The Many Faces of Preston

So at 22 weeks these are the many faces of Mr. Preston....just thought you guys might like to see this sweet face again. :)

 Looking cheeky..

 .." we won!"...watching the Texas Rangers with Dad

 "Nooo..."

You can insert_________...this is his ANGRY  face!

 " Huh?"

 " Mom, too many pictures. I'm going to sleep."

 " How ya doin..( in his best Joey voice)"

 " She did nooot!"

Haaaappy baby!

21 Week Update

So Mr. P is doing pretty well. He finally had his four month vaccines today--his appointment kept getting pushed out, so he's about a month behind, but that's perfectly okay with me. He weighed 15.2# today, 45th percentile,  25.25 inches in length, 45th percentile, and his head circumference was 16", 10th percentile. I think his head measures small because it's growing straight up and not out.  LOL

Things have been crazy with my thyroid since delivering him. I went hyper, then hypo, then I was told to stop my Synthroid about a month ago. I don't think this was a good decision on my doc's part, as within the last month my milk supply has substantially decreased after I stopped taking it! I had bloodwork done this week to check my levels since being off the meds, and sure enough, my TSH is higher than it's ever been at 3.11. No wonder I've been feeling so tired, depressed, and have been losing hair like no one's business. Lesson learned on my thyroid levels and breastfeeding...if there is a next time. Ya know, thyroid and breast milk production go hand in hand.  I have had a crying, still hungry baby because their isn't enough for him. This totally freaked me out and scared the crap out of me. Luckily, we have a deep freezer full of pumped breast milk, so when needed we can give him a bottle of breast milk to make up the difference. And I've had my thyroid levels rechecked and started back on  my Synthroid, started taking Fenugreek ( an herb to increase milk supply, which was recommended my his pediatrician and my lactation consultant), started pumping even more ( I didn't know it was possible--uhg--I hate pumping!), and I'm drinking a dark beer every evening with Kevin. The hops and barley in dark beer is said to increase milk supply in women. I think I can see a small increase in my supply since I've been doing these things for the last couple of days--praying it gets back to normal....quickly! Preston's weight gain has slowed to about 1/3 an ounce per day rather than his typical 1 ounce per day over the last three weeks due to him not wanting to nurse as well, him being really dis tractable when nursing, and my supply issues. The doc was totally not concerned and said to keep giving him frozen breast milk as needed and follow up with a reweigh in two weeks. He is still sitting perfectly in the middle of the growth curve and is growing proportionally.  I've had a few emotional freak out moments when Preston is crying and Kevin has to scurry and defrost a bottle for him asap. I've felt really, really guilty like my body is letting him down Plus, I really, really, really don't want to give up breastfeeding. I'll be crushed if it comes to that. But my lactation consultant seemed positive about being able to reinstate my supply if I do lots of things she recommends to help things along. I pretty much have to feed Preston non stop..or as much as he will take it, and wear him around in a sling with both of our shirts off so we're doing true skin-to-skin time, as this will stimulate my brain and send the hormonal signals for me to produce more milk. Pray, pray, pray! The other breastfeeding news, Mr. Preston no longer wants to nurse from my left side. I have nooo idea why. This started a little bit before his ear infection began, which I thought was the cause. But it's apparently not. His ears and everything all check out perfect. So I'm having to get really creative to get him to semi nurse from this side. Hope this is just a phase that ends soon. He's a smart little dude. I'm having to get into some really uncomfortable positions to get him to nurse from this side. :)

Okay, back to the check up from today. Mr. Preston looked fabulous. All checked out perfectly and he got two vaccines today: one with a needle and one liquid in the mouth. He handled the needle like a champ, too! So he's sportin' a cute little dude bandaid again. :) He has met all of the milestones for his age and is moving right along.

He is still scooting across the floor and working on his army crawl. He rolls both ways, but doesn't seem to have a lot of interest in doing it a whole lot. He is still not quite ready for sitting up. He still needs a lot of assistance. He is still a drool machine and everything goes in the mouth--everything! He also started balling up his hand into a fist and hitting himself in the face while he nurses. And he hits himself hard, too! He is getting more interested in watching us eat, and follows the fork to our mouths. We're not planning on introducing solids until after six months, as he is not quite ready just yet. He can't sit up in a high chair quite yet and he still needs to master some fine motor coordination with his hands. But we're in no rush. He is still as alert as ever. Every time I take him out strangers always comment on how alert and into his surroundings he is. People have been telling us this since he was a newborn. A couple of days ago someone told me this meant he was going to be into everything in sight once he is fully mobile. I say it means he's a genius. But the former is probably more likely, huh. :)

