Fussy baby alert!

So our little guy has been having a tough few days. He has been on acid reflux medicine for almost 2 weeks now and was doing so much better a week or so ago on it. Then starting on Tuesday night he took a turn for the worse and has been a pretty unhappy camper since. Poor little guy - you can tell that his belly is really bothering him the way he sticks his legs out in discomfort - that and that he has been crying *almost* non-stop during his waking hours. We are headed back to the pediatrician today. I hope they have some sort of solution up their sleeve to make him feel better...

That's m' Boy!

So a few recent photos of Sam, Geoff with Sam, my nephew Brendan and niece Erin and then cat Lily :)

Today I spent the entire day in bed after having an allergic reaction to medicine I *was* taking. No fun at all. I felt just plain awful and Geoff had to come home from work early to take care of Sam bcs I was so afraid I would drop him I felt so ill. My mom then came over (as scheduled) and watched him all afternoon till 6pm. She is really a life-saver - I have no idea how we would get by without her :)

Last night we went to the Celtics game. It was really fun to have a night out, though I still hear a crying baby in my ears for at least an hour after I leave the house.

I am going to run to mind Sam for a bit and give Geoff a break bcs Sam is having an unusually fussy night. Poor guy...

Saturday! Saturday - Saturday - Saturday... :)

A photo from today of Sam wearing the ice cream onesie that Scott and Bianca got for him. I just love him in it, especially with the matching hat with his name on it :)

Today was a really great Saturday - Geoff did a lot of the feedings last night so I got a good amount of rest and then hung out with Sam all morning. He is doing much better these days (after his fussy spell a week or so ago) and really fun to be with. Well as fun as feeding, burping and diapers can be ;)

Jon, Christina and Nicholas came over for lunch today. It was really great to hang out with them and see Nicholas. He is almost 13 pounds now and is so well behaved. He just hangs out and smiles - a very chill little guy :) Jon took some very funny photos of the 2 boys sitting together - they are posted on their blog now: http://sprogblog.com/ . I love all of them except for the one with me in it. I look like a house. I know it is reality, but I am still very unhappy about the size I am and would just like to fast forward X number of months until I look like myself again. It is pretty painful to see my face that fat and my body so rolly, polly. Argh - what are you going do? ;)

Tomorrow Collen, Ricky and their kids are planning to visit and then we will see Geoff's Mum after that :)

6 Weeks Deep

Yesterday was Sam's 6 week B-day and today was my 6 week appointment with my mid-wife.

Everything was great at my appointment - I am kind of sad not be able to see my mid-wife for a while (well over a year probably :) she was really, really incredible and a just perfect fit for us. She told me I was doing all the right things and gave me a big hug before we left :) That is always so wonderful to hear when people tell you are doing a good job. Seeing as this is my first child and I have pretty my no idea what to do - except figure it out on the fly ;) I also think that kids can smell fear (like animals ;) so if he knows that I am uptight or upset then he will be to. So I just try to fake him out and act all confident, like I actually know what I am doing - heck it has worked for me during my career - why not with childcare?

After my appt. we swung by Saugus to say hi to my Dad. He was just coming back from Colleen's and picking up one of the boys from school. Sam did not fuss at all which was really a relief - I think he is doing better. He usually does not cry all day (minus the "I just woke up and am hungry" cries). I think he is settling into our routine and schedule. Granted my entire routine and schedule is catering to him, but whatever reduces the amount of tears makes me happy. We aim for "no cry days" - minus the above-mentioned wake-up ones. So much so I have preemptive bottles warmed and ready for him as much as possible.

We do not have much planned this weekend. We may see Colleen and her family on Sunday bcs Ricky and Matthew have not met Sam yet. Ricky was baby sitting when Colleen visited me in the hospital and the kids were not allowed to visit bcs of flu precautions. I know Matthew will get a kick out of him, he is such a smart little guy - he was very sweet with Erin when she came home from the hospital :)

The stroller and music

Just a very, very quick post - 2 life savers to date:

The stroller - so we can leave the house - I get some fresh air and he usually just sleeps :)

Connecting my iPhone to the receiver in the living room - we listen to music all day with influxes of NPR programming. We learned about the economy in Denmark yesterday (Planet Money), listened to the full length MLK speech this morning (Neil Cohen's show, though he is on vacation now). I am running the iTunes genius on and listening to so many song I have not listened to in ages. The forced variety has been really great.

