Week 9

Dylan at 8 weeks was quite the ride. Hands continued to be a fun thing for him, but less in his mouth and more grabbing things. Not sure if he knows he's grabbing them, but he's working that grip and open hand!


At the beginning of his 8th week he got his first cold. Boo! It started on Friday when I was helping out my friend Amy by giving tours of her model home & Dylan was with me. Ryan had just left the model to go work on his truck down the street. Dylan was waking up from a nap in his carrier (we had just got him out of the car), and he had a lot more bubbles coming of his mouth as usual...all of a sudden he started gagging and coughing. He had gagged and coughed in the past, but this time it was deep and wheezing and there was obvious fear in his eyes. Of course I was freaking out on the inside, but trying to remain calm on the outside because I knew he was still breathing (luckily I had just brushed up on my reading about first aide and CPR the day before). I called Ryan to have him come back immediately and then I called the doctor because he would stop and then start up again a min or two later and this went on for 5-10 min. During that time it also sounded like he had some congestion when he breathed, so I was guessing that he was coming down with something so I'm glad I called the pediatrician. They told us to just come in to ease our minds before the weekend. Alas, it was only the beginnings of a cold and we were told to do saline and suction in his nose. He's been a champ through it all. Got a little fussy and more tired through the worst of it, but is hanging in there now. With the humidity the past few days the remainder of the congestion has been breaking up, so that makes for some fun wet-sounding coughs and what we call the "gremlin" breathing (where his nose is all stopped up).


The end of his 8th week we went to the pediatrician for his 2 month visit and his first round of vaccinations. He weighed in at 15lbs 3oz (oh my) which puts him above the 97th percentile! He's in 85th percentile for height and 75th for head circumference. I'm glad he's got some length to go with that chunk...so he doesn't look obese! He looks like my perfect angel baby! He did good for his shots and the oral vaccine they give. He's been on infant tylenol (off brand...apparently Tylenol brand got recalled recently) until recently per Dr's encouragement since low-grade fever, pain, and fussiness are common afterwards. He's been a little bit more needy with wanting to be held all the time and if he's not sleeping all day then he's awake all day and fighting sleep being a fussy monster! This is wearing mommy and daddy out since we are not used to a crying fussy baby. He has the best temperament and usually you just give him what he needs and he is content, so this is a change for us.


Of course since his fussiness is going on day 4 now, I'm starting to get worried that the vaccinations have changed him and worried about autism (even though I don't know if I necessarily believe there is a link). This is just satan trying to get a foothold in my mind, so I'm praying for peace and trusting the Lord for his provision and healing Dylan of the remnants of his cold and that the side effects from his shots will subside soon. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Check out the new AND old posts

I've been "catching up" on my blogging lately and have added some new pictures & details to the weekly Dylan blogs.  They are still in order for the most part, but for some reason week 3 got moved up to the top whenever I added pics.

Feel free to scroll down and check them out!!

More new posts to come!

Breastfeeding Help

When I was having some difficulties with overproduction, a lactation consultant from my church helped me out and also referred me to read some articles from the website kellymom.com.

I think it is a great resource to have for moms.  Just thought I'd share!

Week 3 of Dylan!

 At the beginning of his third week, Dylan started to hold his eye contact a little more steady. When people held him and I spoke, they said he would look around for me. He started holding up his head a lot better too! The rest of his umbilical cord also fell off, leaving only a tiny speck attached! I was wondering if it would ever come off. He also started doing what I call "jumpin man" froggy-like leg movements in the mornings while on the changing table. This has become one of his favorite time and places to hang out and be awake and play. Dylan and I started to get into more of a routine as Ryan went back to working all day. We also started to get more attached to one another.

First time at Watermark. He did so well.

Big belly boy on New Year's Eve

Snuggle Boy

Daddy & Dylan's favorie activity...sleeping!

