Friday Letter's

I think this is a cute idea that I found from Breanna @ Countings Blessings.  I am linking this up with Ashley @ The Sweet Season.

Dear Parker, I am very happy that you have decided to take a nice LONG nap in your bouncer today, but I wish you would do this in your crib so that I don't have to tip toe around the house while you are asleep. Mommy has chores to do!

Dear Fog, Please lift so that The Hubs can come home quickly.  Parker and I have been waiting to see him for 5 days now!

Dear Inventor of the DVR. I LOVE YOU.  That is all :)

Dear Shoedazzle, I have had a pair of shoes that I need to return for 6 months... I am totally ashamed and hope to have them returned before Monday!

That is all for now :)

Here is a pic of me and my squishy face son!

2 Months!!!

This update is a little late, but Parker is 2 months old!!

The past 2 weeks have been tough, but are starting to improve.  Parker was diagnosed with acid reflux :( The symptoms he was showing were TONS of spitting up, screaming after spitting up, pulling away while eating and screaming, followed by vigorously eating again, burping and screaming, and just fussiness.  It was tolerable (for me) and then one day it was just awful and I put a call into the Dr. and they started Parker on Zantac.  It was a tiny dose and didn't really make a difference.  It seemed like he was just getting worse, then on Tuesday the 8th he PROJECTILE vomited all his food on me and screamed in pain :( :( It was awful.  I called his pediatrician again and she immediately ordered him an ultrasound to rule out Pyloric Stenosis and had to do bloodwork to make sure he wasn't dehydrated due to his throwing up.  All of this was happening when the Hubs was out of town for work too.  I wished he would have been there so much, it was scary without him. Luckily my parents rock and my Mom stayed the night with me watching Parker and my Dad came to the hospital with me for Parker's ultrasound. Luckily his ultrasound went great and everything looked good.  The Dr. did start him on rice cereal which has helped so much with his spitting up, and they also upped his dose of Zantac.  

Other than the medical stuff....

NAPS: His naps are amazing now, he usually has one LONG 3-4 hour nap a day and a couple 2 hour naps.  If he doesn't get those long naps now, he sleeps horribly too!  So no one is to wake my child, EVER! 

SLEEP: Parker is sleeping better through the night, since we made the switch to his OWN ROOM in his OWN CRIB! I stayed the night on the floor with him for a few nights and he is doing great! 

CHANGES/MILESTONES: He is still being a super happy smily baby, and is starting to reach out to grab for things.  I don't know if it is actually happening or I am just hearing this because I am so tired but it sounds like when he is crying there is actual vocal sounds and not just cries.  He is drooling like crazy!  I have to start putting bibs on him so he doesn't soak his tops.  His favorite things are looking at the brights lights and ceiling fans.  Also he LOVES white noise, and not quiet white noise, but LOUD white noise. He has started to enjoy diaper changes now, that's when we get the most smiles out of him :) He still hates tummy time, but tolerates being on his back.  He doesn't love his bumbo seat yet and does not enjoy when he is pulled from his food to be burped.  He has such a dramatic loud scream and literally throws himself back to the position where he gets fed again. He is just a little piggy!

UP NEXT: We had Parker's two month check up but didn't do his vaccines yet because his appt was an hour late and he was already upset so we are doing that later this week once Daddy is home.  I still have to get his daycare set up... I have no idea what I am going to do as far as daycare goes! We have a couple birthday parties to go to in the next few weeks and that will be Parker's first big public outing other than family!  But (knock on wood) he does great in public!  

So here are some pics of the past two weeks!

My happy boy!

Asleep in his crib.

Tummy time is not his favorite.

Mommy's bed for a few nights. 

Sleeping peacefully in Target. 

At his ultrasound looking at the TV screen

Bruises from his bloodwork :( 

Sleepy boy

Watching the 49ers game with Grandpa

Parker and Daddy getting ready for his two month pictures!

5-6 weeks....

