Levi 1-9 months (how's this for a baby book?)

So I'm just going to throw out whatever I can remember about Levi, because I have 25 minutes till I have to start dinner and I should have this stuff written down somewhere.

He's been a really not good sleeper. I am a sleep training Nazi and this kid had my number.  He had his days and nights mixed up more than any baby I've ever had and I'd never been as tired as I was with him the first 2 weeks.  He got the nighttimes down pretty decently (the usual 1-2 feedings and then right back to sleep) by about 1 month old but then took 45 minute naps from 4 weeks until 3 months.  I read and discussed and kept notes and tried 3 different systems and that kid WOULD NOT sleep longer than 45 minutes during the day.  It was bad.  He still isn't a great sleeper (especially compared to other kids), and I've had to be really careful about keeping him highly scheduled to maintain any sleep system.  The last few weeks he's lengthened his in-between-nap time and that's been really helpful.

One of the reasons that he slept poorly, I figured out at about 2.5 months, was that he has reflux.  I learned that if I wasn't very careful about giving him 3 doses of Zantac a day, he would revert quickly back to 45 minute naps (poor guy was just so uncomfortable).  He took the Zantac until about 7 months and now, at 9 months, he seems to be pretty much over it.

He loves his family.  He does especially well with Jane and Faith and Ryan, but really likes all of the kids and is easily entertained and calmed by him.  They are SO GOOD to him, 95% of the time.  It's really vital to running this huge household having helpers of all ages.

Nursing hasn't gone great.  I've tried my best but I just do not produce much milk.  He took a bottle well from the beginning and we've done both breastmilk regular milk.  He's highly distracted while nursing and these days I opt to pump about half the time rather than try to keep him focused on nursing.  I constantly debate weaning but I've gone to a year with all of the others and can't quite pull the trigger on finishing with Levi early.

A timeline of Baby firsts:

4 weeks--first real smiles

2 months--first laughs, grasping objects, blowing bubbles

3.5 months--rolled over tummy to back

4 months-- first foods watermelon and baby cereal (GREAT solid eater and likes everything)

5 months--holds bottles, gets 1st and second tooth, rolls front to back, loves the exersaucer

6 months--hates our long road trips to UT and CA, starts sitting well, hair starts growing in (so
 blonde), starts scooting

7 months--plays peekaboo, "how big is Levi"?, starts crawling proficiently, pulling to stand

8 months--starting to vocalize quite a bit, gets 3 more teeth, is horrible at drinking from a cup, stranger anxiety!, crawling up the stairs

Loves: all digital devices and screens, peek a boo, being held or entertained, being outside, books, baths/showers, peaches, green smoothies, aiden and anais blankies

Hates: being on his own (though crawling has made him better at entertaining himself), holding his own bottle, getting his nose wiped or his diaper changed

He's so curious and loves to explore, is REALLY good with gross motor skills, less verbal than other kids, he smiles really easily, doesn't get sick often, isn't super snuggly but loves to hang out with all of us.  And of course, we can't imagine our life without him!

Track 2014

I had great plans for this post...3 months ago, when the feelings were fresh.  Now, I'm just going to write about what I remember.

I remember:

being impressed that Emma was willing to try something totally new and work on being a pole vaulter.  It's a hard sport and scary and she did a great job.  It was fun to watch her fly through the air.



the craziness of trying to attend middle school and high school track meets (all over the county) with a newborn who was REALLY picky about his nap schedule.  Once Emma texted me a really nice thank you for driving 40 minutes to see her and I replied "Of course.  This part is one of my favorite parts of parenting!"  And it is.



feeling literally sick to my stomach as I watched Gabe run his first race (the 1600).  He is really talented in long distances and he had high expectations for his 8th grade year.  The first race was tough because he was beat by a 7th grader that came out of nowhere (the kid is also a sprinter and had never practiced with the long distance runners).  Gabe handled it well but it's SO NERVE WRACKING watching your kids race!

fun texts between my family (especially my super talented runner brother Matt) giving play by plays of meets and results.

loving having something to talk to my very silent Gabe about!  We discussed strategies and input from other runners and practices and nutrition.  I remember feeling extra love for and from him and I think it came from the sacrifices I was making to be present and from the intense interest I was showing in his life.



his best race!  It took 3 races for him to figure out how to beat this 7th grader and when it did it was so fun.  Plus he PRd with a 4:56 mile which made him the fastest miler in the history of his middle school!  (Because the kid is a sprinter, he couldn't beat him in the last 200 meters.  He had to stay WAY ahead of him the whole race and it was so fun to watch him pull ahead enough to hold Mitchell off in the end.)  (Also:  Mitchell is the nicest kid ever and it was truly a blessing for Gabe to compete with him.)

Emma's surprise at standing on the podium because she placed 7th in JV in districts.

the disappointment of the district finals.  There is one boy who is CRAZY fast in Gabe's grade and he was always #1 in all of the meets.  Because he'd gotten so close to him at the school meet, Gabe had hopes to maybe beat him at districts.  Well... it was an off week and he placed 3rd behind Fielding and Mitchell.  (Knowing what to say to your child in those circumstances is so tricky.  I think I tried all of the tacts--comfort, blowing it off, investigating why, tons of praise, silence.  Any great insights out there?)



just tons of pride at Gabe's total determination and drive and work ethic.  I love that he's found something he loves and feels good at.



