We got to Little Falls pretty late on Friday night/Saturday morning, so Saturday we had a pretty low key day playing with toys showing off our new skills.
Sunday morning sunrise service came pretty early! Look at those zoned out eyes. I was happy that his baptism outfit still fit, since I think he has grown at least an inch in the last two days!!
Aaron's first Easter basket!! The bunny was pretty good to him.
Posing with Grandma and Grandpa Bengtson.
All weekend Aaron decided that naps should be taken in arms. Grandma's arms, mom's arms, dad's arms, Great-grandma's arms...
Drooly boy... :)
Dancing with Grandpa.
In other news, Aaron's intestinal discomfort seems to be improving with my change in diet. It has been a pretty radical change for me. I've cut not only milk and cheese products out of my diet but all foods that have milk, casein, or whey on the label (try looking at the products in your pantry sometime, you'd been surprised at how many contain milk). I've also attempted to cut out soy and soybean oil, although that is pretty hard to avoid entirely. So far we've seen more happy time, less gas, no more blood in his stool, and less refluxy sounding burps. All good things. The one thing we haven't seen more of is consecutive hours of nighttime sleep. He's still up about ever two hours, sometimes more, which means either Jon or I are up as well. And since I'm the feeding machine at the moment it is usually me.
I had hoped that by the time I went back to work Aaron would be sleeping larger stretches at night, but I have discovered that as long as I make naps and sleep a priority on my days off I can function pretty darn well on only a few hours at a time. Sure, I'm tired during the day and I'm maybe not as sharp as I otherwise would be, but people seem to understand, especially those who have had a child.
Speaking of going back to work, I'm conflicted as to how I feel about this change in our schedules. I love my job as a pediatric PT, and I've missed my kids while I've been gone. A big part of my identity comes from my professional life. But I love being home with Aaron. I love our lazy mornings, playing on the floor, nursing whenever he wants to, and singing him to sleep for naps. I miss that when I am gone. I do count myself so lucky on many fronts when it comes to work, however. I have the flexibility to go part time and be home more than I am away. My employer is very supportive of breastfeeding, so finding time to pump has not been an issue (although getting my body to respond to a pump away from home has been tough...), and most of all I am grateful that I am able to leave him in the care of my mom for these first few months. It makes it easier to leave him knowing that he has one-on-one attention while I am away. Although his colic is getting better, he still can be a challenging little boy to care for, and I don't think he would do so well in a group with many infants being cared for by several staff, however wonderful those staff may be. Hopefully by the time he goes to daycare this summer (the center we like doesn't have a spot for him until June) he will be a little older, a little more settled, and I won't worry so much about leaving him with people other than family and close friends.
Little Man loves the car. We took him all over when he was really little (seriously, I would go to the mall just to get out of the house with him) so when we would take a long car trip, he was okay with it. We actually drove to North Carolina, then to Washington DC, then home within a week. He was fine. His sleep was a little odd because he didn't want to sleep in his pack-n-play but that's a whole other issue.
ReplyDeleteI've heard looking at a picture of your baby, or picturing him in your arms nursing, can help make pumping go better...
ReplyDeleteI too have cut out dairy from my diet, and like you I haven't seen an improvement in quantity or duration of sleep, but he does seem to get better quality of sleep!