Avent vs. No-vent

I have to admit that I was avoiding buying Avent bottles because it seems like everyone gets them and they are so expensive. So me wanting to be my own way of cool and save money I just got some generic store brand bottles. We've been using them so far and on the package it says "vented nipples" but with no picture or explanation of how. Anyways, Jeremy has to pause every 2 sucks to let the nipple re-inflate, and stops to cry in the middle of eating about 5 times because he has to burp. Then he cries and fusses after eating until he eventually falls asleep. He has never just had a calm happy moment on his own, always needing to be held and rocked. I watched him eating closely this afternoon and realized all the things I wrote above so I decided to get an Avent bottle. OH MY GOSH! He finished eating over an hour ago and has just been laying on a blanket on the floor awake, alert, and as cute as ever. No crying! He drank so much faster and it seemed completely unlabored. He only needed to burp at the end. I can't tell you how happy Tyler and I are. We are staring at him stunned that he has gone this long just chilling on a blanket. I had to video his glorious temperament so here ya go!

3 weeks old (yesterday)

Jeremy saw the doctor. He now weighs 8lbs and 2oz and he is 21 1/2 inches long. He still has no predictable pattern for anything. Nighttime is getting better because he falls asleep sooner after eating at least for the past few nights. He LOVES to be held and that usually stops his crying. My pediatrician told me to beware of that and let him lay on the floor or in his bed and cry sometimes. In the middle of that night that's hard since I don't want to keep Tyler up. Other than that he really is a great baby and I love him so much. We already can't remember what life was like before he was here. His hair still is so red and I hope it stays.

Brothers

So here is how my night went tonight....Jeremy needed a bath and this was the first time he didn't cry. Just chillin' in the tub

Then David wanted to help... Then David ACTUALLY WILLINGLY posed for a picture and was excited to hold Jeremy...

Then he wanted to sit on the blanket with Jeremy to watch a movie...

Then it was time for bed and he said, "but mommy, I just want to watch the movie with Jeremy." What am I supposed to say to that!?

So they are still watching a movie together and David is up past his bedtime. But its soooo cute!

More Jeremy Photos.

I still want to get some pictures of both boys together but David doesn't usually want to sit close to the baby or obey enough to pose for a picture. I'll get some soon.

SWING?!?!

The swing is supposed to be heaven sent right? David LOVED the swing and always fell asleep in it. Jeremy does not like it one bit. He is all nice and sleepy, you put him in the swing and its instant crying! I left him in it for about 5 mins to see if he would just calm down and it didn't work. So then I set him in the very stationary bouncy chair for a quick second, then looked at him and he was asleep.

More Jeremy Photos

He is sooooo adorable. I can't stop kissing him!

Both Boys

DAVID

JEREMY

You can tell that Jeremy is a pound heavier.

Welcome to the World!

Jeremy Dale was born on May 18th at 2:55pm. 7lbs 6oz. I thought I was in labor so we went to the hospital Monday night at about 10pm. They checked my cervix and I was still at a 1cm so I was going to be sent home. About 30 seconds after the nurse left my room my water broke right there in triage. Water breaking = ticket to stay in the hospital. Most women's contractions start right away after water breaking but everything in my body stopped. So from about 1am to 6am we waited. At 6am the doctor started me on pitocin to start contractions. 7:30am I asked for an epidural. I slept after that for about 4 hours and when I woke up I was at 7cm. Then in a space of about 10 minutes I was at 10cm. With David I was waiting to dilate that much for like 12 hours. We we shocked at how fast this went. I had to wait for the doctor to get there to push so we all sat around for about 30mins. Then the doctor got there, I pushed twice, and the baby was here. With David I pushed for 2 hours. This was easy breezy. Then he wouldn't cry or really move and he wasn't pinking up. They took him off of me and called in a bunch of people that looked like doctors and nurses and they all talked together a lot. And also a whole lot of nothing was said to us. We all were staring at where the baby was wondering what was wrong with him. They told me he needed to go to the nursery to be examined and monitored for a couple of hours. They let me hold him for a second before they took him. You can see the baby specialist doctor standing right there waiting to take him from me. After about an hour the pediatrician came into my room and told us what had happened. Jeremy had swallowed blood as he came out and also the placenta had broken away from my uterus right as he was delivered. I guess this causes blood from his body to be sucked back into the placenta. So as he came out he swallowed blood and had about 25% of his blood supply sucked out of his body. He was in shock and that's why he didn't cry or really move and he was white. So he needed some time to produce some replacement blood and continue to improve until the doctor felt he was ready to be in our room without monitoring. This is me getting to see him in the nursery after my epidural wore off a little. Tyler getting to hold him too. This is him out of the nursery and me getting to feed him his first bottle.

