Guys, I'm sorry I'm turning into the mommy blogger that writes long detailed posts about their baby's life... but in a sorry not sorry kind of way, because that's what this post it all about, because right now I feel like that is what life is all about. If you don't care, just enjoy these cute pics and read the next post about our trip to Vermont and Montreal.
Baby Blessing
In March, we had Elliott's baby blessing at church, so lots of family came out and we were able to show him off to everyone. He met many of his aunts, uncles, and both grandpas for the first time. It was so nice to have family there for that special day! My favorite story from that weekend though is from when I was breastfeeding in the nursery and Nate was there with me with the door closed so I didn't feel the need to wear my cover while everyone else was eating dinner. My 7 yr old niece (Twin #1) comes in to talk to me and immediately covers her eyes and turns to Nate and says, "Have you seen him eat?!" in a disgusted tone, horrified that he has seen me breastfeeding Elliott. Then her twin sister (#2) prances in and walks right up to me and says, "so this is how he eats?" and stares at the whole process for a few minutes before asking me several questions about it and "helping me" by massaging his head while he ate. They are just so different! Another great line from twin #2 was, "he is just so cute, when he looks at you with his eyes, it is just full cuteness! I don't even know what to do!" to which twin #1 said, "Just do what I do: look at him, see how cute he is, and then try to forget about it!" Haha, those girls are hilarious! It was great to see them and to see them gawk over Elliott.
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| With Grandma and Grandpa Price |
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| Each cousin had their turn to hold him |
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| The Price Clan |
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| With all his cousins |
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| The Whole Gang |
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| The Hixson Clan |
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| The "circle" |
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| With Aunt Kirsten |
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| and Aunt Brooke |
Back to Work
60 days of maternity leave is WAY TOO SHORT! But somehow I've survived for almost a month being back at work. (With some days cut short and some extra days off). It has felt good to get back to thinking about science again and remembering the parts of myself outside of motherhood. I think what made the transition back to work that early possible was knowing that Elliott was staying home with Daddy during that time, allowing him to transition into learning to be away from his mom while still in a familiar environment with someone he loves and recognizes. Besides that he starting drinking enough milk for a heavyweight champion and decimated my extra "week's" supply of milk in a couple days, eating way more than usual, it went really well.
I love that Nate got that time to spend this time alone with him to bond for his sake, and for Elliott's, and also selfishly for my own- I now know he is well practiced in all the required parts of caring for a baby and that is relieving for me to know we are both equally able to care for him (as long as there are bottles available) and work as a team at this parenting thing. Not to say he wasn't learning before his leave, but stuff like giving a bath, and which vitamins he needs when, and taking him to the doctor, etc. were all things I did when he was at work.
A couple weeks ago, Nate went back to work after 3 weeks of paternity leave, and now we are back into real life and Elliott is in daycare. He is attending a daycare that is near my work and came recommended by some friends of ours. When I dropped him off I walk in and they are like, "Oh, is this Henry?" I'm like... no this is Elliott, then I go into the infant room and this Henry kid, whoever that is, has a cubby cleared out for him with his name on it and a name on his crib but Elliott's cubby didn't have a name tag yet and I had to tell the other teachers, no this is not Henry, this is Elliott. NOT SOMETHING YOU SHOULD DO TO A MOM DROPPING OFF HER KID FOR THE FIRST TIME, right?! Once I left, I started crying and called Nate up and said you better get there by noon (We did a half day the first day)! (He did, at 11:44, says my cool app that the daycare uses to send me daily updates/pictures of everything Elliott does :) )
So far it is going well except he doesn't sleep much because we were awful and let him always sleep in the swing during the day (and sometimes in the night). When the short term reward is that he will sleep 2 hours instead of 20 minutes, it is an easy choice! Also, he eats even more than with his Dad, but we are trying to cut it back because it is totally ridiculous, he doesn't really dig that though. (Like, guys, I know babies can self-regulate and everything and when he is breastfeeding he does, but with the bottle he just won't slow down!) So hopefully they will sleep train him and get him on a schedule better than we have so far. Thanks daycare for doing the hard parenting ;)
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| First Day of Daycare with his teacher |
Breastfeeding rant with a happy ending (aka Magical Tongue-Tie surgery solves all problems)
Anyone who has talked to me in the past 3 months has probably heard me complain about breastfeeding. SORRY! I feel so lame always complaining about it, But it was REALLY difficult for me! The week before I went back to work was particularly excruciatingly painful, so I finally got an at home visit with a lactation consultant set up, which I should've done earlier. I had felt like the advice from 3 pediatricians, and the LC at the hospital had been sufficient when they told me it will get better and that he was latched correctly, and sometimes it did improve, but then it would get worse again. So, this very patient women watches him eat and says everything looks good and he is gaining weight well, but then I tell her about my laundry list of symptoms: plugged ducts, 45 minute feeds on ONE SIDE without falling asleep, excruciating pain, mastitis (2x), giant lower lip blister etc.
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| I gathered up all the crap I use for breastfeeding to put in one picture... I'm weird, K? |
Well, this GENIUS lady told me something that sounded way too good to be true, that all of these seemingly unrelated things could be caused by a posterior tongue tie. We had gotten him checked specifically for this by pediatricians early on, but she said sometimes they aren't visually apparent and are still affecting his sucking abilities. We took him to a pediatric dentist who specializes in this for a consult and she diagnosed him not only with a tongue tie but two lip ties, one of them worse than she'd ever seen before! Usually a baby with these issues wouldn't gain weight well, but our chubby dude found a way to get his milk anyway. She said he was compensating remarkably well but that it was causing many of my issues and could also affect how his teeth grow in. That day they did a laser surgery to clip all three ties, and said hopefully you see immediate results, but because he is already 2 months, it may take up to 3 weeks for him to fully relearn to breastfeed correctly and develop the muscles for it.
It was an awful day for him, much worse than his shot day the week prior and his mouth was swollen and bleeding for a while. I didn't really know if there was much immediate improvement because I was in the midst of a plugged duct and another bout of the excruciating pain. But after that passed I did notice gradual improvement. Now I can stop screaming "I HATE BREASTFEEDING!" because I've experienced pain free breastfeeding. Now I only have to work on increasing my pumping output and supply.
The bad part about the surgery was that we were required to do these awful exercises on each tie 4-5 times a day, so every 4-6 hours for THREE WEEKS so that the tissue didn't grow back and mess up his mouth again. We were required to do what Nate and I not so fondly refer to as "torture" him ALL THE TIME. He screams bloody murder for about two minutes while we jab around and firmly massage each spot. The first time Nate showed me what we had to do I cried, and then when it was my turn to try it I cried even more. We're really not fans of it, and I'm terrified that he is developing some fear conditioning so when Elliott is 15 years old and we walk into the room he will still be developing some inexplicable anxiety from our presence. BUT TODAY WE ARE FINALLY DONE WITH THE TORTURE!! WAHOO!! I'm trying to imagine how amazing life is going to be now that we don't hear blood curdling screaming every 5 hours!
Three Months
So despite these stressful things, baby Elliott has been doing very well. His smile grows bigger every day and he is quite the chatterbox, something he gets from Nathan. He seriously seems like he is having a full on conversation sometimes with his little coos. He hasn't giggled yet but he gasps when he smiles really big so I know he is on the verge! He rolls over from belly to back sometimes, and he is an expert farter that really knows how to stink up a room! The hair on top of his head gets longer everyday and the parts on the side get balder, just accentuating his incredible mohawk. WE LOVE HIM SO FREAKING MUCH!
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