2 Month Check-up

Noah is not quite 2 months old yet, but he went for his "2-month" check-up today - and received his first round of vaccines. Noah obviously didn't know what to expect. He was just lying there, stripped down to his diaper, then all of a sudden stuck with 3 needles, one after another! Each time the needle went in, his eyes grew really wide (in shock, I assume), then he would start crying hysterically - real pain registering for the first time in his short life. The needles, the crying, his complete ignorance of what was going on until it happened, was just too much for me. I didn't quite start crying, but I came real close and definitely starting tearing up. So, so sad. I can't believe I need to bring him back in 2 months to do it all over again! Today, I'm ignoring all the advice on when to feed, when to sleep, and just letting Noah do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

Week 7

Seeing a whole lot of this these days. In the beginning, Noah's crying was pretty easily deciphered. It was due to hunger, dirty diaper, or tiredness, and each was quickly resolved. These days, he just starts crying out of the blue, and I have no idea what the problem is. Diaper is clean, he was recently fed, and if I try to put him to sleep, he doesn't want to. He'll go down for a nap, and then 15-20 minutes later start crying. It then takes another 15-20 minutes to go back to sleep. So then he either doesn't get enough sleep, or I throw off the schedule for the rest of the day and his sleep gets out of whack, resulting in more crying. So frustrating! As a result, I spend most of my day either holding him or massaging his feet, as he seems to like this enough to stop crying. Maybe I'm perpetuating a bad habit? I often wonder whether or not I'm "spoiling" him, but he's barely 7 weeks old - is it really possible for babies to be spoiled at such a young age? To realize that if they keep crying, they'll get what they want? I find that hard to believe. For now, his sleeping is my top priority, so if I need to hold him, or massage his feet to get him to sleep, I guess that's what I'm going to do. If this persists for much longer, maybe I'll have to take a different approach.

6 Weeks Old

Now that I've gotten the birth story out of the way, I can blog on more current events. Motherhood has been quite a ride but it has been lots of fun getting to know Noah and watching him grow from a scrawny little baby to a chubby eating machine!

Noah is now 6 weeks old, and according to many people/books, this is the time when crying/fussiness peaks in infants. Whether or not this is a peak, with crying/fussiness declining here on out, I'm not sure, but it certainly has increased in the past week! It was almost like in week 6 the fussiness switch turned on. In week 5, I started putting Noah on a feeding/sleeping routine from The Contented Little Baby by Gina Ford because he was being so fussy at night and I felt that I wasn't doing a good enough job monitoring his sleep. From day one of starting the routine, Noah was settled down easily for all his naps (although he was still having a hard time at night) without needing any soothing strategies. I would put him down for a nap and watch in the baby monitor as he magically just fell right asleep at the times prescribed by Gina Ford. It was a little more difficult getting him to wake up, but when he was awake he was alert and relatively calm. In week 6 however, it became much more difficult to settle him for naps, resulting an overtired and unhappy baby. When I did manage to settle him and he fell asleep, he would make a noise and wake himself up and the process would start again. Some times he'll randomly start screaming, too. Also because we live on a busy road between a hospital and fire station, there are always ambulances and fire trucks going up and down the road with sirens blaring; not helpful. The only improvements in week 6 have been a little less spit up and more sleeping at night. Before, Noah would fuss a lot after feedings at night and take a long time to go back to sleep, but in the past few days he's fallen asleep more easily. He flails around for a few seconds, then goes limp and falls asleep. Overall, adapting Gina Ford's routine has made life much more predictable and structured. And is it wrong that I see adapting Noah to the routines as "goals" to work towards? But really, once I started using her schedule, I was much more attuned to Noah's sleeping and eating patterns and have become better about making sure Noah does not get overtired. Knowing when (roughly) Noah will be sleeping, eating, and bathing also allows me to schedule my own sleeping, eating, and bathing! My next goal: cutting nighttime feedings down to just once...

Birth story - 6 weeks late

Noah Hyungwoo Kim

Born August 28, 2010 at 4:35 AM

7lbs, 9oz, 21 inches

I had tried writing up an account of labor/delivery that captured all the great details so that I could look back on it in the future, but there was so much to recount that I never got around to finishing the post. So now Noah is a day shy of 6 weeks old and I haven't blogged about anything because I felt like I couldn't move forward without recording labor/delivery. In order that I move forward, I will post an account in bullet points:

-Contractions began on August 27 (due date)

-Examination by Drs concluded baby was in mild distress during contractions and that umbilical cord was around neck

-My OB decided to induce so that baby could be closely monitored as labor progressed

-After about 11 hours of labor, on-call OB decided to deliver by Caesarean so as to minimize risk to baby

-Umbilical cord was wrapped twice around baby's neck!

-Noah born at 4:35 AM!

I was a bit upset by having to deliver by c-section, as I'd spent so much time reading about and imagining a normal delivery, but in the end, we had our baby and he was healthy and safe, so I couldn't be upset for long!