Holy Nipples {Part Two}

All of my excitement from the initial feeding with the 3+ month nipples quickly faded at the conclusion of his "middle-of-the-night" feeding into early Friday morning. At around 3:30am, we sat in his rocking chair in the nursery and he was eating away. He ate so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to stop him for a burp in the middle - I guess in my sleepiness I didn't notice how fast he was chugging the bottle until I could hear him only gulping air {meaning the bottle was empty}. I prepare to lift him up for a burp but before I could he coughed and sent the entire contents of said bottle from his mouth all over his PJs, up his nose, in his ear, on me and all over the beautifully white chair in his room. Epic.Fail.

I make sure to get a burp out of him after this occurs {all the while inhaling the yucky formula smell} and then bring him over to the changing table. He had soaked through to his onesie and diaper so I stripped him down, wiped him off {body, inside his nose and all} and then diapered and dressed him in clean PJs. I quickly wiped down what I could of the chair {you will be happy to note that as of this morning there is no stain} and then brought little man back into our room for bed. I then changed my clothes and wiped off all of the formula I could and settled back in for an hour or so more of sleep.

Since then I am all eyes when feeding him. I'm burping him at least twice during feedings and once at the end and {knock on wood} we haven't had any issues since. Hopefully that will remain the case now that I feel we've somewhat mastered the new nipples...

Holy Nipples (Not Those Nipples....)

Duh....I wish there were a step-by-step handbook on how to effectively and successfully raise a child. I know there are many books {and I've read plenty!} and I get every weekly email from every baby website imaginable telling me what to expect "this week" with my baby. So how in the world did I not know I should change out the nipples on little man's bottles at certain stages in his life to help him eat better/differently/more quickly?

It's always been {really...always? he's only been here for three months} a running joke with the hubby and I just how sloooow little man eats. I can remember early on when he was waking up every three hours to eat so that if he woke up at 1am we fed him until 1:45am-2am and then he would sleep {hopefully} two more hours until getting up again. I mean, that was the story my entire maternity leave. Since then he continued to be a very slow eater and we could always count on it taking a half hour {minimum} for him to get through his bottle.

Today when I was picking him up from day care, he was in the middle of a bottle with Ms. Ida and she commented on how slow he eats. I agreed and told her he's always been a slow eater {see, that was the common response we've always given}. She asked me if I have changed out his bottle nipples. "Um, no" I told her.

"Well you know they have different nipples for different ages, don't you?" she responded.

Hmmm, I vaguely remember one of the grandmas mentioning something about that...but for some reason it must've drifted into the back of my mind. "Um, no. But now I do."

"You'd better go out and buy some of the three month nipples, he will eat much better for you," she said.

And what did I do as soon as I packed up the little guy into his car seat? I promptly drove us to the nearest grocery store and stocked up on ten of the 3+ month nipples. As soon as I got home, I set my little kitchen buddy up in his pompesan chair and washed all of the nipples I had just purchased and then filled all new bottles with said nipples.

And what was the result you ask? When I fed little man before his bedtime, he scarfed down his entire bottle in basically 7 minutes flat. Seriously.... So I ask myself, how did I not know that I should change out the nipples on his bottle at different stages in his life. I guess that's something I must've skipped over in all of my "what you should know about baby" emails.

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day....Love Cruz

It's Cruz's first Valentine's Day today and boy did we have big plans. On Sunday, little man and I put together his Valentine's for day care and to send out to his grandparents and aunts/uncles. He did awesome lending me his little feet for the "hearts" on the back of his pictures.



Included the valentine pic above and tried to make a little footprint heart :)

We had ordered the actual Valentine's online and I love how they turned out....very fitting for our little guy's fun and sweet personality...

"We go together like milk & cookies"

"We go together like a burger & fries"

"We go together like rock & roll"

"We go together like pancakes & syrup"

"We go together like macaroni & cheese"

"We go together like peanut butter & jelly"



On Sunday night our little family hit up Vincenzo's for a yummy Italian meal {although the sugo sauce definitely wasn't as good as Nanu's} and little man slept all the way through dinner but as a present to us after we got home he continued sleeping for 8 more hours!

