Here Comes The Sun



Max turned 14 weeks old yesterday, and reading the last post I am reminded how far we've come.

First, Max is eating better. His suck is stronger, and he's digesting far better than before. We're still supplementing with formula, but once we finally realized this was going to be the reality, the stress reduced some and allowed us to simply concentrate on making the most of the time he does spend on the breast.

Not only is Max eating better, he's been sleeping better too, getting several hours at a time regularly. Sometimes up to 6 or 7 hours at night. Not all the time, but sometimes. All this has revealed a side we knew was in there but only glimpsed briefly before, Happy Max. He's smiley a lot now. Things are more restful here. Likewise, the SNS (the tube and bottle thing that we used to help teach him to suck better) worked well for what it was but brought its own share of hassle and distraction. Just cleaning it after every use was a pain, plus he found the tubes annoying, and getting them in his mouth was distracting, etc, etc.

So what was the pivotal factor: the probiotics? The nursing thing helping his suck? Turning 3 months old? The mylacon? The visit to the occupational therapist, whose techniques also improved Max's ability to eat? We may never know for sure, but regardless things have come a long way in a short time. As I write this, Max has been asleep for almost 3 hours. By himself. WHAT?! The world is spinning right round. Simple isn't exactly the watchword these days, but things are simpler and we're all enjoying that.

Well, maybe I am speaking too soon. A lot has happened in the last two weeks.

He started daycare. Still not sure this is what we want, but finances say otherwise, and our daycare is great, an older couple who work out of their home, and who have been doing daycare for almost 40 years. They love kids and especially babies, and keep only about 6 or 7 kids at a time, so Max won't be ignored and crying. And anyway, they do not work on fridays so I have fridays off and G got a 4 day week approved also, so she'll stay home with him mondays. Good people, minimal daycare, and they're reasonably priced too. About as good as you could hope for really. But Max is still pretty little (young is a better choice... he's not little at all, today squeezed into a onesie for 6 month olds that he is really too long for). The action and noise kind of freak him out a bit, and he's pretty susceptible to getting sick. The first day when G picked him up, he held it together all day then when he saw her that evening burst into tears.

G started back to work today, and I'm home with the boy because we had another first: his first cold. He's been plugged up, restless, and we spent saturday revisiting the old Max, the one who couldn't sleep more than 30 minutes at a time and who cried a lot. That REALLY made us appreciate how far he's come. But he seems to be doing a lot better and has been asleep in his car seat for about an hour now. Second nap today. We have not used the slings in weeks. I remember how excited we were for the sling, and it did in fact save us a lot of trouble, but after a while the slings (we had several) just become albatrosses around our necks. The supplemental feeding thing has run it's course, as have the probiotics. All that was new 2 weeks ago is old news now. Things happen fast with a baby, though they feel like forever.



p/s/ - This is funny. Or unsettling. Max and mom watching TV. Although he doesn't normally watch TV, he is attracted to the sound and motion. In this movie he's particularly into it, which is a bit disturbing to us but considering how distracted by stomach pain he used to be, it's great to see him so focused on something.