Life with Charlie

The last two weeks have been pretty challenging for me. Charlie seems to be getting progressively fussier lately and it is wearing me out. He still wakes three times a night to eat (though last night was the first time he only woke twice... I'll pray it continues) so the tiredness makes it much more difficult to be patient. When he is fussy, he seems tired but has great difficulty falling asleep, often staying asleep only while I'm holding him and then still often waking to fuss. Compounding all this, I haven't had any break in two weeks because Dave has been super busy at work, leaving before 6am and returning just before 8pm in time to say good night to Davey and I.

So I'm way behind on everything in my life. I'm trying not to let that bug me too much, but I hate being in a dirty, messy house and feeling like I'm not in control... 

I was so at my wit's end yesterday morning with the non-stop crying that I called Charlie's doc and made an appointment. My mom kept thinking there must be something wrong (my little sis Lacey was crying, crying and had a life-threatening staph infection as an infant), a baby his age should be settled and happy by now. I was finally convinced there could be something wrong. I kept taking his temperature and he didn't have a fever. But there had to be something causing all this -- or even if it was just normal, I needed someone to tell me that and to talk about it with me before I went crazy.

So of course the doctor examined him and didn't find anything wrong, but she did suggest a mild case of acid reflux. I had been wondering if he had it for a while now (and actually did bring it up at a previous appointment -- he doesn't spit up excessively, but he's always choking on the milk as it comes back up and it prompts crying), so I wasn't surprised. She also suggested doing a work up of his blood, but I decided not to have him pricked. We can always do that later if the Nexium doesn't help and there is still a problem. But now that I've had a day to think more clearly (Dave was actually home at 5pm yesterday and had the day off today :), I'm remembering having gone through a similar phase with Davey. My reaction to it was just worse this time since I'm busy with Davey and didn't have Dave around to spell me. Luckily Dave thinks he'll be back to normal work hours next week. 

Charlie has been sleeping better today and after all of the negative emotions of yesterday, I was overcome with love for him today as he slept and looked so sweet and darling. I couldn't resist taking a couple pictures...

 I love my boys so much even though I am finding this transition challenging; it has nothing to do with me loving being their mother and having them a part of our family.

I also have to share a funny picture of Davey. After I pumped to be able to add the reflux medicine to a bottle for Charlie, Davey grabbed it and tried to do the same...

He was so proud to be like mommy...

We didn't have to coax this smile at all!