Diaper woes

I've been a little worried about little Hayden this week. He hadn't pooped since last Friday, which was quite abnormal for my three-to-four-times a day little guy. I read and read and everything I read said breastfed babies tend to slow down on the bowel movements as they get older, maybe only going once a week! I thought for sure this would not be my baby, since he was so "regular". I was giving it until tomorrow before calling the doctor. I have a fear of being an overworrier, and he had no fever, was eating well, is gaining weight and had plenty of wet diapers so I was just waiting it out.

This morning he was in his swing and was ready to get out so I picked him up. I went to put him down and felt something wet. I looked down and realized he pooped! Never in my life have I been so excited to see baby poop. I unzipped his 'jamas and realized this was no ordinary poop. This was six DAYS worth of poop, coming out of everywhere the diaper would allow it. Seriously, I've never seen anything like it. Clearly not a job for the wipes, so we headed upstairs for a bath. I called Jay, who laughed hysterically at us. It was pretty funny, albeit filthy. But now everyone's all clean and my blood pressure has gone down a few notches.

Yesterday we got Hayden's baby quilt in the mail! My friend Donna did a Salem t-shirt quilt for me a couple years ago and I recently remembered the quilts she had done for her daughters. They were cute and durable and I wanted one for Hayden. I sent her a pair of my favorite of his newborn jammies to incorporate into it. When we opened it up yesterday it was just perfect! It's so soft on the back and feels so comfy; I can't wait for him to be old enough to know that it's his special blankie. Right now it's in the wash so we can start snuggling him up in it tonight!

We're making progress in the crib department, and hope to make lots while Jay is gone for eight days. We have a long list of things to do in daddy's absence, let's hope we can get it all done! We have a four-day weekend coming up over Presidents Day weekend, which also happens to include my birthday. It's always exciting to have Jay home for a couple days during the week.

Congratulations to Joe and Eve, who welcomed baby Cameron last week!

World's cutest baby

Hayden's cuteness factor increases exponentially, almost every day. Late last night, he was up so we came downstairs. He was hanging out in his bouncy seat and all of a sudden, it's like he realized he had feet. He looked and looked at them, and ended up staring at them for about fifteen minutes. This morning he touched them a little with my help, but wasn't quite sure what they were. It's so funny to watch him discover new things!

Today, we were all upstairs watching tv. Hayden was propped up on a pillow in our bed and we started to make the grocery list. I looked up after a couple minutes, only to see that little man had slumped over to his side and was fast asleep. It was the cutest thing! Not only that, it's the first time he's put himself to sleep on his own. We moved him to the crib where he slept for a little while, so we're making progress!

We picked out his portraits on Saturday. Good thing Jay was there, otherwise I would have ended up spending a fortune. It's not fair, the way they take these terribly adorable pictures of your baby! We wanted about ten of them but ended up narrowing it down to two poses. Jay had to talk me out of the third and it wasn't easy! This time we took his pictures at the studio on post, but we're going to check out the photo studio in our little town to compare prices and packages for next time. Dear Germany, get a "Picture People" why don't you??

Hayden is getting slightly irritated when he's swaddled lately, so I think he's outgrowing it. How will we ever get him to sleep now?? We are getting a second car from a couple that is moving to a new duty station. They were given the car when they got to Germany and are "paying it forward" by just giving it to us. How awesome is that?? It's a 1986 Mercedes and it's automatic. Perfect! This will make life much easier for all of us, and will make losing baby weight a little easier on me! Hayden went to the gym with us today and slept right through all of it, allowing Jay and I to get a good hour-long workout.

Jay's working late a lot here lately to train his soldiers; they have a certification for their job coming up Jan. 31-Feb. 7. That means Hayden and I are on our own for about a week while he's gone, so we're going to try some new sleep strategies. It's hard because Jay has to be up at 5am, so I don't like to let Hayden make a lot of noise in our room or his room (it's just across the hall). So we end up downstairs a lot! Hayden is a little young for most of the "sleep training" I've read about but we're going to do our best! This past week he's gone back to not wanting to sleep as much at night, so we are a tired bunch! We're having some diaper issues that are hopefully nothing to worry about; I'm trying to not freak out so we're waiting until tomorrow to see if it's something that we need to call the doc about.

Right now we're waiting on Hayden's Social Security card to come in so we can file our taxes. We're curious to see what all the excitement is about when you have a child. We hear from our parent-friends that it's a much more exciting refund.