Preston is doing so much better with our sleep training. We are 1.5 weeks into it and we have a totally different sleeper. He still has some work to do, and things aren't perfect, but he has improved a 100% on his sleeping. He is taking three naps per day, and will sleep for 2 hours straight on two of them, and will finish off the day with a short catnap. He is also sometimes back to sleeping through the night or may wake once to nurse. I can def handle this! Plus nursing him at night is good for my supply. He is so much more well rested and is much happier during his wake times. I love it. We are working on weaning him from needing the pacifer to go to sleep and are putting him down in his crib drowsy, not fully alseep, so he can learn to self soothe and get himself to sleep. We still rock him and sing to him to get him to his drowsy state, which I love to do with him, but we're not spending tons of time trying to get him into a past- out state. He is still sleeping on his tummy, and sometimes rolls to his back and has trouble knowing that he can get himself back to his belly. Sleep training is really difficult to commit to and show follow through with, but it's totally worth it. When he is crying I still get really emotional and have to go outside and leave the monitor with Kevin. He can handle listening to him cry far better than I can. He's much less emotional about the entire thing. Whereas, it's been really, really hard on me...and Preston, I'm sure. :) But it feels like we're finally maybe starting to see some true consistent routine and schedule forming with his better and more predictable sleeping habits. Thank God! I hated the air mattress!

Please pray that my milk supply be fully reinstated and Preston continues to grow and be well.

Here are some photos of the man during the last couple of weeks. 21 weeks, I can't believe it!

 Play Date with our friend Kendall

 Enjoying some time in the exersaucer!

 Ahh, looks like someone is already smitten...

 Look, they're holding hands!

Preston says, " umm...is that my toy? I sure think it is."

m.i.a at 20 Weeks

Man, I've been out of the loop lately. I sure hate not updating, but, honestly, I just haven't been that into doing so lately..obviously. We've had quite a bit going on these days.

Preston ended up having fluid build up in both of his ears with one of them getting infected. We have been back and forth to the doc for rechecks and to get prescriptions to help him heal and to relieve some of his pain. He was sooo painful and was just miserable. Oh man, I only thought the nights used to be bad. They got even worse while he was sick. So bad that Kevin and I were waking up 8- 10 times a night and resorted to sleeping on an air mattress on his bedroom floor. NO bueno. And we totally expect to see a tooth pop through at any moment.

He has a few more days on his antibiotics, and is still dealing with a nasal drip down the back of his throat, according to the doc, and sounds hoarse. The doc thinks this is due to a possible allergy or irritation to something in the air, possibly poor air quality. But at his last check up the doc said his ears looked perfect and all was healed. We're just finishing the antibiotics as a precautionary measure. I haaaate seeing him sick. It breaks my heart, actually.

Preston is a discovering, growing dude and he's doing new things everyday. He has found his feet and now plays with them at diaper changing time. He also has found out how to pull Kevin's glasses off of his face. uh huh....I think we may see Lasik in Kevin's future. :) Preston also had his first experience in his exersaucer yesterday. I cannot believe I have a 20 week old baby who can now sit in an exersaucer! He really likes it! It's crazy stimulating. Man, there sure is a lot happening on those things. Preston also grabbed a ball this week that makes noise when you shake it. He grabbed it and intentionally shook it....at three different times...to hear the jingle. I see why every Mom says their baby ' is soo smart'. Everything they do just tugs at your heart and you think they are amazing. Preston is also growing more hair! His hair is definitely like mine was...and still is.. dark.. and his eyelashes and the hair on his head is starting to grow! Soo cuute!

Getting more hair and long eyelashes!

 Holy Cow, he is his Dad's son.

 Hangin' out with brother Eli while doing some tummy time and fixating on the Olympics.

Showing his USA PRIDE!

Ahhh, sweet brother time with Eli. I wonder what they say to each other?

 Learning pictures

 First time in the exersaucer

Love this little boy!


Preston has continued to enjoy pool time. For anyone wondering, we don't put his head under water or get water in his ears. We have learned that he has about a fifteen minute window in the water before he begins to get fussy. Maybe it's just too much stimulation for his little brain to process. This weekend we spent some time with Preston's Nona and Grandpa's house enjoying their pool. It was very sweet of them to let us come over and visit on virtually no notice so Preston could enjoy a day swimming.

 Baby and Dad about to hit the pool

 Grandpa and P catchin some waves...well, kinda..

 All smiles with Grandpa!

