Pure Craziness

Callie has been running with the updates lately so I wanted to get on here and throw in my two cents on everything so far.

Miles is a wonderful little guy and I love him to death.  He is doing very well and growing like crazy, this week we actually had to pull some clothes out of the rotation because he was getting to big for them!  Pure craziness.  Nights are going better in my opinion, we have finally settled on a night routine of bath around 7 then food and finally sleep.  The process is not perfect yet, but he seems to be slightly aware of it.  Another interesting note is that lately he eats a ton, but he seems to like to eat a small meal and then 30 minutes to an hour later eat a larger meal, which holds him longer.  I appreciate his effort to eat regularly and avoid a few large meals a day, but even for me just giving him bottles feeding nearly every hour really puts a damper on getting anything done, especially when you throw diaper changes in the mix.  Usually we can get him settled for stretches, sometimes and 30 minutes sometimes a couple hours, it can be hard to tell how long he will be calm for at times.  One thing that really seems to help is music, Callie plays him a bunch of childrens songs, I push for just classical music, but she says he does not like it as much, so we get a bunch of highly repetitive, somewhat violent and in my opinion scandalous songs.

Saturday night, 1/18, he got the chance to meet his new cousin Daniel Joseph Glass, we went over to my sister (Jess) and her husbands (Brian) house and my parents came over as well and they got to meet.  In terms of them meeting it was pretty uneventful, neither even noticed the other as far as I could tell, they both just wanted to sleep. Grandma and Grandpa were delighted to have them both in the same place at the same time with Madison (Jess and Brians oldest) and they spent as much time holding the trio as they could. This was Miles first trip out of the house other than the doctor since it is flu season.  I  have to admit I am curious how it will go with Miles once we do start taking him out when run errands and stuff, I guess it will just be another one of those little things we get to find out about.

As for me, I started back just after he was a week old, and he is now three weeks old, so I have had two weeks working and coming home to Miles.  So far so good, thankfully Callie is able to handle the night work for the most part and her mother has been able to spend about a week or so down here as well to allow Callie to heal up more from her c-section.  I will say I love Miles and love seeing him and look forward to the weekends with him, but it is nice to be able to work and get out of the house, I feel for Callie being stuck in the house right now while she heals and since it is flu season and all and we are not supposed to be taking him out.  I do enjoying coming home and being able to talk to Miles and play flash cards with him, nothing fancy just black and white drawings that he seems to like, but it is fun and fun to see him react and concentrate on them.  I am really looking forward to him being able to hold his head up and while I know once he starts moving things get even crazier, I think it will be fun as we will be able to be more interactive with him.

Other than all that having a baby has certainly been a change, my favorite thing to mention is about how we had one of everything he needed, but after having him we quickly realized one of most things is not enough as anything he touches or uses will be quickly covered in some sort of baby gunk.  I am still trying to run several times a week depending on my energy level and have not been able to get my morning workouts in at all as I am just too tired, hopefully I can get going again like normal in the next couple weeks/months.  Callie is doing an excellent job of making or at least getting something around for dinner most nights.

Appendix:
Flash Cards - Wee Gallery Art Cards for Baby
http://www.amazon.com/Wee-Gallery-Cards-Baby-Collection/dp/B001CBAJBQ/

Songs
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/100-favorite-childrens-songs/id506561566

All Miles- All the time

In true bunny muffin fashion we've fallen off the blog thing pretty quick again. Despite our best efforts and goal to really update and document his cute little life- here we are- postless again. Sigh. The reason? We're exhausted. C-sections are a horrible, cruel, miserable event- and by the time I'm done tending to Miles and making dinner (literally the only 2 things do in a day) all I want to do is lie down. Thankfully my mom is in town this week again which gives me extra sleep and 5 minutes to collect something that resembles a thought process!

Miles had his 2 week appointment last Friday. We was up to 7# and 3 oz!! Wa-hoo!! Thats 3 oz above his birth weight! I was so nervous for this appointment because breastfeeding has still been a major headache and we are still supplementing with formula. I'm trying to get the supplements down- but at the same time- I don't want to be starving him either. Slowly but surely we'll get there Miles. One day at a time!


Miles also has good nights and bad nights. Last night he went straight to bed at 8pm. Except for one diaper change- he slept all the way until 10:40. (I had fed him ~ 7:15 before bed so it was time for him to get up and eat) Then he got up at 11:30 again for a diaper change. Long story short- I was up with him until 1am because he was taking what I can only describe as the longest poop of his entire life. (all 2 weeks of it!) I kept changing him, rocking him back to sleep, then I'd hear "it". Sigh. Change him, rock him, wet fart. Finally I just got on my cell phone, played scrabble for 30 minutes, then changed him, rocked him back to sleep, only for him to decide that he's now HUNGRY from all that pooping. Sigh. So then we nursed, rocked, and FINALLY went back to sleep. He then made it til 4 am, where I brought him back in to lay with Matt until Matt gets up for work. It works out pretty well, and is the best of both worlds for us. Matt is usually up by 6 am- so its only 2 hours of cuddling- and he still sleeps most of the night in his own bed.