Busy day!!

Hayden was such a little trooper yesterday! We got up early and he took a daytime bath for once, so he'd be fresh and clean for his first photo studio pictures. We dropped Jay off at work and headed to the studio for his 1:30 appointment. He was fairly cooperative for a little fellow his age, as we moved and positioned and clicked and flashed for a good half hour. The photographer was repositioning him at one point for a new background, and I realized he had hit his limit. So we called it quits and packed up. We have an appointment on Saturday to go over our proofs and pick our favorites for prints. I can't wait!

Afterwards, we headed over to the clinic for his shots. He got one oral vaccine first, which was super easy. I think it tasted good, because he gobbled it up! We moved into the little room, and Bob got the needles ready. It was my job to hold his hand, so I didn't have to watch the needles. When Bob stuck the first needle, Hayden was surprised and then angry! He screamed and turned red and howled until he ran out of air. Meanwhile Bob was sticking needles two and three, and I had Hayden's pacifier ready so when he took a breath, I popped that in his mouth and he was content. So we're done with shots for two months. Hayden was a little warm last night but not quite fever-status, so it looks like he's reacting well.

Those two events went so quickly we had time to get the car inspected, run a few more errands and check the mail. Good news...his birth announcements have arrived! We had time to kill before Jay got off work (man I can't wait until we have a second car!) so I stuffed them into their envelopes while we waited. Today I've addressed and stamped and licked (gross) and they are on their way tomorrow when I go to the mailbox. Jay never remembers to go to the mailbox when I give him stamped envelopes, so I'm just waiting until tomorrow when we have another round of errands and appointments. Last night Hayden slept off and on most of the evening, so I had time to do a little scrapbooking. I'm on a roll, and might be caught up sooner than I thought!

2-month check up

This morning was Hayden's 2-month check-up. He woke up early, around 7 and wasn't quite ready to go back to sleep so we headed downstairs. We watched a little Sports Center, and I realized little man needed a diaper change. I picked him up and found that he had leaked out a bit, so I took off his onesie and changed his diaper. I put him in his bouncy seat in his diaper and socks so I could wash my hands. By the time I came back, he was fast asleep! Silly boy.

We went to his doctor's office, which is in the hospital where he was born, just around the other side. We checked in and headed to the VERY full waiting room. There were about 12 kids in there, so Jay headed outside and around the corner to get a doner (our favorite downtown snack, sort of like a gyro). We waited about a half hour before they called us in. Hayden is up to 12 lbs 8 oz, 22 inches long and had a normal temperature. She poked and prodded, squeezed and examined, and he's good to go! He's holding his head up well and his reflexes are all appropriate for his age. They are definitely matter-of-fact here in Germany, which is maybe why Europeans don't seem to have the same sense of entitlements and whatnot that Americans do. They didn't tell me his percentiles, which they do at the clinic, but everyone wants to brag about numbers it seems in the states. As for Hayden, he's healthy and normal, and that's all we need to know! He doesn't seem to mind the rectal thermometer but throws a fit when you look in his ears. I could have told her that, we fight when I clean his little outer ears after a bath. Picky boy.

Next up, shots! No one is excited about them. I did decide for his next check up I want to take him in a bubble. So many germy little kids! For the most part the kids looked pretty healthy, but they were all over the floor and playing in toys, hands in mouths and whatnot. And there was one kid who kept scratching his head pretty furiously so I was certain he had lice. But Hayden seemed to come through just fine, in fact, he slept through the loud wait and didn't wake up until I took him out of his car seat to be examined.

We're still working on the sleep thing, but he did sleep about five hours the other night without waking up to be fed. For a baby that wakes up every two to three hours to eat, this was a welcome surprise! He seems to be going a little longer between feedings now, but still growing so I think we're getting the hang of it.

Busy weekend!

Last night we went to a movie, and Hayden is getting pretty good at hanging out for two hours while we watch it from the family-friendly soundproof booth at the back of the theater. He woke up for a little while and just wanted to be held, and we're always happy to oblige. I held him until he fell asleep, and since he has a habit of waking up when you put him back in the car seat, he just hung out in my arms for awhile. One of my favorite things is watching him fall asleep when he's relaxed. His little eyelids get so heavy, and he does the long, slow blink and when he's not fighting it, just falls asleep peacefully. He's so sweet. He has found his hands in the past week or so, and spends as much time as possible putting them in his mouth and sucking on them like his life depends on it.

