Sundays With Oliver - Week Seven

Another week, another installment of Sundays With Oliver (yes, the pictures were taken yesterday, I just didn’t have time to post them until today). We had a good week - many trips to the hike and bike trail at Town Lake (I walked close to ten miles with Oliver last week), a reassuring visit to the lactation consultant, Daddy’s first long days home alone (Brian took care of Oliver on Wednesday and Thursday while I went into work), shopping at the Farmer’s Market, and Oliver’s first trip to a bar (we went to Opal Divine’s after Brian’s book club last night and managed to drink half a beer each before Oliver decided it was time to go home). After my whining earlier this week about sleep, the growth spurt finally came to an end and Oliver did some champion sleeping the rest of the week. For the past four nights he’s slept four or more hours for his first stretch of sleep. The last two nights, I only had to get up with him once. On top of that, he’s still taking two good long naps everyday. We’re very lucky but I’m still hoping that by my birthday in a few weeks he’ll be sleeping through the night. I start my buying appointments this week so we’ll see how those go... hopefully Oliver will cooperate.

So Close...

Oliver slept for five hours and forty-five minutes in a row on Thursday night (from 8:30 to 2:15)... so close to that six hour mark that I seriously thought about ignoring him for 15 minutes when he did get up (he wasn’t crying, just chattering and a little hungry). But I went to him and the landmark of sleeping through the night will have to wait for another day. Last night he went four hours so I’m hoping his growth spurt is over and I might start getting more sleep.

Sleeping Trials and Poop Problems

We are lucky that Oliver is a decent sleeper. He seems to have his days and nights figured out so that he’s not up all night crying or wanting to play. He even manages to get in at least two good naps every day which gives Brian and I the chance to get things done (showers, work, eating, etc.). All that being true, however, I’m going to whine now because he has yet to hit that magical six-hour mark that the experts call sleeping through the night. A few weeks ago his first stretch of sleep was lasting four to five hours but that stretch of sleep was in his swing and was starting around 7:30 pm. So, even though he was sleeping almost five hours in a row I wasn’t. (I kept imagining the blog post I would have to make when he hit that six hour mark after going to bed at 7:00 - Oliver Slept Through the... Evening!). But at least he was getting close to the six hour mark and I was only having to get up with him twice a night. 

But the last three nights he’s gone back to waking up every two to three hours to eat - so the opposite of what we’re going for. I’m hoping this is just a growth spurt and that he’ll soon go back to gaining on that six-hour mark. My hunch that this is a growth spurt was sort of confirmed by a trip to a lactation consultant yesterday. I had been having some questions about breastfeeding and Oliver’s poop problems led to a crisis of confidence so we made an appointment for a consultation. She weighed Oliver before, during and after a feeding, observed his feeding behavior and dirty diapers and tested the fat and calories in my milk. 

So, what exactly are Oliver’s “poop problems”? I’ve been skirting the issue since I’m sure not everyone wants all the nasty details but here it is - Oliver’s poop is green... has been for almost two weeks now... for those who don’t know (and don’t care) breastfed babies are supposed to have yellow poop, not green. Green can mean problems - specifically something called a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance when the baby gets too little of the fattier milk that comes towards the end of a nursing session. That’s what I’ve assumed the green poop means and I’ve been freaked out that Oliver isn’t getting enough fat and calories from my milk. This led me to try block feeding (only offering Oliver the same breast for numerous feedings) which was painful for me and made him really fussy. Well, turns out the green poop is more of an aesthetic problem than an indication of anything going wrong with breastfeeding. Oliver is gaining weight like a champ (he’s 11 pounds, 3 ounces... so he’s jumped in the percentiles, an indication that he has been going through a growth spurt) and my milk is crazy chocked full of fat and calories. She tested my hindmilk and foremilk and even my foremilk had more fat and calories in it than average and my hindmilk was off the charts. No imbalance here, just a green pooping baby. No more block feedeing for us. It was so nice to have my confidence restored - Oliver and I are doing great at breastfeeding and he’s getting everything he needs.

Now I can just focus on getting through this growth spurt and hoping and praying for that six hour sleeping mark.

