Momma never told me . . . spit-up could soak my sleeping baby

So I have been very fortunate in that little man isn't much for spitting-up. It's a rare occurrence when it happens, but when he decides to, he DECIDES to. The first time I really noticed spit-up was several weeks ago when I may or may not have put him in his swing too soon after a feeding and it came out projectile style! That was awesome. In general, he tends to spit up most of what he eats when he eats too much. My classic little binge eater! (I suppose that is only funny to a therapist.) It's never really bothered me all that much. Just baby stuff. Then this morning happened.

I went to get my little one when he started fussing this morning. It was about 4 hours after our early morning feeding where he ate A LOT. I had tried to get him to burp after this but he kept falling asleep so finally I just put him down and went back to bed. When I went in this morning, I noticed he had some milk crustys around his nose and thought it was just from breast milk spray during the eating I didn't notice. Then, as I picked him up the back of his head felt wet. My first thought was sweat, but it was too much for that so I thought pee, but his butt was dry. Now I was really confused until I felt his swaddle blanket. Then I thought man he drooled a lot. Then I smelled it. GROSS! Tummy turning gross. And upon closer examination there were little white chunks here and there. Oh and in his neck rolls, let's not even talk about that. The spit-up monster had attacked in the middle of the night!

I did my best not to breathe too deeply while feeding him. As soon as that was done, we took a very good bath. That was followed by laundry as his blanket, outfit, sheets, and mattress pad were all soaked with spit-up! I suppose poo could have been worse. Yay for the bright side?

Momma never told me . . . taking a baby to a football game takes a lot of energy

Little dude got to attend his first Vandy game! He did great. Mommy survived. It was an evening game which helped, but it had rained earlier, it was still like 91 at kickoff, and the humidity was at like 60%. Needless to say, having a baby strapped to you in a carrier in those conditions led to a lot of sweating for both of us. (Oh and the stands were full from the beginning. For awhile there I was pretty sure I was at the wrong stadium. And as excited as I was to see some enthusiasm for Vandy football. Some empty seats to spread out to would have been nice!) Aside from the weather, there is the whole trying to keep a baby on a schedule thing. Yeah, that doesn't work so well. Our little one has developed a pretty good routine and is in a much better mood when he sticks to it. In general, from when he is up in the morning he does 3 hour cycles. wake, eat, play, sleep REPEAT. Then at night, sometime between 8 and 10 usually, when we sleep we do so for about 6 hours these days. It's a nice routine. It works for him and mommy and daddy. We like it. At the game, he tried to stick to it but eating was hard so he wouldn't eat enough at his feeding so he wanted to snack throughout the game. (Though maybe I shouldn't judge him for that one. Mommy wants to snack throughout sporting events too. It's like a rule or something.) Then when it was time for him to sleep he tried really hard. He would do pretty good too in spite of the noise until a big play happened. That sudden burst of noise from the crowd was just too much to sleep through! Eventually, I spent the fourth quarter walking him around the concourse to get some cooler air and a quieter environment. This actually helped him to sleep and mommy to feel less stressed! But it did not help my back. Holding a baby in the stands and walking around with one forever. I really have to start working out more and building some muscle strength!

Overall though, little mad did great. I think he only really cried once for like a minute. Mommy had a harder time but managed not to cry! The heat was definitely an issue. In the future, we are going to have to take that in consideration a little (lot) more. In 2 weeks we will make attempt number two. This time however, we will have a better exit strategy if needed.

Momma never told me . . . returning to work would almost break my husband

So for my fabulous 7 weeks of maternity leave with little man, my husband has continued to work from home. Our 2 bedroom home with no office. My being home all day with noise all the time almost made him crazy. I think we were both looking forward to me getting out of the house some as my return to work was approaching. However as that time got closer and closer my husband went from, "you do it I'm working" to "help me figure it out cause I don't know what to do when you're gone." It was nice to know some appreciation that taking care of a baby may not always be easy had developed. As my maternity leave was ticking to an end, my husband became gradually more anxious about the baby. His anxiety went to two extremes. On one end, he worried what he was going to do with the baby for 4-6 hours while I was gone. He began discussing zoo memberships, trips to art museums, and other outings that any 7 week old would clearly enjoy! I tried to assure him that plenty of that time would be spent eating and sleeping and during the other times, entertaining a 7 week old really isn't that difficult. At the other extreme, my dear husband would worry extensively about having no time because what if all the baby does is cry for 4 hours. I worked hard to remind him that our son has never cried for 4 hours straight so he would probably be fine.

All of this lead up, and eventually the day came. Maternity leave was over. Back to work I went. Little man and I had a great morning. He had slept a little less than normal but no big issues. My husband had afternoon errands to run so took baby with him about an hour before I had to leave for work. So in total, I was gone for about 6 hours that first day. Longest stretch away since he was born. Yeah, that was probably a mistake.

