Updates

Sheesh! It has been over a year since I've made an entry. Being pregnant and tired, then having a newborn with 2 part-time jobs will do that!!

To catch up. My pregnancy was pretty good for the most part. I started having contractions at 26 weeks and those lasted the entire 3rd trimester. The dr said I had an irritable uterus. I'm sure it had something to do with Matthew being breech and transverse breech the majority of the time. We went to to hospital 4 different times to check me out and was given medication to stop contractions. I was also given medication at home to help, but it wasn't much help some days. Thankfully, our baby boy did not come too early. On the contrary, he came nearly a week late.

I was induced, which was a disaster from the start. He wasn't engaged in my pelvis, he was still moving between head down and breech and I wasn't dilating, at all. He didn't tolerate the extra contractions and was taken by c-section about 4 hours after we started the induction.

Matthew was born at 11:42 pm on Dec. 22nd, measuring 20 inches and weighing 7 lbs 14 oz. Not bad considering he was late.

It has been a pure joy being Matthew's mommy. He's nearly 7 months old and I'm still in awe that he's here and he's ours. WOW! He's a pretty high maintenance baby. Just like in my belly, he's very wiggly, always on the move. He had colic until about 3 1/2 months and then had meltdowns still every evening until about 5 months or so. His mornings tho have always been fun. It lights up my heart to go get him out of his crib every morning, to see that first big grin of the day. We had to start swaddling him when he was about 3 weeks old. With his colic, and being so wiggly, we couldn't get him to sleep longer than 30 mins without being swaddled like a mummy. We continued swaddling him at night until just this past Monday. We've been trying to wean him from it for over a month but he wasn't ready until now. He's finally figuring out how to soothe himself when he wakes up at night. Most of the time now he sleeps on his side or belly. It has taken him a while to sleep thru the night. On my birthday, May 22, we turned 5 months and that was the first night he slept thru the night. Since then, he eventually went from 2 feedings at night to just one. He slept thru the night last night without a feeding. Perhaps this will continue, but I'm fine with one feeding...it's better than it was!

His development. Matthew had pretty good neck control when he was born. Perhaps that had to do with his acrobatics in my belly, even at 40+ weeks. I also think that's why he had pretty good leg muscles at birth. He was only a few weeks old already wanted to "jump". His thighs were pretty chunky at birth, and of course still are. We put him in his jumperoo at about 3 1/2 months but with his excellent head control and strong legs, it was only a matter of days before he got the hang of it. His legs didn't reach the ground tho so we put some blankets under his feet. haha! It took him a little longer to figure out he has hands. I thought he'd never figure that out. Finally, one day around 4-4 1/2 month, he reached up in front of him to hit something hanging from his activity mat and the rest is history. He figured out rolling over fairly early, thanks to those tree trunks called legs. But he'd forget pretty easily how to do it. At 6 1/2 months, he's now rolling over, rolling back, turning, scooting and even crawling on his elbows and knees. He's a pretty amazing little guy. He learned all of that on his own, we merely encouraged it.

Food. We started bottle feeding Matthew when he was 10 days old due to me being in severe pain from him not latching correctly. He and I eventually figured it out. We bottle fed during the day because he was entirely too wiggly to nurse and I was able to nurse at night. I didn't have enough milk for him for very long. At 6 weeks old we had to supplement with formula (Gentlease, to help with his colic). I nursed/pumped until about 4 1/2 months. At that point I ran out of milk because my cycles had started about a month prior and I guess the hormones dried up my milk. Having to stop nursing was pretty hard for me. I was going to miss that bond. It was tough for both of us at first but we got thru it and nursing seems like a distant memory. Hoping I can nurse our second baby much longer. We'll see. Matthew had a stomach bug about a month ago for about a week and then was sick for another 8 days from a vaccine so in an effort to help his belly the dr had us switch to soy milk. It's possible that he now has a slight milk allergy so we might have to stay on soy for a while. He doesn't like rice cereal, at all. He does enjoy sweet potatoes, apple sauce and bananas. We stopped giving him food when he got sick weeks ago, briefly gave them to him for about a week in between the illness but haven't started back on them. I bought a food processor and am making baby food. It's pretty easy. I think we'll start with peas tonight.

My jobs. Well, while pregnant, I had 2 part-time jobs doing bookkeeping. The mornings were at the law office and the afternoons I worked from home, which was awesome once I started getting bigger and more uncomfortable, especially when the contractions started. By the end of the summer, the law office decided to close in Oct and everyone was going to work for a new firm except they didn't need another bookkeeper. Instead, and this is the awesome part, the partners kept me on, working from home, collecting outstanding money owed from various clients. So my dream of being able to be a stay at home mom has come true. It can be pretty stressful some days trying to enough hours in to make our budget while taking care of Matthew, but it's a good stress really. I love being home with him!!

So that catches you up for the past year+. I'll try to do a better job of posting and I'll include some pics soon. Matthew is now 25 inches (15%) and weighs about 16 1/2 lbs (20%).