Gametes In Love

You know the boob faerie? The one I was feeling neglected by? Yeah, we’re totally squared away there.

It’s the sleep faerie that we’re having issue with these days.

G is now two weeks old (man, does time fly!) and in those two weeks I think he and the sleep faerie have had some falling out. Most likely it happened on the ride home from the hospital. He slept like a log for the first two days. While in the hospital in general we got pretty decent sleep (even in 2 hour intervals), but over the last week he’s taken to waking up in the middle of his nap, about 4-5 times a day and wailing up to an hour an a half to exhaustion… both his and ours. It seems like little we do comforts him, and there are only two things that work: 1) wrapping him up in a tiny ball and carrying him around in the Moby wrap; and 2) having him sleep in a vertical orientation… typically over our shoulder.

We’re diligently tracking his wailing periods, being careful to distinguish between the occasional baby whimper and the heart-breaking, full-on wailing spell. We write down when it starts and how long it goes for. S and I are data people. We like numbers, charts and pretty graphs. However, so far we see no pattern to G’s crying. Hopefully, our pediatrician, however, will. All our pretty data along with our daily feeding/diaper tracking will all be presented at our next appointment. Hopefully he’ll have some wise words of wisdom that go beyond “It’s probably just colic!”.

S’ sister gave us some sage words of advice a few months ago: “If it seems easy, you’re probably doing it wrong!”. Well, with all this crying, I admit, I AM looking for the easy fix. Colic can take months to resolve, and the idea of weeks and months of this exhausts me just thinking about it. I’ve caved and we started trying the Mylicon drops. If it’s gas (one of my suspicions), hopefully this will resolve it.

However, even despite the daily crying sessions, G is growing very well. At 2 weeks, he’s not only reclaimed his birth-weight (6lb 6oz), but now surpassed it, weighing in at 6lb 11.5oz. He’s also now 19.5 inches long. Our little boy is growing, which is awesome. His cord stump fell off earlier this week too, which is giving us a wide range of adorable onsie clothing options. Pics of fasion show to come soon. Promise!

PS. Oh, and as a personal note, I have now lost exactly half of my pregnancy weight gain. I have a pudgy belly, but I think I look pretty good for a mom of a 2-week old. I haven’t needed to take any pain meds in half a week, and I was only taking the Motrin anyway. Even before I left the hospital I had my full range of motion, and next week I’m going to start some light cardio work on our elliptical.

Ok, there is something I just have to share with all the new moms out there. It took me awhile to figure out and at the off-chance it will drive anyone else as nuts as it drove me, I’m sharing my discoveries here.

For the longest time, starting about the 4th or 5th day of G’s life, whenever I would nurse him at the end I would smell this awful, foul stench. I smelled his breath, my own, I even shoved my nose to his diaper, my boob (as close as my neck would bend) and I just couldn’t figure it out. It drove me crazy. I would ask S if he smelled it to, only to negative responses. I even asked the pediatrician about it. He said some women are sensitive to breastmilk and don’t get along with the smell.

But that wasn’t it. I smelled my breastmilk, and it smelled nothing like what was eating at me.

Until I figured it out — the cord!!! That little rotting piece of flesh hanging out in front of G’s belly was the culprit! One whiff of that (and why I hadn’t done it earlier I dunno) and the case was closed. Whenever I would nurse, since G’s belly would be pressed up against my body, the smell would just collect and as soon as I would pull him away would shoot straight up my nostrills.

So all you ladies awaiting the birth of your babies. When that smell hits you — now you too will know what’s to blame.

Oh… and with this, I won’t be seeking a career change to the morgue anytime soon!