Tommy's Tummy

My poor baby has a sensitive tummy. We found out at 8 weeks that he has a dairy sensitivity so I cut all dairy out of my diet. Then, right before he turned 4 months old, our pediatrician asked us to try rice cereal so we would know how he reacted before his 4 month appointment. After a few attempts, he liked it but it really upset his stomach. We decided that we were in no rush so we waited a month before trying again.

A month later, right after Christmas, we tried again and again, he had stomach pains. He was up at night crying in pain. I tried oatmeal after 2 nights of pain and it was even worse. He cried all day and then woke up at 10:30 screaming louder and with more force than I've ever heard from him. It was 15 minutes of inconsolable screaming. I was about to call the doctor when he just stopped. I kept him in the PNP next to my side of the bed because I was so freaked up.

Luckily, we had an appointment scheduled for the next day to re-check his breathing (back to normal!) after his chest cold so I knew I could discuss it with her then.

I told the pedi all about what happened and she was perplexed. She said that she wasn't thrilled that he reacted that way but it didn't seem like an allergy, just a sensitive belly. She suggested that we skip cereal for now and move on to veggies. As long as he tolerates veggies for a bit, we can try and mix in a tiny bit of cereal and see how he responds. She does want him on cereal for the iron content but isn't too worried about it until he's 6 months old.

So we skipped all solids yesterday and HE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! Woohoo!!! I needed that after 3 straight nights of little sleep. Today, I fed him 4 little spoonfuls of sweet potatoes. I figure that if his tummy is sensitive, it's best to do a little at a time. He LOVED sweet potatoes! No tummy trouble so far. We'll see how he does tonight. If all goes well, I'll give him some more tomorrow. Fingers crossed that this goes over well.

Optimistically, I started making baby food today. I had no desire to make my own until I started looking at the pre-packaged stuff. Some brands have all kinds of other ingredients in them. Not something I want being put into my son, especially with his tummy. Then the organic kind is SO EXPENSIVE! We had some Babies R Us gift cards so I bought a Baby Brezza baby food maker and tried it out this morning. I'm in love! It makes it all so easy! I bought a package of carrots for $1.25 and made up 2 batches in less than an hour!

I put the puree in the BPA-free ice cube trays I have here and froze them and popped them into a freezer-safe ziplock bag. The most work for me was peeling and chopping. The Baby Brezza is awesome because you just put the food in, turn on the steam and blend and let it go. Tommy started crying and needed a nap while I was doing the second batch so I took him out of his highchair where he was playing and put him down for a nap. By the time I came back, it had finished steaming and blending and was just sitting there waiting for me!

I realized that I can probably use frozen veggies and prep time would be practically nothing! A bag of frozen carrots is $0.99 at my grocery store without any sales or coupons. Tons of baby food for $0.99 with no additives. Sounds good to me! Once spring rolls around, I can buy fresh, local produce at the farmers market! I'm excited to try other veggies and fruits. Hopefully Tommy's tummy will hold up!

Hopfully I Don't Jinx Myself

Monday morning, Tommy fell asleep for a nap and I put him down in his Pack N Play. He slept for 2.5 hours. That afternoon, he slept for another 2.5 ours in it after his shots. That night, he slept for 3 hours in it. Yesterday he took one 45 minute nap and slept from 10pm-4am (waking up every 2 hours) in it. Today, he took a 3 hour nap in there and he even went down drowsy but awake!

I'm not going to get excited or anything but could we have made progress????

Yay for small victories!

This is Tommy. Napping. In his Pack N' Play. ON HIS BACK!!!

(No, there is no sheet down. I just had the idea to try it out today when he had finally passed out at noon after being awake since 5 this morning. I'll put a sheet on after he wakes up.)

Sometimes Tommy's a Night Owl

Wide awake at 1:00 am

Last night I fed Tommy at 8:00 and went to bed. I slept blissfully from 9-11 when I was awoken by Tommy's little hunger noises. I took him from his chair and fed him. Usually, I have to change his diaper between each side to wake him up enough to eat again so I changed his diaper and he hungrily ate from the other side. At this point, he's usually in a milk coma and I can go back to sleep. Not last night! My little man was still looking up at me like, "now what do we do?" when he had finished eating. I tried putting him back in his chair but he started crying. I held him and rocked him hoping he'd go sleep. Nope. He was WIDE awake. After about an hour, he started to drift off. I waited until I thought he was sleeping deeply enough to put him in his chair but he bolted right awake again as soon as his bum hit the seat. I ended up feeding him again at 1 and he finally went back to sleep at 2. Bill got up and left for work at 3 and I told him that if he woke up the baby I'd kill him. Luckily, he slept through the noise and didn't wake up until 6. I was able to go back to sleep for another hour after I fed him again but those 3 hours in the middle of the night were a killer.

