Ty Carter Brunson, I cannot believe you are already 5 and 1/2 weeks old! It seems like just yesterday that we found out we were pregnant with you! It has been quite the whirlwind and it definitely threw our lives upside down when you came, in a good way.
You were born 5 weeks early for reasons that no one knows. I'm thinking it's because your dad and I are very impatient, and sadly, that probably passed on to you, too! Because you were so early, you needed help with a few things. The doctors put you in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to monitor your breathing, oxygen levels, heart rate, and they also had to help you learn how to eat and gain weight. You were there for two weeks and made incredible progress!
When you came home from the hospital, you were two weeks old. I was terrified to be solely responsible for you and was nervous that I'd do something wrong, but I was also incredibly relieved to not have to worry about the dumb monitor that beeped every time I held you because your leads came off, or your oxygen detector wiggled off your foot, making it seem like someone was dying. I was so glad that the nurses were no longer in charge of everything and that I could finally be your mom!
The first day that you were out of the hospital, we spent at Grandma and Grandpa Brunson's house, but the following day, Saturday, we took you to our home! It was so wonderful to look around at all of the baby stuff in our house and finally have, in our arms, the perfect little tiny human to go with everything!
Up until this last week, you were actually a decent sleeper! You'd wake up every two hours or so to eat, and then you'd fall back asleep! Our days were very mundane. Because you'd eat every two hours, I didn't always feel very well rested at 8 in the morning, so I just kept sleeping. When I finally got out of bed, all I wanted to do was snuggle with you! So, that's all I did for about two weeks straight! We had dishes piling up in our sink, clothes overflowing our laundry basket, but I just held you tight until it was time to go get dad from work. Then he and I would switch off holding you, and it was perfect!
For about the last week or two, you became quite gassy at night. I don't know if it was something I did, or if it was the vitamins that the hospital told me to give you, but nights turned into a miserable time of day that I dreaded. You would wake up, I'd feed you for about 30 minutes, put you back to bed, get in my own bed, and then five minutes later you were crying again. So I'd have to sit with you for about an hour squishing your knees up to your stomach trying to help you get rid of your gas. I didn't mind doing this because I hated seeing you in pain, but boy did it make me tired. So after an hour of that, you were finally happy and sleepy. I'd put you down in bed, and you'd wake up half an hour later to eat. And this has been happening for almost two weeks!
Grandma House came to visit during that time (May 22-29) and on her last night here, she took care of you all night so that I could sleep, and I slept for 7 hours straight! It was a nice reboot for sure. And then this past weekend on Saturday night, you slept!!! I put you to bed and you fell asleep for two and a half hours, woke up to eat, and then slept for three and a half hours! It might not seem like much, but boy was it amazing! Definitely worth remembering! But then you were back to not sleeping very well and having an upset stomach, so I knew I was going to have to do something about it.
Two days ago, I took you to the doctor and asked if I could stop giving you the vitamin (Polyvisol) because I thought that might be part of your gassy/upset stomach, and he said that was fine. I also realized that you don't really like to sleep on your back, but that you prefer sleeping on my chest, in someone's arms, or on your stomach. So that night, I let you sleep on your stomach on our bed. You loved it! You slept for three and a half hours! Last night, you were constantly hungry and mad that I kept putting you on your back to sleep, so I took you into the front room, fed you, and then fell asleep on the couch. You slept on my chest for about 4 hours, and it was glorious!
Moral of the story, night time is still a work in progress for us, but I think we're getting there!
You are now almost 6 weeks old (on Friday) and you are so dang cute! You are very expressive with your facial expressions! Every time you're awake, you have such a quizzical look on your face like you're trying to decipher everything that you see. When you sleep, your mind is thinking like crazy and I can tell because your eyes are constantly moving, opening, and you make the cutest faces!
You love being held really tightly, so we bought these "Swaddlers" that velcro super tight and you love being wrapped up in them! You do really well when I put you on your stomach for tummy time!
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