Andrew at 5 and half weeks

Here is our handsome little Andrew at around 4 or 5 weeks (can't remember when we took those pictures). He is much cuter in real life.

As an update from our last post--after getting better at sleeping on his own at night, he has regressed to not only not sleeping on his own at night to not sleeping on his own at all. He might give us a 45 minute stretch at night and a stretch of a half hour during the day where he sleeps on his own, but that is about it. So I have a couple of different positions figured out where I can fall asleep holding him and not worry about smothering him, which I rotate through since one kills my back, one kills my neck and shoulders and one kills my hips. During the day I carry him around until my wrists hurt and then strap him into a sling until my back hurts. I also usually hand him off to Scott so I can go run while Rebekah takes a nap and also for the last night stretch (from 5:30ish to 7ish) so I can sleep in my bed. He still sleeps in 1.5 to 2 hour increments, but that is the least of our worries right now.

BUT, I feel very fortunate because Scott is here so he can take care of Rebekah while I take care of Andrew, but I can't imagine what I would do by myself.

Another good piece of news is that when we went into the pediatrician for his one month checkup and the pediatrician listened to him breathe and asked us some questions, she was able to diagnose him with laryngopharyngeal reflux and prescribe him with some medication. This explains why he would fuss at all different times of the day (not just "fussy time" at night, although he would cry the most during that time). It also explains why he would work himself up into painful screams in which he would arch his back, screech and scratch his face because he was so angry. He would do this almost any time of day after I fed him--this was totally different than Rebekah; she only got like this a few times (usually it was more of a cry than a scream) and she was pretty calm during the day. It also explains why he would pull away while nursing and nurse on and off, crying in between.

He has been a different baby since we started giving him his medication. He still fusses at night (from about 10 until 12:30 or 1:00) but doesn't really get worked up into full-blown screams anymore. He also is much calmer during the day and still fusses sometimes but it is usually only for a few minutes right before he falls asleep.

I also noticed when I got the stomach flu and changed my diet to crackers and jello for a while that he seemed much better within 24 hours of my changed diet. I mentioned this to our pediatrician, who told me to try cutting out citrus/acidic foods and dairy to see if that helped, since food allergies/intolerances is also associated with reflux sometimes. I cut the dairy first and it did not seem to make much of a difference; after that, I cut tomatoes/oranges/choclate and other foods that show up on "do not eat if you have heartburn" lists and it did seem to help, although it is always hard to tell with babies since they change so much from day to day. I never though I would be one of those moms that is always associating what they eat with their babies' behavior, but I figure that it doesn't hurt to cut a few things out of my diet for a while and then try to re-introduce them in a few weeks.

Fortunately, most of the above took place before family came to visit for the baby blessing, so he was pretty calm while they were here. (It was also nice to have some other people to pass Andrew off to while he slept so that I could feel like a normal person).

This Wednesday he will be 6 weeks old and this Saturday will be 6 weeks from his due date. According to Dr. Weissbluth (Health Sleeping Habits, Happy Child), things stop getting worse (in terms of sleeping/fussiness) and start getting better at 6 weeks, or 6 weeks from the due date if the baby was early (which is why you never want an early baby).

It seems that all I talk about when people ask how he is doing are his problems (e.g., see above), but after going to church yesterday and talking to other moms about all his newborn issues, it made me realize that it could be much worse and that while Andrew isn't the best sleeper, there are a lot of things he does well:

• Nursing: other than the pulling away and fussing before we treated him for reflux, he really has been a good little nurser. While talking to another mom at church (whose newborn is having serious nursing issues), I remembered the issues I had with Rebekah. We've been lucky in that we've not had to deal with any major nursing issues this time around.


• When he gets up at night, he's not up for too long--usually only for about 45 minutes to an hour, which really isn't that bad.


• He stops fussing around 12:30 and is usually asleep for his first stretch of the night by 1:00 This is much better than Rebekah, who fussed until 1:30 or 2:00 and then went to sleep around 2:30. (Of course then she would sleep for 6 hours by herself after that... some nights I wouldn't mind making that trade).


• He deals with tummy time pretty well and started rolling over on his 4 week birthday. He's rolled over quite a few times since then.


• I have another adult (Scott) here to help. This really makes all the difference in the world.

As for Rebekah, she is doing so many funny things that its hard to keep track. I wish I could spend more time with her than I do because she is such a character right now. One thing she has figured out how to do (without any coaching from us) is to identify expensive cars. She always points out cars when we go to our complex's garage or go for a walk, but when she sees a Jaguar or a BMW or another type of pricey car, she will point it out and call it a "cool car". We have no idea how she can tell the difference already.

She's also very cooperative and quite the peacemaker when she plays with other children. Going to nursery every week is the highlight of her life, and her nursery teachers always talk about how happy and helpful she is. Sometimes I look at her and Andrew and can't believe how blessed we are. I love being a mom!