Re-learning a Few Things--Friday, May 20

After I change and dress Jackson each morning I've been putting him in the crib for 10-15 minutes to introduce the crib and hopefully ease the future transition.  He is completely entranced by the crib mobile.  He just stares and makes sounds as it spins around.  I'll start letting him take a nap in the crib before too long since we put the monitors in the nursery.  (I'll take the bumpers off first.)  I'm not sure when we'll attempt sleeping in the crib through the night, but I don't suspect anytime soon.  As long as he's nursing every three hours, I don't see the point in moving him to the crib.   

I used to be able to put him in the swing if he was fighting sleep during the day, but it hasn't worked in soothing him lately.  His new favorite thing to calm him is the bouncer.  Unfortunately I can't simply strap him in the bouncer; I must use my foot to vigorously rock him.  This motion works like a charm to soothe him and is so much easier than rocking him in my arms forever.

Jesse and I used to have date night every Friday.  Of course, Friday doesn't bring the same sense of relief now that I'm not teaching.  There is still some relief though because I know I can spend time with Jesse on the weekends and I don't feel like a single parent.  We haven't gone out for our Friday dinner in almost two months.  (Exactly six weeks ago today Jesse was driving me to the hospital at this precise time!)  We decided to go to our favorite Mexican restaraunt tonight.  We went shortly after I fed and changed Jackson.  I don't know what we were thinking because Jackson is pretty fussy every night around 7 p.m. and tonight was no exception.  We forgot to bring the paci so I literally ate with my left hand while rocking Jackson in the carseat in the booth with my right hand and letting him suck on my pinky finger.  He honestly only let out two cries in the restaraunt that weren't even that loud, but it still made me nervous that he was going to start wailing.  We were going to order fried ice cream but I was just ready to leave.  That was a good choice because Jackson belted out some major cries in the car.  We made a quick stop by Dairy Queen so I could get my ice cream fix before heading home.  Overall, it was a successful date night, but not carefree like it used to be.

It dawned on me yesterday that we hadn't given Jackson a bottle the entire week.  I've been so concerned with pumping and freezing milk and Jesse has had such a rough week I didn't give it any thought.  Jackson  had a bottle almost every night for two weeks, then nothing but the breast for several days.  He wanted absolutely nothing to do with the bottle last night when Jesse tried to offer it to him.  He just kept gagging over and over and crying harder than ever.  Jesse got so frustrated he slammed the bottle down on the coffee table and went upstairs while I was left to nurse my screaming child.  I was upset because we ended up having to pour four ounces of milk down the sink after leaving it out too long.  We're going to try again tonight with just a few ounces and pray for the best!