Wow, a lot happened between week 5 and 6.  Starting on Dec 23rd we had Christmas festivities for 3 days straight.  Prior to those days I had a miraculous baby who slept 4 or 4.5 hour stretches at night.  He was having some trouble with spitting up a lot, but he was coming off of a growth spurt so that's to be expected.  Well starting on the 23rd his schedule was off, he still ate every 2.5-3.5 hours, and slept TONS, but when he slept, he was always in someones arms... FOR 3 DAYS!!! Therefore when he was at home and I tried to put him down, he screamed.  On top of that he was having some major gas problems :( I hated watching him grunt and then cry when nothing came out. Well after sleeping for a total of 5 hours over 2 nights I had enough.  I thought I was going crazy, I was delirious and he was so gassy, and the only thing that made him happy was eating more.  On Christmas he actually ate every hour from 2pm-10pm, and then it was 90 minutes after that.  Hello boobs that are going to fall off!!  So starting the day after Christmas I told everyone that I was locking myself up with the baby and not leaving until we were back on schedule.  It took 2 days to get back on a regular schedule, and those 2 days were AWFUL!!  We are however back to some sort of normalcy... if that is possible with a 6 week old.  So here is a little update on a few certain topics

NAPS:
Parker is taking on average 6 naps per day.  Those naps are anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.  I am following very loosely the baby wise method of Eat Activity Sleep You (with an added Activity after sleep when he takes shorter naps).  I am hoping to get Mr. Parker sleeping through the night before I go back to work so we are slowly setting the stage for that right now.  When I put him down for a nap it is either in his bouncer, swing, or car seat if we are going somewhere.  I make sure he is fed and has had his diaper changed and then I place him in there when he is showing signs of being sleepy (yawning, subbing eyes, whimpering).  Then I brace myself to hear him cry :(  It is unfortunate but the first time I had to let him just cry it out was by mistake and it worked so well I went with it from there. I was in the shower and had put him in his bouncer after feeding him.  He started crying right when I was all soapy with shampoo, so he had to wait for me to rinse off... within 2 minutes he was asleep.  So I started timing it that day and usually within 5 minutes of him crying he is asleep.  It has been easier than I expected and it works for us.  I know a lot of people have different opinions about letting kids this young cry it out, but this is working for us so we are sticking with it.

SLEEP:
Once we got out of the holiday stage he was still waking up every 2 1/2 hours on average until we got his day times back on track.  Now he is at about 3 1/2 hour blocks. We started giving him gas drops before or after meals and that cut out one night feeding.  I then started giving Parker his pacifier when he woke up before automatically feeding him if he wasn't acting hungry.  That surprisingly worked for 2 more night feedings.  Which means that he can go 5 hours without wanting to eat, but is still waking up.  I am going to be tackling that these next 2 weeks and I will let you all know how that goes.

CHANGES/MILESTONES:
The biggest change we have seen with Parker is how happy he is.  He is a smiling machine!  I can pretty much get a smile out of him anytime I start talking baby talk to him. The first of the big smiles was on Christmas and it was the best gift I could get out of him after sleeping only 2 1/2 hours the night before.  We even get cooing and laughing to go along with the smiles :) It is adorable and melts my heart when he does it.

He is also growing too fast! I officially have taken all his newborn clothes out of his closet and dresser and boxed them up :( Only 2 onesies that weren't worn and that's not bad for a kid who had 2 drawers full of newborn onesies! The Hubs stepped on the scale with him on Christmas day and he weighed 11 lbs! That almost a 4 lb gain from his birth and almost 5 lbs from his lowest.  I feel like we will get scolded by his pediatrician at his next appt.

UP NEXT:
He is 7 weeks today and almost 2 months old. He has his 2 month check up on the 13th that will tell us officially how much he has gained and we are going to talk to the Dr. about his constipation issues and his CONSISTENT spitting up.

Here are pics from the past 2 weeks ENJOY and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

In his Jets uniform from Uncle Joe

One of Parker's many expressions

Sweet boy :)

Tummy time! Look at that belly :)

Peacefully swaddled up and asleep

This kid always has his pinkies out! 

Christmas Eve outfit :)

Christmas morning with Daddy

Christmas morning with a tired Mommy

Christmas night at Grandma's. 

Mommy and Parker

Using his telepathic powers to speak to us Lol

Happy boy!

Look at those chins!

I love baby wearing, it makes my chores so much easier, this was on New Years Eve as we looked at wedding venues for my sister who got engaged before Christmas. 

Watching TV with Daddy.