This morning, Nick helped get Cruzer ready for day care so I could get ready for work and then we snapped a couple of pics of him in his Valentine's Day outfit from Grandma Dianne. He's got a big day ahead of trading Valentine's with his friends and enjoying his first v-day party. Can't wait to get him home for some cuddles later tonight!

Valentine's Day morning - all smiles for daddy who was making faces over my head.

Our Little Guy: Three Months Old

Little Mango is three months old today! I cannot believe it's already been three months but on the other hand, it feels like he's been with us forever. Building our daily lives around him is the norm now. He is growing so fast and getting such a little personality. His big smiles melt my heart - so I do whatever I can to get one out of him!

 

What has Cruz been up to?

• Big News:  earlier this month we were amazed when he started sleeping six hours through the night...but now, NOW he is sleeping right around eight hours and it's amazing! He also started grasping objects this month. It started at day care and I would get so frustrated seeing the reports of him playing with toys there but never at home, but then one night he grabbed a hold of one of his teething toys {no, not teething yet} and started shaking it around. And while he doesn't always grasp his toys, he will every now and then. Finally, our little guy has officially turned into the biggest flirt this past month. He seeks out the ladies and makes sure to turn on his biggest gummy grin whenever they are in sight. At day care, there was one little girl just his age and they caught him on the mat next to her playing with her toes! What a little stud.
• Eating:  he is still a great eater - gobbling down anywhere from 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 oz every 3-4 hours. His gassy tummy has went away {thankfully} and now he is just the king of the big #2s. It seems more difficult to get a burp out of him and he is still spitting up more than normal.
• Sleeping:  as I stated above his sleep has been getting so good and we attribute it to day care and getting him on a real schedule. He has also started putting himself to sleep - no more of the "cry until mommy/daddy picks me up and walks around bouncing me and patting my butt" routine. And he can fall asleep anywhere - in his pompesan chair, on his changing table, under his play mat - his favorite is sleeping in his car seat, but we try to keep him out of that as often as possible so he can stretch out.

Fell asleep on his tummy time mat doing his exercises

• Developments:  I feel like he's changed so much from a month ago. He is filling out in the face {getting some chubby little cheeks} and getting longer. He's wearing 3-6mo shirts and 0-3mo pants and he's officially moved out of all of his 0-3mo sleepers.  Cruz has been talking up a storm and while it's mumbo jumbo at this point, you can definitely tell he's trying to get words out. He has started to notice his hands more and now he's been sucking on them- he's never been a fan of the pacifier so this seems to be his way to calm himself.  He continues to work on holding up his head, whether on tummy time or trying out his new Bumbo chair. Since last month we've been going to the physical therapist for his Torticollis {read more here, here and here} and doing his exercises to try and get his neck back in shape. We go back in three weeks and then determine if we need to do the scans and get him fitted for the cranial remolding helmet - I pray it doesn't get to that point. Not for the selfish "mommy doesn't want to see her son in a helmet" reasoning, but because it would break my heart to see him having to wear a helmet for 23 hours of every day for up to four months. And while they say it doesn't bother the child, it cannot be entirely comfortable.



Working on holding his head up in his new Bumbo chair



He loves his new tummy time mat and mirror!

• Features: the verdict is still out on who this little guy looks like. A lot of people talk about how they can see little Nick in him but there are also times I think he looks like Aaysen, who is all Fuchser. I guess you can say he definitely has a bit of both of us in him.


Happy three months, baby boy!!

My Baby Boy: Thirteen Weeks

Happy 13 weeks of life, Little Mango!!

Love the way he's crossing his legs!

Rockin' the Puma track suit

Fun Day

I had a sick day from work yesterday....I tell you being preggo really messed up my body and made me become someone who takes off days at work due to illness - that NEVER happened before. In the afternoon I started feeling better but I didn't get back to myself until later last night, however, little man and I still managed to make it a good day.

We made a quick run to get me some drugs, so I bundled him up in his car seat and in his new baseball beanie {thanks Uncle Marc & Aunt Britt!} - and off we went. He obviously loved his new look, just look at the smile on his face!

Rockin' his baseball beanie

After we got home I managed to get some housework done in between my numerous trips to the bathroom and since I didn't want to leave him laying on his back all day or have to carry him in my arms {I needed those free for laundry!} I figured out how to get him set up in his Moby. I tell you this was quite the challenge. I brought up the instructions on how to wrap the Moby online and watched the "how-to" video. Then I practiced putting his stuffed owl in so I could make sure I knew how to do it {now that's what I should've taken pictures of!} and then did the real thing. He must've liked it because after about 10 minutes of flitting around the house -  he fell fast asleep.

