Two Months of Locke

Yesterday my baby turned 2 months old and it breaks my heart. I never had this sense of time fleeting until Locke was born and in the blink of an eye he was a week old.

Things that I love about 2 months:

A) He learned to suck his thumb! I may pay for this later on in dental fees, but this kid refuses to take a pacifier and anything that soothes him that's not breastfeeding is fine with me!

B) His smiles. Oh, I live for those smiles. He can be having a crabby day (rare) and I get him to smile and my whole world lights up. There is just something about your baby smiling at you-I wouldn't trade it for anything.

C) He is sleeping through the night-almost. Right now I nurse him around 7, he has a bath, sometimes we read a book depending on his level of fussy/tiredness and lay him down. I dreamfeed him at 10 and then lay him back down. Sometimes he wakes up at 4 to eat, but the past 2 nights he has woken up, made a few noises, and then gone back to sleep on his own. He wakes up between 7- 7:30 and I let him hang out in there for a few minutes if he wakes up crying. I don't know why, but if he wakes up crying and I immediately go get him he is in a bad mood until it's time to sleep again. If I give him a few minutes to calm down on his own, he is as happy as he can be.

D) He got his first round of shots yesterday so now I feel comfortable taking him out in public. Since we've moved the only places he's been are church where I hold him the whole time, Berry Bear- a fro yo place that Erik loves, and to Martin for a family gathering. He's never even been to Target-that's a big deal because when I was pregnant I was there every week!

I was a little skeptical meeting our pediatrician yesterday because I'm not familiar with any docs here in Clarksville. However, he was really nice, spent a lot of time with us and addressed all our concerns. Sunday Locke developed a rash all over his tummy, around his mouth, and on his legs. I assumed it was because I ate a couple shrimp at a restaurant that day and was afraid he might have a shellfish allergy, but the doc said that might not be the case. Also Locke tends to look only to the right and has done that since birth. He can and will look to the left but really prefers the right and our doc said he has some tightness in his neck muscles and gave me some exercises to do at home.

We sure do love our little boy! When I was pregnant I was skeptical that I could enjoy or even want to stay home with a baby. How naive I was! I could spend all day talking and playing and taking care of this kid. Erik and I really love being parents and we love that Locke gets to be around his family. I still really miss Waco, sometimes so much that it's all I can do not to hop on a plane and go back, but I know that these days are precious and I'm glad our families get to enjoy Locke.

Birth Day!

One month old! I never did take a picture of just Locke on this day, which was Easter. It might have had something to do with the fact that we were moving, I was emotional, and we had no place to live! Easter was the last leg of our move and we stopped 2 places that day to see family.

2 months old! Just look at that face! I am still in love with those chins!

As of yesterday Locke weighed 11 pounds 8 ounces, having gained 3 pounds in 6 weeks. He was 24 inches long. 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height.

Adventures in Breastfeeding (Yup I said it!)

Let me just start by saying that breastfeeding is the single most rewarding thing I do for Locke. Nothing makes me feel better than knowing that I've put every ounce of fat and chunk on that kid and that I can continue to do it until he or I chose not to. Let me also say that breastfeeding was the most difficult, painful, and exhausting thing about taking my baby home and caring for him. I did all the "right" things in the hospital, all the things I told new mothers to do, and all the things I was taught in a class taught by the lactation consultant at work. By the way there is a special place in Heaven for the lactation consultant where I used to work! That woman is an angel! Things like holding Locke skin to skin after birth (wonderful!), attempting feeding before his first bath, feeding on demand for the first 2 days, feeding at least every 2 hours for the first week, and watching for feeding cues-his most prominent cue we deemed "lizard tongue." Nobody told me that even though your body makes enough colostrum to feed baby, it really only makes enough to keep a normal baby's blood sugar from dropping too low and thus you feed for every two hours so it doesn't drop. Again, nobody told me how mad a baby can get when he only gets enough colostrum to keep his blood sugar at a normal level. I should have known better seeing as how ticked I would get as a preggo when I had to wait even a little bit for food! I won't mention certain other uncomfortable aspects of breastfeeding here due to the fact that some men (hi dad!) read this blog.

