Sleep regression?

Baby K is 4 months old, half way to the 5 months mark. Here I thought things are suppose to be easier, but no. Since his vaccination on the 15th, he has been very needy. He will cry when we are out of sight, he wants to be held ALOT, and sleeping? Oh boy. We thought we had a routine down. First sign of sleepiness, pick up baby, go on bouncy ball for 10 minutes, voila, sleeping baby. But no. Now, as soon as we go on bouncy ball, he starts screaming and crying. Must pace and sing lullaby. So we pace and sing. But baby will continue to cry his piece out. After that, more complaining, squirming until he is satisfied. At the end of all that effort, he might wake himself up enough that he skips the nap altogether.

What is a sleep lacking mom to do? Go on the internet of course. Here is what Ask Moxie had to say on 4 months sleep regression,

I think the reason the "4-month sleep regression" is such a big deal is that babies wake up a lot in the few weeks it takes while they're working on the 19-week spurt, and then once they've gone through that spurt they only have a week or two (if that) of respite before they start prepping for the 26-week spurt. So it's kind of one long stretch of bad sleep and cranky moods during that stage of your baby's life.

Holly cow, there is more crankiness to come...(moan)...in fact, there is a 8 months regression coming up...(moan)...

How do people have multiple kids???

The Witching Hour

Baby K is 15 weeks old. Last week I thought we've got a routine down. But no, this week the rules changed on us again.

Behold, the Witching Hour!

Sometimes after the 6pm feeding, Baby K, for no apparent reason (fed, burped, new diaper, happy as a clam the second before), will go into full on, at the top of his lung, body parts stiff as boards, screaming bloody murder. The first time we were caught unaware. He screamed for 20 minutes. zDog bounced him, I rocked him, zDog bounced him again, we woke up Grandma to rock him, then another round of musical chair bouncing/rocking. He finally tired himself out and snoozed for 3 hours.

Today, zdog and I had a plan. After the 6pm feeding, zdog held him until he fell sleep. Not going to worry about spoiling baby. All was good until he woke himself up around 7:30pm. No problem. I was ready. Soothing bath time. Baby K loved bath. All was good until towards the end, Baby K decided he had enough. Before we know it. Full on screaming session. Quickly we toweled him dry, then zDog was on him. Deep bouncy bounce downstairs on the yoga ball in the nice cool dark living room. Did it work? Well, Baby K is now sleeping. And it is past 8pm. Cutie Baby K, it is time to come back and give that cranky self the boot!

I found this excerpt on The Witch Hour by Dr. Michel Cohen

Every night at the stroke of seven, Lucy puts on the same show. She dons her black dress, pointy hat, and crooked warty nose and commences shrieking long witchy shrieks. At first you think she's hungry, so you feed her, but instead of calming down, she hisses at you. You wonder if she wants a cuddle, so your rock her gently. She calms down a bit until she scratches your back with her witch's long nails. So you feed her again, and this time she spits out green witch's spit until her face turns red. You got back to rocking until you hear the clock strike twelve eerie chimes... Lucy's trick ain't no treat.

Repeat to self 100 times. This too shall pass...

Baby K is 3 months old

He smiles. He coos. He is much more active during the day. He still cries when he has gas. He is much bigger now such that everyone here have sore arms and achy back. He has to be held to fall asleep. He wakes up at night to nurse a 2-3 times but goes right back to sleep.

As for me...I am slowly moving back to life, but not quite. I am back to work, but not quite. In the office part time, and all I want to do afterward is to go home and stay home with the baby. I am still not to bringing baby out and about. Not even to visit friends. Why? I have lots of excuses. My mom can stay home with the baby for now. Why bother with the hassle of bringing baby out? Baby is not prime time ready with spit up and crying. Am I being overprotective? Then the thought of breastfeeding anywhere other than home simply freaks me out. I just can't imagine having to support him without my pillow. What if baby pukes after feeding? What about milk leakage that inevitably happens? Ack! Driving myself insane with these thoughts...

Baby contraption

Wanted to get Baby K a bouncer with vibration since the Internet has good reviews on how it soothes baby to sleep...

Graco Sooth and Swaddle

Isn't it pretty? Looks like it should perform the magic.
But
.
.
.
here is the reality...

Does that look like a fun way to spend some time? I don't think so either. Return!

Decoding Baby's Cry

Reading The Baby Book by Dr. Sears about attachment parenting. This quote reminds me to enjoy this time with Kirdan,

Life is a series of weanings for a child: weaning from your womb, your breast, your bed, and your home.

He is slowly but surely growing up right in front of my eyes.

