Savor The Season!

We are going on about day 10 of no sleep (we did have one 8-hour day in there, but that was 5 days ago). We are talking 45 minutes max and about 2 hours in the no rule zone (as in sleeping on the couch with baby in hopes that by breaking one simple rule you won't kill you husband the next day- or visa versa...yeah about that..)

We had plenty to keep us distracted with the NCAA tournament but today was the true test. Back to school on no sleep (if only that could be an exaggeration!).
Utterly exhausted doesn't cover it. It was one of those days that I was happy to take a break from my fussy child and hang out with my 4 and 5 year olds that can usually figure out what's upsetting them.

So I get home with ambitious thoughts about breaking our cycle of exhaustion. Until the inconsolable crying sets in. Again. It feels like we have a newborn again.
We finally give up on feeding Coop dinner. We try a bottle, tylenol,
Sophie, orejel, cold teethers, teddy, lovie, mommy, daddy and nothing is working. Check his temp 98.6. Are you sensing my frustration yet?

And then I give up. Rub his back, tell myself I've tried everything and try to stay mellow because he is feeding off my energy. I take a bite of my pizza (frozen kind since no one has gotten sleep, not even Fletch) and it tastes like cardboard.
I lost it. The flood gates opened, full on crocodile tears start pouring out. My pizza tasted like cardboard and I lost it. Emotionally spent, patience drained, so done. Super mom turned super sob.

And while I'm losing it, I don't even realize Coop has stopped crying and is passed out and I mean PASSED OUT on my shoulder.

Its so beyond bedtime... Its bedtime 10 days late. I grab my Southern Living that came in the mail so I can peel that ugly paper cover that comes on it so it will be all ready for me tomorrow (with that giant bottle of wine).

I pull the paper off to see its beautiful Spring cover and its yummy brunch spread with delicious ham biscuits and orange juice cocktails. And I smile. How ridiculous!

Ahhh thank you Southern Living for showing up with impeccable timing. I will savor the season and the extra moments to snuggle with my sweet baby, the cardboard pizza, the teething, the inconsolable crying, even the laryngomalacia. I will savor everything because I am so blessed to have it all.

did someone say houston??

I am not in a witty writing mood, so I first must apologize if this post is bland and boring. But I really felt like it was important that I share about our last 2 weeks, especially since we are coming off a blogging frenzy with an average of 2 a week! (That is probably a record.)


Two weeks in the life of a 6-month going on 7-month old is insane.


We went from sitting up to scooting to pulling up and I am sure full fledged crawling is going to happen any day now, that is if walking doesn't happen first.


We went from sort of eating solids, to chowing down and not interested in formula to eating some solids like puffs but especially pickles! In fact, the joke these days is the ONLY thing that grandad can do wrong is take the pickle away!

Coop went on his first park playdate with mommy Molly and baby Livi and he took his first ride in the swing!

We ditched the baby tub which Coop seems especially happy about because he can do things like this...

And just when I think it can't get any better, my sweet baby, who isn't much of a baby anymore, starts talking. He said "dada"! Don't tell Rick that babies usually say dada first because he is on cloud 9! I have never seen him (or Coop) so proud. 


And reason number 43782057831 I cannot believe how fast time is moving. It is unreal how fast my sweet baby turned into a little boy, a rough and tough little boy, who squirms and wiggles and puts his hands on EVERYTHING!


And the cherry on top of our sundae(y), our VCU Rams made it to the final four! It is possible, Cooper might be taking yet another plane ride to Texas to check yet another state off his list!

two-hour naps?!

A high school friend of mine (who also happens to be the mother of one of the girls Cooper has play dates with) posted a blog about how they are getting their groove back.


After reading it I realized we too have been out of our groove.


So one of the things the ENT suggested was that Cooper should be sleeping on a flat crib mattress (from our hospital stay in November up until the ENT visit, Coop had been sleeping at a 45 degree angle).


Well, we have gotten used to our sleep. It is very rare that Cooper wakes up in the middle night for anything and has been this way since we got over that awful respiratory virus. He has been known to wake up for a bottle, but usually just when he is trying to tell us he would like another solid meal during the day. So you can understand my hesitation to make ANY sleeping arrangement changes.


