Since Hayes is sleeping more, I am feeling more motivated to post some of the half million or so pictures I have taken since the H-Bomb was born. Man, it’s amazing how much more crazy I’m likely to go with photos when I don’t have to pay for developing! I’ve built a little gallery, beginning with Jen going in to get dilated, and ending with a picture I took yesterday. Hope you like!
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My grandmother passed away last night, never getting the chance to meet her greatgrandson, though I know his birth brought her great joy during her last days. She was 95. She leaves 7 children and countless grandchildren and greatgrandchildren (I really couldn’t tell you how many cousins I have on that side and I’m too tired to count). She lived a full life as an artist and parent, grandparent and great grandparent, never letting her ambitions overshadow her family. She was also very active in her community, helping needy families and children. We miss you Gramma.
Well, our visit to the doctor proved to be successful. Armed with some great information about how to feed Hayes as well as the best ways to get him to sleep for longer periods for the night, we set about getting our boy ready for a long night’s sleep. And… it worked… for four straight hours. Yes, from the hours of 8-12 the wife and I enjoyed uninterupted sleep! Tre-mendous!
So, you might be asking, how did you do it? Easy, our doctor told us of this new technique that is all the rage in Europe. Apparently, they’ve been doing it for years. It’s called the Chloroform Technique. I had not heard of it either. She gave us a prescription for this stuff called chloroform that you spread on the towel and then place over the… ok… right.
In the not-cruel-to-Hayes-or-any-baby world, you know, the one that’s not make believe? Yah, that one. Our doctor told us that we needed to try to keep Hayes more stimulated during the day and make night time not so fun. We remembered reading of this technique in one of the many parenting books on loan to us, but for use on an older baby.
Armed with this new information, we turned on the 24 episode we had recorded on the DVR and watched it. We then played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons which Hayes loved. He stayed awake and alert through the whole thing. We kept his naps to about an hour and a half. When eight o’clock rolled around, we knew he was ready to sleep. We rushed to our bed with him and, voila, 4 hours of sleep. Hooray Sleep!
So… last night I went to CVS to pick up some of Jen’s pain meds and a few things for sweet baby Hayes. On the list: formula, baby wipes, Purel(tm) and colace. Good times. Of course, in classic Eric fashion, I forgot one of them, the Purel, and to compound things, the CVS in my neighborhood doesn’t carry Oxycodon.
As a result, I had to walk over to the other CVS in the Back Bay. (Oh, BTW, as I am writing this, my wife has informed me, “We have tohave another child”) Not too far away, but in my huge Sorrels in 3 feet of snow some of which is half-assedly plowed and with just bringing the little dude home, it wasn’t close either. More fun.
Then last night happened… and this morning… WTF wasn’t Hayes sleeping and WTF was he eating so much? Moreover, was this type of behavior normal? We decided this might be because I bought a formula that wasn’t exactly the same as the one in the hospital. So, this morning, on four hours of sleep and without caffine I trudged over to the CVS 3 blocks away (the close one) to buy the Purel and the correct formula issue.
The first person I see appears to be the manager. She’s in the soap isle.
“Do you carry Purel,” I asked her. “I bet I’m standing right in front of it.”
She walks over and points behind me.
“It’s right there,” says she, kindly. And then, in my defense, “We’ve got lots of soaps.”
“I guess you do, but I’m not sure I’d find it if it were the only thing here. I’ve only had 4 hours of sleep.”
I like to tell strangers about my woes in the hopes of eliciting their sympathy. But then, you know that, you’re reading my blog.
“And speaking of 4 hours of sleep, do you have the key to the formula?”
A weird sentence, I know, but they keep the formula locked up so that it doesn’t get the 5 finger discount. I tell her of my plight and that my son keeps on eating. She tells me that her daughter was the same way, which made me feel better.
Why am I telling you this? Well, I like stories. I also thought I had a punchline, because Jen thought it was funny. Now, well… yah. I wrote it and I ain’t erasing.
Anyway, we were concerned with the massive amount of formula the little guy was enhaling each feeding so first thing this morning we made a nooner appointment with our pediatrician. We got Dr. Judit, instead, a new doctor who was fabulous. We told he of our grand plan: we would embrace the bottle, as there is still no milk from the mommy, and carry on. As one nurse at the hospital told Jen before we left, “If you do breastfeed, he’ll be feeding 24 hours.” Not too far from the truth, I’m sure.
There. I said it. It’s beyond milksour.
This was a HARD choice that we didn’t take lightly. We TRIED so hard. Frankly, we feel like we’ve failed our child in some way. It sucks. And that’s the last time I’ll use that pun. During one of Jen’s crying spells about it last night… actually while Jen and Hayes were crying a duet, I had visions of a headline: “Man Opens Fire on La Leche League with Breast Pump, 4 Injured.” It got that bad.
Jen spoke with some of her friends that seconded our assesment. We’ve done much discussing and it’s the right thing to do for our family. We’ve got good benchmarks for bottlefed normalcy, Jen and her sister were both bottlefed, and both did better on their SATs then George W (1206– 566 verbal, 640 math). Jen’s sister even became a doctor by way of Cornell, Harvard and Michigan, all of which I am told are pretty decent schools. So, what the hell, we didn’t get into parenting thinking that we could do everything right.
4:52. hayes is up every hour. Think he’s getting enough? We do, everytime he puts down 3.5-4.5oz. This is ridiculous. He’s had 21.5oz in the past 15hrs. Doing the math, that’s over 34oz per day. According to the Enfamil site, he should be eating about 24oz per day, though they say all babes are different. That, and still no b-milk. Oh and 2hrs of sleep for dad and counting.
