Five Weeks

Sorry for the gap in posts. Life with a newborn is unpredictable at best. I'm sure there have been times in the past couple of weeks when I could've written a post, but I probably chose to sleep or stare blankly at the wall during a moment of peace. Most likely I was washing bottles.

Anyway, little man is now over five weeks old. We just flew right past that one-month mark. I'd like to tell you that he's a perfectly well-behaved child who never complains, but that would be a lie! He has good days and then bad days when he's fussy a lot and doesn't sleep much. Those days wear me out. I know he's got reasons to be fussy, though, so I don't get mad at him. We are still battling the thrush monster, which we've been doing for several weeks now. I know it can't feel good to have that stuff in his mouth. I think it might even make him want to eat more because it might make his mouth feel better. The usual meds for it, Nystatin, didn't work, so we've been trying gentian violet on the recommendation of our pediatrician, which stains his mouth purple for a day. It does knock down the thrush a lot, but then it usually comes back the next day. We gave him purple mouth yesterday, and today I've been swabbing his mouth with grapefruit seed extract in distilled water to keep it away. It seems to be working so far, but if it comes back he may need stronger meds for it.

Purple lips from the gentian violet

Liam has also been having some stomach issues lately. It seems he may have a milk sensitivity, so I've stopped eating dairy for the little bit of breastfeeding I can do, and we've switched him to a soy formula (all under the recommendation of his pediatrician). Hopefully this is just temporary and we can switch him back in a few months once his digestive system is more mature. However, the soy formula seems to slow him down if you know what I mean. So going number two is painful for him. He's still very new to the soy, though, and hopefully this is just his body having to adjust to the new formula. He's actually made great progress in that area today. But yeah, this has caused a lot of fussiness lately, and I hate to see him in pain. But enough of our problems, let's talk about the good times...because there are good times as well!

Liam is smiling a lot more now! He's given us little gassy grins since pretty early on, but now I think he's starting to smile on purpose sometimes. This weekend he totally smiled at me three times in a row on purpose. He has a few different smiles, but the most common one is where he smiles with just one side of his mouth. All of his smiles are so cute. They're also fleeting, so I haven't really been successful at capturing one on camera yet. I took some pictures of Liam for a Father's Day present for Will, and these are the two with the best examples of him smiling:

He also is making cute noises sometimes. They're hard to describe, but they're so cute and I think they usually surprise him when they come out of his mouth. He looks at and focuses on us a lot now. He's starting to hold his head up better, but it's still too heavy for him. That's one thing I'm really looking forward to: neck control.

He's a good sleeper at night, even if he's had a really fussy day. He'll sleep a 3-4 hour stretch at night, and goes right back to sleep after I feed him. I'm thankful for that. We try to play during the day, but sometimes he's too fussy and doesn't want to have anything to do with that. I read to him everyday, and I sing to him pretty often. No one else in the world gets to hear me sing but him. I usually sing Beatles songs, most often "I'm Only Sleeping" and I also sing "Jesus Loves Me" to him. He tolerates my singing for a few minutes, but then I think he grows weary of it. He gets the hiccups ALL the time. Sometimes he tolerates them well, other times not so much, but crying or drinking something usually gets rid of them. When he sneezes, he sounds like one of the chipmunks (Alvin, Simon, Theodore) sneezing. It's pretty cute. I love my little man!

Three Weeks Down, a Lifetime to Go

It's been three weeks since Liam was born. They have flown right by, but yet even last week seems like forever ago. In just another week, I'll have a one month old son.

Since I last posted, I think a lot has happened. This past week was especially busy. Will is now back at work full-time, so it's just the two of us together all day. Friday, May 27th, Liam had his official two-week check-up. At that appointment, he weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces. He was in the 20th percentile for weight and head size, and the 50th percentile for length. The pediatrician said he was perfect.

This past Wednesday, our good friends Crystal and Brian stopped by on their way from Oregon to Ruston, and Crystal took Liam's newborn pictures. Crystal is an amazing photographer, especially of babies. I love the ones I've seen so far! You can check them out here. I fed Liam right before she got here, and he was a wonderful baby the entire time and slept through his entire photo session. I think he liked being naked and getting to sleep on his stomach.

A behind-the-scenes shot at his photo shoot

As the Garcias were leaving, the lactation consultant was arriving. I have been having some breastfeeding issues, and I decided it was time to get to the bottom of them and find out once and for all what the problem was. She weighed Liam before I fed him. He was up to 7 pounds, 14 ounces! Then I nursed him for a little while, until he got frustrated. She weighed him again and determined that he really didn't get anything from me. After asking me a lot of questions too, she determined that the problem is very low milk supply. Of course, it was disheartening to hear that. While she was here, she set us up with a supplemental nursing system. It features a small tube that he sucks on at the same time he nurses, and gets formula. He nursed like a pro using that thing. She said his latch was perfect. She suggested I start taking the herbs fenugreek and blessed thistle to increase my supply, and use the sns as much as possible. Of course, after she left, we haven't been able to make the sns work on our own since then. So I've been taking the herbs, pumping more, and trying to get him to nurse as much as he will to try and increase the supply. So far, none of it seems to be working. I haven't noticed any increase. However, I'm still not giving up, as hard as it is. The fenugreek makes me smell like maple syrup. It's tough, though. Before he was born, I just assumed breastfeeding would work so easily. Now I feel foolish for thinking that. My baby is basically a completely formula-fed baby, with a little bit of breastmilk thrown in. The boy does love to eat, though.

Thursday to Saturday, my mom came to visit and spend time with Liam. She even watched him for a couple of hours Friday night while Will and I went out to eat and took our recycling to the recycling center. It had been many weeks since we had taken it. I know it sounds silly, but we do recycle, and the city doesn't pick it up at our apartment complex, so we have to take it ourselves. She loved getting to spend time with him. He did do his first ever projectile vomiting while she was here. Before, he had never done more than spit up a little. I was a little shocked, but I think he just got a little overfed and stimulated too much. While she was here, we also took him to Target for the first time. I'm sure he will be going there a lot in his future.

Friday, I noticed little man was making some noises when he breathed. It hasn't been uncommon for him to do that in certain positions, but he never did it when he was laying on his back. All night Friday, I basically didn't get any sleep because I stayed up listening to him breathe because he was making noise. He didn't seem like he was laboring to breathe at all, just the noise and some panting-like breathing. So being the worrisome mother, we took him to the pediatrician on Saturday morning. We had to see a different doctor than our regular one. She listened to his heart and his lungs and his breathing. She said everything sounded perfect, but that he does have some nasal congestion. I had thought that might be it, but I couldn't see anything in his nose, and using saline drops in his nose hadn't seem to help. She said it was common, and that it would go away, and that occasional panting-like breathing was very normal and common in newborns. She also said he was perfect. I love it when they say that! So he is fine, he just may keep on making noise when he breathes for a little while. I think it's already gotten better when he's lying on his back. He was weighed at the doctor's office, and he was up to 8 pounds, 6 ounces, so he had gained 8 ounces from Wednesday to Saturday. He's becoming such the big boy. His cheeks are filling out.

After three weeks, I think I'm finally used to the idea that I'm a mother now. It really has been a huge adjustment. I feel like I fall in love with Liam more and more everyday. He's starting to focus better and actually look at me now, and that's super sweet. I think I'm also learning more of his personality. I think he's a really good baby, and only cries if he needs something. His favorite things to do are eat, sleep, and stretch. He stretches all the time!

Stretching!