed him. The good news out of all of this: I realized I'm not ready to stop breastfeeding. I was just frustrated with it yesterday. ALSO, I realized that hey, it's okay if I have to supplement with formula if pumping doesn't work out.

*The loud/squeaky breathing has been diagnosed as laryngomalacia, and a mild case of it at that. Basically his larynx isn't as strong as it should be which causes the squeaky and louder breathing, especially when he gets upset or excited. The doctor (a second pediatrician, who we will be going to from now on because he was so great) said it's something he'll grow out of and it will not cause him to stop breathing. So we got to send the apnea monitor back after only two nights of use (two nights with no alarms!).

*He LOVES bathtime now that his cord has fallen off. He looks so cute lounging in his little tub, enjoying the warm water.

*I'm home alone this evening. My husband should be back late. It's stormy outside. I love rainy weather, but I'm crossing my fingers the electricity stays on. I do not want to be home alone without electricity.

*Lastly, I am SO itchy. Is this some kind of postpartum issue? I seem to recall some girls I used to work with talking about how itchy their belly was after giving birth, as it shrank back to normal size. It's been almost a month though. . . but I've really got no other explanation.

Bullets, Interrupted

*I love being a mom. This little person is just so awesome. Even when he's not happy, he's still just the greatest. I love all of his little noises and faces and how cuddly he is.

*Changing him into different outfits is fun. I mean, he hates it, but he just looks so cute in everything.

*Breastfeeding is. . . good and bad. I'm not the biggest fan of it really. My back hurts, I get so little sleep, and I hate being the only one who feed him. Pumping is not working out so great. The first time I tried it I got out two ounces. Every time after that--nothing. I talked to his doctor today about transitioning over to formula. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the time spent with him while he's feeding--especially in the mornings when he's all awake and happy.

*I think part of the issue with breastfeeding is that I don't have any understanding from the husband of how stressful it can be.

*Speaking of my husband, he's ready for the baby to start sleeping in his crib, instead of the bassinet in our room. I'm not really. I like having him right there. Is it horrible that I wanted to tell my husband I could just take the bassinet and the baby and sleep in the guest room? I didn't tell him that. . . I just kind of ignored it and am now pondering whether it's time to move him out. I figured he's be in our room about six weeks (coinciding with the amount of time I originally thought would be the "I'll at least breastfeed this long"), and it'll be four on Tuesday.

I have more, but the baby's hungry. . . perhaps I'll finish this later.

Night One: Over.

Good news--he was on the monitor all night long and we had no alarms. Which means that he isn't having episodes where he stops breathing. I didn't think that he was, you know, until the doctor wanted to try him out on the monitor.

I guess we'll be keeping him on it at night for a while longer, but I feel so much better that nothing happened last night.

Tomorrow we are taking him to a different pediatrician, who can hopefully give us some insight into why he is such a loud breather (and more specifically why he's a squeaker). This pediatrician is older and has been practicing a lot longer, so I'm hoping he's just plain seen it before.

One thing is for sure, I'm not stepping out of that dr's office without getting the doctor to tell me how concerned he thinks we should be about the issue. You know, is it just a thing he will grow out of? Or is it something that could possibly be a sign of other issues? Because I didn't feel very reassured leaving my regular pediatrician's office on Monday.

Monitored

My baby breathes loud. Sometimes he makes a squeaky noise when he breathes. This happens most often when he's nursing.

The doctor said at first that he thought he was just a baby who is noisy. But at his two week checkup I said the squeaking was starting to worry me. So, the doctor recommended a specialist and putting him on an apnea monitor at night.

And I freaked right the heck out. I wanted the doctor to reassure me that the squeaking is perfectly okay. I still can't gauge whether the doctor is worried or not.

The specialist has a two month waiting list.

It took two days to even find an apnea monitor. Most places don't carry them because lots of insurance companies won't reimburse for them or something.

So, today we got his monitor. Right now he is all dressed for bed and ready to be hooked up to this monitor. While I know that the doctor prescribed the monitor to HELP things, to help make me feel more at ease at night, it is honestly just making me less at ease. I don't think he is having episodes where he stops breathing, but if he is then we should all feel relieved that an alarm will sound and we can touch him and he'll start to breathe again.

The lady who showed us how it worked let us hear the alarm. It is loud and obnoxious and something I don't want to ever have to hear go off in the middle of the night. I hate seeing this monitor attached to my baby.

So tonight's night 1. . . here is goes.

Oh, Hi!

Wow. It's already been one week. Pretty much it's a haze of baby, sleeping, and well, baby.

Aidan had his first doctor appointment on Monday. He's doing good. I really want to write his birth story, but I don't have time at the moment. I always wondered why it took people so long to get the birth story up and now I realize why. You want to do the story justice, and between the tired and the lack of time it has to wait for a bit.

Some awesome news. . . I have lost 25 pounds since giving birth!

Now, something way more exciting--pictures