Two Months

 

Remember everything I said about mastering the baby sleep? Yeah...you can just toss that out the window. Howie cried for 2 weeks straight. Every time he nursed he fell asleep and the moment we laid him down he let out a painful cry and woke up. We couldn't keep him asleep longer than five minutes at a time unless we were holding him against our chests. We went on like this for two whole weeks. It was so hard to watch him in pain. We tried so many different things to help soothe him. We thought it might be trapped gas, we wondered if it was the dreaded "C" word (colic), I worried that my mom juice was poisoning him, and then we wondered if maybe he just wanted to be held by us. So we held him. Everyday and nearly every night. We had to throw out the schedule because he wouldn't take naps; he threw up, and he cried. It was so difficult for us to sit by and watch him squirm in pain and not be able to do anything about it. Turns out he had acid reflux. One new inclined sleeper set, a trip to the doctor, and a prescription for baby zantac cleared it right up. It was like having a new baby, or rather our old baby back.

Howie's Rundown

• Bath time becomes a father/son event. I love watching these two together. I can see every hope a father can have for a son in B's eyes everytime they lock eyes. It's beautiful.
• Howie took his first road trip to Houston to visit my huge family. He was kissed and passed back and forth through the masses. And he didn't sleep.
• We got a little cabin fever so we wrapped him up in layers upon layers and laid out at Zilker Park with the dogs. It was awesome. I imagined me as a baby and my parents laid out on blankets with me at the park. There are so many pictures of the three of us cuddled up in the sunshine taking in the breeze at Houston's Herman Park. I felt so blessed to carry on the tradition of sitting in the sun.
• Mom resumed kickboxing workouts during the day. One of the benefits of being an instructor meant a key to the gym and the ability to workout in between classes when it was quiet. I took Howie with me to the gym, nursed him, put him to sleep on the mat and worked out for about 30 minutes or so before he woke up and told me to take him the f home. 
  

  

  Just like this.
   Except that Howie is a baby.
   And he's not white.
  And he wasn't this polite.

  
  
• Howie didn't sleep this month. Did I mention that?
• Public places do not scare him. Lots of outings; no meltdowns - for him.