Parker 5 weeks

So this last week was a bit of a crazy one.  Mr. Parker started out the week on a consistent sleep schedule, sleeping 4 hours, nurse, sleeping 3 hours, nurse, and then 3 hours again. Very happy Mama :)  Then he decided sleep was overrated and for 3 nights in a row he would only sleep a maximum of one 2 hour block on his own each night.  ZOMBIE MOM!! Our routine was diaper change, pj's, swaddled in a swaddle pod, nurse, and sleep in the Pack n' Play in our room.  This had been the routine for a little over a week... nothing changed. For those 3 days though he decided he hated the swaddle pod and was fighting it, trying to break loose.  This kept him awake which made him mad and over tired.  For a new mom you would think "hey a 2 hour block, not bad." Well when you have been spoiled with 3 and 4 hours of sleep, it was AWFUL! On the last night at 2am, he and I had yet to fall asleep and the wonderful Hubs offered to sleep on the couch so Parker and I could sleep in the bed together (a place where he ALWAYS sleeps for long periods of time).  So after an internal struggle I gave in and said fine, I need sleep.  As a behaviorist this KILLED me.  I am a firm believer in consistency is the key.  I hated that after 4 weeks of being consistent with a sleep schedule and only changing the type of swaddle we used I was giving in after 3 nights.  But being sleep deprived makes you do crazy thing.  If I hadn't gone to sleep when I did that night, my next move was to order a rock n play with rush delivery to have it here that evening no matter the cost.  I am SO glad I didn't do that. Last night as we were getting ready to go to bed, which with a newborn who is off on their sleep schedule feels like you are about to go to war, (you have no idea the outcome and you have no idea the journey, but you have to take it) I told the Hubs that we should just have him sleep in the bouncer in our room.  Well the awesome Hubs that I have said no, let's just keep doing what we were doing.  That was the fuel I needed to be able to make it through the night with an optimistic outlook.  Last night was bath night (which we do every 3 nights) and then when I swaddled him I did it looser than normal and his right arm started to come out so I swaddled around it.  He didn't fight the swaddle, but he did fight sleep at first.  After I fed him it took about an hour for him to fall asleep, but then he slept for 3 hours, nurse, 3 hours, nurse, and I woke him up at 4 hours!  And all of that sleep was done in the pack n play with his cute little arm out of the swaddle.  It really is like a victory when your child sleeps for an elongated period.

Changes from last week:
Parker is smiling!!  He will have one smile each day, but it is unpredictable :(  It is beautiful when he does though, even if it's just a half smile it is adorable.  He is staying awake for longer periods of time in the day.  Probably an hour or an hour an a half after each daytime feeding.  His neck strength is incredible, he lifts his head up all the time, it still will drop to the side if it's not supported but that is happening less and less.  He is able to see further.  His favorite thing to look at are can lights and other ceiling lights.  We have LED lights in our kitchen that we hate, but he loves. We have noticed in the last day or two while we are in the living room he is looking into the kitchen at the lights! We went to my mother in laws over the weekend and he was looking up at the ceiling, all around and then would cry.  I think he was looking for some kind of ceiling lights!

Well that's the update for the week, it has taken me almost 15 hours to write this post!  I will leave you all with an adorable pic from my kid :)

Sleep... it's like a miracle drug

So... the past two nights my wonderful kiddo has given me a 4 hour stretch of sleep... and then usually another 3 hour stretch :) It is amazing what sleep can do for a person.  I feel so much better as a human! I made dinner last night, I wrapped gifts, and I went and got my nails done! My baby is behaving so wonderfully after having rested so much too!

Today we are taking our family Christmas pictures and I am NOT looking forward to it.  When I was pregnant I gained 39 lbs. Within 2 weeks of coming home I lost 22 and I haven't looked lately but my clothes are fitting more like they used to :) But my face is still large and in pictures I don't look like I have lost much weight... so I know I will  not like these photos because of that.  But because it is Parker's first Christmas I will endure and take the first family photo and buy at least one picture to remember the occasion... and buy lots of pictures of his Christmas photos!  Then tomorrow is his one month... wow, where did that time go?  My baby has changed so much already.  He is so alert and stays awake more during the day and he already has preferences.  My little bundle of joy :)

I will post his pics later or tomorrow... life of a new mom you never know when you will have time to do things like blog posts!

My little tree frog!

Due Date

Well today was suppose to be my due date for Mr. Parker.  And instead I have a 4 week old son! My goodness the past 4 weeks have been tough ones.  I am not one of those sugar coating moms who says that having a newborn has been nothing but perfect.... It has been exhausting! During the day everything is usually seems fine, he is actually a REALLY good baby.  When he is fussy, so far it has been for a reason and that reason is usually hunger.  He took to breastfeeding pretty good, other than pain for me there hasn't been many issues.  He does however like to "play" instead of eat in the middle of the night.. and at 2am that is quite frustrating.  Anytime we have taken him out in public he has been an angel, no crying even if it is WAY past his meal time :) We even took him to dinner with us the other night.. (unexpectedly) and he slept through most of it and then people watched when he was awake.  So needless to say we are very lucky with a good baby that is happy most of the time.  But even with a happy baby it is tiring.  I am still adjusting to being responsible for another persons well being 100%.  I had no idea life would be the way it is right now.  Not that I am complaining, it is just SO different.  The things I think I miss the most are the little things.  Like pillow talk with the Hubs. Parker sleeps in our room right now and if we try to chat before falling asleep (which is a fav. past time of mine) he starts crying... way to ruin a moment.

