Days 23-27

Busy week and weekend.  I didn't have much time to update the blog.  Work has been kicking my butt lately.  Tight deadlines, lots of work, extra hours, no incentives, low motivation.  Such is life.  I'm not complaining, I'm just going to use this project as a stepping stone to something better once I complete it.  Here's some highlights of the week...

Days 23 and 24:
I can't really recall what happened four days ago.  I remember having to work during the night.  Brayden got some good sleep in on both Thursday and Friday.  He slept at least 3 hours on Thursday during one span.  Sherry's been feeding/sleeping with him on the couch.  For some reason Brayden knows when Sherry is feeding him.  Because he refuses to sleep in the bassinet whenever she tries to put him down.  By refusing to sleep, I mean he cries bloody murder.  I usually have an easier time putting Brayden in his bassinet after a bottle feeding.

Days 25 and 26:
Saturday was a nice break from the routine and being stuck inside the house.  I played basketball in the morning, came home, got the family ready to go to Linh's birthday party at the Columbus Square pool.  Getting ready to leave the house is such an adventure.  Just when you think you've got the timing down, the baby throws a wrench in the works.  It's actually quite funny.  I think they should give parents a "baby watch" once their child is born.  This watch would be a slow moving watch that gradually speeds up over time.  Initially the time should be for every 1 minute of real time that passes, the watch moves at a 2 minute rate (thereby only 30 seconds pass on the watch since it takes almost twice as long to get ready).  As the child gets older, the watch gets faster to the point where it moves according to real time.  That way, when you look at the watch, you won't feel as rushed to get ready and you'll always be "on time" according to your watch.  Yeah I know it sounds ridiculous, but as a parent, I can totally understand and cherish that everything is according to Brayden's clock.   In any case, as we were getting ready to go to the pool, it was time for Brayden's poop session.  Since we've been giving him formula, his poops occur less often averaging 1 to 1.5 day intervals.  The past few days have been a horrid sludge fest in his diaper and on Saturday, it was no exception.  To give Brayden a "clean slate" for the day, we decided to give him a bath before leaving the house.  Sherry got his bath ready and I started the cleanup.  Boy was it messy.  I think I prefer the poop in installments instead of having him deposit in one lump sum.  The lump sum poop includes interest sometimes.  Ok enough of the graphic details.  Brayden was very well behaved the rest of the afternoon and the evening.  He would cry occasionally but nothing a bottle full of formula couldn't fix.  He slept through most of the time we were at the pool.  Then the party moved to Linh's house.  Brayden was the perfect house guest.  He was asleep for pretty much the whole time we were there.  We only had to feed him a couple of times but he caught up on some good rest.

When we got home later that night he was wide awake, so we played with him for a bit then Sherry went to bed.  While Sherry slept, we ended up watching some parts of Saturday Night Live.  Justin Timberlake was the host and he's always hilarious.  I finally got Brayden to sleep around 1:30 am for about an hour to an hour and a half then Sherry and I switched off around 3:30 am.  I was pretty restless still, so I stayed up and ended up watching The King's Speech (which should've been called The King's Speech Impediment, I know it's mean, but at least be honest with the title instead of beating around the bush).  It was a good movie and I was hoping it was going to put me to sleep but that was a fail.

Finally slept around 4:30 and Sherry got Brayden to sleep around the same time.  We all woke up around 6:30 in the morning and I had to get the house cleaned up because we were expecting visitors later in the day (the Englanders).  JD's winter coat is still clinging to her so I gave her a good brushing to get most of it off.  Filled about half a garbage bag full of fur.  Ran the vacuum through the game room a couple of times.  The Englanders ended up cancelling since their son Maxwell had a runny nose, so we spent the rest of Sunday lounging at home.  Though lounging isn't really the right word.  Brayden was sooooo fussy all day.  Though we kind of figured out why.  Every time he was about to pass gas, he'd cry out like he was in pain then a big blast of air would shoot out of rear end.  This happened the whole day.  The expulsion of gas was always preceded by an agonizing cry.  The worst part is that it stinks.  I blame the formula...mainly because his farts smell like rotten formula.  He seemed to be unusually warm, but every time we checked his temperature he was fine.  I finally gave him some anti gas medicine in the evening and that seemed to help a little.  Well, at least he wasn't crying every time he farted.  We got back to our regular shifts where I took care of him from 9-3 and Sherry took over from 3-9...well she took over for the rest of the day basically.  I'll probably need to increase my shifts to make it more fair, but we don't really want to feed him that much formula, the main goal is just to supplement him with formula with the main source of food coming from breast milk.  The problem is that Sherry has trouble finding time or space to pump when she's home alone since she's constantly feeding Brayden during the day and he refuses to sleep anywhere except close to her.  Hopefully she can figure out a way to get him to sleep on his own soon, so she doesn't get stuck.

Day 27
Back to work in the morning.  Busy as ever.  Finally got my TDAP vaccination at Walgreens.  The pharmacist seemed he was scared of needles as he stood far back when he injected me with the vaccine.  It was almost like he was launching a dart on my arm.  I think he hit a bad spot since I started trickling a lot of blood instantly, then he was like "Oh, you're a bleeder".  I grumbled some indiscernible negative words his way as he half assed the bandaids on my arm.  Brayden was up to his usual schedule again where he's awake in the morning.  Sherry played with him during the times he was awake and read to him.  It's 10PM and I finally got him to sleep around 9:30 today.  He'll probably be up in a half hour or so again for a feeding which is fine.  I got some time to kill and some work to do anyway.  Tuesdays are tricky since I have a video conference meeting in the morning at work around 8 AM.  Getting to work early is no bueno, since I usually do some cleaning or give Sherry a breather so she can take a shower, etc...in the morning before I go to work.  I'll probably just have to come home for lunch earlier so she can get some time to herself to freshen up.

Brayden will be 4 weeks old tomorrow!  Time certainly does fly.  It seemed like he was born last week.  I'll post some pictures in the subsequent post.