Tummy Time

What could cause such a happy baby go from this face...

...to this face? 

Answer: Tummy Time! As much as Micah loves his play gym, he hates tummy time. My doctor told me he needs to be on his tummy about 10-20 min a day to strengthen his neck muscles as he'll try to lift his head. So after every play session in his gym, I flip him over for the last few minutes on his tummy. 

As you can see...he's not a big fan:)

We've tried both with the pillow and without but it doesn't make much of a difference to him. And now he's developed a new cheating method where he'll just attempt to roll onto his side instead of lifting his head! 

Little stinker:)

Tummy time always ends in tears so I usually only let it last a few minutes and let him practice lifting his head when he is upright. (He's getting really good at that at least.)

Couldn't pass up this cute little hiney shot haha.

I love my play gym!

Micah is growing! This week, along with learning to smile he has also started paying closer attention to toys. One of his favorite morning activities during his wake time is to play in his play gym. This was a gift from Grandpa John & Grandma Pam at my shower and he loves it! He gets comfy on the whale pillow and loves looking in the mirror and listening to the music. He also really likes the hanging rattles and gets a big smile on his face when he hears me shake them. Soon we will start practicing 'tummy time' using the play gym - he's not a big fan of that yet:)

 

 

First smiles

Finally! After all the sad scrunchy faces we've been seeing a few of these big goofy grins. It does take a lot of work to get one but it's so adorable when I do:) I usually have to wait until there has been a big poopy diaper (too much info, I know) and he is relieved to have it changed. Then I have to talk in this ridiculously high-pitched voice and poke his cheeks.

 

This one is a lot more subdued, but I like to see this face as well. He looks satisfied:)

Hopefully there's a lot more of these happy faces to come!

The turtle

Honestly, who sleeps like this? Our crazy boy loves to sink deep down into his blankets and cover his face during nap time. It drives me crazy because I am constantly needing to pull the blankets down for fear that he'll suffocate in there. But no matter how many times I attempt to uncover him, he always finds a way to duck into his little blankie shell like a turtle. When I usually swaddle him, the blankets start at his shoulders and if you look at this picture he has managed to wiggle down so that they are all the way up over his head!! 

Perhaps it is a little too bright in our house? :)

Breaking him in to the chaos

It could possibly be bad parenting, but we've been taking Micah to youth group and into the church service each week. We wanted him to get "broken in" and used to being around all the crazy kids. It actually has been going pretty well, except I learned a few things the hard way..haha....

#1. Loud worship music and drums + baby = bad. I must have been desensitized but I seemed to forget how loud our worship music was until we got blasted that first night. Poor Micah about jumped out of his onesie. Lesson learned: Remove baby from youth room before worship begins. He sure likes to hear the music from the hallway though.

#2. Baby needs limited time with Junior Highers. We recently started a jr high program on Wednesday nights for an hour. I didn't think an hour would be too bad for Micah and I to hang out with 5-7 of these 6th & 7th graders. But then I realized how CRAZY this age group is. Last week Micah was way overstimultaed by their chaos and his eyes were as big as saucers for about 20 minutes after it ended. So now we leave a little early haha.

#3. Getting out of church early to feed him = impossible. We are very blessed by having so many people who love us at church. But this means that about 50 older ladies are going to surround Micah like a celebrity and each need a good long turn holding him even if it's 20 minutes past his feeding time. Now we know that an extra bottle is mandatory for after the service.

#4. Careful selection is need when choosing which students are allowed to hold the baby. Extra loud students, hyper freshman girls (who like to "overbounce" him until he spits up all over their shirts), and the guys who like to use babies as footballs are all banned.

It is definitely a learning experience, but we know he'll grow into it:)

All wrapped up...

There is one thing that can make Micah the happiest baby on earth and that is his octopus robe. No other warm towel will do. It's pretty amazing the effect it has on him. The other night he was fussy for about two hours straight and after trying everything...I took off his blankets and wrapped him in his robe instead and he went right to sleep! We realized after a couple of his bathtimes that he loves the feeling of it because it is so huge on him. It's better than swaddling. The minute we wrap him up in it after a bath he is instantly calm.

On this day, he was so excited to be in his robe this time that I couldn't get him to be still for the photo. His arms and legs were kicking all over the place:)

Tummy troubles...

It's official...we have a screamer. I remember our days of wishful thinking that the baby would sleep all day and be perfectly calm so we could take him anywhere. Haha. Well okay he is like that some days... but on most days our little guy cries...A LOT. But of course we still adore him and it is not his fault! He has major tummy troubles though and we are doing some investigating. There are days where if he is awake, he is screaming...and sometimes his gas pains even wake him up. My suspicions so far are the following:

1) Reflux or GERD - He gags and spits up if placed on his back for long. He coughs and hiccups and has wet sounding burps. He does not spit up a lot, but that's because if it comes up and he swallows it back down before it comes out.

2 ) Oversupply or Foremilk/Hindmilk Imbalance - He has a lot of gas, very gurgly stomach and his bm are pretty watery most days. I have been trying block feedings and it has seemed to help so far, but I've heard it could take weeks before we'd know for sure.

3 ) My diet - I keep hoping it's not this one because I love ice cream, yogurt, pizza, pop, chocolate, coffee. I have been trying to eliminate dairy and caffeine but it is very hard. He actually seems to get fussy on the days where I haven't had much of these things, but I will keep trying anyway.

