We're still here.

I know, I know I need to be better about posting. Sorry about that, but we are still here and everyone is doing great....

Cooper continues to get bigger day by day. I'm amazed at his growth and development. He's a baby now, no longer an infant, that's for sure.

He sat up once with very little support, it won't be long now until he is mobile. He rolls and scooches all over the living room, soon we will have to baby proof. There's a few things we'll most likely need to remove from the living room, and we definitely have to put up a few gates; the joys of owning a 3 story house with a basement. *snicker*

Because it's been so long I think I'll just post some of our latest pictures... (the second one is my all
time favorite!!)

Stuffy nosed baby... :(

I think I've figured out why my poor baby hasn't been sleeping - he keeps getting a stuffy nose at night. It's only at night though, nothing during the day.

The stuffy nose makes it so he has to breath through his mouth and he's having a hard time learning how to breath through his mouth. He also can't use his pacifier with a stuffy nose! He only uses his paci when he's sleeping but with his nose stopped up he can't suck and breath at the same time... Poor guy. Which means he doesn't sleep well because his learned self soother is gone... that's where Mommy holding him all night comes in. I love holding him, but I don't get any sleep at all. And I'm sooooo

I changed the sheets on his mattress and even wiped the mattress down with vinegar/water (just a little vinegar and a lot of water). We have a humidifier (cool mist) in his room and an air purifier. And every time he wakes up I have to suction his nose... is there a better way to go about suctioning his nose? He doesnt like the sucky ball thing.

He does not have the stuffy nose during the day, nothing, nada, he breaths perfectly well through his nose all day. There's no other sickies involved here. Although he's only eaten 20 ounces today!! That's scares the crap out of me! He's still a happy, playful, laughy baby though. He doesn't act like he's hungry or sick.

I thought he was coming down with a cold but it's only at night. He did do a lot of coughing yesterday, but not much today... and again, seemed happy and playful.

Tonight the stuffiness started around 9, it's not 11 and I've had to suction his nose twice already. His nose is not runny at all. It's not a wet stuffiness, and actually I'm not sure I'm getting anything when I suction...

I'm ready to call the doctor tomorrow but I'm afraid he'll tell me to start giving him cereal at night to help him sleep and even though I'll ignore that, I just don't feel like hearing it. I just worry that the doc will tell me all these things that I'm not ready/100% willing to do (cereal, cold meds, etc.). If he truly is sick then obviously I will do meds, but he just seems to normal during the day!

I just feel like for my poor baby. I feel like I should know what to do and I just don't. I'm trying everything I can think of but feel like maybe I'm missing something.

Any advice? Something I'm missing? What else can I try before the doc?

Sleeping is for wimps!

This is the third night in a row that Cooper will not sleep.

Thursday night he woke up crying EVERY hour until 530 a.m. and then slept until 8, woke up, ate, and slept until 11.

He hardly naps throughout the day and that was no different yesterday, even tho he lacked sleep during the night. So he doesn't have his days and nights mixed up.

Tonight he woke up every 45 minutes crying. At midnight I brought him into bed with us and he cried for almost an hour. We've tried rescue remedy and calms forte and neither did any good. He finally fell asleep around 120 and slept on my until 430 in a very uncomfortable a position... well i'm sure he was comfy, I was not however.

I am up pumping because we wasted a bottle at 1 thinking he was hungry and he refused to eat it. He did just eat 3.5 ounces though.

That's another thing, he didn't eat very much yesterday (he probably ate 25 oz.; he usually eats closer to 30). But he was fine ALL day yesterday, no unusual fussies, he took his normal 20 minute naps, etc....

I just don't know why he won't sleep at night. This is very unlike him. He started sleeping through the night at 12 weeks but that only lasted about a month before he started getting up once to eat. And now it's been two nights in a row where he just won't sleep...

The only way for any of us to get any sleep is to bring him to bed with us and let him squirm around for 20 minutes until he gets comfy... which is usually him laying horizontally across the bed with paul and I having about 3 inches each to sleep on...

I'm wondering if maybe he has heartburn/acid reflux. He looks like he's trying to burp/throw up and then he starts screaming. Which would be from something I ate. We did have mexican for dinner on Thursday, but I've eaten it before he never had any problems. (I also had my leftovers on friday night).

I just don't know....

I am so and so and I know Paul is too.

Birth Story - Pauls Version

Paul finally wrote his version of our birth story a couple of weeks ago. Actually I typed it (word for word) while he spoke... Here is it!

We were up late Friday night visiting Janelle and Benjamin. It was starting to snow when we left their place, it was after midnight. Mandy was starting to have labor pains, I was getting nervous because it was snowy and we were tired. Labor pains were continuing and we didn't go to bed. We called the midwife and Jenny. Midwife suggested the warm bath to try to slow things down. A few calls going back and forth. This lasted roughly until 3 a.m. After the bath we were laying in bed and just fell asleep. I remember distinctly thinking it was going to happen and it didnt.

On Saturday we just hung out at home all day, we knew the Coop was going to come at any point. I don't remember what we did that day. Did we rent a movie? We couldn't have rented a movie because we didn't go out. I don't remember what we did, but we stayed home all day. Then we went to bed around midnight. We were watching All My Children before bed. About 3 o'clock Mandy started having labor pains, called the midwife, ran bath. The pains were really bad compared to the night before. Mandy just wanted to run the bath but the midwife said "come on in" so I told Mandy we were going in. We were rushing around getting everything Mandy had packed into the car. She had everything packed we just had to put it in the car.