Hanging out in his Moby

I woke up this morning feeling 100% better than I did yesterday...boy, am I happy. I fed Cruzer at 7am and then headed to the gym. When I came home, little man and daddy were napping so this is what I came home too...hilarious!

Napping w/ daddy - looks like a real little man
{All we needed was his hand down his pants!}

I let dad get some more rest and got Cruzer ready for the day. Of course he had to sport his Creighton Bluejays shirt {"Put me in coach!"} since his daddy, Nanu and uncles were going to the game and then he helped me get ready for work.

Go Bluejays!

I can't wait until work is done and I'm back home lounging with my two favorite guys.

Little Man's Check-Up

On Monday we had another appointment with the physical therapist for Cruz's Torticollis. I had to work so Nick swung by and picked little man up from day care and we met at the Omaha Physical Therapy Institute's office. Our PT Katie brought us in and did some checks on how Cruz has been responding to the exercises we've been trying to do as often as possible. Over the past couple of weeks, we have definitely seen some improvement in how he keeps his head toward the left when we position it that way and seems to be getting used to his exercises. On Saturday, he had even started moving his head from side to side - which I had never seen before. He still obviously prefers his right, but we are seeing improvement.

To help get him where he needs to be we have a list of exercises & positioning -

• Holding him against our chest and using one hand to move his head so it's looking left. On this one we have to keep our hand there or else he will try to rustle away and move his head back toward the right. This exercise is even more effective when you can bounce him to sleep and then lay back on the couch letting him sleep with his head to the left on your chest.
• The "Football Hold" is when we hold little man horizontally with our right arm between his legs and our hand craddling his body. The left hand is placed on the side of his head  that faces downward (above the ear) and you gently pull up on his head to stretch out the muscle on the left side of his neck.
• Sidelying is where you lay him on a blanket or mat and roll him onto his side. You then prop a blanket or pillow behind him so he doesn't roll backwards - and we generally have to put his mirror or something in front of him so he doesn't get bored. This weekend, he was so comfortable in this pose that he fell asleep for about 20 minutes!

Taking a nap during his exercises

• We also have changed the arm in which we feed him. Prior to meeting with the PT, we both craddled Cruz in our left arm and held the bottle with our right. This caused him to look at us toward the right, so we've flipped that position where his head is cradled in our right arm and we are feeding with our left.
• When he's in his car seat we have started using rolled up washcloths. One goes on the left side of his head keeping it from falling to the side {ear to shoulder}. Another is placed on his right side by hislower back and the other is placed on his left side by his thigh. This is to make sure that when we have the brace by his head, it doesn't cause his body to shift into an uncomfortable position.

During our appointment, Tim our Orthotist came in and took some measurements of Cruz's head. He determined that it's 9mm of variance from where it should be {which explains that when you look down on his head why you can see that his right ear is farther forward than his left} and this puts him into the moderate to severe category. They do not recommend trying cranial remolding until he's four months old and until then we have to continue doing the exercies & positioning as much as possible. We go back to see Katie in three weeks and the following week will go into Tim's office to get a scan on little man's head. If all goes well, the exercises will have fixed it and he will be as good to go. On the other hand, if it's not better and the scan shows the need, we will get Cruz fitted for his cranial remolding helmet. On average he would wear this for four months, 23 hours a day. The only time we would take it off would be to give him a bath. They said the helmet wouldn't bother him at all and since he's so young he wouldn't remember it.

How it works is that it doesn't put any pressure on his head, instead they fit it around the sides of his head that are already where they should be and leave gaps where his head needs to grow into so that over the four months as his head grows, it has no alternative but to grow into the open space in the helmet.

Obviously we hope it doesn't go that route, but if it does you better believe we will get him what he needs. Our biggest concern is that there could be other damage to his sinus cavity, ears, nerves, etc because of this and we want to make sure that everything is righted as soon as possible. I just wish that we would've known to look for this earlier {before his two month check-up} so we could've prevented it from the start.

Just wish us luck and say a little prayer that we can kick this in the next month.