The movies was our reward for working on Hayden's room all weekend. Friday morning we went to OBI, the German version of Home Depot, and picked out the paint. We did pretty well, considering I forgot the border to match paint. We picked out "sky" and headed home for me to tape off the door and window and outlets and whatnot. As soon as that roller hit the wall, I realized how much better walls look with a little color! As a result, we have plans to paint more rooms in the house. Jay did all the roller work and I did the around-the-tape work, and we finished the paint Friday night despite Hayden's protests. We realized how much easier this is BEFORE the baby comes, but wasn't possible since we thought we were moving.

Saturday morning Jay got to work on the border, and it took him forever. He's pretty precise, and border work is tedious to say the least. It involves water and a razor and waiting and towels and a little flat-edged tool and a TON of patience. But it looks great! I washed his crib bedding and window coverings, and ironed them while Jay was working on the border and when Hayden would allow it. Sunday we got to work on the crib, and Jay made pretty quick work of it. It was put together in no time. We put all the pieces together, and it looks awesome!! I love his room already, and he hasn't even slept in it. We have a small piece of furniture that I bought forever ago that just happens to match his crib, so that's moved up there for his lamp and books and a few toys. Jay put the mobile on, and Hayden is pretty intrigued by the moving dinosaurs.

Now all we have to do is finish putting stuff on the walls and vacuum, and his room will be Hayden-ready! The name sign my friend Jennifer made for Hayden is absolutely perfect, and matches everything to a "T". Thanks, Jen Pounders (Frick)! I forgot how much I love his bedding, and now that it's up we're ready to start putting him to sleep in there. We put him in the crib to test the waters, and he looks so small in there!

Hayden's birth announcement also appeared in the Greensboro News & Record on Sunday. It's small but check it out if you get the paper! Hayden has a doctor's appointment this morning and we have lots of errands to run, maybe including more paint for downstairs! We should have done this a long time ago. Hayden also has to get his shots this week, and has his first studio photo session. I hope he's ready for his busy week!

The woes of living overseas

This is what a sweet baby looks like after a bath. He's all lotioned and baby-powdered up, hair brushed and new 'jamas, and his hair hasn't had time to stand up yet. He looks more and more like his daddy every single day.

Anyway, it's nearly time for Hayden's two month check up, so I called the clinic last week for an appointment with Dr. Garde. She is unavailable. There are 11,000 people in this community and we have one pediatrician. So she literally only has time to see the 2-week appointments (so she can at least meet the babies and moms) and the sick kids. So we have to get a referral to a pediatrician on the economy, much like my OB care. I went to the nurses' office yesterday to get a referral. I waited 20 minutes (not bad for our clinic) and headed in. Their computers were down, so it took 20 more minutes to get a piece of paper saying Hayden can have a referral. However, I was unaware of the new system for referrals. Now instead of waiting for hours, you sign up for an appointment. When I got down there, at 2pm on Monday, I got THE last appointment for the week, which is Thursday afternoon. So now I have an appointment to make an appointment. Hilarious.

The other side of it is that we can't get his immunizations until he sees a doctor. Apparently you have to have a healthy baby before you pump him full of diseases. This time around he'll get three shots and one oral vaccine. I'm not looking forward to it, but it'll be over soon, and it will DEFINITELY hurt him more than it hurts me.

The good news is that Dr. Garde has personally met and interviewed all the pediatricians to which she refers us, and said if she were a civilian, she would want to work in all of their private practices. So hopefully we'll find one we like on the first try. Interviewing pediatricians in Germany isn't an easy process, and we're limited in choice, so I'm going to hope Dr. Garde has done her homework and done it well!

Life update

Well we've been tossing a lot around lately and have finally figured out we'll be staying in Germany a little longer! Jay came down on DA (Dept of the Army) recruiting orders, that he was not excited about. I can't blame him, the only thing harder than recruiting boys to the Army is girls to a women's college! So he luckily got out of those, which is pretty impossible. We then had a choice to make, mainly for Jay. We're a family, we make decisions together; but when it comes down to it, he's the one that has to get up at 5, work in the cold and deploy for 12 months at a time. In the end, staying here is best for his career, and if it means we don't have to move for another two years then I'm okay with that too! We're here until next February, but the unit may be in another deployment then, we'll just have to see.

