Third time is the charm

I feel like it's been a while since I've written - and it has! I'm not sure where the days go anymore, but they are flying by. Hard to believe it's been 5 weeks since Nolan was born! He is doing really well, and it appears that we may have found the right formula for him - Similac Sensitive. We're going to give it another week, but so far so good. He's gaining weHight, and I'd say he's close to 9 lbs now. He's sleeping between 2 1/2 and 3 hours at night, which is fabulous! He's also found his voice, which is really fun. He coos and squeaks quite a bit. Good thing his voice is cute, so far! He's smiling a lot more, too.

Baptism went really well. After 2 failed attempts to attend church as a family (one of us had to take Nolan out due to him crying!) he made it through an entire service without crying! Nolan puts on a great show whenever we have company over -he was perfect the whole day. He didn't make a sound, even when the pastor poured water on his head. It was pround moment for both me and Adam! After baptism both our families came over to our house for a little lunch and socializing. Good thing our garage is heated because it was very chilly outside and we couldn't fit all 24 members of our family comfortably inside our house. Our nieces had fun running in and out between the house and the garage. I'm glad we have a basement where they can scream and run around to their hearts content, because all 4 of them can now scream really well! Adam and I both really enjoyed the day.

Last Tuesday Nolan officially turned 1 month old. It's pretty amazing to look at his pictures from when he was born and compare them to how he looks now. He has changed so much! We decided that in order to properly track his growth and changes we're going to take a picture on his monthly birthdate with him and his Curious George stuffed animal. It will be fun to compare those pictures next year!

My friends and co-workers hosted a baby shower for us last Wednesday at McCoy's in St. Louis Park. It was so fun to be able to bring Nolan and show him off! Again, he was a perfect little baby, just sleeping away in everyones arms. I have the best girlfriends who put on a great shower. We received so many nice gifts are thankful to have such good friends.

To end the week Adam and I attended a prom party. Yes, your read it correctly, a prom party. Our friends Kirk and Kate had a great idea to host a prom, circa 1987, so we joined them and formed a prom planning committee. The big event was Saturday, and it was awesome! All our friends took the theme and ran with it, so we had a great looking group of people. We even had a grand march and crowned a king and queen - congrats to Justin and Lori! It was super nice to be able to leave Nolan in the capable hands of Jackie and Melissa. Again, I can not stress how important it is to have great friends to help out!

Today I decided it was time to start really exercising, so in addition to my own ab workouts and power walks I'm going to start attending formal classes a few days a week, sponsored through our community ed. I know it takes 9 months to gain all the weight, but I'm really ready for it all to come off, especially before swimsuit season! Wish me luck!

He did it!

Today was a big day for Nolan. He accomplished what he's been working so hard to do all week - smile! He's always in such a good mood after he wakes up from his cat naps, as long as I put him on his changing table. I had the camera ready just in case he decided to break out his gummy smile, and low and behold he did! It was pretty funny watching him figure it out. Once he did he couldn't stop! Adam hasn't gotten to see him do it yet, so hopefully he'll be willing to break it out again tomorrow.

One reason he was probably smiling is because we finally made another trip back to the clinic to discuss a few lingering issues. For the last week or so his belly button has been bleeding a little bit each day. Apparantley this is rather common, which seems odd to me. It's caused by babies crying so hard during their fussy times (especially in the evening) that they case some fluid to leak out their still healing belly button. There's nothing we can do for that, other than watch it for the next few weeks to make sure it stops.

I also talked with the Nurse Practitioner about Nolan's reflux and gas issues. He is so uncomfortable all day long, and it's the main reason why he's not sleeping - he wakes himself up because of his discomfort. I left the clinic with a prescription for Zantac and two new kinds of formula to try - hypoallergenic and sensitive stomach. I can already tell it's helping him feel better. He napped really well all day! We'll see what happens tonight, though. The NP said Nolan should be sleeping about 4 hours straight, based on his age and weight (a whopping 8 lbs 2 oz!) It's Adam's turn to take the night shift, and he'll probably luck out with Nolan sleeping well for more than an hour and half!

I'm continually learning new things about being a parent, and feel like I'm starting to be able to figure out what Nolan needs. And when I can't figure it out I have to tell myself to take a deep breath, because I know he can't cry forever!

I just can't seem to find the time!

Well, we're at week 3.5 with Nolan, and the biggest surprise for me so far (besides the complete lack of sleep) is that even though I'm home all day I can't seem to find the time to get on the computer for more than 5 minutes! I actually started an entry last Thursday, but I haven't gotten back to it. So, here is an update of the last few weeks.