I tried to figure out why he was so wide awake and I have 2 theories. One is that my grandmother ended up coming over yesterday and held Tommy for 5 hours, only giving him up so I could feed him. He slept soundly the whole time. Not only did he get a lot of sleep, it was also all while being held. My second theory is that I might have accidentally hopped him up on caffeine. I got a migraine yesterday afternoon and drank two caffeinated sodas to get rid of it. I drank them around 5:00 so I'm not sure if there would be a 6 hour delay in effects but who knows.

Or maybe Tommy doesn't sleep between 11 and 2 anymore. I hope this isn't the case.

In other news, I ordered a Fisher Price Rock n' Play. I know the pediatrician said it was ok for him to sleep in his bouncer but I did some searching around online and saw that a lot of moms recommended this product for babies who don't like to sleep flat on their backs. I finally signed up for Amazon Mom and bought a Rock n' Play. It should arrive today and we'll give it a shot. I'll let you know how it works. I also ordered a nursing bra. I have 2 that I wore at the end of my pregnancy but they have underwire and I read that you're not supposed to wear underwire while nursing because the pressure can block ducts. We'll see how a supportive a non-underwire bra is for me. I have a rather, um, large chest. I've been living in nursing tanks so far but I'd really like something with more support to wear out in public. We'll see how this goes.

ps. I'm going to brag for a minute, I got on the scale today and I'm down 20 of the 40 pounds I had gained! Yay!

Shopping Spree

I mentioned recently that part of my birthday present from Bill was a small shopping spree to buy some fun things for the baby. Well, we went today! Babies R Us was having a pretty decent sale on baby clothes and I had a couple of coupons that we could use. We went and looked through the clothes but they were pretty picked over. There really wasn't a lot left and I got overwhelmed trying to decide what size to get anything in so we just decided to get toys instead! The first thing we got, Bill picked out:It's the Ocean Wonders Musical Bubbles Activity Center. You can hang it on the side of the crib or it can be a floor toy. It's super cute and plays fun songs.

We also got the book, Peek-a-Who. It's so cute!Then Bill picked out a nice, big, squishy baseball since Bill's a huge baseball fan:
I got a fun rubber ducky that tells you if the bath water is too hot:
And I couldn't pass up a nice lightweight SwaddleMe SleepSac in sage:We also walked around and visited some of the things we registered for like the glider, Pack N Play, and the swing. We're so excited to really get ready for the baby and waiting for the shower to receive gifts (or not, so we know what to buy) is starting to kill me! We are fortunate to have extremely generous families and friends and know that if we wait until the shower, we'll receive the vast majority of what we need. There will be some things left for us to buy but it's smart to wait and see what we really need to spend our money on. I can't wait for the shower to be here but until then, we had a blast buying some things today and that should hold me over for a while!

Baby Bedding

As soon as I found out I was pregnant I began searching for the perfect baby bedding. I found a couple of sets on the Babies R Us website that I like but wasn't crazy about. I want something that is more pattern based and less cutesy baby but Bill want's something that "let's you know it's a baby room." I finally found a set that I'm totally in love with! Bill loves it too which is always a plus. I just want to buy it but I was told by many family members that I should not buy anything other than the furniture for the room because they need options for gifts (we won't tell them about the ERGO). I've been able to resist so far but hopefully I'll hear about a shower soon because this whole, not having a shower planned thing is making me very restless. I just want to buy stuff when I have coupons and it's on sale if there isn't going to be a shower (I know my family, there will be a shower, it just will be very late).

So anyway, here it is!

It's Nantucket by Bananafish.
Isn't the mobile adorable?!

Now I just have to see how patient I am! I can keep myself under control for now but I have gift cards to Amazon from swagbucks burning a hole in my pocket and this set is available on there!

Ergo

I've heard amazing things about the Ergo brand of baby carriers, they're comfortable for mom and don't hurt the baby like some other brands have been known to do. The problem? They're pretty expensive, in my opinion. We haven't registered yet but I started a private wishlist on the Babies R Us website and had bookmarked a blue ERGObaby Sport. It was one of those things that I really would love to get but almost felt guilty registering for since everyone in my family has been perfectly happy with their Baby Bjorn which is a significant amount cheaper.

Luckily for me, I totally stalk www.babysteals.com for good deals and the steal of the day happens to be from Ergo! Babies R Us has the exact same carrier for $114.99. Me? I paid $57.75! I can't wait for it to be shipped to me!!! Watch out Gizmo, you are the perfect size for me to try out in the carrier!