I remember it was kind of an icy night that night. I was nervous as hell. I didn't know what else to do. We started driving and Mandy was telling me to drive faster and faster and it was icy and I saw I police car. We heard a Little River Band song on the radio. It was either Lonesome Loser or Cool Breeze. I think it was Lonesome Loser. That's the song that makes us thing of Cooper. It couldn't have been Cool Breeze, had to be Lonesome Loser.

The pains didn't seem to be as bad in the car, but they were at regular intervals. You wanted out (Looking at Coop). We got to the hospital and got checked in very quickly. It was very quick. We went to triage, I don't think we were there that long. Mandy was 7 cm dilated. Then we went to the labor and delivery room.

i was standing to mandys right, jenny was to my right. The midwife was to Mandy's left. all of us were coaching Mandy. The midwife tells us to shut up and let her coach mandy. I remember looking around the room seeing a lot of ppl standing around the room, and some people are yawning. i remember thinking "who the hell are these people that are yawning?" Then the dr. came in. We didn't know who he was. They were telling Mandy to push and count to 10 three times every minute, something like that, it seemed like a lot. Mandy was dozing between pushes, sleeping pretty much. Gave her enough energy to push, and she was really trying to push, her face was really turning red while pushing. Jenny suggested squating but the midwife came up with some reason why it wasn't going to be effective. They all just seemed to be in such a hurry. The midwife kept saying "The baby wants to come out" of course the baby wants to come out damnit, we knew that. That's not a medical term. She also kept telling Mandy to get angry, just to make her push harder.

The dr. wanted to use the vacuum extraction. I think I asked about the pressure that is used and he responded annoyingly, like I was an annoyance. They had to do the episiotomy, I remember that, just before coop came out. Jenny said she saw the head. before we knew it we saw the coop come out. I was so excited to see him. I remember him coming out.

Mandy had him for a few minutes and they took him away. I went with Cooper, they had him over there too long, doing this and that, Vita K shot, stuff in eyes, foot prints. I got foot prints on my arm. Mandy kept asking when the baby was coming back. I kept asking when they were taking him back to my wife, they kept saying they had to do all this stuff. Mommy tried to breastfeed Coop.

Oh, I cut the cord. that's right. That was before they whisked the baby away. It wasn't that big of a deal, not like I thought. I cut the life blood to mommy.

It was nice to have peace and quiet, which was nice.

Paul's Reunion

Paul's high school reunion was last weekend. It was a three day event (yea, still haven't figured that one out yet lol). Of course AF decided to make her grand appearance on Friday . My first one since I had Cooper, and I think it's just because I started the mini pill last weekend... Anyways....

On Friday I dropped Cooper off at Toni's (sorry Toni!) I had to fight the urge to call her as I was backing out of her drive way but I managed to not call until much later!!! This was the first time I was leaving him longer then 3 hours and with someone other then dad. I headed to the hotel in Southfield for the "Meet and Greet". I was the ONLY spouse there... literally! Not even exaggerating. I was so upset lol. Paul seemed to enjoy himself though. We did have a good meal with some of his old buddies and had some good conversation, but I was extremely thrilled when Toni called about Cooper!!! It gave me an excuse to get the hell outta there! I told Paul he could stay, but he was worried about C as well so decided to come. C and J were setting each other off with crying. J wouldn't go to bed because C was fussing and she most likely wanted to stay up so she didn't miss anything important. Sorry Toni!!! He slept the whole way to the hotel and most of the night, only waking once to eat.

On Saturday I trekked all the way back out to Macomb for the birth fair. I enjoyed the movie, through most of it - especially the vacuum extraction. That is how C was born and it was so traumatic for me to actually SEE it. I almost had to leave the room for a minute, but managed to compose myself. I kept asking Eileen and Sandie what they wanted me to do and they kept telling "Oh everything is done"... I did set up the kitchen stuff and help a little with sign ins and a little with the info table but that's it. I saw that Sara posted she worked so hard... Sorry! I kept offering and was shot down... maybe next time will be better!

After the movie I followed Janice home (it was easier taking Hall to Mound wasn't it!?!? ). I got dressed for the formal dinner at Janice's and left C there. When I left C and James were playing peacefully on the play mat. When I got to the hotel I was starving and ready for dinner... I got there around 645-7 and dinner wasn't served until after 8 It was a very delicious dinner though. Paul won a couple of "awards" - youngest child and shortest time married (we've been married a little over 2 years). They are very nice plaques. There was a live band that was WAAAAY too loud so we sat in the lobby for most of the night chatting with the other white ppl that were there... Paul went to high school in detroit. It was funny to see that the black people hung out together and the 15 (literally) white people hung out together mostly, they did mix up a little to mingle, but I guess the cliques are still the same with your older too.

At 11:15 we decided to call it a night and go pick Coop's up. Come to find out he slept the whole night for Janice!!! She said he fell asleep at 8:12 after his evening fussies and had been asleep since. He slept in the car on the way to the hotel, woke up and played for an hour and then slept for 5 hours before wanting to eat, then slept another 4 hours!

Today was a crappy day. There was a BBQ at a private park that was supposed to be catered. Well something happened with the caterer so there was no food. They decided to take up donations, run to the store and get stuff to grill. Paul gave them $20 so we could eat (we were starving). After two hours of waiting we decided to leave ... we never did get to eat. As we were pulling out of the park they were pulling in with the food (that still needed to be grilled)... we stopped at Subway on the way home to eat...

I am so glad to be home!!! It is wonderful. I can't wait to in my own bed tonight!!! I am just glad this weekend is over and never want to do that again! (the reunion, not the birth fair! the birth fair was my highlight!)