Off to bed bcs Sam just went down so this is eating in my rest time...

Jump for my love

So some good news and some not so great news. First the good news - Alex had her baby!!!! Westley Alexander Houston was born just after 1:00am on Friday morning - he is absolutely adorable and Alex is doing really well :) I am so excited for Sam to have a new buddy to play with and to be an unofficial Auntie to little Westley. I just love his name!

So the not-so-great news is that Sam has been pretty unhappy these last couple of days - I think since Thursday to be exact. He was just really fussy and was crying a lot, especially after he ate. I took him to the pediatrician on Friday morning and they said he has acid reflux (or is more sensitive to it than other babies) so they prescribed some medicine to help make him more comfortable. Funny thing is he was really good on Friday, but then really fussy again on Saturday. I think it may be more of a phase kind of thing, but we want to make sure that he is not so unhappy that he does not gain weight or have some rest to take just hang out and absorb things.
Yesterday I had a dentist appt. in Brookline for a cavity on my back left molar - funny, having a fussy baby at home made going to the dentist a bit more enjoyable ;) After that I picked up more baby thank you notes at Paper Source and then stocked up on wine from Trader Joes. There are only a few TJs that stock wine so whenever I am close to one I have to seize the opportunity. After that I picked up a few things at Whole Foods and then stopped in Belmont to see Geoff's Mum and have a cup of teat with her. She started her treatments this week and is doing really well, all things considered :)

Today I need to work on a project for work - basically defining website "success" for each of our communication initiatives. It is trying to marry the data from our bulk email software and web analytics tool and come up with some tangible goals other than web traffic and time spent on a page. I really need to get things beyond time spent on page and bounce rates or entrance points and get the focus on the "so what?"

The first 2 photos above are from Sam's first walk with me in his stroller on Friday afternoon. The bottom photo is of him before we went out for our first walk around the neighborhood as a little family. As you can tell from the blurred shot he was crying at the onset, but he quieted down and fell asleep less than a block away from the house. It is really nice to be able to get out and get some fresh air with him. I am hoping there are a few days above freezing this week so we can get out again.

Oh back to the title of the post - we have found that dancing with Sam around the living room is one effective tactic to quiet him down. So we are learning what his favorite songs are :) It is rather funny when you find yourself dancing to "Jump for my Love" by the Pointer Sisters at 8am on a Sunday morning ;)

Bath - take two

Colleen, Brendan and Erin visited yesterday for most of the day - it was really fun to see them an hang out. Colleen brought us lunch and dinner - really fantastic of her! :)

After they left I successfully attempted to give Sam the third bath of his life. The first was in the hospital, the second one was at home and he cried the entire time - so much so I did not even want to waste time with a photo bcs I just wanted to give him a cuddle to stop crying. He was very well behaved for his bath yesterday - I would not go so far to say he enjoyed it (as you can tell from the expression on his face in the photos) but he was not wailing crying :)

Besides the fact that I was up pretty much the entire night with him the night before last we had a really good day yesterday. We have no switched him to lactose free formula to see how he does on that. If he is not happy with that then we will go for the soy, but that is more of a last resort bcs the milk-based formulas are better for him.

Last night he would not go down to sleep without me holding him, so I spent a good portion of the night just holding him in bed. Not the best sleep in the world for me, but he was happy and at this point I am getting used to "functioning" on spotty sleep. I did take a nap of sorts yesterday afternoon - I think one of the first since he was born. It felt good :)

Also of mention, yesterday was the first time that he vomited. HE usually just has a little spit up, but after consuming 7 ounces of formula in less than 3 hours - the little guy (and his stomach) found their limit and it all came back to visit us.