When I get home I see that the garage door is open and stroller is gone. That is usually a sign that they are out for a walk somewhere close. I thought, "Hey! Let me call and see where they are so I can join them." So I call my husband, ask where they are, and I am met with the following response: "I've waited patiently all day for you! So you can wait patiently for me!" Yeah add in the very agitated tone and that was a pretty good sign the day hadn't gone well. Upon their return I hear about the horrible feeding, the crying for "hours," how I didn't need to be gone that long, how it was stupid that the client in the middle of my schedule had cancelled and I hadn't been able to move the last client up and get home earlier. Needless to say, baby had broken daddy! Fortunately, feeding baby, calming him down, and getting him to sleep gave my husband time to regain his composure and realize that he may have lost it a little. A few apologies later, we ate dinner and problem solved issues he had from the day. Fortunately, since then things have improved. Still some stress but daddy hasn't cracked any further . . . yet.

Momma never told me . . . going back to work would be kinda nice

Probably because she didn't know. I was very fortunate to have been raised by a stay-at-home momma. She was great at her job. I love being home with my baby in the mornings. We have lots of fun together and get some good naps in too. The last week of August was my first official week back in the office and it was nice. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy being able to listen to people and help them with their problems. I had also forgotten how ridiculous teenagers are! It made me smile to listen to them. Everything is so dramatic. I think going back to work was easier for me because I am starting with only 3 clients a day. I don't have to be gone from little man too long at a time, and client issues don't get so overwhelming. I get out of the house for awhile and feel like I get to keep some of who I used to be. A nice balance. Momma and professional. At some point I will be working longer hours and that might become more complicated. The balancing act will get harder. I am also sure that as baby grows all those afternoon/evening hours I work will feel more costly than they do now. All will come in its time but for now, working is nice.

Momma never told me . . . date and time are irrelevant

So clearly I am mass posting today and catching up on the events of the past 3 weeks. Part of the reason, I had no idea it had been 3 weeks since I'd posted last. Who knew?! All these things happened and I would say, "I need to blog about that." Then baby would cry, or be hungry, or need a diaper change. Time would disappear.

The past 7 weeks haven't involved a calendar or a watch. It has occasionally involved a clock but less for knowing what time it is than for knowing how long it had been since the last feeding or since he woke up. My husband has been the one responsible for planning outings or events. I ask him multiple times a day if we have anything and when. I am interested to see how things go come Monday when I head back to work and have to care about things like date and time again. Hopefully I remember to go to work! (Though my husband probably won't let me forget. As nervous as he is about taking care of baby, I think he's ready to get me out of the house.)

Momma never told me . . . sometimes it would be my husband keeping me up

Last week, my husband and I decided to get out of the house for an evening and we took baby boy to an outdoor movie. It was great and little man behaved himself the whole time. We got home and went to bed. I was sleeping peacefully awaiting the sound of the baby monitor to bring me to a rude awakening. So imagine my shock when 3 hours later it wasn't the baby monitor that stirred me but rather my husband. "I don't feel good. My stomach hurts." Thought in my head, "Are you fucking kidding me." Out loud verbalization, "Really, are you serious right now? Do you realize I don't get to sleep as is?"

Anyhow, I made it better, went back to bed and within 2 hours was back up to take care of the other baby. Then I made sure the big baby heard about it the whole next day! There seriously better be some good presents coming my way soon. Say a car, a new house, diamonds, whatever.

Mommma never told me . . . routine would be so awesome!

Seriously, she never told me that. I grew up in a family of chaos, disorganization, DRAMA. Ok, maybe there was a little routine like we ate regularly, but that's about it. I married someone who is super routined and structured. I have learned to fall somewhere in the middle. Then along came baby boy and routine was out the window. All I knew was that at least every three hours my boobs and baby needed to be in the same place. Other than that there could be sleeping or screaming or this quiet alert time where you didn't really know what to do. Then over this past week or so things started to change. There is more of a pattern of eating, chilling out, sleeping, repeat. Each cycle would be about 3 hours during the day. I could start planning things around this more or less. (The more or less part is important. Sometimes that's hard for my scheduled husband. He'll look at little man and be like, "it's been X time, you're supposed to be doing X." He still hasn't quite figured out babies don't always do what they are supposed to do.) The even more incredible part about this is night time. Baby boy doesn't wake up every 3 hours at night. He goes 4.5 or 5 or even 6 hours between feedings. That means mommy gets sleep. Uninterrupted sleep! Blissful, fabulous, incredible sleep. (Ok, maybe too much excitement there.)

Routine is great. It is starting to make me feel human again. Just in time to go back to the real world.