The Trip So Far . . .

It has been a tough ride so far with Gibson. He's been so fussy and inconsolable that it is very frustrating. He tends to scream a LOT and only likes to sleep upright or on his tummy (which is a big no-no), and even then his sleep is restless. My lactation consultant told me he may have gastric reflux, so yesterday, we took a family trip to the pediatrician and Gibson was prescribed some baby Zantac which is an acid reducer. Hopefully that will help him.

I've also started him on a schedule. We had a sort of schedule before, it was basically every three hours, but not specific times. Now, I've had some helpful hints from some books on how to get him on a schedule and keep him on it. He seems to be doing very well with that. The last two nights he has gone 5 hours between feedings, so that is a big improvement. A friend also lent us a swing which has been a life-saver at night; he goes to sleep with a little fussing, but stays asleep a lot longer than if he was laying in his crib.

By the way, he is in his own room now. We had him in a bassinet in our bedroom for the first three and a half weeks. But as one person so delicately put it, babies tend to sleep as quietly as a barnyard. I am such a light sleeper that I use earplugs to ward off James' night noises. With Gibson in the room, and me being a new mom, I heard every little peep he made even with the earplugs in; and "peep" he did almost constantly. So, needless to say I didn't get much sleep; I was already up every 2 - 3 hours, and then in between I could hear the charming noises of our little prince. Off he went to his own bedroom. I sleep sooo much better now!

He now weighs 10 lbs, 3 oz. He's outgrown some of his newborn clothes. We were very fortunate to have lots of hand-me-down little boy clothes, along with all the gifts we received (thank you!), so we have plenty of clothes for Gibson - which is a good thing since he spits up so much. He has one outfit that has a whale on it and it says "Little Squirt." He was wearing it yesterday (he was so cute!!) and the outfit proved to be prophetic: first he spit up all over it (more like spewed), and then he squirted up the back of his diaper and when I was changing him he squirted in the front! The next outfit made no references to squirting.