Tyler vs. Mommy, Daddy, Nana, and Connor

The Battle of the Wills occurred last week in the Johnson household. Tyler was still getting up to eat at 3:00 AM and that just wasn't cutting it with me starting back to work and school. One night, without really deciding that this was the night it was going to happen, I launched a full scale surprise attack on the 3:00 AM feeding.


Night 1: Tyler wakes up at 3:00 AM hungry. I go in there, re-swaddle him, give him his passy, kiss him on the head and leave. He's settled for about 5 minutes then starts crying. I decide to give him 15 mintues to see if he goes back to sleep on his own. Uh-oh, bad idea. By minute 6 or so, he's worked himself up into a frenzy. You parents know that cry-- the WHAH, WHAH, WHAH, WHAH over and over again. I'm staring at the clock... 15 minutes sure is a long time... 8 minutes, how is Andrew still sleeping through this... 11 minutes, Connor comes up to my side of the bed and starts panting in my face seemingly telling me, hey, you do know that baby's crying right? some of us are trying to get some sleep here... 13 minutes, almost there... 14 mintues, he suddenly stops. Oh no, I've killed my baby. But wait, what's this I hear over the intercom? It's Nana. Great Mom, we make it thru 14 minutes of suffering and with one more to go, you go in there and ruin it! Oh well, what's one minute in the long run. Tyler thought he was calling in his calvary I guess. So I get up, Connor rushes out of the bedroom and goes downstairs to hide in the corner behind the recliner, and Andrew is like 'Thank God'. Once I'm in Tyler's room, Mom asks, 'Do you want me to give him his bottle?'. No I don't want you to give him his bottle, I'm in the middle of a war here! I explain that I'm trying to get him out of the habit of his 3:00 AM feeding and that I'm going to let him cry it out. OK she agrees. Tyler settles back down and I go back to my room, and again, within 5 minutes he's back into hysterics. I wait 15 mintues, go back in there and settle him down and leave. We do a routine like this for the next hour and a half. Finally, Mommy's Will wins out and Tyler gives up and falls asleep. I feed him at 6:00 AM, I figure that's a good compromise. Night 1 belongs to Mommy.

Night 2: Much similar to Night 1, except this one ends in a stalemate. Neither Tyler nor Mommy give in and we end up battling back and forth till the 6:00 AM truce time.

Night 3: A lot less crying this time. Mommy is triumphant- Tyler sleeps after being soothed back to sleep.

Night 4: Peace Treaty signed. Tyler has agreed to skip his 3:00 AM feeding and wait until 6:00 AM, Mommy has decided to get up and soothe Tyler back to sleep as frequently as needed when he wakes up at night and not let him cry... for too long.

Sometimes in the middle of the night when he's crying at the top of his lungs, you can forget how cute your baby really is. Let's take this moment to watch a video to remind ourselves.

Meditations on the Maternity Leave

1. I am not an island.

We never would have made it through the first few weeks without the love and support of our friends and family. I know that sounds a bit cheesy, but it's soooooo true.

Taking care of a baby is hard, recovering from a c-section is hard... we would have fallen apart without help from everyone else. Next time Leslie says, 'We want to take the

first few weeks to bond with the baby, just us', please shoot me. How naive can one be? Also, let me go ahead and take this time to apologize to anyone we know who has had a baby and we've done nothing to help out. What jerks we've been. I guess you don't know just how hard it is until you go through it yourself. I am pledging that from now on, if you have a baby, or have a major surgery, or something similar, we'll be there. The visits, offers of help, food, gifts... everything everyone did for us, we'll pay it forward to someone else. Promise. And please hold me to that especially when I selfishly get caught up in my own busy life.

2. Things I wish they would've told me... or reinforced better...

1. It's hard. No, really hard. This had to be the number one thing we heard. We knew it was going to be hard... duh... but I guess we didn't realize just how hard. We probably wouldn't have believed how hard it was if someone tried to tell us.

2. It changes your life completely. Well, duh... of course... but I guess we didn't realize just how it would change our lives. I can't even explain how it changes, but it does, everything does.

3. You can function on much less sleep than you think you need. You may not be functioning sanely, but you're functioning.

4. You bleed for 4-6 weeks afterwards. Nice, I know. Thanks for telling me this one.

5. 12 weeks go by quick. No, really quick. In fact, just when it starts to get fun (around week 8 or 9) it's practically over.

