Three Months of Locke

The last month has really flown by. We closed on our house, began updating it, and Locke got his first illness. My dad, grandmother, and little brother Ethan came for a visit Father's Day weekend and I could tell on that Friday that Locke wasn't feeling well. That night he woke up in the middle of the night crying and inconsolable. He had a low-grade fever so I gave him some Tylenol. He fussed the rest of the night and since he was sleeping in our room none of us got any sleep! His temperature spiked Saturday night but after a cool bath and some more Tylenol it broke and he started feeling better. Unfortunately his schedule got all screwed up and a lot of that is my fault. His nose was stuffy so it was hard for him to breathe and nurse at the same time, which meant he wasn't eating well, and therefore I let him eat whenever he wanted instead of on his schedule. It's been over a week since Locke got sick and we're still working through schedule issues. The bonus of all this is that he has moved to a 3.5 hour nursing schedule instead of every 3 hours. That extra half hour provides even more freedom for us when running errands, at church, going out to eat, etc.

I don't know Locke's weight because we haven't been back to the doctor since his two month appointment. I usually have to feed Locke in a quiet room without the ceiling fan on (very distracting for the little man!) so that he can focus on eating. I guess one of the downsides of breastfeeding is that Locke is very easily distracted and/or he falls asleep easily. His major milestones are rolling to his side, discovering his feet, and laughing. My child's laugh is one of the best sounds in the whole world! One of the bittersweet things about parenting is that you love the new things they do as they grow up, but it's so sad to watch them grow and know they'll never be that little again. Today I was putting away Locke's newborn and 0-3 months clothes and I almost started crying! I was remembering the little navy elephant sleeper that Locke wore his first day in the hospital. Or the blue gown I bought for him at Canton that he wore on the way home from the hospital . Or the Star Wars onesie that Erik liked so much. Such good memories!

I try not to let Locke fall asleep on me or take naps outside of his swing or his crib but on this day I had tried to wake him up to eat and this is what he did.


He's not super chunky but he's really long. He grew out of his 0-3 month sleepers because his feet were pushing out of them. I love the sleepers with animals on the feet!


Everybody says how much Locke looks like Erik. I'd like to think he has a little bit of me in him, too.


My toothless 7 year old brother absolutely loves Locke. He wanted to hold him the whole time they were here. I love these boys so much!

The Ten Pound Twin

I thought when we had our first ultrasound back in early August ( or late July?) that we saw only one baby's heartbeat on the monitor. That baby has been born and is thriving but no one told me about his ten pound twin.

Ah yes, the evil twin that now resides on my midsection. I've been trying to get rid of this thing since March! It's made up of all those Carl's Jr. cheeseburgers, Chick-fil-A milkshakes, and ice-cold Cokes I was so fond of the last months of my pregnancy. In fact one of the first things I said to Erik after Locke was born was "I want a Coke." I gained a total of 40 pounds during my pregnancy and at 2 weeks postpartum I had lost 20-ish of it. Locke will be 12 weeks old on Thursday and in 10 weeks I only lost 10 more pounds and I'm at a plateau.

When you're breastfeeding dieting is pretty much a no-no. It messes up your milk supply and you shouldn't cut calories when you're using an extra 500 a day to feed your kid. So I've turned to exercise to help get this twin delivered and off my body. I bought Zumba for the Wii and I did it every day last week. I am so uncoordinated it's not even funny. Now I know why I've never been to a club-I can't dance! There's also a new group in Clarksville called Stroller Strides which is basically a work out group and you pay for the classes. I haven't joined yet but they have a sister club that doesn't require a membership fee and they go walking on the new greenway a couple of times a week with their kids in strollers. Locke and I are going tomorrow. It's during his first morning nap time, but he almost always falls asleep when I put him in the stroller so hopefully he'll be ok.

Also I'm on the stay-at-home-mom diet. It's not an actual diet but my new way of life. I can only eat what I've purchased at the grocery and brought home with the occasional take-out that Erik brings home for dinner. I lost 4 pounds the first week I went on this "diet." I'm not super comfortable taking Locke out to eat because it's hard to plan around his schedule so that he's a) not hungry and b) not tired and fussy. That leaves about an hour and 15 minute window every 3 hours. Plus I like to eat my meals without having to hold him too and that's best accomplished at home. Erik and I used to eat out at least 3-4 times a week before Locke was born and now it's more like 1-2. It's amazing how much cheaper it is to eat at home!

I'll try to keep the old blog updated on my weight loss progress. I've read that it can take 9 months to take off what it took 9 months to put on, but I hope that's not the case!

