WW # 4

Back to the Blog

OK so I have been away from the blog for a little over a month now.  Things have been a little crazy lately.  Work was taking up more of my time, and I was coming home stressed out about work, and how things were going.  Honestly I was just too tired and too caught up in everything work that I just did not feel like sharing anything. 

Things have changed, in particular since last week I was laid off.  The bosses scheduled a non descriptive meeting for Thursday afternoon and told me that they were unable to hire any of their contractors and that they were forced to let me go.  They let me finish out the week. 
Now I'm on the job hunt. 
Yes yes this all sucks, and the timing is o so perfect with a 3 month old baby and the holidays right around the corner.  (I hope you are picking up on the sarcasm.)

The cool thing about this is while I'm looking for a new job I get to spend some time as a Stay at Home Dad.

OK thanks for letting me share the news about work, but lets get to the good stuff.  Elizabeth is doing great.  She is strong and eating well, and sleeping in longer blocks.  Sometimes she even sleeps through the night.
She is steadily gaining weight, but could stand to gain a little faster than she is, according to the doc.  The acid reflux is still a problem, but it is much better than it has been.  I'm not sure if it's the medicine that helps keep her from spitting up or if it's the thickener we are using in her formula.  Either way it's an improvement.

Elizabeth is far more expressive and alert than she ever was before.  HUGE smiles and responses to me mom and the rest of the family.  Maybe I can get some good shots of a big smile and share for a wordless wednesday soon.

Words of Wisdom for our Children

It's wrong, but funny, so I had to share.
I love the comics these guys draw.  Make a point of checking them out.  amazingsuperpowers.com
Sometimes you just need to laugh

The Due Date Arrives

Today is Elizabeth's official due date.  I'm excited today about this because even though she is already 7 weeks old, she has finally reached 40 weeks gestational age.
I have been planning for today for a long time.  Alarms are going off on my calendars, I'm getting messages from friends who had today marked on their calendars.  I can't wait to get home and spend the rest of the day with my little overlord.

She has already grown and changed so much.  It's hard to believe how much she has changed.  She seems twice as big as she was when she was born.  Her hair is longer, and she has already grown out of some of her preemie clothing.  We switched her to newborn diapers a little while ago.  I know she can see more clearly and things that are a little bit farther away, because she reacts to her mobile, and follows it.  She can follow my movement around the room.  she is much stronger than I expected too.  She turns her head and lifts it to see things.  She pushes against me to move herself across the floor.  My parents, who are seeing Elizabeth once a week, are amazed at how different she looks from one visit to the next.  

This is a really exciting time.  I feel like we are out of the woods a little bit.  Elizabeth's birth, and the problems my wife had were really stressful and scary. Not knowing what crazy thing was going to happen next, when you are constantly expecting the other shoe to drop.  I really have no idea what is ahead of us, and I don't expect the craziness to stop, but I'm happy to have things starting to fall into the realm of normal. 

So Happy Due Date Elizabeth! 

Catching Up

I'm sorry I have not blogged anything is a little while.  Everything is fine, for those of you who have asked.  Things at work have not been going as expected, and unfortunately I'm having to take on some extra work to deal with it.  No big deal, just annoying.

I'm looking forward to spending some time with the wife and little overlord this weekend.  I'm hoping I can play with the camera some and edit some other photos I have already taken. 

The little overlord is a little more fussy than she has been recently, but we think this is due to the change in her formula.  We have just stopped using Similac do to the recall on certain products.  You can read more about the recall here.  I think the Enfamil formula is a little bit richer and it has an adverse effect on Elizabeth's tummy.  It could just be that she needs some time to adjust. 

Other than that things are going great.  I hope to get back on the blog train next week.  See you then

WW # 3

Sleep is for the Weak

The Little Overlord is still fighting reflux.  Oddly enough the only time she has a problem sleeping, due to reflux is when my wife and I are trying to sleep.  She does great during the day and through most of the evening, it just that pesky time frame between 1:00 am and 7:00 am.  When I put her back in the bed after her 7:00 am feeding she seems to do fine.  My wife says she does fine all day while I'm at work.  Most of the time that is. 