This means you all have plenty of time to come visit us! It also means I've extended my list of places to see, and most importantly, Hayden's nursery is about to exist in full force! Since we're staying, we're painting and decorating his room this weekend. We got his crib on Sunday, and I cannot wait for the weekend to get to work! I promise to put up pics as soon as Jay stops throwing paint at me for taking pictures instead of painting (which I'm sure will happen).

Hayden and I will still be home in April for my five-year reunion at Salem, so you'll all get to meet him. Get ready, he's a heartbreaker!

I've discovered the best part of my day. It's after Hayden's morning nap, right before lunch. He is usually downstairs sleeping in his playpen or his bouncy seat, and I hear him start to make baby noises. I pick him up before he gets fussy, and he's awake but not quite awake, so he's not hungry yet. He nuzzles his sweet baby head into my neck and sucks on his little hands that are all balled up into fists, and just hangs out there for a few minutes. He's content for a little while, and then pops his little head up with his eyes wide, like he's ready for the day. Sometimes he smiles, sometimes he bobs his little head around, but he's just so sweet.

Jay is back at work so life is getting back to normal. We've had an abnormal few months, so it's nice to get a little structure. Hayden's internal alarm clock is apparently set for Jay's PT schedule, so it's nice that Jay actually has to get up now. Sleeping is getting better and better; Hayden slept for three hours last night before waking up to eat! Right now the house is quiet except for the sound of Hayden's swing and Oscar's snoring. The dishes are done, laundry is in, the floor is vacuumed and our house looks less like a hurricane came through it. There's still 5 inches of snow on the ground, and the high for the weekend is a chilly 25. Looks like a weekend of renting movies and board games!

Sleep and baby hair

First of all, the hair. Hayden's hair is our absolute favorite. The answer is no, we can't make it lay down. We wash, we dry, we brush, we part...and in an hour it pops right back up. And it's terribly cute.

Sleep. Ah yes, sleep. We're getting there! We discovered that part of our problem with sleep was that we were being too reactive and not proactive enough. So I've started paying better attention. When Hayden first shows signs of being sleepy, I swaddle and cuddle and put him down. Yesterday he went down for two naps without a fight! I also realized some of the stuff we've been doing to calm him has actually been re-stimulating him, which doubles the amount of time it takes to get him to sleep. I'm reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and love it. But he's a little young yet for sleep training. So basically right now we're still letting him set his own schedule, within reason. He has learned to sleep at night, and goes down for 2-4 hour stretches from 9 to 5. He wakes up usually at 5 and wants to be awake for an hour or two, and goes back to sleep. This morning he woke up at 5 to eat and went right back to sleep. So it's not a real schedule, but it's at least manageable!

He's also started smiling and cooing more, and it's terribly adorable. He has such a fun personality already, I can't wait to watch him grow and grow!

Happy New Year!

Welcome, 2009. Also known as the year that Jay turns 25 (!) and the year Hayden turns one!

We've been both busy and lazy since my last post. We spent three days down in Schwangau, which is in the southern Alps of Germany. Jay got in some snowboarding, while Hayden and I desperately tried to stay warm in our freezing hotel room. It got warmer the second day, but it was seriously frigid in that room! Hayden seemed to enjoy the change of scenery, even though he still can't see much. We had some awesome German food, and thanks to a screw-up on the part of AAFES, our gas card didn't work and we paid 58 euro for a tank of gas. Which is almost $90 with the exchange rate. I am going to ruin someone's day at customer service, and get my money back. It was a long trip back, since Mr. Cranky Pants didn't want to sleep much of the ride. We survived though! And Jay had a good time snowboarding.

We spent New Years as a family, with fun New Years food. The fireworks woke Hayden up at 11:55, so at the stroke of midnight we were all in the bed together, watching the fireworks from the window. Not exactly a wild night, but good times!

Hayden is 12 pounds! Little chubbers is eating and growing well! This week hopefully we'll find out where we're going and when we're going there, but right now it looks like Jay got out of the recruiting orders that he was none too excited about. A few phone calls and we should know something!

Hayden has a doctor's appointment next week, which means a round of immunizations. I'm not looking forward to seeing those needles pierce those fat little thighs, but we'll make it through it I'm sure. I'll keep you posted!