7 Weeks

   Would you look at that?? He is a BIG BOY. I don't get it, he went from my skinny Minnie chicken legged little guy, to my muscular chunky monkey. 

  His strength amazes us. He has such a strong neck and back. Seriously. It's amazing 

He loves to sit up (with support) and hold up his head. He's even started tracking us with his eyes and head 

We are really starting to get into routines and are noticing patterns. His sleep is pretty remarkable, some nights he has 5 hour stretches :) 

Smiles and laughter? This little guy is full of smiles and happy facial expressions. He even has laughed a few times :) I cannot wait to see his full personality. 

Eyelashes, FINALLY!! He had very thin and short lashes when born and they are defiantly more prominate now. Gorgeous 

6 Weeks

Had his follow up Dr. appointment- He looks great, weighs 11 pounds w clothes, and shows no signs of damage from his head injury. We follow up with Neurologist in a few days

                                    

SMILING- Not a ton but often enough to melt my heart

Had his first blowout, minor, but thats a good sign that we are ready to move up to Size 1 diapers

Took his first bath without screaming! 

We were finally able to get outside this week and go for a walk! Cant wait for many more family walks. 

Gas- His poor gas is still really hurting his tummy. Dr. says its nothing I can do to help, but I am going to start experimenting by eliminating things from my diet (NO coffee will not be the first thing I attempt)

Bald spot is starting to appear on his right side of his head( Very random spot)

Nolan loves to be in the stroller/car but HATES...HATES when you have to stop..even for a second! 

Pacifiers!!! NOPE, not this kid. We are still trying to introduce pacis. I know a lot of parents wish their kid didn't use a pacifier BUT Nolan thinks his mommy is his pacifier and ofter will choke on milk, or get frustrated when he can't get instant comfort from nursing..this is why a paci would HIGHLY benefit him, we will keep trying but until then mommy it is. 

Since pacis aren't cutting it and Nolan is very sensitive to movemt changes in car/stroller we got a new member of the family. MEET OLLIE

Ollie is a vibrating owl. He is suppose to be calming. So far Ollie is kinda living up to my expectations but we will see how he does after a few outings 

1 Month Old/4 Weeks

My baby, wow....I thought Ava grew up fast...yikes Nolan is growing at rapid speed!

He is going to be out of Newborn clothes by the end of the week, time to pack his stuff up and unpack his 3 month clothes....3 months..thats almost 6 months..which is practically a year...which is practically a toddler! Make it stop!!! 

Nolan is officially trying to smile, little glimmers here and there. I saw his first smiles in his sleep of course, but his first real non sleep smile was right at daddy :)

He sneezes a TON, and multiple times and it takes his whole body to let out a good sneeze

He is a fantastic little sleeper. He sleeps a lot during the day, but that too I see changing here shortly. At night he sleeps on average for 2 hours, gets changed, eats and off to dream world he goes. 

    * Our routine is 7pm feed, snuggle family time, this is Avas wind down time ( iPad, books, snuggles) at 8pm we put big sister to sleep and have 8pm-9pm hang out in the big bed time. 9pm we get changed, fed, and try to sleep. Some nights he wants to party and stays up until 11pm. 

    Justin and I have a wonderful routine. Nolan wakes up, Justin will change him, I feed him, Justin burps him while I pump and then we put Nolan back to sleep. Some nights we don't need to wake daddy, but when we do he is a HUGE help :)

Mommy, Ava, and Nolan are enjoying being at home (though we are excited to get out). We are starting to get a good hang of a schedule and soon enough ( once the weather cooperates) we will be able to get out more! 

Ava is an amazing big sister, doing far better than Justin and I could have ever wished for. We are so proud of her!

Nolan is starting to be more interactive, he plays on his playmat for short periods of time. His favorite place to hang out is in someones arms of course. Justin and I have a game we call Buddha baby, He sits up in our hands on our lap and uses full neck control *and looks like a baby Buddha. Too cute!

His other favorite spot to hang out is his changing table mat, he kicks and coos the whole time. Even allows me to take a shower 

Nolans struggles this month:

   GAS!!!!!!!- Gripe water needs to be sold by the gallon. It works INSTANTLY. 

   POOP- SO MUCH POOP. His nickname is still going strong...squirt, and lots of it. 

We use THE HONEST COMPANY for diapers. Its such a help to have diapers on order and that come to the house directly. We can also customize style, size, and most importantly delivery schedule. We are currently using it every 5 weeks! 

  Nolan has VERY sensitive skin(and acne) and the wipes are amazing on his bum ( we had to use other brands while in the hospital, and when we ran out...both times he broke out) 

Honest diapers run a bit small. He was in Newborns this whole month but is about to move to size 1!

His nails grow instantly fast and I feel like Im trying to constantly cut them. 

Breastfeeding for both Mom and Nolan are finally going pretty well. We are getting better each and every day. My supply is finally catching on to his needs! 

He has the CUTEST quiver he does with his lips, usually when you first pick him up. This is also what he did the day he was born, too cute!

Mommy postpartum is doing amazing. It is seriously so fascinating how a body bounces back after 9 months of growing a baby. I had an interesting after birth experience and things are JUST now starting to balance out ( hormones, bleeding, etc.) 

5 weeks

Skull Fracture :( poor baby  * Read scariest day of our life for more detail. 

This day will never be forgotten and we are so lucky that Nolan is a strong little boy. 

