Why My Angel-Baby Scares the Crap Out of Me

My baby is an angel. No, really. Yes, he has his moments like all babies do. But he sleeps through the night 99.9% of the time. 12 hours +, people. He's happy everyday. He smiles at everyone. He patiently waits while I prepare his bottles (sometimes). He sits happily in my lap when I am watching TV or eating or working on the computer. He cries maybe 3 minutes a day on average. No, I'm not bragging. Read on.

I'm telling you this because I am scared #$%*less to ever have another baby because you know that ISH ain't happenin' twice! Since having a baby, we've now been exposed numerous horror stories from other parents who've had difficult babies. Babies who had colic and cried all day or babies who would not sleep. There have been a few nights when our little guy has woken up for an hour at 4am and just a handful where he has woken a second time and I am an absolute sleep-deprived zombie the next day! Even with our sleeping champ, my house is currently a disaster and I still have a hard time keeping up with daily duties like laundry. How in the world would I handle a baby who wakes up multiple times a night or does not go back to sleep or cries and cries and cries???

Let me back myself up a bit. I feel like I have 3 kids already in some ways. I have 2 pugs that are so high maintenance, they are like children. Ok, I'm slightly exaggerating; but at least combined they are like one child. They are allergic to anything and everything, so we have to homemake food for them and heat it up twice a day. Luckily, John can make and freeze large batches once a week at the restaurant. If they don't get their homemade meals, they start losing their hair and smelling really, really bad. The grass makes them itch so they poo on the porch - yay. They have been to the vet more than Asher has been to the pediatrician in the past 5 months. They always have ear infections and even need a special shampoo. They try to eat anything of Asher's, so I have to make sure to move all of his things to an unreachable-by-pugs spot before leaving the room with him. The get into the bathroom trash at least 3 times a week even though it's gated off (I need to get a trash with a lid in there... it's on my list.) And here's the real kicker - they randomly get fits of vomiting and diarrhea such as this morning when I let them out of their cage only to release poo-covered dogs to go running through the house. That's right - think mop, vacuum, mop again, the disposal of two rugs, and some serious dog baths before Asher's morning bottle. I think it was a test of my patience and strength. I hope I passed.

We haven't been talking about expanding our cozy little family any time soon. I never imagined stopping at one, though. I feel like Asher might be lonely without a sibling to play with or grow up alongside. I grew up the middle girl of three girls, and we had our fights and your normal familial disagreements that may or may not have gotten physical from time to time, but we have so many wonderful memories with each other. We text or talk to each other almost everyday. We share silly jokes that no one else gets. We're there for each other when we need advice or just to vent. I would hate for Asher to miss out on that.

In all honesty, I know its something we could handle, either way; we would make it work like so many have done before. Every baby is a blessing, even the difficult ones. Maybe we are blessed to have had our first be easy so that we can settle into this new life and all the changes that come along before having our world flipped upside down by a little night partier. I mean, at least we have most of the basics down and know some of what is coming our way. Praise-worthy parents who have been there can assure that you find ways to adjust, you learn to make it work. And, yes, those early days do pass and these are only short stages that do not last a lifetime. In fact, they pass more quickly than you can even imagine. That still doesn't ease my anxiety that we may down the road end up with a tiny little tornado that keeps us up all night or drives us to invest in earmuffs. It makes me happy that we are in no rush to add another to our roster. Or maybe we will pull our chips while we're still ahead and our magical number will just be one.

Have any of you dealt with a difficult baby or was there a big difference between your babies' temperaments? Pin It Now!

Baby Feeding Schedule - 4 Months

We are truly blessed to have a baby who sleeps 12-13 hours straight throughout the night at 4 months old. Being exclusively formula fed may be a contributing factor; but even so, I have been told time and time again just how incredibly lucky we are. (Knock on wood.)

I love waking up to the rustling sound of Asher having his morning stretch in his co-cleeper then looking over to see his his freshly awoken smile illuminated by the early morning light. His eyes are always directed straight at me as if to say, "Good morning, Mommy! Let's have breakfast, shall we?" Sometimes it's more of a, "Feed me NOW or someone is going to get hurt!!!" Even then, I can't complain since it's always after at least a 12 hour stretch of sleep for him and 6-8 hours or so for me. (Both John and I have a bad habit of going to bed late. In our defense, "me time" can be just as important as sleep!)

It's amazing to have such a sound sleeper, however, this also can make it difficult to make sure Asher gets enough to eat throughout the day without having some sort of a nap and/or feeding schedule in place. Mostly, it is becoming more difficult due to our current 'Super-Spitter-Upper' situation. One hopeful solution to lessening the outpour of spit-up may be allowing him smaller portions, more often, like when he was younger. Except now, we have to squeeze that into the 11-12 hour time frame that he is awake sans the 2-3 hours of nap time strewn throughout the day! We're averaging at about 22-24 oz of formula per day right now, but I think that he could definitely eat more if we plan it right with a feeding schedule. According to the formula serving chart, we should be at about 30-35 oz a day between 3-6 months. He is gaining weight steadily, thriving and growing and I know some babies need more than others... but I at least want to give Asher the opportunity to eat as much as he may need just in case he isn't getting quite enough.

So, I think a flexible feeding and nap schedule will be a nice addition to our chaotic day to day. Here's what I'm thinking (times approximate and feeding amounts to fit the pattern we've been seeing with what he can normally handle without too much spit-up):

BOTTLE & NAP SCHEDULE - 4 MONTHS

8:00am - 1st bottle 5-6 oz
10:00am - 2nd bottle 2-4 oz
10:30 - nap (45 min - 2 hour)
12:30 - 3rd bottle 5-6 oz
3:30 - 4th bottle 2-4 oz
4:30 - nap (45 min - 1.5 hour)
5:30 - 5th bottle 4-6 oz
7:00 - bath
7:30 - 6th and last bottle 4-6 oz
8:00pm - bedtime!

On any given day he can eat between 22 and 32 ounces with this feeding schedule depending on how hungry he is. Most likely it will be closer to 25 for awhile. But at least we'll be offering him more if he wants it! This is sort of how it goes now - just usually without the pre-morning nap bottle. I think this schedule will help us get just enough more in each day. Sometimes he falls asleep during that last bottle, too, only getting in 2 ounces if we're lucky.

The nap times and lengths tend to vary, especially on days that we are not at home, whether I have him with me to work at the shop or if we are out and about for any other reason. So this is definitely meant to be a SOFT schedule with a lot of flexibility, but at least it gives us a general guideline to work with. I say us, but I guess I mostly mean me.

For now, we'll see how this goes. I know that 4 months is the peak age of spit-up amount and occurrences, but if we can reduce it as much as possible while also ensuring this little guy is getting his fill, that will help save my sanity on laundry days!

Here are more fun pictures from our 4 month photo shoot in his 4 month onesie.

Adore!

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