So we decided with this weekend being mellow (which I use VERY loosely, our mellow is WAY busier than the average mellow) we decided if we were going to need to break him of his inclined sleeping position (especially if it was to provide better sleep for him) that the sooner we do it the better.


Easier said than done. Friday night he was up about every 2 hours. I don't know if it was because he was confused with the now in plain sight crib bumpers, the abundant amount of space or the free range of movement but he was up all night. It seemed like every natural jerk or dream had him screaming.


Saturday was not much easier, but thankfully Rick took most of it realizing how absolutely exhausted I was from the night before. 


I know, I know... with a baby, you get used to not having sleep. I was used to it. When he wasn't sleeping. But then one gets used to getting sleep again and it is hard to go back to the sleep deprivation.


And then Sunday night came.


Cooper woke up once. ONCE. Which consisted of Mommy walking into the room, realizing he was half asleep and too tired to roll to his belly. I flipped him the rest of the way over. He passed out. Until 5:30am (his usual time)!


I think I checked the monitor 4890824932 times to make sure he was breathing.


Next up- the pacifier (that thankfully is only an aide to falling asleep and nothing else. Might as well knock that out too right?)


One can only hope tonight goes as well. Because I am sure not ready to go back to 2 hour naps during the night.

My Little Fish!

Cooper received his third postcard this week, the third installment in the postcard project.


It arrived on Tuesday from Richmond, Virginia. Yeah, you read that correctly!


Every year since I can remember, we take a "vacation" downtown for the Men's CAA Basketball Tournament. And although the travel time is short and most of the destinations are familiar (and your best friend and child's god mother can sneak downtown and join your alleged vacation...) staying in a hotel makes it feel like you are out of town.


And nothing says vacation like swimming in the winter!


Let me backtrack a little... 

Cooper has always been a swimmer. Even in my belly, he did somersaults, one so acrobatic he tied his umbilical cord in knot! Baths have always been a breeze. In fact, those beginning nights when I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't stop screaming, I would put him in the bath and everything was better. Cooper went in a swimming pool for the first time when he was about 6 weeks old and has been swimming almost every month of his life.

Rick and I both loooove the water, I mean we got married on the beach! So we sort of figured that because we planned on exposing to our child to the water he would love it too but I am pretty sure he was just born this way. 

A friend at school taught Cooper how to spit bubbles. When he did it the first time, it was cute. But this new trick lost its luster pretty quickly. BUT when he started spitting bubbles in the pool this past weekend, we got a little excited. After careful baby steps and lots of practice, Cooper put his face in the water and eventually his entire head. In fact, the second day in the pool he started spitting bubbles and putting his face in without any prompting!

He is my little fish!

My Human Squeak Toy

Anyone that has been around Cooper or is friends with me on facebook knows and has probably seen videos of my human squeak toy. There is even a name for it, we found out back in November in the ER.


But things aren't apparently that easy...


Cooper goes to bed around 8pm every night. Occasionally he will wake up between 1-4 for a bottle but usually it is him telling us he needs more baby food. But if he is up all night- something is going on.


About 2 weeks ago Cooper went to bed like usual and woke up around 10:30pm screaming at the top of his lungs. The rest of the night he only slept for 45 minutes at a time and by 4am a fever showed up. By the morning, he wouldn't let you near his ears. So we rushed to the doctor first thing (for his march sick visit - cause the kid goes every month!).


We go to Pediatrics Associates of Richmond, which also happens to be the same practice I attended from birth - 18 years. I remember when this doctor we were scheduled to see started working at the practice... but I suppose that is unimportant.


He basically said that he thought it was crazy that I hadn't taken Cooper to an ENT specialist and planted many seeds of doubt in the originial, unofficial diagnosis. He was concerned that Cooper could have an abscess or a growth and we wouldn't have any idea because it was never definitely diagnosed (although it was HIS PARTNERS that told us an ENT consultation wasn't necessary.)


Needless to say, the doctor said Cooper did in fact have an ear infection and he suggested a couple ENTs along with his script.


