October 26, 2014 by Stephanie

George-2 Months

“Oh hey I am 2 Months Old.”

Weight: At his appointment last week he was 8 lbs 13 oz. At our home scale today he is right over 9lbs. He is also 22 and a half inches long compared to the 20 when he was born.

Health: We did see the doctor for his acid reflux because he was just miserable. We now have medicine that seems to be helping with the comfort a little. He still spits up a lot of what he eats, but it hardly comes out the nose anymore. He does have terrible gas so that may be some of his discomfort still. Seriously he farts like a grown man, like his father in fact. We have his 2 month check up this week so hopefully he gets a good grade. We also have his cardiology appointment this week to make sure the holes in his heart have closed up. Hopefully it is a just a routine check-up from being born early. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers on that one!

Diet: He is doing much better with breastfeeding. I have a post completely about our breastfeeding experience, but I can’t seem to hit the publish button…

Clothes: He is still rocking newborn clothes. He is filling them out much better now. I am kind of glad that we have been able to put a lot of good use to this size. A lot of people said that he would grow so fast out of them, but we have had the opposite experience. He can fit lengthwise into 0-3 month clothes, but he doesn’t fit them width wise. It looks like he should have shoulder pads in there. I have been putting him in his Royals gear despite them being a little roomy for all this World Series goodness. Also not sure who makes baby clothes because real buttons should NOT be on newborn clothes. I also prefer the snaps on the butt to zippers.

Sleeping: He is doing sooo much better with sleeping. I think there are a couple reasons for this. 1) We have a pretty solid routine now, so he knows what to expect. We were still trying to figure out all of his feeding woes that first month. 2) We have this reflux medicine that helps calm his stomach juices a bit which allows him to sleep longer. 3) We don’t put him in the crib anymore. We have an inclined bassinet, and the doctor said this is the best way for him to sleep until he gets over this acid reflux. As much as I would love for him to be adjusted to his crib, I would much rather for all of us to get sleep. Even when I try to put him down in it for a brief moment during the day so I can go to the bathroom, he will barf all over that crib. We’ll revisit the crib again in another couple weeks.

Likes: He loves the stoller and car rides. He is pretty fond of his pacy. (Not sure how they always go missing. Seriously, we have 6 or 7 of them, but they always seem to be MIA when we need them.) He also loves when we dance around during music time. His favorite songs right now are “Wheels on the Bus,” “Monkeys Jumping on the Bed,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “Down by the Bay,” and “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” He also loves when Tom sings to him; so do I. He loves laying on our chests. He will fall right asleep most of the time this way if he is fussy. I think he also uses this to his advantage and knows what he is doing. He just started loving his kick and play. He stomps the heck out of those keys.

Dislikes: He still hates being naked and diaper changes. He doesn’t like when I walk the dogs and leave him out of the fun. He also does not like tummy time unless it is on our chests. (My dislike is that he has started grasping which means he unintentionally scratches. Scratches and breastfeeding are not a good combo…)

Milestones: He is sleeping through the night!! He started smiling at us the last week. Melt my heart. He holds his head up for brief periods of time. He can’t turn over when he is flat, but he can flip himself from his stomach to his back when he is on his boppy. He is starting to grab things (mostly my hair and tshirts). He has been grabbing his pacy and attempting to put it in his mouth. Most of the time, he misses, but he has thrown it into his mouth a few times. He also found his toes during this photo shoot.

Quirks: He belches like me and farts like his dad. Nice to know he got our best traits. He has a lot of new gurgles, grunts, and squeals that are fun to decipher. He still has great facial expressions.

We parents are: doing great! I have been feeling stronger and much more normal this month. I just love being his mom. Postpartum hair loss is real. I am constantly shedding fistfuls of hair. It is slightly disturbing how quickly it comes out. Tom thinks that George hates him though. He feels that George cries a lot more with him than he does with me. I keep trying to tell him that a lot of it has to do with the fact that he is with George during his most difficult time of the day. And babies cry…it’s a thing.

The dogs are: kind of leaving the baby alone. They will hang out in the nursery with us, but they don’t really come near him much anymore. The novelty has worn off I guess. Crosby has learned how to play George’s kick and play piano, which is super funny to watch. Grace will sometimes give George the stink eye when he is crying.

Just throwing up those baby signs.

October 14, 2014 by Stephanie

George’s Nursery Reveal in Video

I want to remember things about this time. Every minute I get to spend with George is special. And I have no idea how long I will get these moments of just me and him, so I want to remember them here for years to come.

Part of that is remembering the place.