4) Just his digestive system developing. He does get fussy around the same times everyday...even if it is a calm day. Mornings 5am-9am he has bad gas and evenings 5pm-7pm he is either gassy or just grumpy. Sadly these are the times Stephen is home.

We've tried mylicon gas drops, gripe water, warm baths, tummy massages, rocking, singing, swinging, apacifier, and sitting in his bouncer. We take him on walks, on drives, and dance with him haha. Sometimes these things work, sometimes they don't. Mostly it's just hard to see him cry or in pain and feel helpless, so pray that we will get it all figured out soon. I've heard that most tummy issues resolve around 3 months so this keeps us hopeful.

Go Big Red!

Micah received a fun gift in the mail from his Grandma Sheri that made his daddy very happy (and I'm sure his Grandpa John & Grandma Pam would like it too) ...a Nebraska Huskers outfit! Since we don't have a Nebraska flag to fly on game day, we have to show our loyalty by sporting our little guy in his onesie and socks. We were planning to show him off at a friends house who are clearly Kansas only fans. Unfortunately before we left, he had an "up the back" diaper accident and we had to change him. Bummer!
 

 What a little tuber! All he needs is a remote and a beer! Haha

(Don't worry we don't let our son watch tv yet or drink alcohol)

Our New Arrival

I know it's been almost a month now since Micah was born, but I decided to start at the beginning. That way I can share details of the last few weeks and the billions of photos I took won't go to waste!


Prelabor
I hate in the movies how pregnant women always seem to just be perfect one minute and then all of a sudden they know "it's time" and you see them rushing to the hospital. If only it were that fast and easy! Two weeks before Micah was born, I started prelabor or 'prodromal' labor. I had never heard of this before, but let me just say it was really annoying haha. I went to the hospital after having regular contractions for a few hours, found out the baby was dropped down, my cervix was almost all the way effaced, but I wasn't dilating more than a 1. So after walking the halls all night, we decided to just go home until the contractions got worse...but then the next morning they stopped. This was the cycle for two weeks: Basically painful contractions would start up, become regular and closer together, and then right when I would be thinking hey maybe we should go back to the hospital, they would just stop. About the same time every night this happened. Stephen and I were going crazy wondering if we were finally gonna have this baby and finally we just stopped getting our hopes up.

Early labor 
Fast forward two weeks. On August 12, around 6PM I started the normal cycle of contractions and they were really weird. The contractions started lasting 10 minutes long, then 20 minutes long, all the way until my stomach just never relaxed except for maybe once an hour. I didn't even tell Stephen but just went to sleep. At about 3 A.M. I woke up and the contractions were normal again, getting a lot more intense and this time they didn't stop. So finally at 8A.M. I called my doctor and she sent us to the hospital...and again we were told that my cervix was only at a 2 and we may have to go home if it didn't change. That put me into action. I was so done with this whole waiting game so when they told me to walk the halls of the hospital, I started doing stairs! I was not about to go home again! Apparently that worked because we after three hours of walking and stairs, I got up to 4cm and officially became a patient at the hospital. Finally!
We were very happy about this...

Active labor
However the waiting was not over. I was told that I couldn't have an epidural until I got up to at least 6cm. It took ALL DAY. By this time, I had been having really painful contractions ever 2-3 minutes for the last 24hours, been doing stairs, walking the halls, and couldn't have any food. I was tired! When I finally did get the epidural, there were certain spots that just wouldn't get numb (should have been a warning sign here), so I still had to breathe through my contractions but I was much happier! At this point the nurses were noticing a few other problems. The babies' heart rate kept dipping very low right after a contraction, and then my blood pressure was getting very low. So they strapped an oxygen mask to my face (reminding me of all those breathing treatments I had as a kid haha mom and dad) and I think this kept me calm during the transition phase too...because again, the epidural was not doing its total job, and I was feeling a lot of my contractions.

Delivery
About 4:30AM I was allowed to start pushing. I was definitely getting worn out and they noticed the baby was not getting anywhere. My doctor called in another OB to get her opinion and they realized my bone structure was preventing the baby from being delivered. So sadly, after all of that work they told me at 6:30AM we were going to have to do a C-section. They got me all prepped, gave me an extra epidural and told me they were going to do a test cut, saying "it should just feel like a pinch." It did NOT feel like a pinch and I told them I definitely still had feeling. Unfortunately the numbing never did fully kick in and I felt the majority of the C-section. (...And I had to apologize to the doctors afterward for screaming at them haha) But the minute I heard Micah's little cry and saw his scrunched up face I didn't care what they were doing to me. He was absolutely perfect! I was able to manage a couple pictures below...and then I passed out:) Stephen assures me that we are never going through that again...but one look at Micah's face and I know I'd do it a million times over.

Micah was born on August 14, 2010 at 7:05 AM. 

(By the way, Micah's cousin Penelope was born June 14 and his cousin Ella was born July 14)

Finally a blog for Micah!

Hi family and friends,

We just wanted to be able to share details of Micah's life as he's growing up far away from most of you. So rather than fill up facebook albums and try to describe his personality and daily life through captions, we thought we'd start a blog. So here it is. Hopefully we can get our photos in order and start updating soon!

With love,

Stephen, Laurie & Micah