The Hormone Highway... or, Love and Respect

Greetings, readers! I am happy to report that Elijah slept in his big crib for the first time last night. I must admit it was a little scary leaving him in another room - even if it is directly outside OUR bedroom - but we made it and he did great!

Last night was a Wednesday night and Brad dutifully went to orchestra rehearsal at church as he normally does. The entire hour before he left, I was breast feeding Elijah, then the little piggie cried for more.. then he cried for more.. then he cried because of a poopy diaper,.. then he cried because he was wet, then he cried because he was wet, then he cried because he was wet, then he cried because HE WAS WET!!! Have I mentioned that this baby is a pee factory?

Okay, on with the blog I meant to write..

I would just like to say that in the last 4 weeks - yes, its been 4 weeks since little Eli squeezed his way down the birth canal, and left his signature next door, that I have been on QUITE the emotional rollercoaster. I knew it would be considerabley noticeable that after giving birth, I'd have several emotional breakdowns just because I've never been just 100% together when under a lot of stress and pressure, but I just had no clue.

It all started to hit me the moment we started packing up our things to leave the hospital. I cried when I got in the truck, I cried in the drive through at Krystal's, and I especially had a nice hard, long cry when I walked into my forever-changed little condo and saw this freshly squeezed baby lying in that crib that had been waiting for him for so long!!!

Boohoo.

I cried when he wouldn't breastfeed right; he gets like a crazy wildman when he can't get it together in the feeding department! (The app doesn't fall far from the tree!) Oh! It was just crying off and on ALL the time for nothing at all!! The nurses told me I'd do that. I have no idea why I didn't believe them. Haha.

It last about 10 days - then we started to get into somewhat of a routine - we can NEVER be too routine - its not in our DNA, then life began to settle a little.

Its rough traveling on the Hormone Highway, which I have some to the conclusion that it was built by MEN!

Men have it easy. They take things as they are or blame us women for it. Simple. Women's brains never stop working and are constantly thinking of atleast 10 things at once. I took a brain-based learning course last fall at Union University and in the text book, which is in sight at the present because I loved that subject so much, there is plenty of research stating that men can ONLY think of ONE thing at a time. Its the way they are wired.

How did I get on THAT?

Brad picked up a CD at church the other day that was an excerpt from the Love and Respect conference that came to our church earlier this year. The speaker was talking about the neverending discussion of Women vs. Men. He said... "women look in their closets and say "I have nothing to wear!" when they actually mean, "I have nothing NEW to wear!" Men look in their closets and say, "I have nothing to wear!" when they actually mean, "I don't have anything clean to wear! She ain't washed my clothes!""

I have laundry to do.

Eli and the swing

Elijah is so sweet. He's spent quite a bit of time in this baby contraption that eats batteries like candy and plays really watered down music box versions of a couple Beethoven and Mozart piano pieces. But he seems to love the music. Ahhh. What a relief! He kind of had a "scrappy" day. Meaning.. he wasn't happy all the time.. he fussed a little bit. Not the whole the day... not like a week ago Sunday.. my Lord.. if today had been like that, I would have no hair left on my head. And neither would he for that matter. Even Brad might even have yanked out a strand or two of his precious tresses. But I digress..

It's 10:21pm on a Friday night. I've been sitting here doing homework on the computer - yes, something I really should have done MUCH earlier this afternoon - but I couldn't tear myself away from baby Eli. Actually, he couldn't tear himself away from ME. Finally at 4:30, we gave in, packed his little buns in the car seat and drove around for 2 hours. Hello, sleepy baby! Also, hello baby who will not sleep tonight! Haha.

Anyway, so in his sleepiness, we came home, I fed him while Brad ate supper, I ate cold mac and cheese much later, and then put him in his little swing while I worked on homework.

Here's to a night FULL on sleepy restfulness for ALL!

Factor Z

Today begins the 11th day of being home with Eli. We are actually getting some sleep! I can't believe it! Everyone kept telling me.. "oh, you'll never sleep again! Just get ready.. if you think you've been losing sleep now..." Please! I knew Eli would be the exception! Ha!

I better shut my mouth now before I jinx it.

We had had a couple of rough nights. It seemed as though little 7 pound Eli wanted to eat 7 pounds worth of breast milk each feeding - which took FOREVER! He was especially never satisfied in the middle of the night - of course. Breast feeding is SOME phenomenon! Let me just tell you, if you've never experienced breast feeding an infant before, its HARD! Well, its not that hard, but when the little bugger just will not cooperate even though he's plainly telling you he's hungry, then you want to throw his cute little butt in the garbage can !!! AGHHH!!

The first full day we were home, (Sat. Oct. 23) I had taken a couple of doses of hydrocodone (I guess thats how you spell it... thanks, kindergarten phonics) to ease a little pain I was having. Well, the next day - Saturday - little Eli was too drunk to function! He wouldn't wake up, he wouldn't eat,... so by 3pm when he STILL would not wake up to eat, I called the nurse. She said to force feed some formula down him just to keep him from getting dehydrated.

I thought - nope.. no formula for my baby! But alas, he would just not arouse to breast feed or anything, so we had to shove a bottle in his mouth and force him to eat. Turns out, the hydrocodone I was taking made him drunk! Geezz... why did they prescribe that to me? For goodness sake. So I suffered through pain so my three day old kid would not be buzzing on NARCOTICS!

Where was I going with this..?

Oh yeah, so we fed him with that bottle. It was terribly easy. AND we could make sure of how much he was actually ingesting. Hmmmm..... so with all of his little tempers he was throwing because he couldn't seemed to get "latched on" enough to breastfeed (he only did that in the middle of the night, naturally!), I thought, well, I can pump and he can just take it in a bottle.

We have done that for the last 48 hours, and my, my, my what a difference a bottle makes! I AM proud that I lasted until he was 10 days old to give him a pacifier or a bottle, but still. He breastfeeds when he wants to, and when he doesn't he has the mommy milk in his bottle. How perfect is that?? Temper-throwing does not occur in this house - baby or no baby, breast or bottle! Whew! Its completely NOT what I had planned on doing with him, but hey, you gotta do what works for you, right?

If I can sleep for 4 and 5 hours at a time, and so can Eli and Brad, hey, who's to say there's anything wrong with that? Everyone wakes up in a good mood and we all go on our merry way to have a fabulous day!

Cheers!