Okay, have you seen anything cuter?! Don't lie. I know you haven't. :)




In other news, Preston's sleep, there has been some new developments. As soon as we stopped swaddling him, which we pretty much did cold turkey a week ago ( we kept him swaddled but with one arm out for the last week, then ditched it..thank god! He was really dependent.) Now he sleeps in a footed sleeper to stay warm.  Oh, yeah, back to what I was saying, as soon as we stopped swaddling him, he started rolling over on his own in his crib to sleep on his belly. Actually he started rolling both ways far more often...even during tummy time and diaper changes. I really think we delayed stopping the swaddle for too long. I think it was interfering with his ability to practice motor development. Swaddle gone: check. Feels good.

If you lay him down in the crib on his back, he immediately at least turns to his side. So for the most part we are laying him down on his belly. He still struggles some with getting comfy in this position and wrestles with trying to figure out that he has to turn his head to one side, but I think he's getting it. Praying this will help his flat head. :)

So  I mentioned that Kevin and I were on rotating shifts sleeping on an air mattress on his floor. We weren't even getting to sleep together at night. Preston seemed to be getting in to a habit of night waking many, many times a night, and not to nurse, just waking up and not being able to get himself back to sleep. I was a crying, emotional, exhausted zombie. There was no time for me to do anything during the day...( or night)..and my entire day consisted of either rocking him, or soothing him in some way to get him to stay asleep...literally. A person can only stay in doors in a dim house sitting in the quiet so her baby will hopefully sleep with no interaction with anyone for so long before she goes crazy! This meant 'nap time' was a looong drawn out process many times a day. And, of course, since he wasn't well rested, he was fussy and crying all of the time when he wasn't sleeping. And since I wasn't getting any sleep, I was not sitting in a good place. Long story short, Kevin and I reworked our nighttime shifts. I took 10pm-2am and slept on the air mattress, and Kevin took 2am to 6am sleeping on the air mattress. This way whomever was in the room with Preston could wake up with him and the other person sleeping in our room could at least get a few hours of solid sleep. I hated this set up. And we were both still tired, as was Preston, so we knew this was not a long term solution and something had to give.

I really, really wanted to wait until Preston was 6 months, or at least 5 months old, to start any sleep training, but we made it to 4.5 months. But in an effort for us to be good parents ( this means not being ridiculously sleep deprived and short tempered), something had to change. So yesterday, after Kevin and I had been mulling it over for about 8 weeks, I was ready to start sleep training. So we did... yesterday.

I knew it was going to be hard. But, man, it kills me to hear him cry. But I do everything to set him up for success when it's time for him to sleep. I make sure he is fed, changed, he is dressed so that he will not be too hot or cold, that he is put down as soon as he begins to look tired ( before any fussiness begins) and we go through our ' nap routine' to signal to him it's nap time. And I made sure the doc gave us the all clear that he was well before starting his sleep training. Kevin was so glad I was ready to begin. He has been wanting to start the sleep training for some time. It's hard for him to hear Preston cry, but I don't think it's as hard on him as it is on me. It's brutal.

The good news, we have found success relatively early..I think...I hope. He has adjusted to the new routine fabulously without crying for a super long time. The longest time he cried was the first time I initiated it, and, of course, he has been sleep deprived, so I kinda expected it. He cried for 35 minutes. I took the video monitor with me so I could keep an eye on him, but I had to go outside with Kevin ..and I paced...and prayed. But after he cried and put himself back to sleep, he slept for two hours, which he hasn't done since he was a newborn. We then went into the night. I was nervous.

Since we have recently dropped his dream feed,  he has been teething and recovering from an ear infection, he has been been nursing at night. Typically twice. It is not my goal to ' have my baby sleep through the night because it's convenient for me'. I will always feed my hungry baby. He knows when he needs to eat and I will let him control that. So...at least for now, if he wakes up in the night and is profusely crying and it's been four hours or longer since he nursed, then I go in and quickly nurse him and put him right back to bed. If it has been less than four hours since he ate, then we let him cry until he falls back asleep. He woke up twice last night, on his very first night of sleep training: once I nursed him and the other we let him cry, as he had just eaten a lot a couple of hours before. He cried for ten minutes, then he was back to sleep for five more hours. I know if we would have gone to him this time it would have resulted in him waking up many more times in the night. So far he has been doing really well. He does cry some, typically in the middle of the nap at his sleep cycle transition for about ten minutes, right about the 40 min mark, and then once he gets himself back to sleep, he is down for another hour and wakes up happy and rested.

