A Year Ago Today...

Every mommy blogger does this. Can you guess? That's right, a year ago today, I got the BFP that resulted in my darling baby boy.

It was 12dpo, the Sunday of the Labour Day weekend. I woke up early to pee and decided to test. I suspected it would be positive, and it was! I bounced into the bedroom, woke up DH, and dragged him to the bathroom. He was confused, thinking I just wanted to get an early start on our day. (Silly boy; that's not like me. I like my sleep!) Once he shook off the confusion, he examined the test and agreed that it was positive. Then I think we went back to bed. I'm not sure. But I do remember that we spent the day walking along the beach and talking about the future. And I got fries from a chip wagon. It couldn't have been more perfect. :)

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Three Months Old!

Happy quarter-year, my sweet Andyroo! At three months old, Andrew weighs 14 pounds 6 ounces and measures approximately 25.5 inches. The months are flying by! I can't believe how big he's gotten.

He's finally laughing, but so far only a handful of times. We're busy falling over ourselves with silliness trying to elicit these precious giggles. (I have a super cute video but can't get Blogger to post it.)

Today, as an entire online community grieves the great loss suffered by one of its members, I am so grateful to be celebrating this little milestone. My dear, beautiful boy, you have changed my life completely and forever. I love you so much.

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De Quervain's Tenosynovitis

In the last month or so of my pregnancy, I developed horrible pain in my right wrist. It was most intense first thing in the morning; I guess it got stiff while I slept. My OB said it was De Quervain's Syndrome, a type of tendonitis, and said it's common in pregnancy and would likely get worse after the baby arrived. She was right. (Apparently it's also more common in lactating women and it could go away when I stop breastfeeding, which seems to have happened for this mom, but that's still a long way off for me.)

Lifting my baby out of his crib or car seat hurts. Nursing him (holding his head and my breast) hurts. Dressing myself hurts!

But my initial research online didn't give me much hope. Limit use is the number one recommendation — yeah, right. Icing it and taking Ibuprofen might mask the pain but wouldn't cure it. Wearing a splint doesn't seem like a viable option — that would restrict movement and therefore make it difficult to care for the baby. Steroid shots and surgery seem to be the next steps. Ugh. I SO don't want to go there.

Today, three months post-partum, I finally went to see my doctor about it. She said to ice it and take Ibuprofen. I declined a referral to a physiotherapist for now, because it would be difficult for me to get to regular appointments with no one to watch the baby, so she said I could try to find some exercises on the Internet to do at home.

I found some to help rehabilitate the wrist once the pain eases — not helpful now. And then I saw this on YouTube. This guy claims a simple stretch, done in reps of 15 three times a day, cleared up his severe case of De Quervain's in just three weeks. Someone commented that he tried it and it worked for him too in just three DAYS! I'm going to give it a try. Why not? I'll report back to let you know if it helped.

Does anyone else have a De Quervain's experience to share?

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Sleepy Musings

The funny thing about babies is that just when you think you know them and their behaviour, everything changes all over again. Andrew's sleep habits have changed twice since I last posted about his stellar routine. After a couple of bumps in the road he seems to be settling down again into a decent pattern — which is to say he's napping about three times a day and waking only once during the night.

I suppose at some point I'll have to stop rocking him to sleep so that he can learn to self-soothe, but I think we're going to put off all that rigmarole until he's at least four months old. Then we *may* attempt sleep training a la Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. We loosely follow it now, attempting at least to get him to sleep every two hours, and that seems to work well. I'm just not sure how to move to the next step. A regular bedtime? Not even close. For now I'm fine with simply following Andrew's cues and letting his needs dictate the day. I know I'm lucky to be able to do this, and I intend to enjoy it. I can already see that the tiny baby stage is so fleeting.

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