Love this little yawner

Amazon Mom

No, I'm not referring to myself as some sort of amazing beauty of a super-mom. I'm talking about a way to get your diapers, wipes, and other baby items delivered to your doorstep for prices that rival/beat Costco and with free shipping. I've heard about this from a couple of moms. My supervisor at my private practice in Allen swears by it.

You get 30% off most items and free 2-day shipping (see terms). We haven't needed any diapers yet becuase so many people bought us size 1 and size 1-2 (yes, that's a size apparently). But apparently Dylan is outgrowing the 1-2's (he's a chunk for 8 weeks) so we now have a diaper dillemma...we have to BUY diapers. Boo. I'm still in denial about what size he needs now; since we have SO MANY size 1-2 diapers left, I'm still putting him in them for as long as I can (which will be like today) and just changing his diaper more often so we don't get frequent leaks (which is the first sign that you probably need to go up in diaper size). So I've ordered some size 2's and we are going to see how those do tomorrow when they arrive. When we run out of the Costco-sized box of wipes I will put them on auto-ship as well.

Let me know if you have used this Amazon service before and what you think of it! If not, check it out! www.Amazon.com/mom

Nicknames

You know mommies are constantly making up new names for their little ones...and I am no exception!

Here are some names that I have used.  A few more often than others.

Dylan
Dylan Wayne
Dylan Bear
Dilly
Dilly Bear
Dilly Willy the Penguin
Dill
Dill Pickle
Squeaker
Stinky
Stinky Pants
Stinky Pants McGee
Mr. Poopy Pants
Slobber Man
Slobbersaurus
Froggy
Frog Man
Jumpin Man

I'm sure there are many more I'm forgetting...but this a start!!

Week 8 (7weeks old)

This week he found his hands...and stuck them right into his mouth! He loved them. I was mortified! I would try to keep them away from his face, but they always found their way back.

He really started to whip his head around to look at things too. Dylan did better at practicing naps flat on his back.  He's getting used to it now.  He also started saying some more fun "words" (sounds).  For a week now he's been doing this thing where he will stare at your while you're talking and move his mouth and his tounge around trying to make "words" come out.  I love it so much. Super cute. He made the "da" sound this week, and I swear he said "HI!"...it was loud!  He's also geting very strong! I can't believe how strong his legs and arms are.

Duke man had a seizure...his third one, so we were ready...but his first one since Dylan was born. We all handled it well! (I'll tell you more about Duke's epilepsy later). We had lots of ice and snow this week, but got out a little and then when it was safe, we drove to visit our friends Jeff & Charis in Tyler for a night. We went to buy them a congrats present for finding out they are having a little girl and found out how much easier we have it dressing a little boy. All those clothes and bow options...and having to match! I'm thankful for a boy first! Here he is in his little builder outfit. Such a little man now.


Enjoying the snow!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

7th Week

This week Dylan was 6 weeks old and we traveled to Austin for Elise and Brad's wedding. Dylan didn't skip a beat!  He did awesome on the road. On the way there Ce Ce (my mom, Clarissa) rode in the back with Dylan.  He only got fussy the last 30 min, and the paci did the trick until we got there!  He slept the entire way home and woke up only as we were exiting for our neighborhood.  I was so proud of him.

He slept through the majority of the wedding, but he was a HUGE hit in his suit.  I think he got the second most attention out of any person there!  Check out the cute suit we had custom made for him to match the groomsmen.

I bought the pattern off of Etsy and had our seamstress put it together for us.  It came out perfect.  People couldn't get enough of him!  Check out my other post for more wedding pics.  My mom has even more pics of us that are great, so I will post those later when I get them on my computer.

The seamstress also had to take in my huge dress.  Elise chose her dress online from J Crew bridal collections and they had just discontinued the specific color she wanted...so they had to search all over the country to find a size for me. But they found it!  I ordered a HUGE size due to the unknowns regarding my bust & body post-pardom size when I ordered it mid-pregnancy.  I figured my boobs would be enormous (partially true) since they were already large to begin with; and I figured my body would be a bit larger everywere else (not true...I will post on this later).  But I'm glad that I ordered a larger dress in general because my boobs did need a little extra room compared to the rest of my dress!  You will see in pics of the wedding that my boobs just keep getting larger and larger throughout the night (until I pumped...whew, what a relief)!