6. Sometimes you feel like a barn yard animal. It's hard not to, especially when you're hooked up to your breast pump 2-3 times a day and have a baby latched on to you another 5-6 times a day. One day, simultaneously I was bleeding (see above #4), leaking milk, and crying-- way too many liquids coming out of different bodily orifices for me to handle.

3. If you throw a hissy fit the night before your husband is supposed to go back to work, he'll stay home an extra day. Yes, I did throw a temper tantrum the night before Andrew was supposed to go back to work, but it just so happened to be a series of misfortunate events. I had a very high fever due to the one two combination of a UTI and mastitis. That, coupled with the thought of Andrew going back to work- which pretty much sent me into hysteria, sent me overboard. Luckily, I have the best husband in the world and he stayed home and extra day and took care of me and the baby (with the help of my mom too!).

4. Instructions not included. Contrary to popular belief, Andrew and Leslie really don't know what they're doing regarding parenting. We (well, I) read a few books and have tried out a few different things, but we're still not sure how to raise a baby. We're making it through pretty good so far (we think) with only a few minor issues.... No Andrew, you can't dunk the baby underwater. Well duh Andrew, of course the baby is going to cry if you flick water in his face.

5. Thoughts on the Baby Blues. Although I didn't go through complete post partum depression, I'm pretty sure I had a case of the baby blues (a slightly less intense version). You get home and you've got this baby who's hungry all the time, and you can't move because you're in so much pain from the c-section, and your hormones are going besurk, and you have no clue what you're doing. It was rough there for the first few weeks. So sorry to all the people I called who couldn't understand a word I was saying through all the tears (mine, not the baby's). Of course I loved the baby from the beginning, but it took me a bit to really feel affectionate towards him. Andrew on the other hand was head over heels for the baby from the beginning. Many days I wished I could've been like him. I remember the first day I told Tyler I loved him. Andrew looked up at me and said, 'You've never told him that before'. I felt it, it just took me a while to say it. What helped me most to work through the baby blues (after my hormones began to stabilize) was making sure I got out of the house at least once a day, got back into a routine, and got back to doing things I enjoyed. Which leads me to my next thought...

6. Ob-la-de, Ob-la-da, Life Goes On. We took Tyler to the doctor a few days after we got home from the hospital. I remember riding over there and thinking to myself, 'Wow, the sun is still shining, the streetlights still change from red to green, people are out and about going to work or running errands, gas prices are still rising- life goes on.' Sometimes you don't feel that way, especially when you've been enclosed in your house taking care of a baby and recovering from major surgery. After I realized that the world had not ended, I had a much brighter outlook on things. Andrew and I went back to living our lives pretty much like we had before we had Tyler, it just took some extra planning on our part. Babies adjust. They go where you go, do what you do. I think that made Tyler, Mommy, and Daddy much happier.

Beach Bums

It's August and we finally made it to the beach- our first family vacation to Paw-Paw's double wide at Oak Island. I think it's interesting that I've been going there since I was little, now I'm bringing my kid there. Woah, time flies. We wish we would've had more time to spend, but vacation time is scarce after taking so much time off when Tyler was born. Of course, it's somewhat cramped quarters at the beach house and once you get sunburned there's not a whole lot left to do, so 3 or 4 days is good enough.

Andrew thought I was crazy when he saw a rubber mallet in my beach bag, but it works wonders when trying to get your umbrella to stay in the sand (thanks for the idea AliRog!). Mister Man prefers sitting somewhat upright rather than laying down, so we brought his bouncy chair to the beach with us. Spoiled baby already.

Tyler seemed to enjoy his time at the beach. He made it about an hour or so and then would go back and spend the rest of the afternoon with Papa (who doesn't like the beach). I know, who doesn't like the beach?!?!?!?

Just chillin'

Notice the strategically placed baby and burpie

Dad, Andrew, and I played golf one day. We picked the hottest day of the year to play. Good thing we had the ocean breeze during the back nine. I'm not a very good golfer, but I enjoy spending time with Andrew and Dad... and I like to buy fun golf skorts. After the 7th hole or so, Andrew accidentally smashed his iPhone (he had it out because he has/had this awesome app that tells you how far you are away from the hole and it fell and got run over by a golf cart). For those of you who know Andrew, you know how 'passionate' he is. This could have ruined our round right away. I know if it had happened to me, it would've ruined my day. But, much to my surprise, Andrew took it in stride and I think even played better afterwards. Where's my husband and what have you done with him?

