Birth-1 Week: It certainly didn't help that i started off with no sleep. Add to that being in a hospital with doctors and nurses poking and prodding every hour, a newborn trying to get the hang of breastfeeding, and the newness of it all...this whole week i didn't sleep more than 1-2 hours per day. By the weekend i was about to have a nervous breakdown i was so tired. But every time i tried to sleep i couldn't shut my brain off and would just lay in bed awake. On Saturday i called my doctor and started back on Zoloft. Breastfeeding was proving to be really hard on me but so far i had stuck with it. Sunday i called the doctor again, desperate for sleep, and she called me in an Ambien tablet. I took it...and it did absolutely nothing for me, i still didn't sleep. Having a newborn for the first time is an experience...a hard one! Trying to combine alllllll the information i had read plus all the advice i was getting plus my own instincts...I was pretty surprised how fast Jake and i picked up things, but it was still a difficult first week. Ryan only slept and ate, every 1-2 hours, with no notice of day and night and very little alert time.
Week 1-2: I called the doctor back and talked to the nurse for awhile. I tried Benadryl to help me sleep on Monday night, but it didn't help me sleep more than an hour or two. The nurse called in Restoril the next day. This time i took the medication, not expecting it to help as nothing else had, and got on the computer. Within 15 minutes i felt a little tipsy. By 30 minutes Jake had to help me get to the bed. At long last i slept...almost 5 hours! When i woke up the next day it was like a whole new world. I felt 100 times better. The rest of the week was off and on as far as sleeping. I finally fell asleep on my own the next night, but i was still having anxiety issues since the Zoloft hadn't fully kicked in yet. I averaged about 3-4 hours per night. I was finally able to enjoy visitors and the food they brought. The food was sooooo yummy once i got out of my funk. Ryan still slept a lot but was noticeably more alert when he was awake. We were told not to minimize lights or noise during the daytime so that he'd learn day was for awake and night was for sleeping. So we mistakenly tried to keep him awake for long stretches during the day. He got overtired, which probably explains why he was cranky and fussy. Oops. By the end of the week i was pumping but not breastfeeding, and we would supplement with formula when we ran out of breastmilk.
Week 2-3: Still no type of routine, but Ryan got his first shampoo! He did really well and didn't even cry. At his 2 week checkup everything looked great, but by the end of the week we had the scariest day when he had to go to the cardiologist and urgent care. Luckily that all turned out ok. At this point he had already been to various doctor visits about 6 times. I celebrated his good health by making him dress up in UGA gear the next day. The Dawgs won for the first time in weeks! Ryan was starting to look at us more and seemed to start recognizing our voices. Tummy time was a dislike...he lasted maybe 30 seconds. He was still eating every 2-3 hours. We saw the emergence of random smiles when he was sleeping. They were so cute! Jake and i had developed a semi-sleep routine. Jake stayed up 'til 4-6am while i attempted to get my 3 hours of sleep and then i took over and Jake slept on the couch until lunchtime. Jake wasn't sleeping terribly well due to all the sunlight and i didn't love being "trapped" in the bedroom half the day so that i didn't wake him up. Plus i was really, really hungry and the kitchen was in Jake's "bedroom". I finally went out to eat for the first time with Kristie for dinner. Getting out of the house for an hour was awesome. After the cardiologist we went to Cracker Barrel and took Ryan for his very first restaurant experience. He slept the whole time, but I was stressed the entire trip because if you take him out when he'll be needing to eat he SCREAMS when he wakes up because he's hungry and it would be a huge hassle to feed, burp, and change him because the process takes almost an hour.
Week 3-4: It seems like suddenly Ryan was spitting up A LOT. And often. Like every single time we burped him. The doctor recommended we try conservative measures like letting him sit upright for 30 minutes after eating and burping more often. These didn't seem to help much and Ryan would get super fussy toward the end of the feeding. I finally got the Fisher Price Rock and Play. At first it didn't seem to be anything special, but now that we've used it awhile Ryan does seem to be much calmer sitting in it than anything else. For some reason he won't stay in his regular bouncer very long but the Rock and Play seems to be perfectly fine for him. Mostly it's a huge help for the 30 minutes he has to sit upright after eating. Using the Rock and Play seems to have helped his reflux a little, too. So i give it a thumbs up! This week we noticed he seems more content and rarely fusses on the changing table. Prior to this he would scream and kick his legs every time. He's much more alert and attentive now and seems to be paying attention to what we're doing.
Week 4-5: At one month old it seems like things are changing fast. It's like it's a magical time or something. Ryan smiled *at* us for the very first time! He rarely, if ever, cries on the changing table. In fact it's one of his favorite places to be (except for the cold wipes). After we change him we'll leave him on the table and tickle and talk to him and he just grins away. He makes little noises at us and turns to look at us when we talk to him. He maintains eye contact a lot longer. And best of all? Suddenly the past 5 nights he's decided to take a break of about 6 hours between feedings, sleeping 4 of those! With the onset of all this social awareness he does seem to be crankier when he's awake. I'm still trying to decipher if it could be formula related or because of all this new interaction like the books suggest. He's getting better at tummy time, but still doesn't last terribly long. But he can hold his head up and look side to side for a couple minutes at a time! Now i just have to borrow the Kickin' Coaster from Ally to work on his legs...he's starting to kick them really hard!
And finally...a picture of Ryan in his cute little Halloween outfit from Grandmom Marsha. It reads "So cute..It's spooky"
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