Tag: Zach

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Babies

Leaving the Nest

I’m tempted to place blame on my super Daddy of a husband in this post, but I’ve been a bit nervous & more protective than I expected. When I learned our babies were going to be born early, I figured we wouldn’t be taking them out & about right away. Hells, when I learned I was having multiples, I knew I’d been intimidated by that. But I figured it wouldn’t take us three months.

But aside from pediatrician appointments & a quick visit to each of our works, these babies haven’t left our nest together. A couple {Lucy’s had two & Zach one} walks have been taken, but it’s been hot. With my mom on tow, Lucy, in the Moby wrap, went to a baby store, BJs & Lowes Food about a month ago. She did great; sleeping her way from place to place. Two Saturdays ago, Zach joined Mom & I out to return my rented Symphony & go to Harris Teeter. Mom used our Ergo carrier & Z slept the whole time.

So yesterday I was feeling a bit stir crazy & hungry. I love dining out & while take out is good, it’s not the same as a restaurant experience. I brought up eating out Monday morning. The husband didn’t immediately say no. {I took this as a good sign.} Later when he mentioned craving Relish take out, I popped out ‘what if we all went?’. Husbands’ parents are in town & were game, so I began preparing for a 7p dinner at 530. Getting non-spit-up covered clothes out for myself. Clean, cute clothes & disposable diapers out for the babes. Waiting for them to wake up, nursing Zach, then handing him to Jason for burps & dressing while I then nursed Lucy. I got her & I dressed while Jason put them in the car seats. And off we went. We were just five minutes late {pretty sure I’ll never be ‘on time’ again}.

And I think it went well. Babes enjoyed the car ride. Zach fell right asleep at the table, only waking once we were done eating. Lucy stayed wide eyed for a while & then got sick of the car seat seconds before our food was served. J & his mom took turns walking her & eating until she fell asleep. Once we gulped down our delicious food, we called it a success & left before anyone melted down.

Zach slept 3.5 hours in his crib & Lucy fell asleep at 1115p last night. So their trip out did good things to them too. Watch out world, we’ve made a {little} step out of our nest with the two babies!

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Babies

Zach: Three Months

Oh Zachy-poo. I thank God for this easy going little guy. He’s content just about anywhere you put him: boppy, rocknplay, bouncy seat, swing, playmat, our arms or just a blanket on the floor. I brought out his tiger wubbanub last week & he has a new love. He cuddles it even if the paci falls out while he’s sleeping.

And speaking of sleeping, he’s cool there too. Happy on us. Good on rocknplay. Likes the packnplay if Lucy’s not in it. And he does well in his crib too- slept their Sun night for 5 hours. He still doesn’t sleep the 7 hour stretches that Lucy will {he usually wakes every 3-4 hours still}, but he did give us 12-6 Mon so maybe its coming soon.

{taken one day late 8/22}

Eating is currently our hard spot with lil Z. He’s hungry & that’s when he’s the most vocal, but he also has silent reflux & some lack-of-poo tummy issues. So every feeding is a toss up. Some days, he’s a breastfeeding champ. He actually does better nipple shieldless than his sister. Other feedings though, he’ll just scream at the boob, but take his reflux meds sneaked in 1oz breastmilk bottle fine. After trying to get out burps with pats, bouncing, walks, if he’s still screaming, I’ll have husband or MIL give him a breastmilk bottle. That’s happened more than I like recently, but I reassure myself knowing he’s getting my milk either way.

But the boy is growing! While still hovering around or a little below the 1 percentile, he’s more than doubled his birth weight & I think around 10-11 lbs now. Zach can fit into some NB clothes still but the pants/sleeves are getting short. The onesie above is the same one Lucy wore in her 3 month photo for comparison. To give him footie room, his sleepers are 0-3 months. He’s still fitting in the extra small & NB cloth diaper covers. But we have him using huggies naturals in size 1 over nights.

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Babies Family/Travel

Zach: Two Months

Zach, my little guy, is getting not so little. I’d guess he’s more than doubled his 4lb2oz birth weight. I’m looking forward to seeing if he’s jumped up to more than the 1% for weight, height & head at our doctor’s appointment this week.

Zach is now firmly in newborn clothes. He grew out of the preemie clothes length-wise a couple of weeks ago, but now he’s filling out the feet & tummy of the newborn sleepers.

After their one month appointment {at six weeks}, when we learned he was 7lbs, we switched him from the too small preemie disposable diapers into newborn ones {Huggies & Pampers are our favorites}. I also started him with cloth diapers that day. His first cloth was a size one Applecheeks but most days he uses the fitted Kissaluvs with x-small covers.

From the beginning, the NICU nurses were commenting on how strong he was & that hasn’t changed. His head/neck control is getting so good. He also likes to practice standing up. He follows us with his eyes & will sometimes turn his head to follow us. He loves to cuddle & falls asleep on us most of the time & definitely naps best on our arms, chests or laps. Boppy pillows work well for him to hang out or take a lil nap in. He tolerates the swing & likes the play mat pretty well.

He had tons of blond hair on his head & all over his shoulders, arms & back when he was born. We’ve noticed that the body hair is almost gone & he’s now sporting more of a old man mullet {bald on top & thin in the back}. Zach now has a wee double chin & the fabulous arm rolls we’ve been working hard getting him to make.

We {& our pediatrician} diagnosed him with silent reflux a couple weeks after a week of him screaming through feedings & whenever he was laying flat. Thanks to Zantac twice a day {hidden in 15ml of breast milk}, he seems to be feeling so much better. He still has occasional rough feedings but those are less frequent; I think due both to him getting bigger & the meds.

Categories
Babies Family/Travel

Nicknames

I’m writing on what I call ‘borrowed time’ aka its been over three & a half hours since I fed the babies together & I’m expecting them to wake at any moment. So this will be quick. But I want to remember all the sweet & silly nicknames we currently have for our duo.

Lucy. She’s baby girl, sweet girl, Luce, Lucy girl, Lucy Beth (which I almost wanted her to be double name called), frog or froggy (she has a super long tongue that she sticks out when she’s hungry & I ask her if she’s trying to catch flies), hippo or miss piggy (because the girl, like her mommy, loves some food.

Zach. Well I guess Zach is his number one nickname as we hardly ever call him Zachary. We started calling him Zachy-poo in the NICU (he’s gonna love this when he’s older) & its kinda stuck. Sometimes I’ll even shorten it too calling him Poo. He’s also Zachy, Zacher, Z-bud, buddy, or little buddy (another nicu name that’s stuck), little dude, or turtle because of his neck control. He’s often ‘lil’ somethings because he was & still is close to 2 pounds smaller than his sister.

Zach just woke so I was right on my ‘borrowed time’. Off to nurse the lil guy!

Categories
Babies

Zach & Lucy: One Month

Lucy & Zach might have turned seven weeks old this week, but I took these photos on their actual one month day 6/21. I’m hoping I can upload & post sooner for next month.

I love this brown chair for late night calming & rocking & reading to the babies. The huge owl was a gift from my aunts to the babies. So far, Moekitty is a big fan of {eating} the tutu & the babies don’t really care about the owl.

Happy 1 Month Lucy!

I breastfed Lucy then did her ‘photo session’ so she’s happily in a baby milk coma. I took photos of Zach next right before I fed him. He wasn’t a fan of my delaying his food for photos!

Happy 1 Month Zach!

Thanks to my friend Ashley for passing down the super cute owl month cards.