Two Weeks Old!

Wow, what a busy, sleepy two weeks it has been! After we arrived home from the hospital, we started to try to get into a routine with Camden, but it has been difficult. He likes to stay up all night and sleep all day, so we have had a hard time getting him to switch to a more normal schedule. Thankfully, my parents and Neal's mom spent the first week with us to help with cleaning, laundry, keeping us fed, and grocery shopping. They pretty much kept our housing looking great for us! We also had great friends who have brought delicious food over to the house to keep us fed for dinner. Neal and I were talking today and we realized that even simple decisions such as what to eat are sometimes overwhelming to us, because we are so tired. I totally appreciate having someone else do the cooking and deciding what we will eat. Since we have been home Camden has spent a lot of time here (in his bassinet):
By the way, my mom thinks that this looks a lot like one of my baby pictures! And Neal and I have done a lot of this:

I think Camden looks so tiny in this picture (especially compared to how much he has grown since then)! I love to snuggle with this baby!

We also love to stare at him - sometimes we still can't believe he's ours!

Camden also met his Gigi (Neal's step grandmother) - she is very proud of her first great grandchild, and I have a feeling we will visit Farmer's Branch much more often, now!

This is Camden's favorite place to sleep right now (although we are trying to break him of this habit):

We also tried out tummy time. Camden has been lifting his head up since the night he was born, so we have tried to give him some opportunities to work on the muscles in his arms, shoulders, and legs. During tummy time, Neal would put his arm against his legs, and he would push off and scoot forward until he would get tired and frustrated that his arms weren't doing anything. He also rolls on his side, but he hasn't rolled over completely yet.

On Monday last week, Camden went to the pediatrician's office for his first visit. We were very tired and worn out from another long night of getting up every 45 minutes to an hour with a fussy boy. We had tried the pacifier, rocking him, walking, Mylicon, etc. and nothing seemed to work. Also, I was frustrated with the pain I was feeling while breastfeeding, so you can imagine that I really did not want to feed him every time he woke up during the night - which is exactly what he wanted to do each time. We figured out that he was trying to use me as a pacifier, and I can tell you from experience that he has a very strong suck reflex, so you can imagine how that contributed to the pain issue! So, needless to say, we were lucky to make it to the appointment, and we were having a very hard time staying awake in the exam room. Remember that Camden weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. when he was born, and he lost about 7 oz. while he was at the hospital. Over the weekend, my milk came in, so we were hoping that he had gained some weight before our appointment. Unfortunately, he weighed one ounce less than he did when we brought him home, and we were worried that he wasn't pooping very often (yes, these are the things you start thinking about when you have a baby). The doctor expressed concern about this, and she wanted us to continue breastfeeding for the next few days and then come in on Thursday to recheck his weight. If there hadn't been any improvement, she said that we might have to try supplementing with formula. At the time, I was so tired that I didn't really think about what she was saying, but later on that day, I really started stressing out about how I was feeding our son and worrying that I would have to switch to formula (which is not at all what I want to do - ever!). I even started crying while I was feeding him - especially because I was still in pain. Finally, my very concerned husband stepped in and said, we need to call someone to help. We had several options, but we finally decided on the lactation consultant who taught our breastfeeding class at the hospital. Liz came to our house on Tuesday night, watched Camden feed, weighed him before and after he ate (to see how many ounces of milk he was getting), and stayed and talked with us for about an hour. She was wonderful! She even gave us advice on how to help Camden sleep through the night (although our stubborn son still refused to cooperate!). She said that Camden has small lips and a short tongue and that we need to make sure he keeps his bottom lip turned out while he's feeding, but I have a good milk supply and good nipples for breastfeeding - at least we have that going for us! Also, she left the scale at our house for a few days so we could keep weighing him before and after feedings, and we have kept in touch through e-mail, phone calls, and text messages. Anytime I have a question about something, she is easy to get a hold of to get it figured out. Another reason why Camden wasn't gaining weight is that I was feeding him the same way that I fed him in the hospital - making sure he spent equal time on both breasts. He needed to completely empty one side (even if he only ate on that one side during a feeding) in order to make sure he was getting the good fatty milk that comes from the back of the breast. I'm sure I learned that in the breastfeeding class, but I had forgotten that when we brought him home - very easy to do when you are running on very little sleep. So, when we went back to the doctor's office yesterday, I am proud to say that Camden weighed a whopping 8 pounds, 10 ounces - take that, formula! The doctor even asked me if we had supplemented with formula, and I proudly told her that no, we had fed him with all breast milk. I also told her about our lactation consultant, and she was so excited about how well that worked for us that she asked for Liz's information, so she can refer her to other patients who might have trouble with breastfeeding. I am just so happy that he is healthy and growing. He will probably end up being a chubby baby, but that's fine with me! Also, he has grown two inches since we brought him home! Here he is all dressed up and ready to go to Babies R Us for a few things that we realized we needed after having him home for a week. He is probably overdressed, but I do not want him to get cold!

I had to include this next picture of him trying out his swing - just because the expression on his face is hilarious! He looks like he is so over this swing!

For the past few days, our good friends Brantley and Adrienne have been visiting with their 6 month old, Ainsley (don't worry, we have still been taking it easy, and they have been very understanding of our lack of sleep), so I will post about that in a few days. In the meantime, keep us in your prayers! I am also learning that my husband has "baby brain" - I don't know if that's a real thing, but that's what we're calling it. I had pregnancy brain, but he has this sudden forgetfulness/klutziness that he did not have until Camden arrived. I think that you can blame it on lack of sleep, but it can be hilarious and frustrating at times! He also seems to need much more sleep than I do in order to be productive (not to say that I have not had my moments where I have lost it, because I am so exhausted) which can also be frustrating, too. There are not many things that make my husband cranky, but lack of sleep, being too hot (especially when trying to sleep), and being hungry are all things that set him off! This is almost the same list of things that make Camden upset - except that he is also cranky when his diaper is dirty - thankfully, Neal is potty trained, though! The last few nights have been better in the sleep department, so I think that Camden may finally be adjusting to the right schedule. He just needs to get better about going to sleep without me holding him until he falls asleep!