Mommy, can I have a snack?

Kiernan is making me mental with his eating habits lately. He just won't eat well. He starts to eat, comes off, screams, goes on, comes off, screams. Sometimes I can only calm him down by letting him suck on his soother for a couple of sucks in between mouthfuls of milk. Someone wondered if he was actually hungry and I would wonder the same thing, but it really seems like he is. I think part of the problem is he gets inpatient waiting for the letdown because once it really gets flowing he generally doesn't come off anymore... unless it's to catch his breath. So it's a fight at almost every feeding except the ones in the middle of the night. But what choice do I have? So far we haven't found a formula that works for him, and as hard as I try to pump (I even rented an electric pump for a week to see if that would help) I can't get enough out to even give him one bottle a day, let alone several. It's really starting to get to me. Maybe I'll start to refuse to feed him until he hasn't eaten for at least 3 or 4 hours to see if he'll eat better. I don't know. I think that ideally, he wants the milk to come RIGHT away, and I also think that he'd be happy having a few ounces every hour instead a nice good feed every 3-4. He just wants to snack all day.
He's fabulous, but man is he difficult sometimes. :P

Baby in red

Next month's baby photo contest is baby in red. Which of these photos do you think I should submit? :)
(I will open the comments section for the post :)

Note in response to comments: if photo #2 is chosen I can get a higher resolution copy so it won't be grainy.

ZRRRBBPPPZZZ

Kiernan started razzing yesterday. How cute! And if I thought he was the king of spit before(!) then I had no idea what I was in for. The buzzing has created an almost constant flow of spit bubbles to come pouring out of his mouth. hehe. But he's having fun.

We've also had a couple of really good nights with him only waking up 3-4 times (I know for some that wouldn't be so great, but for us, it's good) He's sleeping longer than 3 hours in a row, sometimes up to 4.5 hours. Hopefully it'll keep getting better and better.

Turns out you don't have to sign in to vote for those baby photo contests so I'll put him in for next month's contest (baby in red) and remind you all to vote again (daily!) for the entire week he's eligible :)

Look what I found!

Kicky mckickerson

We got the miracle blanket last week and have been using it at night. He's a tad long for it so we went with the suggestion that if the baby is too long we simply leave the baby's legs unswaddled and swaddle his arms. We hope that Kiernan won't need to be swaddled for the rest of his life (!) so we thought leaving some of his limbs out wouldn't be a bad idea. So now he's waking him self up stomping on his mattress as opposed to waking himself smacking himself in the face. AIE! ;)
Eric thinks he's dreaming about jumping in the jolly jumper :)

Oh, and for everyone I told to vote for the baby photo on babies online. I didn't know you had to sign in to vote, so ya, forget that! :)

Annnnd rollin!

Guess who just rolled over? TWICE!
That's right - we're rolling now. Or hopefully it wasn't a fluke. I admit I was helping him to try to show him how it's done, but then he did it all on his own twice... not quickly, but he started on his back and ended on his tummy. Yay!

We're going to have to start babyproofing the house, won't be long until he's really moving, and we're messy :)

The quest for sleep continues

This afternoon I took Kiernan to the doctor's to follow up on the fact that he has been extremely gassy since Sunday and also not sleeping well again. She's not sure what the problem is, so we're going to go see a pediatrician. She won't become his pediatrician, she's just going to check on K with regards to this issue. So hopefully she'll figure out what is going on with his super sensitive tummy - only problem is that we probably won't get to see the doctor for several weeks. Until then she upped his dosage of reflux medication so we'll see if that helps. She also doesn't think we should give Kiernan any more soy powder formula so if anyone wants an unopened can of nestle soy formula... that or I'll try to return it :)
He weighed just over 13.5 lbs... almost doubled his weight!

Are you having fun???