He is starting to stir in his little chair so I should run before he fusses. I can now put him in his chair on the table and I have my laptop on the table next to him. I also have a playlist set up for him on my Itunes so we are building a list of his favorites songs.

First solo outing

This morning we have a pediatrician appt. and it is my first outing out with him all by myself. Well technically I drove from Belmont to our house a few nights ago with just me and him, but this is our first trip needing to be someplace at sometime ;)

Geoff was really incredible (solid A for Uncle Andy ;) and fed Sam at 11pm last night and then did a 6am feeding as well before he went to work. The timing is working out perfectly – I got up about an hour ago to get things ready (including myself) for the pediatrician. So I am now dressed and fed and ready for him to wake up so I can just change, feed him and then that should be about the time we need to leave.

I now need to have my second cup of tea before I need to wake him up...

Is he fussy or is it just us?

Some recent photos of Sam - I need to figure out how to do captions with this - any help appreciated ;)

The top photo is him in my favorite shirt for him - which happens to be the only piece of clothing I have bought for him ;)

The next two pictures are of him hanging out and then sleeping. He is starting to fuss a bit more these days and I am trying to sort out what we should expect as normal and what is not. It could also be that he is is going through some phase and it will pass in a week or so. We have a pediatrician appt. tomorrow morning so I will ask her then.

The bottom photo is of him cuddling with the quilt his Aunt Alex made for him :) It is a really adorable pattern with little yellow ducks all over it. The material is super soft and it in the downstairs crib for day naps :)

Active Wear

A quick post bcs I have to go wake up Sam in a few minutes. I am trying to keep him a bit more awake during the day to try to switch his clock over so he sleeps more in the night.

Today Geoff's Mum was my lifesaver and watched the baby in Belmont while I borrowed her car and ran some errands. I was so excited to get out of the house - it had been days and I was going stir crazy (poor Geoff!)

I did a bug pick up at Trader Joe's (which is quickly becoming my main grocery source over Whole Foods); a caramal (skinny) machiatto from Starbucks, a quick trip into Whole Foods and then into TJ Maxx for some very cheap clothes. I had to break down and buy some pants and clothes that fit me. I am about 20 pounds over my normal weight (arghh!!!) so nothing I own fits and I do not want to wear maternity clothes. So off to TJ Maxx to get cheap clothes as not to support my current state of being.

I did find a few things - and overall had a very successful outing and made it back in perfect time to chat with Geoff's Mum and then get dropped off at home.

Gosh - what a difference some fresh air, sunlight makes - getting out of the house is such a treat it really does wonders for my mindset.

Tonight Jeremy and Amanda are coming over with dinner for us - so very sweet of them - I can't wait to hang out - in my new fancy sweat pants that is - TJ Maxx has an official section for them - called Active Wear ;)

The New Year

So we begin 2010 - today we start what I would consider to be the new normal for the next few months. With the holidays over Geoff will not be taking any more time off of work, so it is me and the little guy primarily. He is sleeping now and I just finished making meta loaf for dinner tonight.

I got my post-partum pilates DVD in the mail today and want to try it out tonight when Geoff gets home from work. It has a special work out for the first 6 weeks after birth that is safe for c-section moms.

Jeannie and Mike came over to meet Samuel on Saturday afternoon. Jeannie said that a new years Scottish belief is that the way your house looks at the turn of the new year is how it will look for the rest of the year. So that means moving boxes and baby gear into 2011 :)

Sunday Geoff had Chris, Jordan and Gitchel over to watch the football game. Samuel hung out (slept)downstairs with them for most of the day and then we all had dinner together around 7:30pm. We basically threw together an assortment of Trader Joes prepared food and IKE meatballs with some frozen vegtables on the side and called it a meal ;)

Amanda's sister had her baby yesterday morning - a really adorable little girl :)
Amanda and Jeremy are coming over on Wednesday night to have dinner with us and hang out. They are going to bring dinner for us, which is incredibly sweet of them.

Well I am going to run to finish my tea before he wakes up and needs a bottle...

Baby Bjorn with Dad