Crabbypants

Well, it's time for more updates. We're starting to get into the swing of things now. I've been back at work all week so Megan has been gracious enough to take the night shifts with Kayley...with me substituting every now and then. Also, Grandma Marla is back. She's over her cold so she's helping out during the day...just in time for her to babysit this Sunday while we go to the Cardinals game. Thanks Marla!

Kayley has been doing very well with a couple minor exceptions. She started to spit up more than usual when we fed her. It started out as just a couple feedings a day and then morphed into almost every feeding. Since she still needs to gain weight, we were getting a little concerned.

Another concern we had is that Kayley was really starting to seem uncomfortable and it was making her really crabby at least once or twice a day. At first she just needed to be held and we had to keep her pacifier in her mouth. No big deal. Then that started not to work. We needed to stand up and walk around with her or pat her back or butt constantly. Even then it would take a while for Kayley to calm down.

Both these issues, spitting up and being overly uncomfortable and crabby, had something in common. It seemed that after she let out some (a bunch) gas, it helped her quite a bit. Luckily, Megan had a checkup with Kayley's pediatrician yesterday. She asked if we could start giving her Mylicon. It's an infant gas reliever. The doctor said yes so we now give it to Kayley after every feeding. So far so good. Kayley had been eating better, spitting up less, and hasn't had those really bad crabby spells. Thank God for medicine.

Kayley has also been increasing her awake time. When we first got home, it seemed that Kayley was only awake for a little bit after one feeding in a day. It occurs more often now. It's a great sign, however, we like those times to be during the day. A couple of times she chose to be awake at night. Ah... the adventures of a newborn and sleepless nights.

And the last update for Kayley is her new weight. While at the doctor yesterday, they weighed Kayley. It's still very important for her to gain. She went up 6 oz in the last week! She is now up to 8 lbs 6 oz. We were kind of surprised given that she was spitting up during a lot of her feedings. She is right on track. The doctor said that they want her to gain between 1/2 and 1 oz per day for the time being.

Drew is starting to get a little bit more jealous. He hasn't been real naughty but he definitely acts starved for attention when we are tending to Kayley's needs. His big thing now is to come grab your finger to lead you somewhere. He's starting to pull that trick more when we're feeding or holding Kayley. Drew also has to be in on the action quite a bit. If we put Kayley's bottle down so we can burp her, he comes over and picks up the bottle to give it to us. He's so helpful.

I guess the other day, he also started mimicking Megan when she was feeding Kayley. We keep Kayley's burp rags in a low drawer that Drew can get to. He grabbed a burp rag and one of his stuffed animals, sat down, and then held the burp rag with the animal...just like Mom was doing. He'll be babysitting in no time.