Kiernan is a super bouncer now. He loves to bounce/jump so much that if you are holding him upright in your arms he tries to jump. It's very cute! But sometimes, when he's in the jolly jumper, I'm just not sure if he's having fun or not. It would seem he's not having fun, because he's crying. But then again, he's STILL JUMPING!! Do I take him out or don't I? :)

We're going back to the doctor's today. Since he threw up on Sunday we've gone way back downhill in the sleeping department. He was back to being away almost every half hour after 3am last night. And the extreme gas has continued ever since then. I hope he didn't do damage or something? I don't know. Maybe we need to up his reflux medication? I guess I'll let the doctor figure it out :)

He's currently in the swing after wake up from another 15 minute nap

Sir Farts a lot

I don't know if it's a continuation of his reaction to the formula but Kiernan is SOO gassy lately. It wakes him up! He's not napping for more than 20-30 minutes because he wakes up farting. Blah! He wakes up tired. What do you do with a baby who is always tired and never seems rested and will only sleep when he's out of his mind over tired? Advice? Anyone?

I entered Kiernan into a baby photo contest. Unfortunately, once I got the photo down the correct size it's super small so I doubt he's going to win. But people get to vote, so everyone go to the following web site and vote for Baby W (on page 5) - you can vote every day all week :)

http://www.babiesonline.com/babycontest/votepage.asp?page=5005

The most wonderful thing about Tiggers

The most wonderful thing about Tiggers,
is Tiggers are wonderful things.
Their tops are made out of rubber,
their bottoms are made out of springs.
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy,
Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!
But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is,
I'm the only one.
Oh, III'm the only one!
(click on text to see the cutest video ever!)

I SAID!! don't give me that crap!!

So, remember how we gave Kiernan some formula on Dec 30 and he got really sick? We weren't 100% sure it was the formula, especially since he'd only had about an ounce of the stuff so we decided to try it again. So yesterday morning we prepared just a few ounces of the same stuff... we didn't want to push it. As soon as we tried to give it to him, Kiernan started crying frantically and wouldn't drink it. He sucked MAYBE twice and had a bit dribble into his mouth. 2 hours later, like last time, Kiernan started throwing up. THis time he threw up 6 times!! Until his stomach was MORE than empty. And I now know for sure what sick Kiernan is like (they asked me at the hospital when he had his fever if he seemed himself and I said yes but didn't really know how he would be different). He spent about an hour just lying in my arms awake staring off into space. Poor baby. And it's all the worse because we did it to him!
So, now the challenge is to figure out what formula might work since pumping hurts me and I want to be able to go out. But now we're going to be scared to give him anything for fear this will start again. :(

Morningtime babysitter

I feel kind of guilty, but when Kiernan wakes up at 6am, I tend to put him in front of the tv to entertain him. I find it really hard to be really animated with him and think of games that early in the morning. What did people do before tv?!? Maybe they were just lazy than me ;)

Feeling good!

*A combination of Kiernan's new medication and our straightjacketing/double swaddling methods seem to be working *knock on wood* since Kiernan only woke up at midnight, 4 and 6:30 today (at which point he was ready to be up for the day). What an amazing change from being up so much in the night!!!

It almost seems as thought more he sleeps the more he wants to sleep too. He wakes up and is ready to go down for a nap again shortly after (not that he sleeps for long when he's down). It's like he's trying to catch up for all that lack of sleep before. hehe

*We went to the grocery store and although Kiernan was a bit of a pain in that we had to carry him for most of the trip since he was completely uninterested in staying in his car seat or even sitting in the front section of the shopping cart, it was fun because we got so many baby admirer coming up to us and telling us how fabulously cute and adorable Kiernan is. *beam* Not that I didn't already know it. Sometimes it amazes me that despite all the sleepless nights and dealing with constantly having to entertain and deal with a screamy baby, I still feel completely confident in the fact that my baby is like, the most amazingly fabulous and cute baby in the world (sorry fellow mommies, but I'm sure you feel the same way :) He's a lot of work, but he really knows how to make up for it when he's not yelling :)

* Tonight Eric and I are going out on a date and my parents are coming here to watch Kiernan and put him to bed. Yay!