After Locke was about 3 or 4 weeks breastfeeding was a dream. So easy, not painful, and a really wonderful bonding time with Locke. The new obstacle became where to feed him when I actually ventured out of the house with him. Keep in mind, I rarely took him out anywhere the first three weeks because a) it was still RSV season, b) I was so dead-dog tired that I didn't have the energy, and c) our pediatrician put the fear of God in me about my baby being hospitalized if he so much as spiked a fever before 8 weeks. So after I crawled out of our little rabbit hole into the light again I had to figure out where to feed this kid. At first I would stop at work and go up to the nursery (keep in mind we never had any babies in there) and do double duty feeding him and seeing my friends. Then we moved when Locke was four weeks old. During that trip I learned to feed him in random parking lots, parked as far away from other cars as possible. Granted I used a nursing cover, but I was always afraid some weirdo was going to come up and look at me!

The worst, absolute worst place I had to feed Locke was at the real estate agent's office here in town. Now our real estate agent is probably the nicest and most successful one here in Clarksville, but she works for a group and they don't exactly have a nursing mothers' room in their building. We went to the office one day to take a look at prospective houses and naturally it became time for Locke to eat. Since they had a rather crowded parking lot (see above) I didn't know what else to do but head to the ladies room. Yes folks, I had to feed my kid in a bathroom stall. Now I know lots of mothers out there have done the same thing because maybe they're like me and can't just whip out the boob in public. I just can't do it, y'all! Anyway, I'm in there and this lady comes in to the other stall to do her business, which is what a bathroom is for-not to feed your baby. Then I stood there horrified as she proceeds to have awful, smelly diarrhea! I'm in the next stall over and Locke is not a quiet eater and this poor woman can obviously tell somebody else is in there while she has a very upset stomach. Yikes and yuck. Since then I vowed never to feed my kid in a bathroom.again.period.

While I'm on the subject I just want to say that I will never again judge a mom for not breastfeeding her baby. We brought Locke home on a Saturday and that Sunday was pretty much one of the worst days of my life. Of course we had gotten zero sleep Saturday night because he finally figured out that all he was getting was colostrum and dude was HUNGRY!! He cried all day Sunday. I mean ALL. DAY. Then I started crying because he wouldn't even latch on to try to get the five drops I had to offer. Anyway, early Monday morning my milk came in and we never looked back but it was the most hellacious 36 hours I've ever spent. So, if you're a mom who's exhausted and your baby is hungry you go ahead and give that baby some formula. I wish somebody had told me that. And if you feel guilty for it you call me and I'll recap the horrible hours I spent with a crying hungry baby and you can feel better about yourself!

Lots of Changes

So in addition to having a baby, we moved back to Tennessee and Erik started at a law firm in Clarksville! We had quite a few things going on, huh? Not to mention that we bought a house about 2 miles from where I used to live here in Clarksville. I have to say that moving has been extremely stressful and emotional for me. I'm sure there are all kinds of hormones going on with a breastfeeding postpartum mom but I really, really miss Waco. I'm currently job searching for something part-time and I've found a couple of positions that I would like that aren't labor and delivery. Erik is enjoying his job at the law firm and working again after being in school for 3 years. Locke made the move with little trouble. He is a remarkably easy baby except when it comes to daytime naps. The child is just like his momma in that he does not like to nap! Now I'll get to the Locke pictures.

My first smile shot.

He's getting so big it makes my heart hurt! I don't think I'll ever get over how fast he is changing.

Right now his big tricks are sticking his fist in his mouth to suck on his knuckles and talking/cooing. The child will not take a pacifier and it took him a week to be able to get that fist in his mouth. My favorite thing is when he sneezes sometimes he'll coo right after. It's the most ridiculously cute thing you have ever seen! Maybe I can get it on film and put it up here.