Parenthood: Weeks 2 and 3

Krewson is now 3 weeks old!! Such a big boy!!

As of yesterday he weighed 9 lbs 9.75 oz and he was 21.25 inches long.  That's almost a pound increase over his birth weight.  And, since he's gaining weight so well, the pediatrician gave me the go-ahead to let him sleep as long as he wants at night.  I was pretty excited about that.  Last night was the first good night's sleep I'd gotten in quite a while.  We put him to bed at 10:15 and he slept until 4am.  Then I fed and changed him, and he slept again until 9am.  It was amazing!  I hope it's something he'll continue doing and that it wasn't just a random event.  In either case, I appreciated at least one night of sleep. :)

Let's see, what other great things is he doing...

He now loves watching mobiles.  He gets really excited about them and makes noises and swats his arms and legs all over the place.  His umbilical stump fell off during the night Tuesday night, so he now has a cute belly button.  And last night we were doing tummy time when he used his arms to left his entire chest off the ground and then change the position of his head.  I was so proud of him!

While lots of wonderful things have happened the last couple of weeks, they've also been a bit of a struggle.  A week and a half ago I was diagnosed with postpartum depression.  The depression started to hit me the Friday that Krew turned a week old, the last time I wrote a blog post.  Every day after that was worse than the day before.  By Tuesday morning I was a mess and was finding it hard to even function normally.  I felt no joy in life.  I will share the whole story later in another post, but I can honestly say I've never felt so low in my life.  Even at the hardest times in my life I haven't felt THAT hopeless.  It was unbearable.  The good news is that that Tuesday I finally spoke on the phone with the doctor who delivered Krew (who is a GREAT doctor, may I say), and I completely bawled my eyes out to her and confessed everything.  She soothed me, telling me that I was ok and normal, that I just had postpartum depression, and that she was going to start me on an antidepressant.  I started the medicine that night.  The bad news was that it takes one to two weeks for that type of medicine to take effect, meaning I had a minimum of a week of continued depression.  I wondered to myself, What am I supposed to do, CRY all day long for the next 7 to 14 days???  Well, yeah, that's pretty much what I had to do.  I cried a lot.  Dragged myself around the house and slept as much as I could.  I didn't want to see anyone or talk to anyone.  I sat in the sun as much as possible, as sunlight has always had an amazing effect on my mood.  Thank goodness, by the weekend I started to feel a bit better, and Dave was able to look at me and exclaim, "You're smiling!!!"  And I was.  I was starting to feel like myself again.  The clouds had begun to break.

As of now, a week and a half after starting the antidepressant, I feel pretty good.  I still feel a little down in the mornings, but every day is better than the day before.  I'm finally able to enjoy Krew again like I did the first week.  And I'm so so glad.  He's such a lovable little boy. :)

Here are some pics from the last two weeks:

Krew and Ellie are future best friends...whether they like it or not, haha

look I have a belly button!

snoozing with Daddy

father and son :)

Parenthood: Week 1

Today is Krewson's one-week birthday. :)  He's already brought so much joy into our lives.  My parents stayed with us to help out until Thursday morning, which I was SO grateful for.  I was pretty much useless those first few days home from the hospital, other than to feed the little man and cuddle him back to sleep.  Giving birth really is like getting hit by a Mack truck.  Everything hurts.  You have no energy.  Just checking my email sounded like the most daunting task ever.  And then there's your child, demanding near-constant attention.  I have been so fortunate that Krew will sleep for up to three hours at a time at night, so I have managed to get some full chunks of rest.  Last night he slept from 11 until 2, then from 3 until 6, then from 7 until 9.  So although it was fragmented, I got 8 hours of sleep.  And today I feel like a million bucks compared to every other day this week.  Thank you God for sending a baby who will sleep for a while at night!

This must be why they tell you not to leave loose bedding in the crib with the baby. SIDS risk? What?

(Don't worry, we were watching him closely when he did this. There was no time for him to stop breathing.)

Time with Grandpa

Time with Grandma

I love this picture.  Two loves of my life.

So today marks an event that I MUST write down for memories.

