Basic Update

So I thought I would update just with how everything is going in general. Alex is really good; he's 3 months old now and can grab onto things (as shown in the pic where he's grabbing his clothes) and can sit in my lap (though I have to keep steadying him because he can't sit up yet). Some days he doesn't take naps well, but he's doing well so far today. He slept from 7:30 to 9:15 and right now he's napping and has been for an hour. I love it when he sleeps well. Yesterday he didn't want to sleep at all (and the ice cream man woke him up while he was taking one of his naps. Arg!). I don't think he got more than 45 min in a row all day.

But even so, he sleeps really well at night. I have to say that bedtime routines really work! Every night an hour before bedtime, I give him a bath, then a massage, put him in his sleeper and a swaddle blanket, and then I feed him. Once I do all that, I just put him in his crib and he goes to sleep. He was waking me up at 5 a.m. to eat, but for the last week, he has been sleeping till 6:45 or later, and some mornings I get him up to eat because I can't wait. After feeding him, I will put him back down and he will sleep 2 to 3 hours more. So most nights he gets at least 10 hours of sleep if not more. I try to get to bed by 10 so I can take advantage of that and get 8 or more hours of sleep. I don't know how I made it through the first couple of months being woken up every 2 or 3 hours. It's a good thing it's short-lived. I think he's a sleeper just like me--we both love sleep! But the bedtime routine really seems to help get him ready for bed and help him to sleep (that and the swaddle blanket, the dark room, and the white noise machine).

For the most part he doesn't cry or fuss (except when he's hungry or tired/overtired). He'll sit in our laps while we're on the computer and just move around. He is entranced by things moving on the TV or computer, if only for a minutes. It's funny how absorbed he gets. He really likes to be held, though when he's full and happy, he'll just lie on the bed content or floor content. I made him a baby gym out of PVC pipes and he will entertain himself by the toys hanging there.

And he is such a flirt. He'll smile at you and then turn his head like he's shy. It's so cute!

On June 1 Alex was blessed at church. Aaron's dad and sister came from Washington to attend. Here are pictures if you would like to see, click here. Unfortunately, none of my other family was able to come. 

Babies who hate cribs

So I frequent the ads on KSL.com because I've gotten some great deals on used stuff. One section is for cribs. And basically, I'm sick of people who put on their ad that they are selling their crib because their child hates cribs or won't sleep in their crib. Okay, well, maybe I don't know their situation and their child really won't sleep in a crib, but an ad I saw today really got to me. It says, "i bought this brand new a couple months ago but i came to realise that my son hates cribs so im selling it, it has only been used once for 10 minutes tops." Now, besides the fact that this person has lived long enough to have a child, but to not realize that I is capitalized, and doesn't seem to have grasped grammar, I can't believe that putting her son in a crib for 10 minutes "tops" is long enough to realize that he "hates" cribs. I mean who is the parent here? Apparently not this woman.

I have to wonder how she discovered this. Did she put her baby in the crib and, like all babies (at times), he cried because he didn't want to be put down to sleep. I mean seriously. And where does the baby sleep now? Probably in bed with mom where he has slept since he was born and has not been taught to sleep anywhere else. If that's the case, you just need to give the baby time to get used to the crib. This is why I stopped having my son sleep with me once he was about 2 months because by 3 or 4 months they start to understand and realize, "Hey, I like it here with mom. I'm going to cry if she doesn't let me sleep with her." Since I stopped it before then, he didn't have a problem transitioning to a crib and has slept in one since we got it for him--no problem.

I just don't get some people.

Boppy Pillows

I thought of another product I've really liked, and that's my Boppy pillow. I have found so many uses for it. You can have it when you're holding the baby so your arms don't get tired. If you have older children, it can be used to help them hold the baby. You can also use it to place baby on, whether on the floor or a bed, so he's propped up, and it can be used for tummy time. And of course you can use it while nursing.

So overall I think it's a great product whether you're nursing or not. I see so many listings for Boppy pillows on Craig's list and I find it funny when they say something like, "I ended up not being able to nurse, so this is almost new." I don't know if they really didn't see the other many uses of it, or if they're saying that so it will seem that their pillow is worth more because it was "barely used."

Alex is the cutest (and I'm not biased at all)

Well, I haven't updated my blog in quite awhile, have I. Alex has been keeping me quite busy, and then add working full time on top of that, and well, it doesn't leave me much time to write. Well, hopefully you agree (from the userpic) that Alex is quite adorable and for the most part he has been really fun. He's a really good baby, especially if I'm paying attention to his cues.

Update on My Crazy Life

So, I know I haven't updated at all. This is because I've been so busy with being a new mom. I got my new laptop from work three days ago and so I now have more freedom to use the Internet (and I don't have to worry about whether my husband is on the computer and what not. So nice!). Anyway, Alex is doing great. He's up to 8 lbs now. Unfortunately, for the last few weeks I had to pump my breast milk and feed him with a bottle because he wasn't pulling enough milk from me. Because of that, my milk supply went down slightly (only producing 1.5 oz per meal total instead of the 2.5 oz that he needed). So I had to supplement a little with formula while the pumping (and taking an herb, Fenugreek, which increases milk) helped to increase my supply so I could feed him with breast milk exclusively. Luckily, it only took about a week. In fact, last week, I was producing around 4–5 oz per pumping, which was enough that I didn't have to pump for nightly feedings—I could just feed him what was left over during the day.

Short Update

Well, things are still improving for Alex. We weighed him again this morning and hewas up another 2 oz. That's 5 oz in two days! He also had another test done for jaundice to see whether we should continue with the billibed. I got a call from the pediatrician's office this morning letting us know that we did not need to put him on the bed today. Yay! We'll have another test done in the morning to see if he's well enough to continue, or if we need to put him back on the bed. When I talked to the lactation specialist today to update her, she said that making sure he gets fed well will help him more than the lights, so the two combined is probably what helped him improve. I guess tomorrow we'll find out if he's better. Also tomorrow, my mother-in-law is coming into town to help out and to see Alex. I'm excited about that. Yay!

The Baby Is Here!

Well, last Thursday, I had a scare. I hadn't really felt the baby move for about 8 hours and I was worried, so I drank some juice, lay on my side, and waited to see if I got 6-10 movements. Well, I didn't. Scary! So I went to the hospital. They hooked me up to a baby monitor and I heard the wonderful sound of my baby's heartbeat. As they were monitoring me, however, they saw that I had high blood pressure (between 130-154/80-104), and so they had my obstetrician come take a look. After 7 hours of being in the hospital that day, my OB came in and announced that I was going to be induced the next day. The high blood pressure is bad for the both mother and baby, and with my due date only days away, there was no reason not to. Well, this was a shock to me because I figured since this was the first baby, I wouldn't have him for at least another week. I was worried I'd have to be induced because of him coming late; I did not expect to be induced before the due date!