Following the drive to make sure he landed in the short stuff.

He did.

Leslie's crappy golf swing. You've got the hips- use them!

Dad trying his hardest to avoid the sun.

Wish I would've gotten a picture of him wrapped in his towel.

Nana and Papa, you both have the same hair style!

Mommy, you look rough.

Now this is the life

Tyler rarely opened his eyes on the beach- too bright!

Gettin' my feet wet

What a wonderful trip. I've got to get me a place at the beach. Looking forward to next year- I think Tyler will be real fun then.

Tyler Gets Baptised

Getting Little Man clean and ready the night before. Not quite sure why, he never stays clean for more than a few hours. He gets what we're calling "milk neck" after almost every feeding. After a few feedings, he's pretty smelly. Oh well. At least he smelled good for a little while.

Practicing with Dad for my Baptism......

Yall laugh at my expense way too much

Finally, Sunday morning arrives and somehow we make it to the church on time. However, this is only after we've tried on Tyler's newly bought, pristine Baptism outfit and it is too big. Good thing we had Andrew's outfit that he wore when he was baptised. That one fit just fine, so we put on a bib to capture any spit up and drool and headed out. We kept the bib on until the service started and as soon as we took it off.... bleeuuurpt... Tyler spits up mondo amounts of partially digested milk all over himself. Oh well. He's a baby and that's what baby's do I guess. They performed the baptism early on during the service and Tyler just stared at the pastor and was such a good baby. He was even good when the pastor walked him up and down the aisle for the congregation to see him. We sat back down and Tyler fell asleep for the rest of the service.... whew!

Family pic with The Weaver's

Family pic with The Johnson's

An Apple A Day...

Back to the doctor today. Tyler is now just over 10 weeks old and continues to be quite a handful. He weighed in at 13 pounds, 12 ounces (75%) and was 24 inches long (50%). We asked a series of questions (why is head so buldgy?, what's this on his foot?, why do his eyes open weird sometimes?), and all in all he's a happy and healthy boy. We're keeping on the same reflux meds and are supposed to pick up some lotion at the drug store for his face bumpies. Tyler got an oral vaccine for the rotovirus, then got 2 more vaccines- one shot in each leg! When he got the first shot he paused ever so slightly then began completely wailing. Andrew and I didn't laugh quite as much this time. We premedicated with some Tylenol and will continue it for the rest of the day.

In general Tyler is sleeping from about 11:30-6:30. He's eating 7 times a day, every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. He still loves his swing, but we're supposed to start weaning him from using it as a sleep prop. He almost rolled over at the doctor's office and is smiling at mommy and daddy lots. Still loving to look at lights, ceiling fans, and picture frames. Just like Daddy, Tyler sneezes twice when he gets in bright sunlight. Interesting tidbit: it's called photic sneeze reflex, is hereditary (thanks Dad), and affects 18-36% of the human population. (We just learned that today- not from the doctor's, but from watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire).

New favorite thing: chewing on my hand

Think he's almost found his thumb.... uh oh

After getting the shots, the morning wasn't that bad... things broke down quickly in the afternoon though.

Not sure if that Tylenol is working....

Even swing didn't work

Bits and Pieces

Can't believe it's August already. We're having a lazy weekend and enjoying a break from an otherwise hectic life. This is practically our last weekend to sit back and relax through Christmas! Through the end of the year, we have 5 weddings (yay for our friends!), Tyler's Baptism, trip to the beach, trip to the mountains, Tar Heel football games, and Leslie back in school. Whew! We seem to function best (or at least Leslie does) with a packed schedule. Thought I'd take this time to share a few random pictures.

Before passy

After passy

Can you find Connor?

Brothers forced to hug

In our family we call it a fivehead, not a forehead

Watching Daddy get ready for work.

Do you really have to go?

Mommy, surely you can figure out how to set the timer for your camera rather than take a picture of us in the mirror.....

I'm not sure why they call me Butterball. Is it the cheeks? Or the belly? Must be my 5 arms rolls....

What a handsome boy

You know Mommy, this is a bath tub- not an AAP approved child seat