Thankful

Today I was skimming through the blogs I read regularly and came upon one where a couple had just lost their baby at an early gestation. The day Locke was born a young girl was going through the same thing. Today I'm reminded to be thankful for the blessing of life God has given me in my son.


This is one of my favorite pictures of Locke that Erik took after an early morning feeding. Look at the way his hand is on my arm. So sweet!

The thing that has saved my sanity

Locke started sleeping through the night around 8 weeks old and by that I mean from about 8 p.m. until 6:45 a.m. or so with a dreamfeed at 10 p.m. This was no easy task so I'm going explain how we did and also get to the point of this post.

Let me start by saying that getting Locke on a decent sleep schedule was difficult and we made a lot of mistakes on the way. First mistake-trying to get him on a schedule in the middle of packing and moving across the country. Not to mention the fact that we lived at my mom's the first week we were in Tennessee and then moved all of our stuff into our new house. I think for sure he felt the stress that we were feeling and that affected his sleep. Second mistake-unrealistic expectations and not enough research. I read Babywise front to back multiple times and thought I was ready. HA! Nothing prepares you for the battle your kid can put up when you try to get him to sleep!

Basically this is what we did minus most of the drama: From the beginning of Locke's life we listened to the pediatrician and during the day we didn't let Locke sleep more than 2 hours at a time (no more than 4 at night since I was trying to establish a milk supply) and followed the rule of eat, awake time, sleep. This was pretty hard since newborns get so sleepy when you feed them but we pressed on, and by the time he was 2.5 weeks old he was sleeping 3 and 4 hours at a time at night. After we moved and got into our house I pretty much holed up with Locke for 2 weeks and followed a 2-3 hour schedule of eat, play, and sleep. These weeks were really hard, mainly because every day I felt like I was losing the battle with sleep and I was very homesick for Texas. It's very isolating being home with a newborn all day when you've just moved and don't have friends to come by. At the end of those 2 weeks I really felt like giving up and waiting until Locke was older, like maybe 3 or 4 months old. One of the things that really helped at this point was the book The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Sleep Problems by Tracy Hogg. I didn't read it but I read many of the points online and how to use them. She talks about how to help your baby sleep instead of just expecting them to do it on their own. Another thing that helped with daytime naps was buying a swing. Babywise says not to use a swing, but I'm here to tell you that in my opinion, if your baby will sleep well in a swing, let them do it.

Like I said before, Locke started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old but he started sleeping 8 hours at night by 6 weeks old. It was great but his naps during the day were seriously terrible. For a couple weeks he wouldn't sleep more than 45 minutes at a time. It was screwing up the 2-3 hour schedule and then he would be cranky all the time. Now, let me tell you what saved us.....(dramatic drum roll)


This! The thumb-sucking! On the day Locke turned 2 months old two very important things happened: Locke discovered he could suck his thumb and he had his 2 month shots. The shots were significant because the next day he was feeling crappy and took a 2.5 hour nap. Up until this point he hadn't napped longer than 45 minutes! I think his body was like, "Hey, I actually like naps and they make me feel better!" He's been a pretty decent napper since then. The thumb-self soothing has a lot to do with it. When he gets sleepy that thumb goes in his mouth and he starts rubbing his eyes and I know it's time to put him in the swing.


Just in the last week or so he has also started sucking his fingers on his left hand. It's really cute when he tries to suck these and his thumb at the same time! If I could do it all over again here's what I would do differently: I would use a swaddle blanket. We had one and I used it the first night he was home and that was it. I would give it more time and use it again. Babies tend to fling out their arms and freak themselves out when they're sleeping and Locke did this a lot. Swaddling prevents this and makes them feel secure. I would implement Hogg's EASY routing along with the 4 S's to help Locke fall asleep. So many times I laid him down awake and expected him to fall asleep. I just don't think that was realistic for him at that age. I would have already bought a swing to begin with. We had a Mamaroo, but it doesn't have a swing feature, and he didn't really like it. I would not force Locke to sleep by himself all the time during naps. If I could take it back, I would have loved more snuggles with my baby. I was very afraid of falling asleep with Locke next to me and so he slept in the pack n play most of the time. They are only little for so long!

I still think with the next baby (many, many years from now) that we will start sleep-training from birth, just in a different way. The sleep we have been able to get is wonderful and Locke is a relaxed, easy going baby 90% of the time. Honestly, I think how a baby sleeps depends a lot on their personality. I can also say that I couldn't have done it without Erik's help. He encouraged me and helped me when I couldn't listen to Locke's crying anymore. Now he does the bedtime routine with Locke almost every night. Thanks babe!