His first high school cross country meet is this Saturday!

Quick Quote

Faith: "I think 'Probably' is a better word than 'Maybe' because

 it's more in the Yes Area (with hands swirling in a small circle indicating an 'area')"

Levi Barely Survived His First Month of Life

So, Ryan had two weeks of paternity leave (plus 1 week of extra vacation) for the first time ever and we were just so excited.  We envisioned these quiet days while the big kids were in school during which we snuggled our new baby, I napped and Ryan got some projects around the house.

Basically none of that happened.

Because Levi was born so quickly, he was super bruised.  His nurse on day 1 came in and said, "That baby is so bruised that I promise he will be really jaundiced, so be prepared for an extra day in the hospital."  Her prediction came true.  I've blocked out all of his bilirubin numbers but he was too high on his second day of life, so he had to hang out under the blue lights all day.  Jaundice sucks for two reasons:  1) heel pricks 1-2 times daily during which your sweet newborn screams and 2) your dying-to-be-swaddled baby has to be naked and free all day to maximize light exposure.  He couldn't sleep, I couldn't sleep and it was miserable.  Ryan came in and sat with his hand resting on Levi to calm him for 2 hours so I could nap and I also just slept all night with him on my chest on a bili pad and the blue light streaming over us so we could get his numbers down and head home.






It didn't last long.  His numbers started climbing again despite 10 feedings a day (my milk hadn't come in, but that's another paragraph) and so we had to rent a billi pad and have him attached to it all day and all night. We had daily heel pricks at the hospital till he was 3 weeks old.  Crazy time drain and such a bummer.  We were glad Ryan was home to manage every one else in the house.

Without going into too much detail on the Internet,  I was losing a lot of blood.  By 10 days post-partum my midwife realized I had retained placenta and she prescribed me a medication that was supposed to cause the placenta piece to come out on its own, through INCREASED bleeding.  It didn't work and I was pale and hardly able to walk up the stairs from all of the blood loss.  And pretty much had my most embarrassing moment of my life at sacrament meeting that Sunday. When we met with the midwife at 2.5 weeks post-partum, she let me know I'd need a D&C.  We were so grateful that Ryan's mom was scheduled to fly into town.  She was able to stay with Levi and the other kids while I had the procedure and recovered.  I felt better as I walked out of the hospital.  I had no idea how draining that blood loss had been.

Due to the blood loss, D&C, retained placenta, and not nursing for a day--I pretty much had no milk.  I'm a determined girl, so I spent the next 6 weeks pumping, drinking mother's milk tea, doing the SNS system, gulping down fenugreek and blessed thistle, meeting weekly with lactation specialists.  I did get my milk supply to about 75% of what Levi needs and felt good about it, but I think I spent 20-30 hours a week on nursing related activities.

And then, at 4 weeks, we took our sweet baby for a walk.  I bundled him up in a hoodie snowsuit and when we came home, Jane pulled him out of his carseat.  She was 2 feet away from me as she tripped over a baby seat on the floor and fell to the wood floor...Levi in her arms, his head hitting the floor first.  I could tell he was hurt, and spent some time comforting him.  He calmed down and I thought he was okay...until I removed the hood from his head an hour later and he had a bump the size of a cue ball on his head.  I began to shriek for Ryan, called the after hours nurse who told me to go immediately to the pediatric ER downtown.

The next 6-8 hours were the most scared I've ever been for my child's health.  The cat scan showed a skull fracture and bleeding.  They did a full body scan for what seemed like hours (found out later that it was to check for child-abuse related fractures) while he screamed.  We had to wait 6 hours for a follow up CAT scan that would indicate whether the bleeding was worsening and whether he'd need surgery or whether we should be concerned about brain damage.  It was horrible.  Ryan had blessed him and felt like he'd be fine, but it was so hard to have faith in that blessing when we just kept getting bad news.




The second CAT scan was the best news.  The bleeding had gone DOWN (which is atypical) and things looked really good.  We ended up spending 3 days in the PICU because he was so young and they needed to watch him.  We got excellent care and all follow up visits have shown zero residual effects.  We are so grateful.



Two sweet events from the night.  For some crazy reason, Levi gave us his first REAL smile.  And the BYU basketball team was in town playing.  My good friend is the head coach's daughter and she hooked Levi up with quite the BYU gear:  a shirt signed by all the players.


You're wondering about Jane, aren't you?  Well, through a true tender mercy, she was completely unaware that she had caused the injury.  She thought that it had happened an hour later (when I found the hematoma and started freaking out), upstairs in my room.  We were so shocked that she wasn't acting upset AT ALL.  It wasn't till we came home and were reviewing Levi-care with the kids that she said "Wait?! HOW DID HE GET HURT??" (it had started to dawn on her as we discussed carrying, falling, etc.) and began to sob as we told her, that it was due to her fall.  We were so grateful that we were able to tell her that he was completely fine, that even though she did it, she didn't need to worry because he was going to be okay.  Heavenly Father is kind both to my baby as he was healed and safe and to my 10 year old as he protected her during a weekend that could have been miserable for her.



So yeah.  That was the first month of Levi's life.  Not much in the way of lazy snuggling and "enjoying the baby".  I still found time to take a billion pictures.  And we had plenty of time to fall in love with the best idea Heavenly Father ever had for our family.

(And in case you can't tell, here's a few from his photo shoot by our favorite, Randi Brunt):