Jesse and Marissa: My growing baby.

I have been needing to write more about Corbin's first 6 weeks of life or so but haven't quite gotten to it. I really don't want to come off sounding negative or anything and I hope I don't just sound like I am complaining but for journaling purposes I think I need to remember a few things.

Well, to be honest it has not been easy! Being a new mommy and trying to figure out how to take care of a newborn and knowing his needs can be hard sometimes. And putting a baby with reflux into that is even that much harder...well at least I am going to assume that! But don't get me wrong I absolutely love being a mommy to my sweet baby boy!

I can't quite pin point when he for sure developed reflux..but I want to say about when he was a week and a half because I remember at his 2 week appt telling the doctor that he spits up a lot! But he didn't seem to worry, he probably gets that a lot from new parents though. But from there it kept getting worse, not just the spitting up but you could just tell that he was so uncomfortable all the time. He could never lay still and would always be squirming which was probably from the pain of reflux. This is so hard as a parent to see, especially at the time not knowing what it is for sure and why he was like that.

At first they said maybe I was not producing enough milk and he was still hungry because it seemed that he was always wanting to eat and he didn't gain enough weight one week. Which I guess could of been the case but I am pretty sure it was probably because he was spitting up so much and it is soothing to suck for a baby and soothing to eat with reflux as well--but later I learned it can actually worsens the problem by just eating all the time...good thing I know now. We were also told to try to start supplementing with formula after I feed him but I felt that only made it worse, he was even more fussy and would spit up nearly all of it.

I called the pediatricians office 2 different times because I was worried. The first time they told me I need to burp him more often and hold him up for at least 30 minutes after he eats and stuff like that. The 2nd time the lady told me I needed to cut all dairy out of my diet, anything that had the milk protein in it-you would be surprised how many products do. It was difficult for me to do but I knew it would be worth it if it would help. A week passed and I saw little to no improvements and was slightly frustrated and disappointed but at the same time knew it wasn't the dairy doing it and they gave me the ok to start eating dairy again because I should of seen some improvements. (which I was happy I didn't have to worry so much about what I was eating...and I could still eat ice cream!)

So the 3rd time I called the office I was determined to see the doctor, no more of them just telling me things to do, I knew he had reflux and he needed to get help for his poor little body and of course I was pretty exhausted as well. My little guy was sleeping very little which means I was sleeping little to none. There had been a few days of no sleep mixed with the changing of hormones that I would just sit there and cry because I felt so helpless and exhausted and confused about knowing what to do. I had read so many things desperately trying to find out what I should or could do to help. I also would laugh as I told my Mom I would sit there and cry and tell Heavenly Father that this is all I could handle-I reached my limit-(thinking He will never give you anything you can't handle) mostly I just prayed for help and for my little baby boy to feel better.

For my birthday I was asked what I wanted and my reply was just to make him feel better-of course that was all that was on my mind and all I wanted! I had looked into a natural product for reflux, gas, colic stuff and my mom also had a friend that used it and recommended it so we thought we would give it a try. I can't say that it worked right away like it says it would but over the next few days I could see some improvement. He was actually taking naps during the day which meant he was able to relax enough to, so it must be helping. They couldn't get him in at the doctors for a few days because of the holiday. So the day we had his appt he was doing so much better-the spitting up had not really changed but you could tell he wasn't so uncomfortable anymore. We decided to still go to our appt because we really couldn't cancel by then. It was confirmed he had reflux.

So now he is 8 weeks old and I feel that I have a better handle on things. I feel I am finally learning most of his needs. He still is a messy baby-can't go anywhere without burp cloths and his shirt will probably always look dirty if I don't have a bib on him. (good amount of laundry) I learned that sleep is very important and it can make a huge difference of how he is as far as being fussy or not. He can only stay awake about an hour and a half then he needs to take a small nap. He fights naps during the day though especially if he stays awake too long. I have to put him down before he gets overly tired or it can be a long process of trying to rock him to sleep as he fights it. He has never given me a problem with going to sleep at night but the only bummer is he still wants to eat every 2-3 hours around the clock which makes for a tired mama still..

He started giving us real smiles at about 6 weeks, he is especially smiley in the mornings! We love it! He even has cute dimples that come out! I love to see him happy now! :) He loves to be sucking so he will basically always take a binky but the last week or so he found his fist and sucks on those as well.

He was also a messy boy when it came to diaper changes. The first few weeks we couldn't go a diaper change without getting either peed or pooped on...and/or the walls were covered in it. He has gotten a lot better at not making such a mess. But he sure is one of the gassiest babies...not gonna lie there...

But I love Corbin so much! I love just staring at his handsome little face and seeing his cute little nakey body! We can't quite figure out what color of hair he has, I feel like every day it can look different. But I say it is brown with some hints of red in it. These last couple days I realize he sure is a growing boy. He gets the double chin now when he smiles real big--we knew it was coming! It's kinda funny too that I can be exhausted from taking care of him but if I haven't held him for a couple hours I almost start to miss him, I guess its since I am so used to having him connected to me basically so it gets weird if I haven't for a while.

Here are some random pictures in chronological order to see our growing baby!

He likes bath time, he just sits still basically the whole time looking so relaxed.