I spend most of my day in this room. I do most of his feedings in the rocking chair because it is the most comfortable for both of us. I read him stories here, and I introduce him to music while he makes faces at my singing. We play on the floor-really it’s him just flailing around as I pull him around on a blanket trying to imitate crawling and making sure the dogs don’t drown him in slobbers. I also spend a lot of time in the room just staring at how perfect he is and how lucky I am to be his mom.

So it may seem simple to outsiders, but this room is our world right now.

I love how light and airy everything turned out. It is just a friendly environment.

I did my first attempt at a video tour, so enjoy my commentary. (I have no idea what I am doing.)

If you have any questions about anything don’t hesitate to ask.

I also want to remember the sounds and the little things we do together. This may be a boring video to the soundtrack of “The Lion King,” but again the gurgles and faces made are my everything. And I don’t want to ever forget how precious these moments are.

So if you are inclined to watch a baby do nothing but baby things (which is honestly not much) for a couple minutes, this is the video for you. Spoiler alert, there are baby hiccups. Adorbs.

I still need to try to capture him searching for a pacy. Best George moment ever.

So that is George’s room. I can’t wait to see how these pieces grow up with him and transition into other uses as he changes.

Do you like decorating? Do rooms turn out they way you imagined?

September 26, 2014 by Stephanie

George-1 month

Weight: Two weeks ago he was 5 lbs and 15 oz at the doctor, which is officially one oz over his birth weight! I weighed him on our scale here at home today, and it says he is a little over 7lbs.

Health: He is still spitting up after he eats, and now it looks like cottage cheese coming out his nose. Other than that, he seems super healthy! I know his lungs work just fine…

Diet: We have successfully moved to breastfeeding 24/7. We may do a bottle of breastmilk once every few days so Tom can get in on the feeding action. I am happy not to be doing as many dishes with just the breastfeeding. Although, I feel that I am a human cow, and my life has been diminished to being a fast food drive through for George. Seriously, it dictates everything-what I wear, when and where we can go out, our schedule in general… I am pretty proud of myself for being his sole source of food for a month!

Clothes: He is is still in newborn clothes and diapers. He is starting to fill them out a little more, but some of the clothes still are pretty big. Grandma and Auntie Em brought him some premie clothes which he was only able to wear once before he outgrew them. Go figure. He has a few less wrinkles, and seems to be getting longer.

Sleeping: We have been on a struggle bus for the last week. We have a Jekyll and Hyde baby. He is so good during the day, but as soon as night hits this kid does NOT want to sleep. He will sleep for half hour spurts and then scream the rest of the time. We have a few theories why this is happening. Reasonable explanations are that all newborns go through a transition period in the first month or so to being more active during the day than night. While babies are in utero, apparently they like the night time more and once on the outside it takes them time to adjust to not being nocturnal. We also think he might be colicky, which is basically just not feeling comfortable and crying it out ALL THE TIME. Explanations specific to George are that he hates his crib and laying flat on his back. We also think that he hates the upstairs. Yes you read that right. We have had him downstairs for most of the day in his rock and play bassinet since that is where we are. We have the SAME rock and play bassinet upstairs and he hates it. He also cannot lay in his actual crib for more than 10 minutes before he wails no matter the time of day. So we are convinced there is some aura upstairs that turns him into a different baby. This really only started in the last week, which has amounted to several nights of me ending up “sleeping” downstairs at 3am so he can be in his downstairs bassinet. We are trying to keep him awake more during the day to hopefully encourage him to sleep more at night. I have also been trying to get him to take one of his day naps in his crib to get him acclimated to it. I can’t sleep downstairs forever. Hopefully we are going in the right direction. Some nights are good, and some nights are still pretty bad. Needless to say the Whiteners have been getting very little sleep…

Likes: He LOVES being in the stroller and going on walks. He can be crying his little eyes out, and I will put him in the stroller and Wammo he is perfectly calm. Sometimes I will put him in it and move the stroller just around the kitchen to satisfy him. He also loves being cuddled.

Dislikes: His crib, being naked, diaper changes, baths, the hours between 11pm-5am

Milestones: He got circumcised two weeks ago since he wasn’t able to when he was born thanks to his NICU stay. Because of the circumcision, we weren’t able to give him a bath until this week. So he endured that yesterday. (Hot mess)

Quirks: His grunts resemble the noise of goats or sheep. His cries also sound like a CD scratching. He still makes the best faces. I try to show a lot of them on my Instagram account. You’re welcome.

Worst moment of the month: For George probably the circumcision, for parents the lack of sleep

Best moment of the month: Outside of the whole being born thing…meeting his cousin Ava and other members of our famjam.

Happy Birthday George! Glad we were able to keep you alive so far!

September 15, 2014 by Stephanie

Talks with Tom #28

In recent weeks, there have been so many new parent conversations with Tom that have left me dying laughing or with my jaw on the floor. Unfortunately, I always think I am going to remember them to post, but then soon forget before I have time to write a post.

