That's where we had a family picnic last night. I was so busy enjoying the evening I didn't take time to capture it with our camera, so a picture of the lawn will have to do.
Dylan was getting a little antsy right before Shane got home, so we took a little walk out to the mailbox. As soon as we were outside, he calmed right down and started taking everything in. I could tell he was hearing the birds in the tree and feeling the cooler air...and he definitely noticed the sunlight when it hit his face. Because it was such a beautiful night and it's staying light so much longer, we set out a blanket on the lawn and Shane and Dylan played while I finished dinner. Then we ate out there all together. Toward the end it got a little chilly, but it was so much fun!
I can't wait until it stays just a little warmer in the evenings...we might be eating outside every night!
I hope my last post didn't make it seem like I really think my baby is a monster or that I'm upset with him in any way. I just use the blogging world as my venting space.
Anyway, shortly after the post, we had a heart to heart. I explained to him that I just want him to get the sleep he needs, especially less fractured sleep, and that I was sorry if it was too much all at once. So in the end we reached a compromise in which he can continue to nap in his bouncer for now on two conditions: (1) the vibrations must be off and (2) he'll try to sleep longer than 40 minutes...
After our discussion, I swaddled him and he immediately fell asleep (probably due to exhaustion). I put him in his bouncer (without vibrations) and he slept for 3 hours! Then he woke up for dinner, played with Shane a bit, and took a nap for about an hour in Shane's arms (I know...very counterproductive).
This morning I put him in his bouncer for his first nap and he was still a little bit awake, but he was able to get himself to sleep (I was sitting behind him so he couldn't see me). It took him a bit longer than with the vibrations, but he did it! He only slept for 50 minutes, but I'm counting it as a small victory. My hope is once we improve naps in the bouncer, the crib will be easier to tackle, but who knows...
Yep, that's what we've created with this little boy:
What's that? You can't believe that this sweet little face could possibly be any trouble? Well, really it's not his fault...
You see, before he got sick Dylan was a good sleeper. At night he'd wake up to eat but would go right back to sleep...sometimes he's even still be a little awake when I put him in his crib, but he'd drift off to sleep on his own. During the day, I would just rock him a bit to get him to sleep and when I'd put him in his crib he'd usually wake up a bit but would go back to sleep on his own, or with a little mattress jiggling by me. Now, he did start having a few problems just before he got sick, but we were working on them...
However, once he got sick we were willing to do whatever it took to make our little boy comfortable so he could rest and get better. The result was sleeping in his bouncer (with the vibrations on, which I tried to avoid if some naps were taken in it before this time) all night and for most naps. If he had problems napping, he would take his nap laying on one of us. Now I do believe all this good quality rest helped him get better fast, but now we're paying for it.
You see, since getting better (and we know he's better since the doctor checked him out and his night sleep has significantly improved), Dylan won't sleep in his crib...at all. I can have him sound asleep in my arms and after a few minutes in his crib he's WIDE AWAKE and grunting, which eventually leads to crying. Now, he won't even nap in his bouncer for more than 40 minutes at a time. I can put him in it still partially awake and he'll drift off just fine, but 40 minutes later (like clockwork) he's up and crying. He won't go back to sleep in the bouncer, but will fall asleep in my arms and I can put him back in his bouncer, but he won't sleep for more than 40 minutes at a time. The only way he'll nap for more than this is sleeping on one of us...and then he'll sleep for forever (meaning 2-3 hours) so I know he needs more sleep than he's getting.
Luckily at night he's getting better. Last night he only woke up once and the night before he actually slept from 9:30 PM to 5:30 AM (but that was after his shots which I think knocked him out so it doesn't count), but all of this sleeping is in his bouncer. I think I'm afraid to move him to his crib at night because he'll be waking up all the time...I'm hoping to try tomorrow night so that Shane doesn't have to go to work the next day in case it all goes terribly.
Today we're already on nap attempt #4. Here's how each nap goes: I rock him until he's very relaxed and usually asleep. I lay him in his crib. He stirs a bit but eventually falls asleep...about 5 minutes later (the longest so far today was 15 minutes) he starts grunting and about 10 minutes after that he's screaming. I'm currently letting him cry for about 10 minutes or so at a time to see what happens. Then I go in, put in his binky, and bounce his mattress for a bit to let him calm down, but he's usually crying again by the time I'm out the door. So we do this little dance until we've been trying for an hour and then I pick him up and we go play, eat, or change his diaper and wait to try again when he starts acting extra sleepy again (which is quite frequently now since he's pretty much a zombie). I really am trying to avoid resorting to the bouncer and I really don't want to let him sleep on me (even though I love it) because I know that won't help him get any better... Needless to say, I'm having an awesome day...
Whoever said you can't spoil a newborn obviously had never met Dylan... Wish us luck in the transition process.