And daddy burping.

The day we came home David got to come with to pick me up and to meet his little brother. He looks interested here but since then David has pretty much pretended Jeremy doesn't exist. Its funny.

And here he is home at last. My recovery is going great, mainly because of the lack of pushing. So far I am feeling a lot better than I did with David. Jeremy has been a great baby for 4 days of life. He eats great. Never have I seen or heard of a newborn being sooo good at sucking. Especially for being 3 weeks early he just did it right away. He takes a binki perfectly as well. Most early babies have trouble sucking and its a pain for everyone to get the baby to eat. Jeremy is just a dream. He does have a lot of burping issues. For a 2 ounce bottle you have to burp him about 5 times during it. Otherwise he will just throw up everything. So he's pretty much perfect. He sleeps well for the most part in between feedings and crying is so far a rare occurrence. We love him a lot!

David's Prayer

• David: (prayer)......in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
• Tyler: ok, get in bed.
• David: no Daddy, we have to try again.
• Tyler: ok... ?
• David: (same exact prayer up until...) and Jesus Christ,.... bring me cookies. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

36 weeks pregnant.

I am pretty miserable right now. Can't eat much, can't sleep well, can't move, and well my darn body won't stop contracting. Let's hope time flies.

5 Stages of a Toddler Poop - Not a gross post I promise

You know the 5 stages of grief? Well they can very easily be applied to a toddler being forced to stay in the bathroom to poop. Example: When we know David needs to go and he is not cooperating to do it on his own, we gate him in the bathroom. It's a pitiful sight and he does his best to pull at heart strings but mostly Tyler and I just laugh. Anyway, tonight I noticed in about 45 minutes time David goes through stages in this process that can be compared to the stages of grief. And NO KIDDING, it happened tonight in this order......

• Denial

"I don't need to poop! Please, I don't have to! It's not coming! Mommy I don't feel a poop coming!"

• Anger

"AHHHHHH LEMME OUT! LEMME OUT OF HERE! YOU'RE A BAD MOMMY! BAD DADDY! AHAHGHEHRHFDASDHFHAHHHHHH!" ( accompanied by banging and kicking of the gate)

• Bargaining

"Mommy, pleeeeeeeease let me out. I will poop later. I will go to bed. Please mommy. I will try tomorrow."

• Depression

(loud sobbing and crying)

• Acceptance

This would be the part that I would say he finally sat on the potty and tried but he is 3 and doesn't follow all the rules of psychology. He just continued to cry and I felt he had been in there long enough so we put him to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be more successful.

35 weeks

35 weeks now and my doctor said he wouldn't stop my labor at 36 weeks and on. After having crazy contractions Sunday night everything has been quiet in my body. I'm scared I'm in the eye of the storm and the tumult will start again soon. I think that 37 weeks is a better number. So in the mean time I am going to lay low but at 37 I'm going to start walking a lot and doing what I can to get things going naturally. I at the point where I DO NOT want to be pregnant anymore. I want my body back. I love this little guy but Mommy is ready to be able to move, breathe, eat and sleep normally again.