But then right before he is eating and I am getting myself situated, he just looks so adorable that I forget all about being tired and drained. I have gotten a few smiles out of him and that was a victory for me.  Another thing I LOVE about my kid is that is takes great pictures.  He knows how to sit still and look right at the camera, which makes this photography mommy very happy!

Well I have a hungry boy crying for me, so I will just leave you all with these latest Christmas pics of the little guy ;)

See... ADORABLE! Love those eyes :)

Parker Jean Chamberlain Part 2

PART 2:

At 4:15 they started me on a pitocin drip to try and speed things up since my contractions weren't regular yet.  At that time I was dilated to a 3... still a far ways to go.  At 6:15 I started to feel a small contraction again so I pressed the nice epidural pen.  Then about 2 minutes later I felt an OMG contraction and almost lost my shit.  I knew I couldn't handle going through that pain again and  didn't want to.  I held it together though, knowing that if I started to cry then I wouldn't stop.  The Dr. checked me and informed me that HOLY SHIT I was at a 10.  It was go time.  I proceeded to then tell her NO.  I didn't want to push that was the one thing I didn't want to do.  I would have rather had a c-section than push and feel the "ring of fire" or feel the tearing or cutting.  I didn't want that.  She allowed me to labor down for another hour and a half and during that I pushed my epidural button as often as I could.  That I think is what saved me. 

While my family rested up for the next big part of the day, I tried to stay in denial that I was about to have a baby.  It was surreal, it felt like it wasn't going to happen.  Then they told me I had to push.  I began pushing and the Hubs and my sister kept telling me how good I was doing, and I thought they were bullshitting me to make me feel better. It wasn't until the Dr. told me 35 minutes later to stop pushing, that during my next contraction I would have a baby.  That is when it hit me, I had made it.  I made it to the finish line and was about to cross it.  The pushing wasn't bad at all, I didn't feel any pain and now I was going to be a mom. I knew it was coming and just waited. As I felt the familiar pressure I grabbed my thighs and pushed every so slightly.  I felt him come out and then he was here.  

The next couple minutes were a blur.  There was crying and screaming and hustle and bustle of nurses. The Dr. continued to work on me and I anxiously waited to hear if I would need stitches.  To my surprise I didn't tear at all, HOORAY FOR ME!! I was so happy, there was this small thing staring up at me, a love I never knew I could feel from my husband, and a feeling of wholeness that I didn't know was empty.  Parker Jean was born at 8:32pm weighing 7lb 4oz, 21 in long. Even though he was considered a preemie since he was 4 weeks early, he was perfectly healthy and didn't need to spend any time in the NICU. 

That first night was terrifying.  Other than the fact that the Hubs and I were afraid to take our eyes off of him in fear that he would stop breathing, he had swallowed quite a bit of amniotic fluid and was throwing it up all night.  This made both of us now nervous that we stayed awake all night just listening for him to throw up and then suction out anything that came up.  Once the sun came up it didn't seem so scary so baby and I were able to get some sleep. 

These are some very sleepy eyes on the morning after labor and no sleep. The next are a few cute pictures of the little guy that I've taken over the last 2 weeks. 

Parker ready to go home! He didn't like the car seat at first, now it is like an instant sleep machine. 

Hanging out in his bouncer, where he slept for the first few nights. At his first Dr. appt where we learned he was loosing too much weight so we had to increase the feedings and take him back to the hospital for a 2nd weigh in.  Which he did fine at :)

Love this shot of my finger sucker <3 p="p">

More finger sucking :)

While I feed Parker I have a friend who always sits with me.

Parker sleeping after a feeding. 

More sleeping...

and more sleeping...

....

Finally an awake picture!  His first at home bath, which he hates. 

Finger sucking :)

and a small smile out of my little guy.  

That is the story of how this amazing little boy came to the Hubs and I.  Being a mom isn't an easy job, and there aren't any breaks, but I can't even say that it's worth it... it's just my life now.  I don't even have to think about whether it's worth it or not, it is this way as if it has always been this way.  I think what I love most is seeing my husband interact with him and the love that radiates from him when he looks at him or talks about him.  It is amazing to look at your husband in a new way after looking at him in the same ol' way for 8 years.  To watch him be a father makes me speechless :).