noah benjamin thompson: January 2013

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Grandma Bea, Grandpa Art and Uncle Jake came to visit

Tomorrow Noah will be 6 weeks old. It is amazing how much he has changed since we brought him home and how quickly the time has gone by. (It is also amazing how well a person can function on such little sleep...). If you asked me what we've done for the past 6 weeks I honestly couldn't tell you since it is somewhat of a blur (thankfully there is no shortage of pictures to remind me).   What I can tell you is that it's been so much better than I could have ever imagined (most of the time, that is).

Over the past week, we modified his schedule slightly so we are finally on the 4-8 week Moms on Call schedule. Basically, his dinner and bath/bedtime routine were bumped up by 30 minutes and his naps are slighly shorter. The big changes come at 8 weeks (dropping a nap and more mealtime adjustments), so we will see how that goes. According to the book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, fussiness peaks at 6 weeks as babies become more alert and aware of their surroundings, which can be overwhelming and overstimulating. Some babies will refuse to nap during this time too, and Noah has certainly done some adamant refusing, especially the last few mornings. He seems too busy looking around to fall asleep no matter how tired he is.  This week he has also been a little fussier than normal in the afternoons, but so far I really can't complain. We will see what the next week brings.

In addition to fighting sleep and gazing all over the room, he has started to make more eye contact and do some babbling. I have also seen a lot of smiles, but I'm not convinced they are intentional - I'm holding out hope that I see one this week! We still spend a lot of time on our playmat, doing tummy time, signing and listening to music, going for walks and being cuddled.

This past week, Noah had several special visitors, including Uncle Jake, Grandma Bea, Grandpa Art and my friends Heather and Melanie. Everyone got to hold him and play with him, and Grandpa Art even got to babysit while mommy and Grandma went out.

Here are the highlights of the past week:
- seeing Grandpa Art, Grandma Bea and Uncle Jake
- babbling
- moving up to size 1 diapers (mostly because we ran out of newborns)
- growing out of my first outfit
- getting my newborn pictures (ok this was really a highlight for mommy)

And the pictures...

Learning that I can suck on my fingers when a paci isn't near by

best friends

half smile

all bundled up for the potential snow

Grandma Bea

Grandpa Art

Uncle Jake

so good at holding my head up

Here are some of our favorites from his newborn photo shoot when he was just 10 days old:

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

one month, two celebrations!

It is official that my birthday will never be important again. Don't get me wrong, my family and friends made it a great ~~day~~ week (thank you all for the gifts, celebrations and well wishes!), but in the end nothing is about me because my life is now all about Noah, and I couldn't be happier. He was thoughtful enough to send flowers with help from his daddy, but shortly after they arrived he pooped on me. I think it was his way of reminding me he is still #1 in this household.

Just two days after I turned the big 2-9, Noah celebrated four weeks and had his one month check up with his pediatrician, Dr. Weil. One reason I like Dr. Weil so much is that he reminds me a lot of Saul from Homeland (watch it if you haven't, it is amazing) because of his mannerisms, age and looks, and this gives me confidence in him, which is wonderful even if it is based on somewhat faulty logic. Another (unimportant) reason I like him is that I heard he does magic tricks. I haven't seen one yet but am hopeful that by Noah's one year appointment that will change. He also came very highly recommended and takes time to answer all of my questions. The bulk of Noah's one month appointment revolved around some of my absurd questions, such as "Why is he cross-eyed some of the time?", "Is his gas normal?", "Has he gained too much weight?" and "Does he even know who I am?". Thankfully Noah appears to be completely normal, weighing in at 8lbs 5oz (25th percentile) and measuring 21.5 inches long (50th percentile).

Over the past week Noah has made some big strides. He successfully moved into his crib, got a paci, had his first massage, and had a bath and bedtime without mommy. The move to the crib and his first bath and bedtime without me were definitely harder on me than him. From what I can tell, he pretty much didn't notice. Thankfully the reason I had to miss bath and bedtime was for fun (book club), and I will say it was nice to feel like my old self for a few hours even though I missed Noah most of the time. So far he loves his paci and sort of hates massages. It came as no surprise that he'd love the paci since he has always been easily soothed by sucking. We are trying to use it sparingly, but I have a feeling that won't last if he gets his way.

We are making some progress towards sleeping through the night too. He is generally sleeping from 9pm until 2am-ish (sometimes 1:30 and sometimes 3:30am) and then until 6:30 or 7am. You would think this means I am getting more sleep, but alas I have a very noisy sleeper on my hands who cries in his sleep and wakes me up, which means I've gotten through several episodes of Downton Abby and read a lot of books. Ben got a taste of what it is like to be a mom by taking on the middle of the night and morning feeding this past Friday. His kindness allowed me a blissful four and a half hours of uninterrupted sleep, and I hope we can make this a tradition on the weekends (fingers crossed!).

We're continuing to attempt an outing most days, and recently it has been a long walk around the neighborhood. Noah likes to nap and I like to walk so it is a perfect combination on pretty days. He's also been on a few lunch dates and even to the mall.

Here are the highlights of the past week:
- sleeping from 9pm to 3:30am one night
- falling in love with a paci
- spending hours gazing into mirrors
- starting to mimic mommy's facial expressions

And of course the best part of the post is the pictures, enjoy!

Enjoying mommy's birthday present (the Bob)

Some of our one month picture attempts:

Thanks Sharleen for the amazing outfit!

Enjoying an afternoon walk

Playtime pictures:

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Introducing Noah Benjamin Thompson

I have been meaning to write this post for the past three weeks, but as you can imagine we have been a little busy. My goal moving forward is to update the blog at least weekly with pictures and updates, so please check back and see how I do. As this may be a long post, feel free to jump to the sections you are interested in!

