Thursday 13 October 2011

"just a phase"

If there is one thing I've learned as a mom it's this; babies are unpredictable! Just when you think you've got them figured out they throw another curve ball at you.

For Noahs first 7 weeks of life he was a dream baby. Seriously, he was so good! He rarely cried. Probably total amount a day was like 15 minutes. He was a pretty good sleep too and had begun to sleep 6 hours, eat, then sleep another 4 hours. He smiled all the time and loved to coo all day long.

Then came week 7 and it was like another baby replaced mine. He was not the same kid anymore! He began to fuss every time he was put down, needed Matt or I constantly in view if he was awake and stopped sleeping well. He also wanted to eat every 2.5 hours. Not fun.

We had a couple of scares where he seemed to be choking and we almost took him to the emergency department. Turns out he has a touch of infant reflux and occasionally brings the milk back up into his throat and aspirates it a bit causing him to splutter, cough and takes big breathes in. Terrifying as it was for mum and dad, we have been reassured that he WILL clear it and he will also grow out of it within a month or two. In the meantime I now have to feed him sitting upright and burp him through out the feeding instead of just at the end. These things seem to have helped a lot.

After severel nights of pretty much no sleep I had to call in back up yesterday. I was so exhausted and frustrated with my grumpy child I sent a text to a friend who came over to help out for the day. Just having someone else around to hold him was a huge relief to me. She also went to the doctor with me for Noahs 2 month shots. I was having a horrible time with the thought of him being in pain, so she kindly stepped up and held him while he got the three needle pokes. Not gonna lie, I totally cried when he cried.

Today he seems to be back to his old self again. He is super happy, smiley and chatty. The only real side affect from his shots seems to be that his legs are a bit sore. No fever, no added grumpiness. Now if only we could fix this annoying sleeping situation of being awake from midnight onward! He sleeps really good from 7pm til 12am, but then will wakeup every hour or two for the rest of the night. Not cool! I'm going to try and keep him awake longer at night if possible. It'll probably mean an unhappy baby for a while but we have got to correct his schedule! Matt and I are beyond exhausted.

I'm just glad that my happy baby is back! It makes the no sleep thing alot more tolerable!

2 comments:

  1. Caroline, if the reflux continues, I do have some advice as Koen had it for a year. Not fun at all, but yes, holding him upright during feeding (and afterwards for 20 minutes) is super helpful! Louise

    ReplyDelete
  2. Louise, I'd love advice to help him be more comfortable!

    ReplyDelete