Monday, November 15, 2010

statistically speaking...

okay, there's a lot i want to get done today - including a milo update - so i'll try to make this short and sweet:

  • milo now weighs about 10 pounds (according to my wii fit - i figure it's not perfectly accurate, hence the "about" factor, but tomorrow i'm going to try and take him to the amazing newborn clinic at the hospital so they can weigh him and get his measurements and such.)
  • he's up to eating 2.5 - 3 ounces at each feeding; when we started feeding him from bottles, it was only about 1 - 1.5 ounces at a time. sometimes now, he'll even eat 4 or 5 ounces. he's definitely a growing boy! :P
  • milo sleeps in his crib (which is in the nursery) at night. i had planned to keep him in the cradle in our room a little longer, but the little fellow grunts like a rhino in his sleep, which kept me up at night. and as stated in the last post, i'm learning the value of sleep. so we keep the video monitor on him and that way i'm able to sleep through the grunts and wake up for the "i'm hungry" noises that he makes when he's awake. which also leads me to the fact that...
  • milo sleeps for 5 hours at night! it's so glorious. who knew 5 hours could feel so refreshing? but that straight shot of sleep (instead of waking every 2 or 3 hours) leaves me feeling great in the morning. usually we get him to sleep by 9:30 or 10 o'clock, and after his 5 hour stretch, he takes two more 2 - 3 hour "naps" (and i go back to sleep, too) before it's morning and he's wide awake.
  • he's gotten very handsy. i'm not sure if he's aware of what his hands are doing/grabbing/feeling, but they're all over the place. sometimes he likes to grab his bottle (he's definitely not able to really hold it on his own, let alone feed himself, but hey, it's a start!), and sometimes while he's feeding, he'll take in too much air (i think), and starts to freak out a little bit. well if he's holding onto the bottle, he'll push it away when he starts to do this, and his recovery time to "okay let's start eating again" goes much smoother. amazing. and it's from this that i learned to watch for that "oh no, too much!" face he makes and pull the bottle out before he starts to get upset about it. thanks kiddo! :P
  • his goopy eyes are still a little goopy (sometimes a lot goopy), but he's also started producing tears now, too, so hopefully the goopies will start to clear up.
that's about all i can remember for now. he isn't colicky, which is a huge relief. and overall, he really doesn't cry much unless he needs something, and it usually doesn't take us too long before we figure out which it is (diaper/food/burp/hold me/put me down).

now that i'm starting to get this sleep thing figured out, and i'm able to stay awake for most of the day, i've started figuring out how to get more things done than just taking care of milo and myself - like laundry, dishes, painting even :)

i'm totally loving this stay-at-home-mom thing. (thanks for making this possible, ben!!!) <3

Sunday, November 14, 2010

lessons on self-preservation

i find that while i'm learning how to take care of milo, i'm also re-learning how to take care of myself; the importance of making sure i get enough to eat during the day, or getting enough sleep one way or another, or asking for help so that my brain doesn't explode and make a huge goopey mess for ben to clean up.

we had a late night last night. and milo's sleeping right now. i'm so very tired and i should be sleeping, too. i know i should. and yet i'm wandering aimlessly on the internet?

gahhh! apparently i'm still learning how to take care of myself and make healthy choices...

so that being said, while i really want to write a whole post on everything we've been up to and all that's happening with milo (i'm horribly overdue for a good post), i know it's better for me to take a nap right now.

i'd promise that i'll write more soon, but i've also learned i can no longer make promises that involve a definitive timeline, because with milo, it's very hard to keep those promises.

so i'll just say "good night" (even if it is "good morning").

:)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

food and fairy tales

milo has just been guzzling down everything we give him. we're pretty sure he's in the middle of a growth spurt, and ben claims that he can already see the difference in milo's hands and feet, and that they've gotten bigger already. (i can't see it, but i would think that's normal, to not be able to notice much of a difference, when i see him all day every day.)

last night, i decided to tell him familiar fairy tales while he was finishing his third ounce of formula. (a side note on feeding milo: i just wasn't producing enough milk for him, so i hook up to the "utter machine" - as i like to call it - when i can to pump out milk for him. however, we had to go to formula to supplement and make sure he was eating enough, so he gets everything from a bottle now. it was hard at first; i really wanted to be able to nurse him, plus it would have been so much easier for those late night feedings. but for now, i'll keep mooing along, and maybe when his motor skills are a little more developed, and he learns to ease up on that bite of his, nursing just might be a possibility.)

last night, i gave him my own version of the ugly duckling as well as goldilocks and the three bears. i stayed pretty close to the classic versions we all know and love, but in my retelling, there were 7 ducks and the ugly duckling. the 7 ducks were named monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday. tuesday had the softest fluffy yellow fuzz, wednesday was impeccably witty, and friday had the best webbed feet of them all. the ugly duckling was named december, because he was grey and cold and grumpy looking, they said. it ended with the swans saying that december is a perfect name, because of the beautiful white snow, and he was a beautiful white swan. and then december filed a complaint with the hospital where he was hatched, having been convinced he'd been switched at birth.

as for goldilocks and the three bears, goldie had muddy shoes that she left on baby bear's chair, she spilled the oatmeal and grits (no porridge in this story) all over the floor, and she wet the bed. when the bears found her, they assumed she was a runaway and tried to report her, but then realized she was an orphan, so they adopted her. she was henceforth teased by her bear-cousins at all the holiday gatherings for not being bear-like enough.

only 2 days left with my parents, then i'm on my own while ben's at work. i think i might be getting the hang of it, though. today's gone pretty well, so far...

last thing: i'm on the last three owls of the mobile (i've finished the front stitching for 1, and half of another, then i just have to stitch the fronts and backs and stuff 'em all). once they're complete, i can attach them to my painted white branches, and then we can hang it above milo's crib! (he only sleeps there during the day, since we have him in the cradle next to our bed at night, but still, it'll be the last finishing touch to his nursery, and then i can take/post pictures - yay!)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

is there a problem, officer?

i'm not sure how street legal post-partum-brain is... not that my driving is dangerous, but my brain feels so dysfunctional lately, that i'll forget where i'm going, or i'll get in the left-turn lane when i want to go straight, or i won't even notice when i'm going in the complete opposite direction from what i should be driving.

and i've currently got the help of my parents so i can take extended naps during the day to make up for all of milo's wakings during the night.

i don't know how the single moms (and dads) out there do it, but my hat goes off to all of you. i know that if i had to do it all on my own, i'm pretty sure i could survive. still, it sure is nice to have them around for the time being.