Around lunchtime, Dave headed into work for a couple hours and I was left at home with the baby for the first time.  After he left, I headed upstairs to wake Krew from his nap because it was time for a feeding.  He was a sleepy boy, as usual, so after feeding on one side I decided to change his diaper to wake him a little before feeding on the second side.

I laid him on the changing table and took off his diaper, which was wet with just a little poop.  I pulled out a wipe and was about to start cleaning him up when I heard a little "toot!".  I thought to myself, well, I hope there's no more where that came from!  Then all of a sudden, KAPOW!!!!  My child projectile POOPED EVERYWHERE. 

And I do mean everywhere.  My hand was covered.  The changing table was covered.  The wipes container was covered.  There were splatters on the diaper pail, the dresser, his stuffed animals, and the wall.  All I could do was stand there with my jaw hanging open, laughing and exclaiming "Oh my GOSH!!!!"  I stood there for a second, surveying the damage, then turned back to look at my ornery son.  Only to find that he was PEEING ON THE WALL!!!!  AHHHH!!!  I quickly threw the wipe I was holding over him, which kept the remaining pee from spraying the wall but resulted in a giant puddle forming under his body, which soaked into his onesie and therefore drenched his entire back in pee.  I had no idea what to do.  I just stood there for quite a while, looking from the pee-covered baby to my poop-covered hand to the poop-covered wipes, not sure where to even start cleaning the mess.  Go figure this afternoon was the first time Dave decided to leave me home alone.

Finally I used my clean hand to grab a new diaper and then I used my poop-covered hand pull an already-projectile-poop-covered wipe out of the wipe container.  I wiped my hand off with the wipe, then grabbed a fresh one to start wiping up Krew.  I stuck the new diaper under his butt, and within 5 seconds there was another "toot!" and out popped a pile of poop.  Are you kidding me???  I reached over and pulled out yet another diaper.  With it fastened in place, I began to pull the pee-soaked onesie off of him, which did not make him in the least bit happy.  Additionally, we were still in the middle of his meal and I knew he was still hungry. 

I left the mess to sit down with him and finish his feeding.  Once he was full and happy, I laid him on the floor and covered him with a blanket to keep him warm.  He needed a sponge bath, because I surely wasn't going to put a fresh outfit on him when he had dried pee covering 50% of his body.  But I wanted to get the poop cleaned up before it dried on everything.  I worked on cleaning up the mess (which took quite a while) and he laid and watched, perfectly content.  I even had to bathe the baby wipes.  Due to the amount of poop on the wipes container, I decided to pull the the wipes out of the container and just take the container in and rinse it off in the bathtub.  But when I pulled out the wipes, I discovered that the wipe pile too had a streak of poop down the side which conveniently (of course) stained every single wipe. So the wipes got a bath, too.  (I couldn't wasted a whole container of wipes!)

Once everything was satisfactorily sanitized, the real fun began with his sponge bath.  I swear the boy screams like you're cutting off his leg when you bathe him.  But bathe him I did, all by myself, and then I cuddled him up in his towel to calm him down. I kind of enjoyed that part. :) After I had him dressed again he zonked out immediately into a really deep sleep.  Apparently baths are the way to go when you want the boy to take a nice, long nap. :)

So...it was quite the event.  I'd heard that babies could projectile vomit, but I'd never heard of projectile pooping before.  Apparently they do that, too.  Good to know. :)


Waiting for a bath while Mommy cleaned up the poop on the dresser and diaper pail and stuffed animals and wall and changing pad and wipes holder and...



All-in-all it's been a good first week.  We definitely love our new little boy. :)

Announcing Lil' Snoke

Krewson Lee joined the world Friday morning, March 5th, at 11:32am. :)

He was 21 inches long and weighed 8 lbs 11 oz.

Dave and I are tired but doing well. Krew is healthy as can be and is eating like a champ.

Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers and support!

Our little swaddle-escaping Houdini...(he was tightly swaddled maybe an hour before this...)

You Raise Me Up

Just another song I want to share.
This totally gives me chills.  I know there is a God just from hearing these women's voices.

Another great song is "Someday", if you want to check it out. :)



(Here's the link, if you can't see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faKFcfytlxU.)