My Last Day off from Work

I can hardly believe that I'm down to just a few hours left at home with Chase before I return to work. He is now 9 1/2 weeks old, 12 pounds, and 23 1/2 inches long. He survived his round of shots last week with few side effects. What a blessing my time off from work has been! Chase and I have bonded so well that it's going to be very hard for me to leave him tomorrow to return to work. We've really enjoyed these past couple of months together. We got to see many friends and relatives, and do so many fun things. However, I still can't say that my time off from work was a complete vacation or cakewalk. It had some very challenging times learning how to soothe Chase when he cried and master midnight feedings on just a few hours of sleep. But, we've come a long ways since day one and I know things will only get even better with time. Chase is sleeping through most nights, and I hope and pray tonight will be a continuance of that since I'd like to be as well-rested as possible for my return to work. I'm anxious to see what these next few days will bring as we transition into the work routine. I still can't stress enough just how thankful I am to have my mother and sister taking care of Chase while I'm working. It gives me an enormous amount of peace knowing that Chase will be in the loving, caring hands of my family. Nonetheless, this is still a hard night for me. I can't help but to fight back tears in thinking that I'll only have a few hours to spend with Chase each day from now on....we'll just have to make the best of those hours!

2 Months Old!!!

Hard to believe my baby is already two months old….where has the time gone? I only have one more week at home with Chase. I’m feeling bittersweet about returning to work. Honestly, it will be a break to be at work, but of course I’ll miss Chase to pieces during the day. Taking care of him can be very demanding even though it’s such a blessing. Hats off to all of the stay-at-home moms!

This past month has been a whirlwind of events! For starters, I mentioned in my last posting that Chase was settling into a schedule. I jinxed myself when I said that! Weeks 5 and 6 were anything but a schedule. Chase was waking every two hours on some nights and sleeping sporadically during the day. His fussy spells were definitely more challenging during the second month. Unfortunately, I think he takes after his daddy when it comes to having a sensitive stomach. He gets gas all of the time! I’ve tried tapering my diet to foods that shouldn’t be irritating since I’m still breastfeeding, but that hasn’t worked one bit. I’ve also tried the Mylicon drops and Baby Gas-X….those drops are useless! The only thing that can soothe Chase when he hits these fussy/gassy spells is to walk him around; and, hope and pray that he’ll have a blow-out ASAP.

Oftentimes we go outside when we walk Chase around. We’ve discovered that he is definitely an outdoorsman! If he’s fussing, it’s almost a definite that he’ll calm down when we walk him outside for a few minutes. The only downfall to that is that my arms feel like they’re going to fall off after walking him off and on for hours. Fortunately, his fussy spells don’t occur as strongly everyday. There are often days when Chase is just as content as he can be….and, get this, he’s SMILING now! When he smiles, it just melts my heart and makes me forget about how much my back aches from carrying him around in the Baby Bjorn carrier for hours at a time.

Around week 7, we put him in his crib because he had outgrown the bassinette. He manages to wiggle around quite a bit in his crib. He’s never in the same position I leave him in when I first put him to bed. One night he had squirmed around 90-degrees. He is such a wiggle worm! He gets those little legs kicking and those arms punching and just moves all over the place. What a strong little boy! He can flip over onto his sides, but can’t completely flip over just yet.

Fortunately, the three of us are sleeping better now that Chase is in his crib. I hope I don’t eat my words like I did last month, but I feel that Chase really is getting on a schedule now. I give him a bath every night (bath-time is actually enjoyable now), nurse him, and lay him down some time between 7:30-8:30, and he’ll sleep for about 7 hours. I’m so thankful to be getting more sleep now! I’m also glad I took off extra time from work because I don’t see how I would have been able to function earlier in the month when Chase was still waking up every 2-3 hours.

My poor little baby has to get his shots on Monday. He’ll be getting DTaP, Hib, IPV, PCV-7, and Rotateq. I’m hoping and praying it won’t turn him into an extremely cranky baby for the rest of the week. On a brighter note, I’m anxious to see how much the little guy has grown. He is definitely getting bigger, and is almost ready for size 2 diapers. I’m amazed at how quickly he is going through our diaper supply! Tim is no longer the “diaper genie”…I’ve definitely taken over most of that roll during the past month. However, Tim is still a fantastic father and helps out whenever he can. Happy first Father’s Day to Tim and to all of the other wonderful dads out there! Blog to you later!