11 Weeks New

Some days I feel like I am totally getting this Motherhood thing. I feel like I can pretty much diffuse any situation with Keaton because I'm starting to understand all his noises and reactions to things. Then came this week.

The week has been full of crying (for both of us), screaming (just him, although I felt like doing it on several occasions), blowouts, spit up, and general discomfort all around. This poor kid. His tummy is the root of all evil right now. He's still been sleeping through the night, but Wednesday night into Thursday didn't go so well because he woke up after only sleeping about an hour, then spit up when I changed his diaper. Earlier in the night he had a huge blowout, so we had to clean him up in the bath tub and change his clothes. When he woke up to eat in the middle of the night, he had ANOTHER blowout so I had to clean him up and change his clothes again. He was not a happy camper- heck, neither was I. That day and I think the day before, he had moments where he would scream at the top of his lungs. I wonder if the neighbors heard him. If so, they probably thought I dropped him on his head or something... the screaming was really that loud. It would come out of no where and last for sometimes 30 minutes and I couldn't calm him down. I couldn't help but be frustrated because I didn't know what else to do with the little guy. In all, a very tough week already.

Everything came to a head yesterday when he fussed all morning long, and I was at my wit's end from the rest of the week. I felt like I was so worn out and unable to make him happy that I couldn't think of anything else to do for him, and that was frustrating. At one point he started crying again, so I joined him. When I took him in to change his diaper, both of us sobbing, he peed all over me and spit up again. I cried harder. I walked out to the living room and the dog got sick. That was the lowest point for me yesterday... I gave up for a second. (Now I kind of laugh about it... it was definitely a comedy of errors.)

I finally called the pediatrician after consulting with my parents. The nurse asked me a ton of questions about Keaton, and then called me back after talking to the doctor. They basically said to up his dosage of Zantac because he'd probably outgrown the old dosage, and they didn't say much else except that his screaming fits could be part of his personality. I actually don't buy that. I've seen him when he's happy, and yes I've seen him throw a fit or two, but I honestly think the screaming fits were about his stomach. Maybe it's wishful thinking- no one wants to think their kid has an attitude problem at 11 weeks of age! So I'm not going to believe it unless it starts happening more often... but we went all day yesterday without it, so I'm not convinced. And really, the two days it happened were the worst of the week, and he had more diaper issues those days, so even though I have no degree to speak of, my educated-ish guess is that it's stomach related.

Casey really bailed me out last night... he came home early, took Keaton, and I was able to shower, get around, and go shopping. I felt guilty about needing a break, but I talked myself out of it when I realized that I will be a much happier and more attentive Mom if I take some time for myself. Thank GOODNESS Casey was able to come home and help out. I really may have lost it if not for some alone time. I picked up Harold and the Purple Crayon from Barnes & Noble, then went to Old Navy and bought Casey a belt and Keaton a cute outfit for Leslie's graduation in 2 weeks.

That's another thing I haven't talked about yet- we are heading home to Topeka in 2 weeks for the graduation festivities, and it will be Keaton's first plane ride! I am a little nervous about it, and I hope his ears are able to pop since Casey's aren't... that would make for a tough time if he was fussy the whole trip. We decided that since the trip is only 1.5 hours from Chicago to Kansas City that we would not buy him his own seat, and one of us would hold him during the flight. Hopefully that will work out well, and feeding and everything will go smoothly. I would hate for him to have a screaming session in that tiny amount of space... I might have to go hide out with him in the bathroom or something. Anyway... positive thoughts... hopefully I won't have to worry about any of that.

I guess that's about all for now. Hopefully this weekend will go well. It's hard to believe my little guy will be 12 weeks old next week! Let's hope week 11 goes better than week 10 did.

Love,

Ash