Just know, we are having lots of extra giggles due to our sleep deprivation and new parentdom.

This particular one happened late at night after George wet the bed.

I was changing the sheets, and Tom was holding a fussy George. (I mean who wouldn’t be fussy after wetting the bed?)

We had just fed him, but he wasn’t really settling down.

Me-Maybe he is still hungry.

Tom-Uh, yea I am going to guess he is still hungry since he just latched on to my nipple.

George will latch on to anything when he is hungry…collarbones, bibs, his own hand, my hair, the inside of my elbow…

Tom has resorted to letting this happen fairly often now to keep the fussiness at bay while we are trying to get bottles and milk ready for him.

The things we do as parents.

But seriously, I would do anything for this face.

On a related note, George’s due date was today. Crazy to think we were supposed to be just meeting him now, but he has been on the outside now for 3 weeks.

He also got to meet one of his cousins this week.

They were seriously adorable together. Ava was so sweet with him. She has volunteered to be his babysitter and teach him all the words. George of course was perfectly content being dotted on all weekend.

I can’t wait to watch them grow up together!

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September 11, 2014 by Stephanie

How You Doin’?

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Everyone is asking how we are doing now that we are all home and figuring out how to be a family of 3, well 5 with the dogs.

Here are some of my thoughts on being home with the little munchkin.

I admit to taking a shower every couple days, and I have only worn make-up once in the past two weeks. Also I haven’t worn a real bra since George was born. And I am perfectly content with these grooming standards.
Tom and I had every intention of never letting George have a pacifier. However, his time in the NICU kind of thwarted that. They gave him one on several occasions before he could be held to calm him down. Once coming home, we lasted about 24 hours before we caved and gave him one when he was restless. He doesn’t need it all the time, but sometimes at 3 in the morning, it’s the only thing that will put him to sleep. Also it means that he isn’t chewing off his hands…

I don’t know how I would get through nightly feedings without Netflix. It has brought my binge watching to a whole new level…I would love to read, but I haven’t figured out how to breastfeed with one hand yet, so I can’t hold a book easily.
I am healing quite nicely from giving birth. There are days where I can feel the stitches, but for the most part I feel pretty normal. I did have to go on blood pressure medicine, but hopefully I will be off that after a month out.
George HATES being naked. I am sad by this because it means that we won’t have any cute naked newborn pictures. This is as close I could get, and he still is wearing a diaper. Otherwise the pictures look like I am torturing him and should be turned in for neglect. On the plus side, I didn’t have to deal with any poop shooting pictures.

On the peeing and pooping note, I have already been pissed and pooped on. Tom has evaded it so far (punk). The projectile range is ridiculous for such a tiny body. Also I swear his thingy is like one of those garden hoses you see in the movies that has gone wild and flipping water uncontrollably everywhere. Except it is pee going uncontrollably everywhere. Yesterday I seriously was trying to catch it with a diaper whilst trying to keep a wiggling baby from coming off the changing pad.
Watching his umbilical cord fall off was disgusting. I wouldn’t touch it, and was horrified that it fell off my baby.
Adjusting to the new sleep schedule has really been the only difficult part. He feeds every 3 hours, so that is pretty much my life right now. Unfortunately, I still can sleep like a log. I always miss the 2:30am feeding, and EVERY night I have turned off my alarm in my sleep. Tom has to wake me up later to say I missed the feeding. Whoops. Luckily, we have milk galore, so Tom has graciously taken over that feeding.
I miss my morning radio show, but by the time I remember to tune in, it’s already past 9 am. Womp womp.
I have managed to make homemade meals every night for dinner. #wearenteatingcerealforeverymeal
George has only had one bad night where he didn’t sleep. He is a really good baby for the most part. Really he only cries when I am not fast enough with the boob milk or his changing is taking longer than he would like.
He does spit up a lot. People who say breastfeeding babies don’t do this lie. The first time it shot out of his nose I was about 2 seconds away from taking him to the ER. Luckily my mom was still here and calmed my frantic overreaction.
I don’t miss work yet, but I am sure here in a few weeks that will come.
Sometimes I just sit and stare at George. I am still overwhelmed at times that he is actually my son. Saying “my son” is overwhelming…
I am ecstatic to say that I am officially 3 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight, AND I can fit into all my pre-prego clothes again. It took me exactly a week to do so. Success! I am pretty proud of my body especially since I was on bed rest pretty much for the last month. (Although I will admit, I haven’t worn much outside of pajama pants and tshirts…)
All in all, I don’t think this is such a bad gig. We don’t feel like our life is over like the world likes to make you think. Quite the contrary, our life has a whole new meaning now. I am pretty content hanging out with little G all day.