I wish there were something else I could do. She seems to be in a lot of pain at night when she is not completely upright.  We keep her sleeping on an incline to keep her as upright as possible.  When we pick her up and hold her upright she does great and usually goes right to sleep, unless she is hungry or needs to have her diaper changed. 

She had a doctor’s appointment yesterday and now Elizabeth is using Simply Thick to make her formula a little bit heavier so that it does not spit it up as much.  I have already noticed a difference with this.  There is still some spit up but it is much less.   Also we are hoping the new medicine that they gave us last week kicks in soon.  We have been told it may take a week or two to really take effect.

The good news is that the Little Overlord is growing and gaining weight.  She is now 18 inches long, and weighs 4 lbs 15 ounces. YAY!  With exception to the reflux and the side effects of the reflux she is doing fantastic.

The Little Overlord said if we continued to care for her the way we have been, she would let us take her out to a festival this weekend.  Some sunlight would do us all some good.

The Father 100 Project

For Fatherhood Friday I have decided to try my hand at the Father 100 Project. This is a little challenge brought to us by Dad at the Chalkboard The concept is to write no more than a 100 word response based on the word selected. This weeks word is:


Laughter
I’m home from a long stressful day at work. My wife is in the kitchen making dinner, and my little girl is asleep in her swing. I’m tired, and frustrated, and hoping that we all get some rest tonight. A baby with reflux is hard on everyone. I drag myself to the bedroom to change my clothes. Sitting on the bed, I don’t want to move. I hear her stir in the other room and I go to pick her up. I lift her up and she smiles at me. I laugh because everything is perfect. Nothing else matters.

Be sure to check out other entries using the links below.  And be sure to check out other Fatherhood Friday posts.
Thanks for reading,
Big Daddy Ben

WW # 2

I know it’s wordless Wednesday, but here are some words if you feel like reading.

Our new camera, a Pentax K-X was delivered yesterday, and of course I was camera happy and took lots of photo’s.  I’m really excited to start taking some great pictures of Elizabeth to share so why not start with another Wordless Wednesday.  

I know I have lots to learn about photography, the camera, and editing.  It should be lots of fun. The above shot was taken in dummy mode.

Restless Night/ Family Visit

Friday night and last night Elizabeth had really rough nights sleeping. It seemed like every time we put her down she would wake up screaming only a few minutes later. Clean diaper, just ate, all of her medicines for reflux and gas were taken, so we have no clue why she was having problems sleeping, or why she was so upset.

Finally she settled down for about an hour after one of her feedings and I was able to go to sleep. But after an hour she was up and screaming again. Amy got up this time to take care of her and I crashed. My body was done after having been up for too long. I literally just shut down and slept. I woke up to find Amy asleep on the couch with Elizabeth asleep in her swing.

We both just hope that tonight is better than last night, since I will be going to work in the morning.

In more positive news, some family took advantage of the long weekend and came to visit Lizzie from out of town. It was really cool for me to see my cousins hold Lizzie. I got to hold them when they were born, and these are the two youngest cousins I have. It was also the first time any of that part of the family has seen our new home.

We only see the out of town family once or twice a year, so it is always great to spend some time with them.

Hopefully we will get to see them again soon.

Letting Mom Rest

So since I have gone back to work my wife has been taking care of the Little Overlord all day and all night.  Going back to work has been a little bit of a pain, but not too bad.  I just find it hard to focus and do everything I need to do.  I would rather be home.  But it does make the time at home higher quality.

So mom is taking on most of the regular baby care stuff now that I have gone back to work.  I was able to go a few days without sleep when the baby was born and when mom was readmitted, but there is no way I could keep the schedule she is keeping now for more than a day or so.

In an attempt to help mom get some rest, and to spend some quality time with little one I have been trying to handle one feeding before I go to work in the morning.  This lets mom get more than an hour or so of straight sleep.  Also at night I rush home so mom can crash again before having to take over again when I go to bed. 

