Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great weekend here in NJ! My parents are back up in NJ and spent a good deal of the weekend with us. Grandmere will be taking care of Zach when I go back to work next week, so we had lots of practice this weekend!

Grandmere tries out the sling!

Zach looking cute!

Grandmere shirts are good for drooling.

Resized pictures

Seven Weeks!

What an adventure! We are making some headway on the nursing issue. Z lost some of the weight he'd gained this week, but we have a reason now! Zach, like millions of other baby boys, has reflux. So we are taking steps to manage his reflux. These include feeding him in a more upright position (he basically sits in my lap to nurse), and putting wedges under his crib mattress and his changing table. While I hate the fact that he has something wrong with him, it is a load off my mind that his slow weight gain isn't something that I am doing. Apparently it is going to progress in severity (he doesn't have a sever case) until he is about 4 months, and then start to improve.I caught this just as he was waking up. He has the biggest blue eyes with these long curled eyelashes. He is so cute when he looks up at me while we nurse.

Snuggled asleep in Aunt Roz's blanket.


As we do not have a television, we have to watch something. The neighbors across the street are always good for a show, but even better are the birds. We have filled the bird feeder outside the picture window. We have a piliated woodpecker who visits, several male and female cardinals, brown nuthatches, and several varieties of finches. It is really quite wonderful. The cats are also pretty into it!

Every day something new

I think I can say with confidence we are on the wan of our 6 week growth spurt. And there was much rejoicing. Zach went down on the weight a little, but the pediatrician wasn't worried. We did a LOT of growing yesterday. He is now out of his newborn clothes. But he wore them for 6 weeks which isn't bad. What is going to be interesting is how the 3month clothes are going to work because he is so LONG. If an outfit is long enough, he is swimming in it. I assume basketball try outs are right around the corner at the rate he is going.

Out for our morning walk in between rain storms!

You can see him in the sling now! This is how we go to sleep during the day. I swear I need a pedometer.

Another cool toy from Paul and Andrea that we just tried. He sort of gets it.

In the crib for the first time! He was less than thrilled about it but, he'll get used to it I am sure.

4m 27s

That's how long it took Zach to conk out from his screaming fit. I know this because of our new sooth Zach toy! Grandad's treadmill! I pop him in the sling (for which I will never be able to thank my mother enough for buying for me) and put on some sneakers and head to the basement. In goes a DVD and I go on the treadmill with him. It's really pretty nifty.

So we have had an exciting few days. Thanks to the intervention of a leader at La Leche League International, Zach has a new latch, and he and I have an new lease on breastfeeding. My supply is up (though not quite there, but it will be by the end of the week) and we are cutting back on the formula. And Zach is doing great! Milestones for the week

• Smiles! Real honest smiles!
• Much increased head control
• He loves his bouncy seat that Uncle Paul and Aunt Andrea gave him.
• We started sign language this week. We've started with "mamma loves Zach" and "daddy loves Zach"
• He sleeps in 4-5 hour stretches. God bless the boy.

Hey there folks! Don't forget to come to the Baptism!

Wee little feet.
Sleeping for Eileen. Eileen is the LLLI leader who came over and helped us. Zach latched non painfully and I nursed for THREE STRAIGHT HOURS. That got my supply going like nothing else. He fell asleep and snoozed contentedly for hours after this. Mom practically cried with happiness!

Life at Almost 6 weeks

We are still trying to get the nursing and pumping situation worked out. I am mostly pumping, and then nursing him in the morning and at night. We are making up this difference with formula. Not what I wanted to do, but, that's the way life is. Zach is doing great though. He's now over 9# and still cute as a button!

During the evening Zach likes to be as close as humanly possible to us. Grandmere's sling to the rescue! We carry him around in it as we make dinner and get ready for bed. When he is finally zonked, we put him down, sling and all.

Aggie is pretty sure the baby arrived to provide her new places to sleep, like the Boppy and the snuggle blanket.

Very comfortable!

Aggie contemplates Zach. Not quite as good a babysitter as Medchen, but give her time!

Happy Mother's Day!

So far Mother's Day has been great! We spent the morning pumping and nursing. Then, we went to my least favorite store in existence Babies R Us and rented a hospital grade breast pump. Let me tell you, on the first go it was so efficient, I might spend the $$$ and buy one. They are expensive, but it may be well worth it, especially if we decide to have more children.

