Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday, we went to our first family social event in San Francisco for Mother's Day. This is the first time we've driven Wes on such a long trip...one hour drive. Luckily he tends to sleep during the car rides. We took off around 11am, went to visit my Popo at her nursing home. She seemed really happy to see the baby, also saying that he had big eyes. Wes did pretty well. He was awake for most of the time. He did have a couple of fussy moments..you could tell it was because he was tired, but was fighting sleep. His eyelids and under his eyes start to get red. He was able to take a couple of catnaps, but it was only for 15 mins at a time..not enough. By the time we got home around 4pm, it was time to feed him again. Tried to get him back on his routine and it took twice as long to get him wound-down for bedtime after his bath at 8pm. But apparently, he slept longer. Jay didn't feed him til Midnight! Usually Jay feeds him at 10:30pm. Course Wes still got up at 3:30am and 6am to eat. If only Wes could sleep those 4 hours starting at 10:30! I can't wait til that happens! I know he's not ready for it yet. He's trying to eat more, but is now spitting up. His tummy just can't handle the extra milk.

Right now he's sleeping...still fitful. I got him down at 9:30, he woke up at 10, gave him his pacifier again, woke up at 10:30, brought himself back down to sleep again..it's 10:50..still trying to figure him out. Now I can get him down for naps, but they are short or broken. Do I try now to keep him awake longer so he'll sleep more? Or will it make him more fussy and he won't nap at all? It would be so much easier if he came with instructions! Hard for myself to take a nap since it seems he's only sleep a 1/2 hour at a time. I can barely get settled and he's up crying.

Wednesday

Wow..I just woke up from about an hour and half nap! That felt so good! I haven't had one of those in quite a while. Also, Wes seems to be napping better himself. He's still out! This is the second one in the last couple of days where he's sleeping about 2 hours! Either I've been helping him wind down faster and longer for a nap or he's passing some kind of growth spurt. I'm starting to realize when he gets tired. And, he's been giving me more signs. But at the same time, he's starting to turn his head and lift his head up when doing Tummy Time. Maybe it's a little bit of both.

1st Social Outing

Well, today, Wes and I went on our first social outing. I decided to try the Breastfeeding Support Group at Kaiser today. It's only for an hour every Tuesday. This was also the first time I took the stroller in the car. It took me a couple of minutes trying to remember how to fold and close it. Once I got that underway, off we went to the hospital. Considering it was about 10:30am, I was very surprised that I got lucky and found a good parking space near the building. Once inside, we got to meet other mommies and babies. The babies ranged from 1 week to 10 weeks. In the room, they had a scale. I weighed Wes with his clothes on and he weighed 9 lbs. 11 oz! Wow! He gained a pound in 2 weeks! Don't know though how much he's lengthened, but I had to put away the newborn sizes. He's somewhere in the 0-3 months clothes. So, it looks like he's feeding well (especially so by the amount of stuff in his diapers have increased...whoa! almost to the back end of the diaper, if you know what I mean!) It was good to be out to talk to other moms about their breastfeeding and baby caring experience. The things I'm going through now I find I'm not alone. Where I thought he was fighting the breast, I find it's because he's trying to get more out of it. And, it was nice to see the age ranges..I can see where he was at that age and what he will be doing as he gets older. And, my baby is not as fussy as some of the other ones! He did fuss a little, but He actually took a nap! I worry so much that he's not getting enough rest and I find out that one baby doesn't take naps during the day and is fussy and has to be carried around, but sleeps 7 hours at night. Go figure! It was nice to talk to live people instead of posting on the bulletin boards online. It seems like babies are too good when people post. One person will post a problem and most of the people responding to that issue don't seem to have that problem. I guess also it was better with live people because I got more of the story by asking questions. And, they are all around Wes' age, which seems that we're all dealing with similar issues for that age: Gas, fighting/fussy at the breast, spit up, milk supply. This was a good experience. I'm hoping that I can do this again next week, and maybe do this on a regular basis. Hopefully lil' Wes will let me!

1st 6 Weeks

They say the first 6 weeks are the hardest. Looking back, it's hard to remember what it was like. Everything seems like a blur. Maybe that is why it seems hard to get specifics out of mothers when I ask them questions about how their kids were in the first 6 weeks. If you asked me what Wes was like at week 2, I couldn't remember. I guess it's good that I'm blogging during this time so I can look back at how he was in the early weeks.

Is it that it gets easier after that or just that you finally start to get used to it? Maybe it's that by then, you finally get some rewards for all the hard work you put in. I've noticed in the last couple of days that Wes smiles at us and seems to recognize us. He seems more interactive, coos at us, and is able to focus on things now. His neck muscles are getting stronger and he's able to hold his head most of the time without me always holding while I'm carrying him. And, he's able to lift his head for a little bit while we do Tummy Time. He's still got the flailing arms, hopefully he will get out of this soon so that he doesn't keep waking himself up when he hits himself. I'd like to stop swaddling him since it will be getting warmer soon.

We also met a Day Care Provider on Thursday. She seems really good. It's a home, but at the same time, she has activities and lessons for the day. I'm hoping it will work out. At the same time, even though it's exhausting to be with him all day, I feel a little sad that I will have to leave him with someone else. It's happening sooner than I thought. I really only have 2 months left with him.

naps

What did I say about routines? Ugh! It seems to be going out the door! Well, the naps, that is. I'm having a real hard time getting him down for naps. He totally fights it. And, he never stays down for long..maybe 1/2 hour. I think a lot of it is due to his jerky arm movements that he can't control. I've tried swaddling, but now he just fights to get out of it. I'm trying to get him down for a nap after he's awake. All he does is cries and fights it. He knows it's coming when I swaddle him and hold him in the rocker to wind him down before going to the crib. Then while he's sleepy in the crib, he wakes up, struggles, and cries. Unfortunately, the past couple of days I've resorted to cheating...ie. Stroller and nursing him to go to sleep. This is not good. It's hard to keep him down when he starts crying, then get himself all worked up. I know he needs to learn on his own, but at the same time I know he needs his naps. At first I thought I need him to learn on his own. But after him not taking good naps and looking tired, I thought I just need him to nap and get used to naps no matter how I get him to go down. Then I'll work on the other part. Now, I don't know if that is right either. I'm just so confused and worried of doing the wrong thing...