Hands were a big deal this week.  He liked noticing them in his face.  Not in his mouth YET!

He was a pro at the bottle by this week and did great for Gi Gi and Pops (Ryan's dad and step-mom) at the wedding while mommy and daddy had obligations in the wedding party.

Of course, as you can see by the picture, he had the smiling thing down pat by this week.  He'd been smiling for a while, but started to laugh and smile at faces and noises more this week.

Dylan was fully pushing up with his strong legs while he was in people's laps and loved experimenting with this since last week.  Everyone commented on how strong he was with holding his body up, head up and with using his arms and legs to prop himself up.  I'm hoping with more tummy time that he will start to roll over!  We need to get on that!

Week 6

This week Dylan's eye contact was even better (constantly improving, so I guess I don't always have to mention it!).

We had fun at our third week of Square One. We talked with a lactation consultant afterwards this week since he started to do this weird thing while breastfeeding that hurt my nipple. I was afraid that it had something to do w nipple confusion since we started doing better w the bottle this week. She watched us nurse and I told her about what I call my "squirty boobs," which means that when milk lets down that it will literally squirt/shoot straight out. If I squeeze them I can really get some distance! So that ended up being the problem. Overproduction of milk was causing him to try and "pinch the straw" so that it didn't overwhelm him. We had to nurse only on one side and pump just a tad on the other side just to relieve pressure for a day or two to decrease production. I have had to do this a couple of times since.

We also weighed Dylan on the lactation consultant's baby scale.  All stripped down naked he weighed 12 lbs 15 oz!  Oh my.  That's an average of a pound per week!  We haven't measured him since his 2 week appointment, so it will be interesting to see how long he is b/c he doesn't look like a huge chunk!  But he is quite heavy when you hold him!

Dylan had been going 6 hrs between feedings for the first stretch of the night for a couple of weeks at that point so I was feeling more consistently rested and like we had a good routine at night and during the day.

He started noticing his hands more as they swiped in front of his face as well.  Silly boy.  He was also pretty much holding his head up all the time by himself unless he was super sleepy.  (Not real sure when this happened exactly, but thinking it was this week!)

We started thinking about the future and when we would transition Dylan to his crib.  He has been sleeping in a bassinet-type thing by Fisher Price called the Rock N Play Sleeper by our bed since he was born and he lays in a reclined position when he is in there (its supposed to be real good for babies w/colic and reflux...even though he doesn't have any of that!).  It is really awesome and super portable...so we don't have to travel w/a pack n play.

So we decided to try putting him in his crib during some nap times to get him used to sleeping completely flat on his back on that firm mattress.  He did not like it much!  Oops!  We will need more practice.  I want to get him in there at night by 3 months, if not sooner.  We have a video monitor that we will use more consistently then.

Exercising?

I laid Dylan on our bed as we were making it up and he did this little routine for about 20 min straight. I'd like to take everyone's creative take on what he is doing. I say he is trying to conduct some crazy orchestra in the sky. What do you think?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Snow Day!

We got bundled up to play with Duke man in the snow today.

Week 5

Dylan started to lose a lot of hair this week! He had a nice "cul-de-sac" pattern going for him. We called it the George Castanza.

His arms, legs and head got so much stronger. We weren't having to hold his head up on our shoulder anymore.

He turned one month old this week!

Every time he was on the changing table he was making some kind if new word sound. He was focusing and following us around w his eyes better.

He also started smiling more when he saw my face up close. He finally outgrew almost every newborn clothing item as well.

I started feeling more confident in my mothering skills and more secure in my going out skills w baby. Bottle feeding was still a struggle w daddy but we were persistent but not forceful.

Dylan came with me to the dinner portion of Elise's bachelorette party so I could feed him and he did so well. All the girls loved having him there.