At night, if mom has crashed, and the little one wakes up for some reason,  I do try to get up take care of whatever needs to be done, but mom is a little faster to get up than I am.

I'm hoping that on the weekends I can really let her get some rest. I'm used to keeping really late hours on the weekends so I think I will really be able to let mom take a break here.

I just don't want her to feel like she has to do everything on her own. 

On a side note, we have ordered a new DSLR camera.  A Pentax K-X.  It was supposed to be here today, but it's looking like that is not going to happen. Hopefully we will sharing all sorts of pictures soon.

Be sure to check out other Fatherhood Friday bloggers at Dad Blogs!

WW # 1

Collecting History

So I am feeling compelled to collect as much history as I can to give to my daughter when she is older. I would love to get a newspaper from the day she was born and put it away for her. I even kept the surgical mask and head cover I was wearing from her delivery, just so I can show her what I was wearing when she was born.

My parents and grandmother were here the other day visiting and they told me that they had purchased silver coin proof sets from the year I was born and put them away for me. I had never seen them or even known they were there. Finding out about them got me thinking about putting together a little coin collection for Elizabeth.

I have never had any interest in collecting coins before but I feel oddly compelled to grab as many coins as I can and put them away. Sure there is the possibility of the coins being worth something one day or even that there is already value to them. What I really want to do is have them so she can see what coins used to be like. On a whim I grabbed a coin folder to collect the state quarter series. If nothing else this could be a good way to help her learn the states when she is old enough.

Another thing I want to do is figure out as much of my family’s ancestry as possible. I have worked on this off and on over the years. I really want to go as far back as I can go. I’d love to know where my family came from, and obtain a family crest if there is one, and just learn as much as I can.

I already keep a journal for myself about things going on in my life so if those survive time, Elizabeth will be able to read that and learn more things about me anyway.

I want to collect her life as well. I want pictures of everything she does. I no longer have a digital camera, so I am saving up to get a nice digital SLR. Until I can get the new camera I’m stuck using the camera on my phone.

Does anyone out there have any ideas about good things to collect for your kids? Also, is this strong feeling to collect history normal for dads to feel, and do?

Going Back to Work

It’s Friday and my week at home with the baby is almost over. On Monday I go back to work, and I’m not looking forward to it.

It was hard for me to leave the little one in the NICU everyday, but I think it will be even harder to leave her at home. Her mom will be here to take care of her it’s just more that I don’t want to leave her. Now that she is home and I can see her, and pick her up whenever I want it’s really hard to walk away from her. After having to check with the NICU to make sure it was OK to visit, which it always was, and having to wait until feeding time to hold her I just don’t want to have to wait all day to see her again.

But alas, I have to go back to work. I took a week off when she was born, and another week when she came home. I just hope I have been able to help out enough to establish a little bit of a routine to make feedings and resting easier on my wife.

Has anyone else out there had similar feelings? How did those first days back at work go for you? Also be sure to check out the other Fatherhood Friday posts through Dad Blogs.

Our Story

Hi Folks! My name is Ben, AKA Big Daddy, and on Thursday August 5th, 2010 my wife gave birth to our beautiful daughter Elizabeth. This was a little bit of a surprise because Elizabeth was not due until September 27^th.

Without going into too much detail, here is the story. About 5 weeks ago my wife was diagnosed with Preeclampsia and was put on bed rest. We went in for a check up sonogram on the 5^th and the placenta had been compromised. We went to the hospital and Elizabeth was born via c-section that night.

My wife came home on August 8^th and Elizabeth had to stay in the NICU. Obviously we visited her as much as possible. A few days later my wife was readmitted to the hospital with HELLP syndrome. She was there a few days longer and then once she was better came home.

Elizabeth was doing so well and making great progress that she was able to come home with us just 16 days after her birth on Saturday August 21^st. Now everyone is home and doing well.

We are almost through our first week all at home together and things are going great. I look forward to sharing with everyone our progress and what I am learning and going through as the BIG DADDY of my little girl.