Well I haven’t gotten around to a Wyatt post yet. It has been a kind of crazy 2 months. I can’t decide whether I want to write about all the NICU drama and the colds and everything or just focus on the fun stuff, but I’ll do a quick recap and then move on.
NICU
After Wyatt was born he had a low blood sugar reading (turns out was much higher when retested upstairs) and that required him to go to the NICU about an hour after birth. He was also cold. In the NICU, they gave him a tiny bit of formula and were able to get his blood sugar under control. He had to stay under the French fry lights though for 8 hours. In that time, they monitored him and found some arrhythmias. Apparently this isn’t uncommon but since he was in the NICU they saw it. Additionally he has a few episodes where his heart would skip beats. All in all he spent 3 nights in the NICU and left with no problems. No one has heard the arrhythmia since we was about 5 days old, so it seems to have resolved, as they suspected. We were so grateful when we were able to finally bring him home. 3 days isn’t much, but it is a long time to have our family separated and it was an icky place to be bonding with a newborn. I feel so much for all the nicu parents out there. I am grateful to the wonderful nurses we had while we were there though!
Reflux and colds
Logan never spit up and it was clear a day into Wyatt’s life that things were different. He was constantly spitting up on himself (challenging the nicu nurses to keep finding outfits for full size babies since they mostly have premies!). It got worse and worse as he got older and drank more. He was diagnosed with reflux at about 3 weeks old. He started medicine and I have changed my feeding pattern and amount. He also got a cold at 4 weeks and still has some lasting congestion now. The congestion makes the reflux worse. Thankfully the cold didn’t get too bad and he didn’t get an infection. It made for some nervous nights though. I cut out dairy from my diet when he was about 6 weeks old to see if that helped his reflux and diarrhea (many reflux babies have a dairy protein intolerance). The reflux has improved and so has the diarrhea. There are bad days and bad meals but overall things are better. Hard to tell if from dairy or because cold is subsiding or if because older, but I am glad to see him doing better. We still do A LOT of laundry, but most days he isn’t as uncomfortable. The goal isn’t that he doesn’t spit up, but rather than he isn’t in pain from acid.
Anxiety
Well this doesn’t really fit here but with a different start to Wyatt’s life we have definitely been more anxious parents. Between NICU, reflux, and his cold (and some almost hospital worthy fevers) it got hard to not worry about his health. I also think my hormones are more aligned to post-partum anxiety this time, but hard to say if just driven there situationally. Honestly he is a healthy happy kid who is an amazing sleeper. However I find myself worrying more than with Logan (as first time parents). I find it hard not to worry at each little new thing. Each day he gets older his risks for colds and other problems goes down and I am grateful as that eases the panic some. Overall just being aware that I am more anxious makes handling the emotions easier.
Ok the good stuff
Wyatt is the best sleeper ever and doesn’t suffer from the same colicky problems that Logan had. Boy did we order up the right kid to be number 2! Only a few weeks into life he started going long stretches at night and never had any of the day/night confusion that Logan had. His current record is 9 hours! He also doesn’t seem to suffer from the witching hour (6-9pm) which was horrible with Logan for months. I am eager to get him on a napping schedule because I like routines. He seems to be regulating his schedule a bit, but there is still a lot of variability. Logan was pretty regular early, which spoiled us a bit, and I think Wyatt is more normal in that he is still figuring it out. Wyatt also eats more frequently than Logan because of his reflux, so that makes establishing a schedule a little harder. Logan could eat, play and then sleep for two hours. For Wyatt, he eats every 2 hours so there is less time. Also he has to be held upright for 20-30 min after eating, so he tends to fall asleep after meals and play after waking up. Unlike Logan, he is also a good napper on his own. He doesn’t require someone to be holding him in order for him to sleep, which is a great change of pace for us. Overall his sleep is great.
Personality wise, Wyatt is a little charmer. He is a happy kid and he loves to flirt, smile and coo. He also will stick is tongue out if you do and loves to chew on his right hand (nom nom!). He doesn’t yet interact with toys but he does all the developmental stuff and will turn his head to track sound. The only little item we have to work on is that his neck is really stiff (torticollis). He is going to start physical therapy to help with that soon. It should be something that can be solved relatively easily (though Wyatt hates having to turn his head that direction so I imagine it won’t be super fun).
He is starting to enjoy more things around him including baths, mobiles and playing. He flirts with his mobiles like crazy and it is adorable to see. They also help him fall asleep so we have used that as a tool for him to put himself to sleep. Sometime he just wants to play with it, but usually it will distract him enough to fall asleep. There is a little mobile on his swing, which he loves and will fall asleep with just that (swing can be off). We also rigged up his crib mobile to a chair and put it over his sleeping wedge in our room so he can use his mobile at night. He loves to play and will crack giant smiles on the changing pad or whenever he can. It is impossible not to give him the biggest smile back. He is such a charmer. I love getting to finally interact with him after so much blobness!
Well it has definitely been different but still hard with number 2. I am so glad Wyatt is part of my family but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I am glad when every day passes and we get a little closer to him being more of a person and less of a baby. I love that we can have whole conversations with Logan and I look forward to seeing who Wyatt is and playing with him. It does seem to be going faster this time, again probably, like the pregnancy, it involves the distraction of having another little one. The next big milestones are him holding his head up and him getting more consistent naps. This will allow us to hopefully take him out a bit more and do some front-pack carrying. I’m also hoping that every day that passes will mean less reflux or at least closer to solid foods which often improves reflux. I am also eager to be out of this flu season. Logan and Julia have another cold so hopefully Wyatt doesn’t get this one!
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