Adam and I are still adjusting to having our new addition around. It's amazing how quickly you realize that this little baby has taken over your life - and schedule! Nolan's reflux is getting better, although he is still pretty uncomfortable. We're just keeping an eye on it at this point and continuing to keep him upright after eating.

We've covered a lot of the firsts in the last week or so - first dr. appointment, first bath, first holiday (Easter), first walk around the neighborhood, first visit to see Adam at work, first trip to Target, first time away from Nolan to attend the Twin's home opener, and first time trimming Nolan's nails! Most things have gone really well. Nolan is still struggling to sleep. His favorite place to sleep is in the arms of either me or Adam, which is okay during day hours but rather difficult at night. His current schedule is to sleep for 2 hours at night and then be up for an hour or two to eat and hang out. Needless to say I'm walking around in a bit of a fog most days! Nolan is gaining quite a bit of weight though, and he's up to eating almost 4 oz. at each feeding, so more sleep has to be on the way! Nolan has recently discovered that he enjoys spending time on his activity mat, which is fun. He's also getting really close to smiling on his own - maybe by next week we'll be able to report on that!

I've been doing my best to nap when Nolan is napping to make up for my lack of sleep. Most days I'm able to get about an hour and half nap, which helps me get through the rest of the day. I've also been trying to get outside whenever I can. Adam has been great about taking Nolan when he gets home from work so I can get out and get some fresh air on a nice long walk! Speaking of firsts, how could I forget about my big first this week? Adam and I have a huge squirrel and chipmunk problem in our backyard. The chipmunks are trying to burrow under our hot tub, which is a problem. Yesterday I saw a chipmunk eating beneath the birdfeeder, so I took a shot at it with Greg's borrowed BB gun. Well, the chipmunk never saw it coming. I only meant to scare it with a shot in the butt but ended up killing it! Good thing Adam was around to clean up my mess!

This upcoming weekend we're looking forward to celebrating Nolan's baptism. The rest of this week will be spent getting ready for company. Hope everyone is enjoying the nice spring weather - we all deserve it after the long winter!

The blog entry that's long overdue

So, as all good intentioned things begin, we have an idea (keeping up to date with this blog) which then becomes reality and finally the you-know-what hits the fan! I'm writing this as a representative of two new parents who are learning on the fly and between the two of us have shed tears basically everyday since Nolan was born. (Both of shear excitment and the "what the hell do I do now.") As soon as I read the last blog post I told Tricia that she had cursed us by saying it was going so well with Nolan.

Sure enough, the last entry was a week ago Saturday morning. At that point he was spitting up small amounts of yellow bile-looking stuff about 1/2 hour to an hour after he'd eat-no big deal we thought. Well that evening, he got really sick, plugged his nasal passage ways when he got sick, started choking, and turned a color of purple I will never ever forget. As a parent, to see you kid choking and feel almost helpless it was a huge kick in the gut. After calling 911, and some help from a RN neighbor, he eventually cleared a large amount of banana yogurt looking stuff on his own. By the time the paramedics showed up he was doing much better. As a precaution we took him to Methodist and exactly one week after he was born we were back on the 3rd floor anxiously hovering over Nolan until Monday. Since the "big incident" he hasn't had another episode. We went to Children's last Wednesday for a procedure called an Upper G.I. where they watched Nolan's digestive tract in hopes to find what had caused "the incident." Low and behold, he's got a serious case of reflux and that's about it. So now we make sure to keep him upright as long as he'll let us after he eats and try to burp him more.
Last Friday he had his first "official" Dr. appointment and his weight had jumped to 6.9, which was a 7-ounce gain from his birth wieght. So, he's now eating 3 ounces every 2-3 hours and it's coming out the back-end like it's supposed to... He's really begun to change, in his cheeks and face particularly. It's still amazes me how awesome this whole thing is!

Finally, as a new father, I have begun to feel a unique sense of pride with Nolan. When we went back into the hospital I had to introduce myself to 10 different nurses and each time I got to say "I'm Adam, Nolan's dad." How cool is that? And, this past Sunday at church I was able to get Nolan quite enough for the 3 minutes where I could sneak in the communion line behind Tricia-when Pastor Ed made the sign of the cross on his forehead it felt really great to be his Dad.

So, with all that being said... We defintely have appreciated all the support from our families so far, and even with its' ups and downs have Nolan is pretty much the coolest thing ever. More to come soon-hopefully about how much more he's sleeping at night!