In training for the Cirque du Soleil

Sorry, no time to talk, we're busy watching tv

isn't that always the way

I'm hoping to make it to the movies with Kiernan this morning, but also trying to be consistent with naps. Knowing that if we went with his usual time schedule, Kiernan decided to change it up for me this morning so that I have to sit on the edge of my seat to see if it's all going to work out! :) He woke up at 7:30, this from the boy we want to have wake up at 7 but most often thinks 6:30 is appropriate. So he slept until 7:30 and didn't really need to go down for a nap until 9:15. So now we'll see if he does his regular 45 minute power nap (which means we can go to the movies) or if he decides today will be one of the days he'll have a good long 90 minute nap. Knowing babies and their spidy senses for when we would prefer they not sleep, he'll sleep right through the movie. hehe. Oh well, it'll be worth it.
The medication continues to seem to be helping. Kiernan almost never spits up anymore, and is sleeping longer stretches at night. He still doesn't often go more than 3 hours without a feeding and I feel like he does a lot of snacking instead of full feeds, but I also don't want to push things with him since his issues seem to have to do with a sensitive stomach. I want to try formula again but I keep putting it off for fear of another puking session and trying to figure out when that would be most convenient for us ;)

Freakout boy!

For the last two nights, around 5:30 or so, Kiernan has FREAKED OUT! I'm talking, inconsolable crying as hard as he can for no apparent reason. I have no idea what the heck it's all about, other than that he could be tired because it's the end of the day and he just loses his mind? It's crazy! Both nights we strip him down naked to make sure nothing is digging into him, that he has no mysterious wounds, but nothing. And both times he's just suddenly calmed down. THe first night the getting naked thing help, last night we gave him a bath and he calmed down but then he freakout out again when we tried to get him dressed again and then suddenly he just calmed back down again when Eric held him and bounced him. It's most distressing!

SO tired

Kiernan has been having much better nights lately. He seems to sleep in 2.5-4 hour chunks quite consistently, which isn't where we want to be but so much better than the 30 minute to 2 hour chunks we were getting only a week or so ago that I'm thrilled to bits. Not to mention all the napping he does, even if he doesn't go down everytime and even if he only goes down for 25 minutes sometimes. But I have SUCH a hard time waking up now. And when I do wake up, I'm only half awake and don't always remember if I fed him or not. This morning I couldn't be budged out of bed... I felt like I hadn't slept in months. That's why I don't nap when K does during the day, because falling asleep again makes me feel like that, but I just stay awake I feel fine. I can't wait for this part to be over... I don't want to feel like a zombie anymore!

4 generations

Balding family

So Kiernan's hair is thinning, I think I may have posted this at some earlier point wondering if was actually falling out or if his head is just getting bigger? Well, that might be the case but there is definitely one spot on the back of his head where its falling out... he's rubbing it out from looking around (as many babies are prone to doing). I hope it all grows back in soon.
MY hair is finally falling out. After a glorious year of not having any hair fall out, it is coming out in clumps. After a shower I have a serious handfull to throw out, the wookies are back in the drain. I find hair EVERYWHERE. I have to pull it out of Kiernan's mouth all the time and I feel awful. The other day his back was covered in hair. Like, how did that happen!?? Ugh! Hopefully this time of shedding won't last too much longer.
Last night K slept pretty well - yay! He slept 3 3-hour blocks or so, until he decided he wanted to be up for the day at 5:30. This was more problematic for Eric than me though since I keep sleeping through his crying lately (bad!) It's almost as if the more sleep I get, the more tired I am. I think it's just that my body is like "oooh oooh, I remember that, give give!" I keep having that feeling of pain in the back of my eyes you get when you're so tired. It's awful.
Oh, but back to K and his sleeping... now that we have the possible reflux diagnosis I am noticing things that really do point to that as one of our culprits of lack of sleep. The main one is the coughing. K seems to wake himself up coughing a couple of times in the night, so if he didn't have these coughing fits he might very well sleep in longer. The coughing could be coming from the irritation of the acid in his stomach, so we'll see if this medication seems to be working. He also seems to have terrible gas when he wakes up at 2am and we end up giving him ovol and he immediately quiets down - which is somewhat weird since it doesn't work THAT well- maybe he's figured out he will feel better after having had that taste? I wonder if the medication from the doctor starts to work but wears off by 2am (since he takes it before 7?) but Eric thinks we just need to give it a bit more time for the full effects to kick in.
Anyhow, I'm glad we saw the doctor and that there really might be some medical way to fix this non-sleeping thing instead of just trying to force him to sleep longer.
Ok, sir screeechy pants wants out of the swing!

