hospital visits.

I think if i was in this alone I would have already been at the hospital at least 5 times, fortunately Zack brings my anxiety levels down and has way more reasonable solutions.

babies breath sounds are SCARY. they grunt, snort, wheeze- and for some reason at night it all intensifies. I swear during the day his naps are so quiet, he looks so calm & peaceful. then he realizes we’re trying to go to sleep and starts his extreme muscle twitching phase, which obviously keeps me up. I would have my finger under his nose half the night to make sure I could feel his breath.

we’re the lucky ones who have a baby who just loves love- cute right? nope. he does not want to be put down…ever. he would be perfectly happy being in someone’s arms every second of every day. because of this- the first month- he slept in our bed. My husband had to work everyday and I was concerned about him getting enough sleep, so even though I didn’t love having this baby in bed; it’s what put the baby & my husband to sleep. And yes – i know people say don’t put them in bed because they can suffocate, don’t give them blankets in their crib- basically treat them like a prisoner in a stark cold jail cell with nothing to comfort themselves. well that’s all & good for you if it works, but it’s winter and my babe loves the warmth and coziness of his favourite blanket.

so I probably would have gone to the hospital for his breathing, but tried elevating Lincoln at night, bought a dehumidifier & would give him a warm bath to open up his nose; much smarter ideas.

When he turned one month old, literally on the day, his bowels changed and he just stopped pooping his normal amount. I was used to 6 dirty (like nasty dirty) diapers a day. And then all of a sudden he went a day without pooping, he peed a lot so I knew he was OK, but was know the master poop detective and needed to find the problem. Again, instead of stressing out, Zack just gave it some time and then Lincoln let it rip and afterwards we learned babies poop patterns change around 4-6 weeks. I guess I should have done a little more pregnancy reading before this whole baby thing happened.

I also thought I was overfeeding him because he wanted to eat every 45 minutes and sometimes for 45 minutes. I think some of this stemmed from being so absolutely miserable when I breastfed and wanting to just make any excuse to not have to feed him again. I would have rather had a hospital visit in the hopes it would just give me some time with Lincoln off my boob for a bit. Everything ended up just fine and what actually needed to happen was for me to explain to Zack how I felt. Now we have introduced one or two feeds a day with formula, depending on our schedule. It allows Lincoln to bond with Zack and doesn’t stress me out that I need to always be available (pumping hasn’t really worked that well for me- sometimes i can fill a bottle in 20 minutes, sometimes I get half a bottle in 40 minutes).

So I’d say trust your gut- but maybe take a breath first and just look into it a little bit. Or just go to the hospital.