...but today I learned that after a 4.5 year break from dentist visits I have no new cavities!! I was quite shocked to learn the news. Now, before you think I'm suggesting that regular visits to the dentist aren't necessary, let me finish because I definitely learned my lesson the hard way...
Had I actually gone to the dentist even once within the last year, I most likely could have avoided the root canal I had when Dylan was only 5 days old. I realize I haven't shared the details of Dylan's birth with the blogging world, so this story may get long. Feel free to skip this post, but I feel I need to document it for posterity's sake...or maybe just in case someone cares. {For the condensed version of this post, just skip the smaller text and move to the end}
You see, on November 31 (just one week before my due date) I called the dentist because my tooth had been hurting all weekend and after inspecting my mouth it appeared an existing filling had cracked. They were able to squeeze me in that day. The dentist informed me that my filling hadn't cracked, but that it appeared that a cavity had formed just to the side of it and the hole I was feeling was actually where my tooth had CRUMBLED! She then took an x-ray and noticed that the cavity appeared to be quite deep, but said she'd drill it out to see if we could get away with just a bigger filling. While still drilling out the decay, she reached the pulp of my tooth which mean...(bum bum bum)...a root canal. She referred me to her endodontist and I had an appointment set up for the next afternoon.
Well, that next morning I had my weekly OB appointment. Because I had been having pretty regular contractions, I decided to pack up the car before going to the appointment with all of our hospital stuff (I'm still not sure why I did this). At my appointment my blood pressure was high and so was my glucose. My blood pressure had been high at my last appointment and I had been having heart palpitations for the last few months of my pregnancy so my doctor decided it probably wasn't best for me or the baby to wait any longer...I was to be induced! I mentioned to her the fact that I had a root canal that afternoon, which she advised against--if my blood pressure was already high, imagine what the stress of a root canal could've done--so I called my dentist to confirm that it would be okay to put off the root canal for a few days and she said it was fine.
So off we went to the hospital, which only took 5 minutes since the car was already packed and my doctor's office is on the same block as the hospital. En route we called and cancelled the root canal appointment (which I later learned usually comes with a hefty cancellation fee, but I think they waived it given that childbirth is a little unpredictable). We also frantically called and texted quite a few people letting them know that Dylan would be born within the next day or so...and my wonderful mother magically dropped everything she had going on and changed her flight to arrive by 10:00 PM!
The nurse that was getting us set up asked when the last time I ate was...which had been breakfast (it was now 1:30 PM). Shane asked if I could eat since we knew we had at least 12 hours before they even started the pitocin. The nurse said she'd have to get an okay from my doctor, but showed him where some saltines and apple juice were, which apparently were fine. However, Shane also found peanut butter, which he slathered on some crackers for me. Upon discovering this, the nurse had to change the time of my last meal to 1:30...oops.
Shortly thereafter I was started on a topical medicine to help get my body ready for the pitocin since I was only dilated to a 1 and was 0% effaced (that's right...he probably would've stayed in there quite a bit longer). This medicine was supposed to was supposed to stay in for 12 hours, but after 1 hour I started having pretty strong contractions on top of each other...usually about 3 at a time before I got a break. The first nurse told me this was normal. The second nurse commented on my contraction patterns and asked about my pain level (which I told her was bearable, but definitely in no way comfortable). Then, this wonderful woman considered the treatment plan they had in place for me (1o more hours of ripening before the pitocin) and called my doctor to see if I could have any food besides clear liquids...and my doctor agreed! So I got one last meal...sadly I don't remember what the main course was, but I do remember I got cookies and french fries with it. The pain got progressively worse as the contractions got stronger and longer (still occurring on top of each other), but we did our best to distract ourselves by watching Law & Order reruns and texting friends and family.
Then, the night nurse came on duty when I had been on the medicine for 7 hours. She introduced herself, asked about my pain and told me about my options for dealing with it if it got to be too much, and then left the room. About 15 minutes later, she reappeared to inform me that she looked over my charts (for the last 7.5 hours of contractions) and realized that I was reacting way too strongly to the medicine. She called my doctor, explained, and they agreed to remove it and try and start the pitocin. I thanked this nurse profusely for realizing that it wasn't normal...and when the contractions didn't stop after the medicine was removed, we both agreed that it was time for me to get an epidural (even though I was only a 1.5).
Once the epidural was in, it was almost smooth sailing... They eventually started the pitocin at 1:30 AM. After a few hours and a few adjustments to the dosing, the baby's heart rate kept dropping at the end of each of my contractions. The put me on oxygen to try and help with this problem and broke my water so they could better measure the strength of my contractions...and we waited to see what would happen.
