Blake - Week 7

Poor Blake has been having a lot of tummy troubles and we noticed that he seemed to be having diarrhea and then he wheezes when he eats so we took him to the doctor who thinks he has GERD and a possible dairy intolerance. She gave us about 20 things to work on to help with both of these diagnoses, even though the full blown diary allergy was discounted since there was no blood or mucus in his stool. For the GERD we're supposed to burp him a couple times during feedings to clear out the air bubbles so food doesn't end up getting into his lungs and once he's done, lie him on his right side with head elevated a little and his body straight out to help keep the acid from coming back up. Then for his tummy, we have to make his breast milk as "clean" as possible which means Mommy has to cut out all dairy, soy, acids, caffeine, spicy, and basically any other food that I eat on a normal basis. We also switched his formula supplement to the one with less lactose. Let's hope this helps so we don't have to suffer through the blood curtling screams with him in such pain when he has bowel movements. I'm hoping it's just the fact that we ate a lot of spicy foods over the past week and that is what caused the pain. It would be much easier to just cut that out of my diet. 


The good news is that all the diarrhea we thought he had didn't seem to affect his weight. He doesn't seem to be dehydrated and his weight is up to 10lb 11oz as of Friday. This child is gaining weight like crazy! I'm going to try and not worry that he is going to look like the State Puff Marshmellow Man (like his mother did at 5 months)... we'll just have to make sure he stays active.


Oh yea, and last week I had my 6 week followup with the OB and everything checked out and I'm clear to go back to normal life... so no more excuses that I'm not allowed to exercise or lift heavy things (other than the baby). I've only lost 2 more lbs since I weighed myself when Blake was 10 days old, so I have 8 left to get back to pre-baby weight. At least I fit into a lot of my old jeans so that's encouraging. =)


This week, Blake:

• smiled at us for the first time! I don't remember what exactly I said but it was in baby voice with a big smile and he gave me a big toothless opened mouth grin. It was one of my favorite moments of being a mom so far! Chris said he thought Blake smiled at him the day before while he was singing to him too, so I think we've confirmed that it is not just gas. =) Since then, he's smiled a couple times each day but we normally get one on the changing table in the morning once he has a clean diaper on.
• started cooing a little. He does it when he smiles and even other times when he gets excited. We've tried to get him to do it on command but it's a little too soon. It's nice that he has started making sounds other than grunting and scream crying. =)
• might finally be over the goopy eye. His tear duct seems to be working mostly like normal now which is great news. He still gets a little goop but it's much less than before. I also think he has learned how to wipe his eye with his sleeve while he's sleeping and that helps keep it clear too.
• has had a rough week with diapers. We've tried the Luvs, Huggies Snug N Dry, Pampers Swaddlers, and Huggies Snugglers. The Luvs kept out leaks but as soon as he did anything in his diaper he screamed bloody murder. We changed him immediately, but after 4 Luvs diapers he had started working on a full butt diaper rash. That never happened before. We tried the Snug N Drys and they fit him and well and kept him drier and no leaks, but he still got mad as soon as he was wet. He also would only sleep like 3 hours in the Luvs or Snug n Dry (vs. 6-7 in the Pampers Swaddlers). The Huggies Snugglers so far they fit better than the Pampers Swaddlers (less sag in the crotch), better elastic waist band, front side actually wraps around the legs, and the Huggies Swaddlers contained a massive poop that the Pampers would have leaked out of the legs for sure. 
• is doing well with sleeping for a decent amount of time at night. He had one stretch over 7 hours this week! He is getting in the habit of falling asleep around midnight, so we're going to have to try and shift that a little earlier once I start back to work... or I'm going to be a walking zombie. However, we're very grateful for the sleep at night which is normally between 5-7 hours (even though I get up to pump once during that stretch).
• has outgrown almost all of his newborn clothes, which is no surprise with his weight gain. We just pulled out a bunch of his 3-6 month clothes that hopefully will fit him for the next few weeks at least. =)
• started to get annoyed with being in his swing and rock n play earlier this week and we were worried he was never going to go back in them again which would require us to hold him all day basically. Luckily we realized that we had made too many modifications to the swing (to try and keep his neck in line to help with the torticollis) and that is what was making him so mad in there.
• continues to hold his head up more and more this week. He still hates tummy time on the floor but does much better when he just has to hold his head up while he is upright on your chest.

Pics this week:

Since we went out during the middle of the day this week, we had to use a hat to keep Blake's eyes safe. He still kept his eyes mostly closed since it was so bright out so we'll need to get some sunglasses for him.

How adorable is he taking a nap on the couch?! It's like he was posing for camera. <3

These next 2 are from last week when Aunt Lindsay was visiting last week.

Our little angel looks so peaceful sleeping in the rock n play... it is definitely hit or miss if he'll sleep here now.

All sprawled out.

Resting on the boppy after getting stuffed full of food. 

Blake giving his mommy a hug. =)

Videos of Blake on the changing table in the morning with his fresh diaper on. It is his exercise time typically and then he started smiling a little. The second video just catches the tail end of a smile right at the beginning.