So this was our first attempt at real "tummy time". Zach seems to have missed the point. Though, to be fair to him, he woke up and did start exercising through the screams and whimpers of protest. He can hold his head up really well on his own.


Some days it is really challenging to get your child to look at the camera!

He's adorable in red!
We are making the transition to cloth diapers. This is us after second breakfast (his, not mine) hanging his nappies on the line.

Happy Mother's Day to all! Especially to my mother who has been wonderful and supportive through my whole pregnancy and post partum period! You are the best mom!! I am a better mom for having your great example!

5 weeks old!

And things are looking up on the weight gain front. We have a new plan with our pediatrician that involves increasing my milk supply through A LOT of pumping and increasing the amount of formula Zach is getting. Then, next week, when my supply has bumped up, we will start decreasing the formula.

But for now, more pictures! Our morning routine usually involves me waking up and puttering around for a while before Zach. Since we all go to bed so darn early, this is generally in the 0630 to 0700 range. Zach is not generally into the idea of waking up. He is a really good sleeper. This is going to be good when he's a little older and sleeping through the night.


This is how I found him this morning. He'd worked his swaddle up around his head. There is plenty of room for him to breath, but he is always putting his swaddle over his head. Can you even see the baby in the picture?!
Oh wait, there he is.
Mom, you can get me out of bed, but you can't make me wake up!

More pics!

It continues to be a challenging week. Boy is nursing tough work! But Zach and I will prevail! It takes one comic book super hero, and one super mom, and we will get through this!The cloth diapers don't quite fit yet!
Sleeping peacefully. You can see the remnants of the Sid Vicious hair style dad gave him during his bath.
He has a cape!!
Hello!
Mom get this pacifier outta my mouth

It's up!

Thanks to some encouragement from friends, I've started another blog "Dairy and Soy Free Mamma" at dairyandsoyfreemamma.blogspot.com

I'm going to post recipes of what I cook. Come on over and visit!


ETA- Ginger rocks my world!!

One month!

Well, we've made it through a tough week. But, Zach is doing great and his tummy troubles are over thanks to mom's new diet. We've decided that soy and dairy are out of the diet until the end of July. I'll try them then. Hopefully he'll be ok with butter, because then I'll be able to have my lobster with butter when we go to Maine! And in a bummer of a discovery, chocolate (even the wicked expensive dark chocolate) is made with soy lecithin. So they hunt for dair/soy free chocolate is on! My dairy and soy free recipes may become a separate blog too. It's been kinda fun coming up with new recipes. Saturday (tonight) is Chicken Pad Thai. It's not often I am particularly challenged in the kitchen and this has been a good way to exercise my creative cooking skills! Zach doesn't quite like his bath as much as we do!
Generally his encounters with water are more amusing to us than him!
Burping in the middle of tea!
Time out for a pic! Mom had her first prolonged Zach free outing! Hair cut and color at the local salon. Turns out the woman who cuts my hair is Jordanian. We had lots of fun talking about things Arab (mostly food, and the fabulousness that is Lebanese desserts!)

More pics!

Well, we sure hit a rough patch this week. It turns out that Zach is very allergic to dairy proteins in my diet. This allergy hit right at his three week growth spurt and so was tough to diagnose due to his erratic feeding schedule. So, we've been going to a lactation specialist pediatrician every day this week for weigh ins. This is especially fun for me because I still can't lift Zach in his car seat. So, every time we get out of the car, I unbuckle him from the seat, put him in the sling, grab the diaper bag, and go. Then we reverse the process getting into the car. It is a major pain. However, I am deeply dedicated to nursing him, and so, I am putting up with it. After a lot of work (and tears on my part) Zach is now being nursed as well as receiving hypoallergenic formula. He's only going to be on the formula long enough to resolve his tummy issues and to purge the diary from my diet. That's right, I am off all dairy products, from milk in my tea to butter. But, chances are it won't be for very long. His gut just needs some time to mature.

Sleeping on the snuggle quilt from Grandma
Yeah! Dad's home from work. Trust me, Zach isn't the only one who cheers!
And Zach is gaining a lot more control over his head this week! It's pretty cool.