The young and the restless

You know what the hardest part is for me personally? I can handle the late night feedings. He doesn’t cry nearly as much as I feared he would. He doesn’t have really bad diapers yet. It’s the burping. He doesn’t do it as fast as I’d like. For the 3am feeding, he takes 20 minutes to eat, another 5 for the diaper, and may take over 15 minutes plus to burp. On bad days he takes as long to burp as to eat. I hit him hard, soft, low, high, left side, right side. I rub, I stroke, I once turned him upside down out of frustration. If you don’t burp him properly, he spits up. Most babies do. Last night, I thought I had him beat. I started the midnight feeding on time. By a quarter to one he still hadn’t burped, so I put him back in the crib. I just placed some paper towels under his head. Problem solved? He vomited enough to soak through the paper towels and sheets. We had to change his bed out.

Why is it when family and friends offer to help out with the baby, they mean between 10 am and 8pm? I don’t need help with the noon feeding. I need you to do the midnight feeding. I don’t need someone to be there to hold the pacifier in. I need someone to handle the diapers during one of his midnight surprises.

He is overall an absolute pleasure. I am not getting as much sleep as I’d like, but the way everyone talks, it was supposed to be worse. He has his feeds every 3 hours, and they usually take 40 minutes. That means we get a 2 hour nap in between feeds. We also alternate feeds, so whoever feeds at midnight doesn’t have to feed at 3 am. On a good night that can mean up to 6 hours of sleep - enough to function on. It’s actually a pretty solid schedule, until we get reminded who is in charge. Last night, he decided rather than eat 3 ounces every 3 hours, he wants to eat 1 ounce per hour. I confess I actually tried to talk the mama Ali into letting him cry himself to sleep at 5:30. We only had half an hour to get up and all 3 of us were pretty cranky. Of course he fell asleep right after the 6 am feeding.

I want to thank Gail & Steve Hollander. We appreciate you guys very much and thank you for what you guys did. While I’m in the thanking mood, I need to thank both sets of grandparents. Ever since we were first admitted to the hospital and I had to drop the dogs off for a week, until this past weekend when you were able to help us with our computer, you guys have helped us during this crazy summer (it’s still summer in FL). Every single time we asked for help, we got it. We needed someone to watch the dogs, you were there. We needed a ride to the hospital, you were there. We needed a day off from the hospital, you went there. As I write this at work, one of you is going to the 1st doctor visit with the mama Ali right now. We haven’t been around much lately because of the travel, but we could not have done this without you. We appreciate everything you do for us and we will show our gratitude the best way we can. We won’t take it personal when your grandson decides that 4 am is the perfect time for a cuddle.