One month checkup

Alright, so I'm a little late updating. A lot has happened in little Peyton's life in the last 2 weeks. It's amazing how much he has changed. Grandma came back for a visit, which was a huge help with Mommy's adjustment to going out in public with a little one. Now Peyton and Mommy go on outings every day, mostly to parks around town now that the weather is getting nice, to get some fresh air and exercise.

Peyton is now smiling and laughing and making tons of noises, especially in his sleep. The crying has backed off a bit except for 3-4 hours first thing in the morning and 3-4 hours in the evening before bed. Mostly it seems to be gas and possibly reflux, so we are going to start him on Prilosec and see if that helps. Otherwise he is happy and healthy. At his 4 week appointment the other day he weighed a whopping 10 lbs. 8 oz. That is a weight gain of 4 pounds in 4 weeks. He is definitely a good eater, but sometimes I think too good. We've had multiple episodes of projectile (and I'm not exaggerating) vomitting recently, possibly due to overfeeding and gas. Today we practiced the pacifier, which he has previously adamently objected to in place of eating, and he took it! Maybe it's because he now eats from a bottle at least once a day. He doesn't eat as well from the bottle as the breast, but he'll learn when I go back to work and he has to.





One last bit of news. As a gift for my birthday, Zack's birthday, and our anniversary, we are going to Florida for 10 days in June to soak up the sun, beach, pool, and visit with friends and family before I have to return to work. It'll be a great way to end my maternity leave.

New stats:
Weight-10 lbs 8 oz
Length-22 inches
Head-14 1/2 inches

Stats-2 week appt.

At Peyton's 2 week Dr.'s visit this is what they found:

He eats great-8lbs 1oz., 20 1/2 inches long
He's got great lungs-he screamed the entire visit
He clots well-they needed blood from his heel and he just wouldn't bleed.

That's our boy!

baths, vomit, pee, and sleep deprivation

Every day is different. That about sums it up. Some days we have a sweet, innocent little baby making cute faces and other days we have a screaming banshee. Some nights I get sleep in 3-4 hour segments and he'll go back to sleep immediately after finishing eating and others I'm lucky to get 45 minutes at a time and will be up for 2+ hours trying to get him to go back to sleep. Diaper changes are an adventure all their own. I can't believe how much a little itty bitty baby can poop and pee. 70 diapers a week from our diaper service is only going to make it half the week this week because little Peyton likes to wait until you get a clean diaper underneath him and then either poop or pee again. My lap has been peed on twice (once mysteriously it appeared all over me and his clothes, but managed to miss the diaper entirely-and that was a disposable). Of course how much comes out is related to how much goes in. Some days that is as often as every 45 minutes that he becomes so famished that nothing will calm his screams except a meal. That equates to an awful lot of poop and pee. Oh, and don't forget the occaisional projectile vomiting that seems like too much to fit inside his little stomach, usually because of hiccups that are so strong they push all the food he just ate out.

But we love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Yes, it's hard now that Zack is back at work and I have to learn to balance sleeping, eating, and personal hygeine with calming a crying baby, changing him, feeding him, and trying not to forget that the dog also needs food and to go outside. It's getting easier. I now know mornings are useless because that's when he's fussy. Afternoons I have all kinds of time to get things done while he sleeps. I know, I know, I should be sleeping when he is sleeping, but I never nested while I was pregnant and seem to be now. I have this unbelievable desire to clean everything and organize my whole house. I have the occaisional breakdown where I start crying because I can't calm him or I get frustrated by him not wanting to sleep at night. But I love him and can't imagine life without him when it's only been 2 1/2 weeks. Overall, life is good.

Connie

Update-Day 8

Current weight: 7 lbs 3 oz. Apparently he has no problem with eating as he has gained 1 lb 1 oz since his day four doctors visit (not sure if the doc's scale was right) and his initial loss to 6 lbs 2 oz. I do know this, he weighed in at 6 lb 7.5 oz at birth and now weighs 7 lbs 3 oz.





Billirubin - 14 on day four which is a bit high and slightly jaundice but expected around day four. Day six his Billirubin rang in a solid 9, showing that it was on the downswing and the jaundice is all but cleared up. It's a beautiful thing.





Connie is doing well. She is an amazing mom. She had a great teacher/mentor. As most know, it's hard to establish a schedule this early in the game, but with Me (Zack) returning to work in a week we're trying to get him as consistant as possible. When he sleeps we don't really want to wake him to feed, but we don't want to wait until he's crying due to hunger either. It's a fine balance that we have yet to master. Have we said how cute he is. . . precious.



The above photo is our, "Hey girl, holler back on my cell, I'm trying to catch some z's."

Thanks to all of you following the Peyton's blog. We really appreciate all the kind comments that you've shared.

Update-Day 3

Hi all. Just wanted to give an update on how Peyton, Zack, and I (oh, and don't forget Kodi) are getting along on his 3rd day of life. We are still beside ourselves with joy and actually not too horribly sleep deprived. Neither of us can stop staring into Peyton's face, including Kodi who is still not sure what this thing is and why he makes noises in the middle of the night. I am feeling pretty good. I'm still sore, which I figure will last a couple more days, but otherwise I am on cloud 9. After some initial difficulty positioning for breastfeeding, Peyton and I had a meeting of the minds and have gotten the hang of it. He's eating every 2 hours and I have no doubt once my milk is fully in, he will chunk up quickly. We had a 48 hour follow up appt. with my midwifery yesterday and he had lost 5 oz. since birth, which is good, and he was really good when they pricked his heel to get blood...he didn't even whimper, just sucked on my finger and pooped. Speaking of pooping, Zack is a diaper changing machine, which is necessary because Peyton is a pooping and peeing machine. Zack has been absolutely fabulous. He cleaned the whole house, did tons of laundry, changes Peyton after I breast feed at night, brings me food and drinks while I'm breastfeeding (it seems like that is pretty much my whole day right now), and is just a fabulous Daddy (and he suddenly is a crier;)). Parenting is a learning curve, but actually not nearly as scary as either of us had anticipated. Peyton is such an easy baby, only crying briefly when he's wet or hungry, and is easily settled. I don't think we've heard him cry for longer than about 30 seconds at a time.

We had our first outing yesterday. We went to our neighbor's son's 1st b-day party and then out to the midwife appt. and the grocery store. We realized after we were already out that we forgot the diaper bag. We'll have to get used to having a lot more to think about before leaving the house. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice so we are going to try a picnic in the park after Peyton's first pediatrician appt. and a visit to Zack's work.

Thank you to everyone for the phone calls, text messages, and emails of congratulations and encouragement. Several friends have brought food, which is so appreciated since cooking is the last thing either of us wants to do. Grandma and Aunt Cathy were here day 1, but had to go back to Florida. Hopefully Grandma will be back in a few weeks to spend a little more time.

Connie, Zack, and Peyton