After a few hours with little progress (I think I was a 3) they explained to us that they had to turn off the pitocin for the sake of the baby and that they would call the doctor to see what she said, but that if I didn't progress without the pitocin we may need to "consider other options" (aka c-section). Luckily my doctor wanted to try pitocin again, and told the nurses to start with the lowest dose possible and step it up in 30-minute increments to see if there was a dosage where my body would still progress but the baby would be fine. Thank goodness for my doctor's wisdom!! This worked, and we were back to smooth sailing (except for the annoying oxygen mask on my face all night). To avoid the "other options" I told myself that at my next check I would be a 5...and I was! So then I aimed for an 8 and when the day nurse came in, I was an 8! So then I aimed for a 10, and at my next check I was a 10!! Granted, this all happened over a period of 5 or 6 hours...
Finally, we were ready to push...hooray! I only had to push for about 10 minutes or so (at least it didn't feel long to me, but maybe I was confused) before it was time to call my doctor. Although her office is only probably a 2-minute drive away, it somehow took her 40 minutes to arrive (something big must have been happening because we saw her RUN from her car to the building and she was so flustered when she arrived). Because of the wait, Dylan popped out with the next push...and there he was at 11:06 AM, almost 24 hours after we arrived at the hospital...and the rest is history...
Oh, I forgot the moral of this post... Shortly after getting my epidural, which I thought meant relief from pain and possibly some rest, my tooth began to hurt, to ache, to throb (I can't describe it in words, but if you'd have a bad toothache, you know). Sadly, I was unable to get any good rest during the waiting time with the pitocin because of the pain. Then, after after he was born, most nights I couldn't sleep while Dylan was sleeping because my tooth would be hurting. Two days after he was born, I called and set up an appointment for a root canal, which surprised the endodontist, but also helped him understand the pain I was in. I was so excited for the pain to be gone that I had no fear or stress for the procedure (which was actually painless and not near as bad as I expected).
The dentist called me after I had the root canal to see how I was doing and to tell me how sorry she was that I had to deal with all of this while dealing with having a baby. At the end of the call she casually mentioned that had I been coming in for regular check-ups the cavity would've been caught by an x-ray when it was much smaller and I wouldn't have needed a root canal. She's the nicest lady so I know she didn't mean it as an "I told you so," but more as a casual reminder that regular maintenance is important...
So, make sure you go to the dentist for regular check-ups, or else you'll find yourself saying that the worst part about childbirth was your toothache!
I figured it was time for a non-baby post (although I'm sure most of you that read this blog really only care about Dylan... :). Today I was reflecting on the items I picked up during my quick trip to the grocery store on Friday. I only went to grab a few necessities to get us through the weekend, but upon returning home, my bag contained the following items (among other things):
1 loaf of wheat bread
1 8-pack of tortillas (soft taco sized)
1 6-pack of pita bread
1 6-pack of ciabatta rolls (who knew the Wal-Mart bakery could produce something so delicious??)
1 6-pack of English muffins
Needless to say, we like our bread in MANY different forms! You may wonder how it's possible that two people could consume that many carbs before they all went moldy. Well, here's the damage by Tuesday morning:
Wheat bread: Half a loaf was used for peanut butter toast most mornings and French toast on Valentine's day. The other half was used at church on Sunday (Shane's in charge of the Teachers so we always bring the back-up bread)
Tortillas: These were gone by Sunday afternoon due to two meals of bean and cheese quesadillas (2 tortillas per quesadilla x 2 people x 2 meals = 8 tortillas)
Pita bread: At least four of these were eaten by Monday afternoon with roasted red pepper hummus from Trader Joe's (mmmm....). The rest were covered in mold by Tuesday afternoon
Ciabatta rolls: 2 were used for cold sandwiches, 2 were used for french dip sandwiches, and 2 were used to make the most delicious garlic bread ever...all gone by Tuesday morning
English muffins: Although these are usually quite popular in our house (toasted with butter and honey is a great snack any time of the day or night), only 2 were eaten this weekend. I think the other bread-like choices less common to our house won out.
All in all, I think it's safe to say we enjoy our carbs...in many different forms!
This is what happens when Daddy is in charge of picking Dylan's clothes and the daily photo shoot:
{If you can't read it, the shirt says "Jack Bauer makes Chuck Norris cry." If you don't know who Jack Bauer is...well, Dylan can't be friends with you}
{Don't be too alarmed...that's an Airsoft gun that shoots little pellets. It's currently on loan to us to help with a little problem in our back yard.)
In his defense, Shane did also produce the adorable ensemble below this weekend. He looks so cute in his little hat! {The Daily Dylan will be delayed again this week because these pictures were just too good not to post and Dylan has his 2-month shots this afternoon so I'm pretty sure I'm going to be spending my afternoon cuddling with him to make up for all the poking.}
If our son is fluent in Wookie before he even speaks a word of English, we will all know the reason:
Yes, this happens almost nightly, and Dylan usually responds...he just stopped performing once the camera was on (he is my son after all). He loves hearing new sounds and trying to mimic them. It's so fun to see his face light up during his playtime with Shane!