More alert to the world around him, he LOVES being on his changing pad in front of the big mirror. He also loves to just lounge around on the pad around the house :)We all enjoyed our snow day this week. Ava enjoyed the extra time with daddy. 

Ava is an AMAZING big sister and takes great pride in her baby brother. She loves the opportunity to hug him, kiss him, hold him, and touch his feet (Her favorite)

 

Nolan is a great little napper. 

"Talking" more

Nolan and mommy are really getting good at breastfeeding and have a good routine down. 

Sleeping longer increments at night in his bed( even though he prefers to snuggle). He usually wakes up every 2 hours...sometimes 3 hours. 

He's almost fully in 3 month clothes ( all Jammie's) most his shirts still fit but pants are snug. I cannot believe how fast and how much he has grown. Its crazy to think I am already starting a box to donate to friends/family, SLOW DOWN NOLAN. 

He's getting a bald spot on the top right of his head

Scariest Day of our life

      3/7/2015


After many days cooped up in our house because of ice and snow we were welcomed by a beautiful sunny Saturday. We decided to bundle up and get out of the house. Naturally, we decided to go to target. I've been wanting to get Nolan some new binkies to try because he's been using me as a human pacifier and that is NOT cool. So off we went.

I fed Nolan in the parking lot so he would take a nice nap in the store. While shopping Nolan began to get VERY fussy and very loud, I decided he just wanted to be cuddled so he could calm down. After 10 min and many laps around the frozen food isle he FINALLY fell asleep. I decided to stick him in his car seat but chose not to buckle him up just yet because I didn't want to risk waking him up and figured to wait until he was in a deep sleep before buckling him in. The carrier was in the basket so I figured he was perfectly safe. Well it worked and he was happy and sound asleep. We checked out and mommy and Ava decided it was time for coffee and a cake pop and Justin would go load the car while we got our treats 

( as justin walked out of the store I went to grab my phone and call him to let him know Nolan wasn't strapped in but right as I went to dial the barista asked for my order so I hung up) 

*** I don't want to be judged for what we chose to do or with what happened, so go ahead and keep all comments to yourself. We have learned a valuable lesson and hope by sharing people will too**** this is no ones fault and accidents happen but it's been very hard for us as parents. 

Justin loaded the groceries into trunk and went to put Nolan in the car. Nolan was covered with a blanket and sound asleep. Justin grabbed the car seat and walked towards the car, unfortunately he slipped on ice, tried to catch himself while not dropping the car sear( he did not know I hadn't strapped him in fully) as Justin caught his balance and saved the car seat from falling out of his hands theforce made Nolan fly out of his seat 

At this very moment Ava and I were crossing the street. I remember seeing Justin picking up the blanket(which had Nolan in it) and looking around with a look of absolute heart break in his eyes. I grabbed Ava, dropped my coffee and went up to the car and saw justin holding Nolan and in shock. I saw Nolans head and it had a raised bump. By this point Nolan was calm, Justin immediately called dr, and we were in route to hospital before we could even blink. 

This was the longest car ride of our lives. Trying to remain calm (<-- which was impossible ) we made the ten minute drive to Le Bohnuer childrens hospital. 

Nolan was tired and I tried to keep him awake 

 On way we called a sitter for Ava. Justin dropped us off At front door and I checked us in while justin went to meet the sitter 

We got admitted right away and prepped to be seen. 

Nolans overall demeanor was fine but his bump was very large. They ordered a ct scan and we waited to be scanned 

Luckily we were able to stay w him during the test And he did awesome. The hospital gave us a binkie since he was unable to feed. By this point is was 245 and he hadn't fully fed since around 11. He surprisingly took the binkie and laid very calmly as I held his hand during the scan( and daddy held me). 

 We went back to the room and waited for the scans to come back. Longest moments of my life. 

The dr came in and I knew that instant something was wrong. He showed us his "good side" of his skull and I expected honestly for nothing to be wrong, and if it were it'd just be a minor crack. WRONG. He showed us the fracture and it covered  a good 75+% of his right side. Poor baby. The dr said there was no bleed or swelling and that we'd be admitted overnight for observation. He reassured us that this was a accident and happens more often than people would think. 

Nolan got an iv placed in his arm( saddest thing to have to see a baby go through)  and we were sent to the seventh floor overnight 

Nolan was very tired and wanted nothing but to sleep so he wasn't feeding at all. They decided his best option was iv fluids and snuggles. He was hooked up to many monitors and in excellent hands. It was a relief for us to have him in a safe place being monitored by staff. 

He wanted little to do with his crib and wanted to be held, which was fine by Us. His head remained very swollen but he was relaxed and seemed to be comfortable. 

Ava was in excellent care, having her first sleep over at a friends. Justin went home and got us things for overnight and got us food since we hadn't eaten all day. We  are and spent the time trying to regroup from the days emotional stress. 

That night Nolan slept great, mommy and daddy not one bit. 

The next morning he was observed and cleared. We were sent home. 

He is "recovering" well and resting. His week he will follow up with his dr and in two weeks follow up w neurologist. 

We have learned a great lesson always take two seconds to buckle the car seat. Even if it risks waking the baby( of course we would have in the car). But also a major one is Accidents happen, and kids will get hurt. We overall handled the situation well. Everyone was taken care of and we were there for each other. 

This was and will be a day both Justin and I will never forget and a day we hope never to have happen again. Seeing a child so helpless and in pain was the worst feeling a parent could go through. 

Thank you for all the love and support we have received, we really appreciated it. 

The moment we found out we got to go HOME!