Tag: baby

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Rough days.

Little Ben was doing so good there for a while that all we had was good news.  But if you’ve been keeping up with the Twitter updates to the right, you know that the last two nights have not been as easy.

It all boils down to the swaddle, if you ask me (which you kinda did by reading my blog).  Up to the surgery, every night Benjamin slept all swaddled up, with his arms pinned to his side.  Since the surgery we’ve had to lay him on his side to sleep, and it’s impossible to swaddle him, since his arms are what keep him from rolling onto his stomach.

Not being swaddled means two things.  Cold hands (which wake him up) and hands/arms that are free to swing around, and make impact with his face (which wakes him up).  We remedied the cold hands aspect of things by putting socks on his hands, but we are still unable to figure out a way to keep him from smacking himself in the head in his sleep.

Two nights ago he maxed out at 2 hours of sleep at one time, and needed to be bounced back to sleep about every hour from about 11:30 on.  My back still hasn’t forgiven me.

Last night he did better, and just needed someone in there patting him on his little rear every so often to keep him asleep.  A two-minute trip into his room was not nearly as taxing on me as an hour-long bouncing session.

Thanks for the prayers.  Please continue to lift us up, and pray that God would give us adequate rest.  He has been so faithful, even in the midst of this, and I am continually reminded that he never promises ease, but instead promises to be with us always.  That’s a better promise!

Also a source for much jubilation and exultation is the fact that Brenda, Jacqueline’s mom is here!  Adding a third person to the rotation is life-changing!

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(Worth the) Waiting rooms.

We just got done at Benjamin’s followup appointment, and are excited by a good report! We thought things were going well, but as always it is good when the professionals agree with my amateur diagnosis. The best point in the appointment (well second best to the moment the doc showed up after making us wait for an hour and a half) was when she said we can let Benjamin sleep on his back, as long as he is wearing his helmet. That is spectacular news, meaning we can reimplement the swaddle and hope that he sleeps for a few more hours at a time! Our next appointment is November 11th! We’ll keep you posted as things progress. Thank Jesus the next time you talk to Him for a resilient little boy. We have already thanked Him for all of you and your love and prayers through all of this!

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Learning to sleep.

We had no idea how good we had it. Before his surgery, Benjamin was sleeping 8 to 10 hours per night, generally with one wake up break (just to keep us honest).
These days, little man just can’t quite get comfortable unless someone is holding him. It’s a great arrangement for him, and he is still getting 8 hours or so, but we are holding him for 3 of those hours (at least), in the middle of the night.
I was convicted last night that I don’t pray nearly enough for the little guy, and when I do pray it is often very general, virtually unanswerable prayers. So today I prayed specifically for him to start getting comfortable enough to sleep on his own, and for us to be able to sleep well.
I have gone back on campus some this week, leaving Jacqueline to care for our newly high-maintenance little guy. Pray for her especially during this time.

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Day with Daddy, or "How I got rice cereal out of an infant’s nose"

There are just some things that didn’t show up in the new daddy brochure.  They warned you about diapers, about not sleeping, and about spit-up; but nobody ever mentioned the wonder of modern science known as the baby spoon.

I have watched Jacqueline feed little Benjamin rice cereal (which, by the way, seems to be a wholly inaccurate name for it, on par with calling meatloaf a “rib-eye”), and she is pretty adept at keeping it in his mouth, for the most part.  At least the part that doesn’t go in the mouth goes south from there to the chin or bib.

I am more of an adventurer than that, though.  I like to see how close I can get cereal to going in his eye, all the way to his sinus cavity, or into his diaper.  Like an x-games athlete, I am into the extreme sports.  Yesterday he spit cereal at least 10 inches onto his new high chair tray.  It’s cereal, daddy style.

The problem is my spoon technique, I think.  The “what the heck am I doing” face I make during the process doesn’t help, but instead makes little Benjamin laugh while there is food in his mouth, turning said food into a projectile.  At which point I laugh, thus exascerbating the problem.

Then, once I get the next spoonful near his face he decides that it would be an appropriate time to try out the new head-bang maneuver he’s been working on, and plants his conveniently spoon-sized nose into the cereal.  The shock of it on his face causes him to inhale violently, and we have a problem.  See, his nostrils are far too small for me to get anything out that has gone in.  Being the resourceful guy my wife married for wit, charm, and reasoning skills, I decided to utilize a device small enough to dig out the misappropriated mush, little Benjamin’s pinky finger.  Seemed like a logical choice at the time.

To make a long story short, don’t try that.  Trust me, you’d rather leave the mush in there.  He still controls that little finger, and once you get it wedged in there, he closes his hand in a fist, and then gets mad because somebody is squeezing his nose.

All in all, daddy day yesterday was really fun.  I thought I’d share one of the more comedic moments with you.  Now, to go and update that brochure…

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