First time in the snow

Another possible explanation

So all the books I've been reading about babies not sleeping start by saying "make sure nothing is medically wrong before undertaking any of these methods" and since some of the time when Kiernan wakes up in the night he seems to frantically upset I thought I'd better take him to the doctor just to check. She thinks he has reflux - which sort of makes sense given Eric had it as a baby and even gave himself a hernia from screaming so hard from it, and still sort of has it now. So, we're giving him medication, the equivalent to baby zantax and we'll see if it helps... last night he slept quite well from 7pm until 2 am but then was up every half an hour to an hour for the next 3-4 hours so.. it certainly wasn't an instant fix.
On an up note, he weighed 13lbs 8oz so I feel much better about him and him getting enough to eat.

Under house arrest

When I had a baby I never wanted to be tied to my house, being super strict with my kids having to nap at certain times without fail, and never being flexible. I hope that in the long run I won't have to be that way, but I've come to realize that I'm going to need to be that way for a least a few weeks to establish a routine with Kiernan.
I've been reading all kinds of books to try to figure out what to do with the amazing non sleeping child. The no-cry sleep solution and the baby whisperer solves all your problems has convinced me that a routine is absolutely imperative to make this work. The better babies nap, the better they sleep at night - or so they say ;)
So for now, I'm working on a routine and we're putting kiernan to bed lightly asleep (instead of waiting until he's deep asleep as we used to) and we're trying to figure out when we can start putting him down awake because it's time - we need to teach this kid to put himself to sleep and soon before both his parents lose their minds. Last night we were lucky to get 2 hours in a row of sleep - he often was up every 20 minutes.
So wish me luck. And send me advice by email if you have any. And remind me to be strong ;)

"I TOLD you I didn't like it!"

Pumping has been really hurting my breasts so now that we have found a bottle that Kiernan will take I decided it was time to try giving him formula. Powder seemed the most economical so we went out and bought a can. The next morning, the can of free Nestle formula that I signed up to get (along with a diaper bag and a bunch of other goodies) arrived. Great timing - I had just actually opened the can of the other stuff about 10 minutes before the mailman rang the doorbell. Hehe - oh well.
So we went out for Eric's 30th birthday and when we were at his parents' house we tried to give Kiernan the bottle. He made some NASTY faces - like "what the HELL!!??" Eventually he drank about an oz and a half of the stuff but that was it. He did nurse a bit as well. THen we had to head home to get ready to have people over for Eric's birthday.

We were almost home the first time Kiernan threw up (we're not talking spit up here). Uh oh, maybe that formula didn't sit well? When we got home he proceeded to throw up two more times until his stomach was completely empty - it was very upsetting and seemed a bit excessive as a reaction to just a bit of formula. After that he was never sick again though and continued to nurse well, so it would SEEM that that's actually what it was... that his body completely rejected this formula. So if you, or anyone you know are interested in a can of soy formula from enfamil, let me know because I doubt we'll be using it ;)

I think this is where I went to get the free can of formula btw: http://www.nestle-baby.ca/en/register/index