Sundays With Oliver - Week Six

What a week - Daddy and Oliver were sick. Oliver is still having some digestive issues but they don’t seem to be bothering him now and we had a great end to the week. We hung out at Dauphin’s house on Friday night and my parents came in on Saturday. They are watching Oliver tonight so that Brian and I can go on our first post-baby date ... sushi at Uchi! Can’t wait. 

Sick Ward

It’s been a rough week at the Contine household. On Monday, Brian was taken out by either food poisoning or a twenty four hour stomach bug. At the same time, Oliver started having diarrhea which made my Monday all about caring for my two guys and meant sleeping on the couch Monday night so that I could keep an eye on both of them. Brian was feeling better on Tuesday (albeit a little dehydrated and really hungry) but Oliver was still having issues so I took him to see the doctor. He wasn’t running a fever and he didn’t seem like he was sick (he was still happy and smiling away) but I wanted the doctor to take a look at him just in case. She said it wasn’t a big deal and that diarrhea could last as long as a week. She gave me a list of things to watch for to make sure he wasn’t getting dehydrated and sent us home.

Oliver continued to feel fine despite the diarrhea on Tuesday but yesterday and today have been rough. He’s been crying what feels like nonstop. If he’s awake he’s eating and then he’s crying (sometimes he’s doing both at once). It’s the first time I’ve seen him crying inconsolably for a long period of time and it’s been really hard on me. We can only manage to calm him down for about an hour or so and then he’s off again (ironically, once the sun set on Tuesday and Wednesday he was able to sleep four or five hour stretches and then eat and sleep some more throughout the night so at least Brian and I are still relatively well-rested). It was so bad yesterday evening that I was convinced it was the c-word - colic, my biggest fear. But then it was bad again this morning so I’m pretty sure this is a temporary thing - just a stomach bug that must run its course. But it breaks my heart (and tries my patience) to hear him scream like he’s been doing so I hope this passes quickly and we get our calm, collected baby back soon.

Sundays With Oliver - Week Five

Oliver’s had a busy week - a doctor’s appointment, a few trips to the bookstore, hanging out with Laurie and Lydia, and a trip downtown to Town Lake. He’s discovered his love of swinging, did some good sleeping, hung out on his activity mat and looks like he put on some weight. We’ve confirmed that he now likes baths (turns out I had the water way too cold for him) and he’s taken a bottle (which means I might gain a few hours of freedom). It’s been a great week.

Brian and I had a blast taking this week’s Sundays With Oliver picture. Brian kept making funny noises and Oliver just smiled and smiled. Of course, I only managed to capture a few of them on film.

Back to Work

This time of year is the busiest time for me at work since it is the time that I buy all of the frontlist titles for the fall season (aka, the fourth quarter - where we make our profit). The list that each publisher puts out is huge and preparing for appointments takes forever. There is the holiday catalog to think about, displays to plan and, on top of everything else, we do our store wide inventory in the middle of all this mess. So, despite the fact that I’m still pretty sleep-deprived I have had to start working the past few weeks so that I don’t fall so far behind that I can’t catch up. I’ve been working from home when I can but this week I had to go into the store to get on a conference call. So, Oliver and I packed up and headed into my office. This summer I will be bringing Oliver in when I go into the store so this was a nice little trial run to see how things would go.

Brian came with us and watched Oliver while I took the call but then he headed off to take his Spanish final and Oliver and I stayed so that I could do a little more work. We were there for a little over five hours and I got some (not a lot, but some) work done. I kept having to take breaks to feed or change Oliver so it wasn’t the level of productivity I was used to. It will definitely take some adjustment for me to figure out how this whole working/mothering thing is going to work out. I realized that there are certain baby items I need to procure for my office (a changing pad, a diaper genie, etc.) to make us as comfy as possible. Once we get those creature comforts it will be much easier to care for him at the store. And luckily, I have great coworkers who are always willing to hold/watch Oliver if I need to take a call or meeting. And my mom will come up this summer to watch Oliver so I can get more work done. It will be an interesting summer work-wise but I’m sure it will all work out. I’m pretty anxious to get back to work since while this is the busiest time of the year, it is also the most exciting and rewarding for me (plus, a little more adult human contact would be nice).