So anyways, I am reading Dr. Sears because I have been struggling over how to best respond to a crying baby. My mom thinks baby is being spoiled because we pick up the baby too often ever since birth. But, he is only 10 weeks old. And I don't really want to have him "cry it out". What is a mom to do?

Regarding breastfeeding

Everyone talks about the difficulty of getting baby to latch on. Or, lacking milk supply. No one ever talks about how difficult it is to maintain a breastfeeding schedule early on (the first two months), or how painful and rough nursing is on your boobs. I will be the first to admit that I wanted to give up many times. Baby's well being is the only reason I bit my lip, sucked it up, and kept going.

The first four days of Kirdan's life, he drank 15cc per meal (via SNS). I could pump about 15cc total from both sides as well. We got to 100% on direct breastfeeding about day 4, he nursed about 15~20 minutes on one side, then 5 minutes on the second side, every 3 hours, most of the time half asleep. That's about 8 feedings per day. I could produce about 0.5oz per side by about 2nd week. At 3 weeks, Kirdan changed the game and went to 2.5 hours interval and at least 10 minutes on each side. I produced about 1oz per side then. I also started bottle feeding once per day just so he can get used to bottle feeding after I get back to work. He would get 1.5oz bottle. At 4 weeks, Kirdan changed the game again by being unpredictable. Some meals he would nurse only one side but then wants more in 2 hours. Drove my mom and I crazy. I upped his night time bottle to 2oz. Now we are nearing 6 weeks, he is still being unpredictable with his feeding. I can produce more than 1.5oz per side now, with my left boob producing almost 3oz alone last night. Problem? My left boob is larger than my right :( His night time bottle is now 3oz.

The big issue with Kirdan is reflux. He requires burping. And he will usually spit up a mouthful or two of milk with the burp. It took reading What To Expect The First Year, to realize when he arches his back, it meant gas coming, better straighten him up before all the milk comes out of his nose and mouth all at once. Scary.

Usually Kirdan will start fussing for his meal. But, as soon as he got on the breast, he would fall asleep within 5 minutes. There is also the gas problem, which causes him pain and causes me pain (he would bite down and/or pull on my poor nipples very hard). Frustrating.

Happy New Year and One month old!

Time goes by one feeding at a time for me. Yet, Kirdan will be one month old tomorrow. So slow yet so fast. Mommy Lu says, "日子一天一天過, 小孩一天一天長大, 我們大人也一天一天老了." Usually I have a long post for the end of the year review and a New Year resolution. This year, right now, my only thought is, "I hope the next feeding will be smooth sailing...meaning, Kirdan will stay awake and do justice to his meal without crying and fussing. The end."

A few stats on Kirdan.
At two weeks checkup: 7 lb 7oz, 20.75in long.
Pooping: Intead of pooping at every single feeding, the number of pooping has reduced by about half. However, he loves to poop during feeding, which means he squirms and pulls and grunts. My poor boobs.
Eating: He is going through growth spurt, at least, that is what I suspect it is. Instead of every 3 hours feeding interval, we are now at 2.5 hours interval with both sides. My poor boobs. (oh, did I say that already?) He also likes to sample his meal. Sometimes it takes up to 10 minutes to get him to latch on. (Frustration...)
Sleeping: At least he is not fussy at night (between midnight to 4am that is). But, this little guy does not like to sleep during the day. He is awake a good portion of the time. Which means, he wants to be held, or be entertained. Fortunately, Mommy Lu and zDog are fairly resourceful. This allows me time to snooze between feeding.

Gotta be thankful to have my mom here with me. Don't know how I will cope without her.

Here is to 2010. Hoping it'll be a good year for us, our family, and to you.

2 Weeks Old

Kirdan is two weeks old. In addition to gaining one full pound in weight and half inch in head diameter (gains are all on the head I am afraid), he has lost his umbilical cord stub and started peeling all over. He continues to have gas issue, so we have adopted the infant car seat as the extra burp helper. He has no problem sleeping while being upright. He does go through his diapers like water. As soon as we change him, he'll poop or pee. And, he will not tolerate a slightly dirty diaper. He'll cry, fuss, and/or scream until a clean diaper is safely installed. There are of course diaper changing fiasco, all with peeing freely. Thankfully no major furniture are damaged in the process...yet!

Welcome Baby K

Kirdan decided to join the world on 12/3, the eve of my completing 39th week of pregnancy. He made his grand entrance via c-section on the morning of 12/4. Just shy of his dad's own birthday. The whole birthing experience is a mixed bag that deserves its own entry, which I hope to document in the next few days.

For now, Kirdan is here. Healthy and skinny as a little monkey. Peace as a new mother can have even with all the sleep disruption.

Kirdan at 1 week old