Leading up to Noah's arrival:
I had a post entitled '10 days and counting' drafted that I obviously never finished. In the days before he arrived, I was pretty busy getting ready for him. I ran what felt like a million errands, froze 8 meals for us, finished our Christmas shopping and wrapping and organized the house (our fridge and pantry have never looked so good!). We also attended several holiday parties and got to catch up with a lot of friends. Below are pictures of us the weekend before he arrived. I continued to feel great the entire time and we had no indication he was coming early since just 2 days before he arrived I was only 2cm dilated (and 100% effaced). I was absolutely certain he would be late and I would be induced.

Noah's arrival and my labor experience:
Noah arrived 9 days early on December 20th at 6:50pm. He weighed in at 6lbs 10.5oz and measured 20in long.

I had several people tell me what labor felt like for them and did a lot of reading about what to expect, but in spite of all that, I was convinced I was not in labor until I was pretty far along. I woke up the morning he was born and felt some mild cramps, so I figured I was 'preparing' for labor and went for my daily run. Then, when I was getting ready to meet Ben for lunch, I really started to not feel great (more cramping and quite a bit of nausea), so I called him to cancel but convinced him I was fine and just needed to rest (except that I soon discovered laying down was even worse than standing). I finally decided to call my OB around 12:30pm, and the nurse asked me to time my 'cramps' for an hour and call back. I timed them and found they were happening every 4-5 minutes (during this hour I continued to be extremely nauseous and even made a trip to CVS for a sprite). Despite the horrendous pain and timing of the 'cramps', I was still convinced it wasn't labor, but the nurse asked me to come in , so I had Ben to come home and drive me (too much pain to drive but not in labor, obvously). He rushed home and took me to the OB office (and yes, we left our bags at home since, like I said, this was not labor).

When we finally got to the office, they hooked me up to a machine to monitor the potential contractions, and low and behold, it was labor! The OB then checked me and discovered I was 5cm dilated, so she had us walk immediately to the hospital to check in. What should have been a 5 minute walk took us 20 because I had to stop every minute or so for a contraction. When we finally got to L&D and checked in it was around 3:30pm and I was ready for an epidural. Unfortunately I needed a bag of fluid first, so that took at least an hour thanks to our nurse trainee who couldn't start my IV. Finally by about 4:45pm I had the epidural and life was good again. At this point I sent Ben home to get our bags and take care of George. Ben got back right around 6pm when the OB came to check me and discovered I was 10cm dilated and ready to start pushing. Luckily I only had to push twice and Noah arrived!

I got to hold him as soon as he arrived and it was the best moment of my life. He was (is) perfect, and Ben and I couldn't be more in love. Here are some pictures from his birthday:

Our hospital stay:
Thankfully our stay was pretty uneventful. The nurses were nice and we had a few wonderful visitors, including my parents who arrived the morning after he was born. We did keep him with us both nights, and our lack of sleep was definitely more due to the nurses constantly checking us than him waking up. Thankfully there were no issues with me or Noah, so we got home less than 48 hours later. Here are some pictures from the rest of our stay:

Aunt Michelle

Grandma Bea

Grandpa Art

Going home!

His first month:

I can happily say this has been the best month of my life. Yes, I'm a little tired and have had a minor meltdown or two due to exhaustion but I wouldn't trade it for anything. He is generally a happy baby and only fusses when he's hungry. He has been sleeping in a bassinet in our room since we got home (Ben and George have been in the guest room) but may move to his crib soon. I will be sad to see him go but think it may help both of us sleep better. We are using the Moms on Call method and are working our way up to having him sleep from 9pm to 2am and then until 6 or 7am. So far we've gotten to 2am some nights but have had a few where we only got to 12:30 or 1am.

The first few days he was tired all the time and wasn't gaining weight so we had to supplement with formula. This was much harder on me than on him as he was more than happy to get milk out of a bottle (yes, he's a lazy eater or a 'snack and snoozer' as we like to call it). I felt like somewhat of a failure but have come to terms with it since it was best for him. Since week one I have been spending a lot of time pumping and he now only gets formula for his 9pm feeding (this is in an attempt to get him to sleep to 2am). I plan to keep pumping as long as possible, but it is starting to wear on me because I'm feeding him 7 times a day and then pumping 8-9 times a day.

We celebrated our first Christmas with just the family and it was wonderful. Noah got a million presents but slept through us opening most of them. We've also had a lot of visitors who have come bearing advice, food and great company.

Over this last month Noah has gradually become much more alert and is most awake in the mornings after his 9am and noon meals. We 'play' as much as possible then, and play pretty much involves him looking around the room (he is just starting to make eye contact and stare at objects), tummy time, swinging and lots of cuddling.

We try to do one outing most days, such as a grocery store trip or lunch with a friend. This is as much as we can handle since he still eats every three hours during the day. In the afternoons when it is nice we also go for a long walk in the neighborhood. He likes to sleep in his bassinet during our walks but will hopefully start being more alert for them.

I could go on for pages about everything that's happened so far, but to spare you all too much detail, I will stop now and just post highlight pictures. The last thing I will say is that we haven't forgotten our other two boys, and they are adjusting as well as could be expected. George needs a lot of attention from Ben but likes to lick Noah and shows great concern when he cries. The Nibby on the other hand pretends that Noah doesn't exist. The first two weeks he wouldn't even sit on the couch with us but has since resumed his normal position while continuing to ignore Noah.