I know there is a lot of opinions about sleep training, but whether Preston was born not being able to sleep well, or it was something we caused ( which is probably the case) we all needed to be retrained. This way we can hopefully give Preston the gift of being a good sleeper. Not just now, but as he ages.  And we can get some sleep so we can be the best parents we can be. I know it's not the right choice for everyone, but for us for a lot of reasons, it was the right choice for our family. But it's truly a labor of love. Every time he wakes up from a nap I kiss and kiss and kiss all over him! I'm praying  this process will work effectively and very quickly. Our plan is to give it one week and then reassess.


I can't think of anything else to update on at the moment, although I'm sure there is a lot. But I'm focused on Preston getting through this nap at the moment so my brain is preoccupied. :) I'm not gonna lie, things have been tough for us around here for a while, but I'm hoping we're headed in the right direction! We sure do love Preston. Take a look at his pics, he's like the cutest thing ever!

Does My Baby Hate Sleep?

Surely not if he's really my child. But,sadly, it's kinda looking like he does hate it, as this past month as been horrendous..and I mean it. We are so sleep deprived. He was sleeping through the night and just having bad naps during the day. Now he is waking up many, many times during the night and is still not sleeping for naps.  And for everyone wondering, he is not hungry. He is satisfied between feeds and does not give me the ' hungry cry' and he is gaining weight' like a champ' according to the doc as of today.

Kevin and I both are at a loss as far as what else we can do to help him sleep better. I really want to give him the gift of good sleep. I hate seeing my baby so tired.  We have literally tried EVERYTHING. I've read every infant sleep book on the market, too. Since he is teething, although no teeth have come through just yet, we have tried Tylenol a few times and it seems to help him sleep at night. He is also not pooping--like going longer than 8 days without a BM. We were told this can be normal for BF babies, but I wonder if this is causing some discomfort. He is also not wanting to eat and pulls away from the breast and the bottle. What in the heck is going on with my babe?  Anyhoo, we went into the doc today to discuss his teething, not sleeping, the poop thing, and to see when medically they recommend sleep training as I don't want to start too young and do any harm to his sweet little psyche. :)

So...he IS teething according to the doc, just no teeth yet. She said this process can take weeks. I have to do some things to help the poop situation along and she found 'red streaks on the back of his throat' and fluid in one of his ears. She said the fluid in his ear is not infected yet but we need to get rid of it or it can get that way. She went on to say that the fluid could also be affecting his sleeping and eating because of the nasal drip down the back of his throat and the pressure change in his ear due to the fluid. So..we start Benadryl for a few days to see if we can dry up the excess fluid. She is hoping this will help his sleeping and eating. If not, then we start antibiotics to avoid an ear infection.

On the good side, he weighs 14.4 pounds as of today and his average weight gain from birth is still about 1 ounce a day. She said he will continue to gain on this trend until about the 5 or 6th month, and then it will slow to about 1/2 ounce a day.

She said we can go ahead and start sleep training also, just not anything too extreme. We need to teach him to self soothe and wean him from sleep props. And he has a lot.  She said cognitively they typically can't self soothe until about the four month mark. So we will start weaning him from all of his sleep props and teaching him to self soothe so he put himself back to sleep when he wakes up as soon as this ear stuff is all cleared up. Don't think it's fair to start something like this when he is not 100%. I believe teaching him how to be a good sleeper now is one of the best things I can ever give to him. So I'm willing to have a few more hard weeks to get this done.

So we're starting our Benadryl tonight and pray that his little ear heals right up and no antibiotics are needed and that this boy poops!  He went 8 days without a poop last week too and when it did happen, boy it sure wasn't pretty. Oh man. Luckily Kevin got that one. :)

On a fun note, Preston and I are starting a Mom and Baby aquatics class next week so get him used to the water early. I'm really excited. I think this will be so much fun and a great bonding activity for us. I sure hope he's a water bug. Although the last two times he has been in the pool he has been a little indifferent to slightly fussy. But he isn't even 4 months yet. I'm sure it's quite the sensory overload for him.

Preston completed his last session of physical therapy today. whoo hoo! His head is still ultra flat in the back according to his PT, but we're working on lots of skills to get him doing more than siting and laying on his head. So I'm not worried about it right now. During therapy today Preston showed signs of wanting to army crawl. It was soooo cute to watch him! I bet once he starts moving he will be allllll over the place. Love my sweet man.

Preston's newest favorite thing: For us to sing to him. He loves, loves You are My Sunshine, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. His face just lights up and he smiles so big when you start singing to him.

I think this is the current news of the day. Please pray for our man to love to sleep. Bring on the Ferber Method. :)