He still loves the swing, and he loves Matt a lot. They cuddle together and watch ESPN and bowl games, liverpool games, etc. I have a feeling he is going to be a total daddys boy!


Also for the Miles one week birthday we had a photo shoot with JSI photography! Hopefully in the next week or so we'll have those images back and we'll be able to post/share them. :)

Miles comes home and the cats surive

I was in the hospital for a total of 7 days. I went in on 12/26/12 and was released on 1/1/13. (aka i was admitted LAST YEAR and just got out!) Thats a lot of time to be stuck on the 5th floor of a hospital. I wasn't allowed to leave the floor, even to go to the cafeteria! So needless to say I woke up at 5 am ready to rock and roll!!

The most annoying part of our day was the fact that we couldn't leave until Miles was circumcised. Miles was born on FRIDAY. Its TUESDAY. Why are we doing this TODAY? We had Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to get it done! UGH! So we didn't get discharged until 11:00 and we were discharged with a very unhappy baby who is going to rupture vocal cord when we change his diaper. Oh well- I was going home no matter what they did to that baby today!

We got home, and introduced the cats to Miles. This was a *highly* anticipated moment for Matt and myself! I put the carseat on the floor and held my breath. I waited and waited- but none of them cared. Truthfully- they wanted to see me and Matt- eat their fancy feast cans, and have their head scratched. Then they scurried off and did their own thing. They come up and watch him, or sniff the top of his head, but then walk away. Baby cat gets anxious and upset when Miles cries and he begins to pace. Tonight Deuce is laying on Matts legs and Miles is laying on Matts chest. We don't even think Deuce knows Miles is there. (Deuce is a tough read). Scully comes into the room, looks, and then leaves and hides in the closet. Skeeter is the bravest and sniffs him, but then just runs off. So- there you have it. It might be O.K. in our house after all!

Our first day home with Miles was uneventful. We did a lot of laundry (everything that was in the hospital needed to be boiled- just had to make sure no germs came home with us) and Matt went to the pharmacy to get my much needed pain pills, and then to Target to pick up a few odds and ends of stuff we needed. We folded laundry, tended to Miles every need, watched football bowl games, had dinner, and now we are waiting for Miles 10:00 feeding so we can all go to bed. (fingers crossed it goes well!)

Miles seems to enjoy our house so far. He looks around his room a lot- and his favorite thing is his swing! Seriously- this boy LOVES this swing and I'm so happy we have it! You almost forget we have a baby when hes in it! Hes quiet- sometimes asleep, and sometimes wide awake just looking around, chewing on his hands. This is the swing http://www.fisher-price.com/en_US/products/45667 if you are looking for an awesome baby gift for someone. Because this swing ROCKS! (pun intended- no sleep and percocet make me *think* I'm really funny)

I am still sore beyond words. I keep telling myself it was surgery, but, holy guacamole! Night is the worst time for me. I do great in mornings, alright in afternoon, and night is just a lost cause. All in all morale is high in the Shearer house, the only thing we are anxious about is my milk coming in. It still hasn't so I got one of these awesome devices http://www.momandbabyshop.com/medela-starter-sns-80ml-collection-container-sterile-0097003s.html?utm_source=googlepepla&utm_medium=adwords&id=24706946984&utm_content=pla to trick him into continuing to feed. Matt has been in charge of holding it while I feed, and tonight, he got me a ball cap to clip it to so he doesn't have to sit there and hold it. Its pretty funny- and pretty effective, but using this device, feeding Miles is at least a 30 minute event and overly complicated. When he eats every 2 hours to 90 minutes and it takes 30 minutes to feed him, not counting set up or clean up time, well, it really sucks. But, we are plunging on ahead!

So Miles- cats- and Matt- congratulations on surviving our first day as a family of 3 without hourly nursing care and assistance! Time for that last feeding- and lets hope the night goes as well as the day does! :)

Leaving with Miles hospital shoot photos. :) Because hes so cute and I have to put a photo up of his precious face! (this week our wedding photographers are coming and we are so pumped to see what they can do with him if this is what the hospital photographr could do!)

I still can't get over this boys HAIR! I imagined him 1,000,000 times in the past 9 months. I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined him with strawberry blonde hair. The first thing I asked Matt about him was "does he have any hair?" and when matt said "its blondish red" I think I peed in my cathater! I really hope it stays like this. I'm madly in love with it. If it does get darker, thats OK. Matt and I both have dark hair so it would be expected. But- this hair is AMAZING and I can't stop stroking his head and admiring it. I love it.