1 Month Old

Luke is 1 month old. It has been a crazy month of course, and a month of learning. He is a super sweet baby who loves nothing more than to be cuddled (except maybe for eating). He loves it so much that he pretty much won't sleep anywhere except with me. If he falls asleep and I leave the room, he wakes up almost immediately and demands that I return and cuddle with him. It is incredibly sweet to have a snuggly baby, but also frustrating that he won't sleep in his perfectly good bed. However, he only wakes up once at night to eat, so we're sort of just letting it go for now. Sleep is a good thing, no matter where you're getting it.

Luke started out as such an easy-going baby, and I was so relieved to have another calm kiddo. Then things started to turn south. He started getting really fussy, especially in the evenings. He seemed so miserable. We could tell he was having stomach issues--he's been so gassy since he was born, and struggles to get it out. We tried all of the OTC stuff for gassy babies, and though it seemed to help some, it did not resolve his problems. I talked to his pediatrician, and she suggested I go off of milk, nuts, and chocolate. She didn't seem all that convinced that we could find the problem because there are so many things that could be going on. But I was willing to give it a shot. 

I found it was a lot harder to go off of milk than I realized. I didn't really put a lot of effort into it at first, but we noticed if I had cheese or dairy one day, he would have a rough night. I started looking for a milk alternative so I could at least eat a bowl of cereal, and that's when I realized just how prevalent milk is in EVERYTHING. I've also learned that this is not really a lactose issue, even though that's what you would likely assume at first. Turns out it's an inability to digest caseine, the protein found in cow's milk. And you have to completely remove dairy from your diet for weeks to really see a big difference. 

I've been completely off of dairy for a week now, although it manages to creep in when I'm not really careful to read labels. I'm hoping that doesn't set us back too much. But Luke is SO much happier. He was also spitting up a ton every day, which did not improve with the change in diet. It was so easy to nurse Camilla because she'd just eat till she was full and I didn't even REALLY need to burp her. She just didn't need it much. I'd heard it's helpful to burp babies in the middle of their feedings, but I really didn't want to do that. I don't know why, but probably because I don't have the mental capacity right now to pay attention to how long he's eating and whether it's time to burp again. However, I finally gave in and started burping him whenever he stops for a minute or acts uncomfortable. VAST improvement--he still spits up, but not every single time I burp him, and he doesn't eat until he's ready to explode anymore.

Anyhow, that's lots of boring information, but I'm hopeful it will either help someone else with similar problems or at least be available for me to look back on if we end up with another kid with these problems down the road. In the meantime, these two are keeping me on my toes. Things get easier each day, but also more complex as I try to get used to this new reality and attempt to restore some balance.  

Millie absolutely ADORES her baby brother and goes running whenever she hears him cry. She doesn't love the loss of attention, but the tantrums have almost completely subsided. We make sure she gets some extra loving whenever we can, and she has really latched onto Daddy recently. She never acts up when I'm taking care of Luke, but sometimes when Daddy is holding him she freaks out and demands, "Mommy hold Baby Yook!"