So we went to see the an ENT this morning. I will skip the part about how we had to wait an hour to see a doctor and the part about how nobody seemed to think they were unprofessional (for making us wait without any heads up and getting a 6 month old baby completely off of his schedule) and move straight to the important part.


They used a scope, not any more invasive than the tubes they used for the deep suctioning in the hospital (i.e. no sedative or straight jacket necessary, thank God!) and were able to watch Cooper's throat and voice box move as he breathed and cried.


The conclusion... Cooper does not have Tracheomalacia but actually Laryngomalacia (great a whole new word to train myself to say!). The difference is apparently very small since, none of the doctors we have seen until today have corrected us (probably a total of 10).


What does this change? Nothing really but now we can confident that we know what is going on. Now that I have seen the movement of his larynx while listening to him breath, I feel waaay more confident that I will be able to assess a more serious situation should that arise. I know what to listen for and I know what should cause concern.


They want us to go back in June to look at his larynx again to be sure it is improving but the doctor seems to think all should be well by 12 months.


So bittersweet to think my sweet baby Coop won't always be my SQUEAKY baby Coop!

throwing rules out the window.

Okay so I need you to close your eyes and try to imagine a type A person who also happens to be a laid back (we won't say type B because that is a bit of a stretch) mom.


That's me. Crazy organized, an avid researcher, and a little very structured BUT with an ability to go with the flow. I know it doesn't make sense. It's possible, I promise.


I am a new mom and I am learning. I research, research, research, pick what I think is best, try it out and if it doesn't work go to Plan B. When I find a plan that works, I stick with it and try to keep anyone who may "babysit" to do the same. (Can you hear the type A oozing out?)


With that being said, once said "babysitter," whether it be a teacher, nurse, grandparent, etc. understands our plan, I start to trust their opinion if said plan isn't working. Get it? Probably not... We'll move on.


So sleep training. Yes, that is referring to training your child to sleep. They say... (haha there is the researcher again...)


They say that babies have to be taught how to sleep. Healthy sleep habits, they call it. So after weeks, even months of letting Cooper do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted (while mommy secretly, patiently waited, was dying for a schedule) we realized it just wasn't working (thank God). Some days he would barely sleep during the day and then be up all night, but those days where he took a few naps he slept better.


So here is the sleep training we came up with, which we pulled from various sources.


1. Establish a bedtime routine and complete it about the same time every night.
Ours is basically bath @ 7pm, bottle @ 7:30pm followed by book time and bed @ 8pm. We also sing some lullabies if he isn't interested in the books or if we finish reading early, etc.


2. Day sleeping is as important, if not more important than night sleeping.
Babies need naps. One thing I read said to limit naps to no more than 2 hours each and babies need about 12-14 hours of sleep per 24 hour period. Cooper started to naturally sleep an 8 hour stretch at night, which meant he would need about 5 hours of day sleeping (3 naps at no more than 2 hours each = 2 2-hour naps and 1-1hour nap). Gradually he started sleeping more at night and eliminated his 3rd nap, all on his own.


3. Put him down awake.
It is important for babies to be able to self soothe and put themselves to sleep. We don't do this every night in order to try and encourage flexibility. This is where the crying it out came into play. We started it once we got into a good sleep routine and found that there was very little crying. He was ready for bed at bedtime and because we were using a consistent bedtime routine, he knew what was next- bedtime. Nowadays he doesn't have to be woken up at the 2 hour mark, he wakes up on his own. And if for some reason he misses a nap, he puts himself to sleep a little bit early for bed and gets back on track the next day. It is wonderful. Another benefit of sleeping training is they wake up happy (not screaming).


And then they get sick. And whatever plan you had (bedtime routines, crib sleeping, even eating habits) doesn't matter. This can be something small like congestion (which Coop doesn't know many days without) or something intense like an ear infection. 


And just when you okay, fine me, because we are obviously talking about me... Just when I think I am beyond type A, my sweet baby gets sick and the type B shines through and all the rules and research is out the window, as it should be. But the beauty of it all, because I kept him on a schedule, he falls right back into it all on his own.