Saturday, I went for my first "outing." Todd & I went to Babies R Us to buy safety gear. Now that Mercer's rolling over in his crib, we took out his cute "fish & bubbles" bumper. It's a suffocation hazard -- he can roll over & plant his face up against it. So we bought him a "breathable" bumpter. It's mesh. It's not as cute, of course, but it does offer him the protection from suffocation as well as to NOT to get his arm or leg caught between the rungs of the crib (which is actually a problem -- a friend of ours' baby broke his leg by getting it caught in the crib rungs one night). The mesh bumper also saves us the aggravation of him tossing his pacifier out of the crib in the middle of the night / us trying to retrieve it. (It's not in this picture, but Todd put it around the crib shortly afterwards. Check out this morning hair-do!!)
Oh so many things had to change this week: lowering of the crib. Changing of bumper. Cutting of the teeth. What's next? The Safety stuff is next. We mentioned that Mercer is on the verge of crawling. (In fact, a couple of nights ago he "scootched" all the way forward so his head was at the top of the crib. That's the only time we've noticed him moving in that direction, but it's a matter of time before he does it on the floor. So, we bought cabinet locks. Once he's crawling, he'll probably pull on things / open cabinets!
My mom left this morning. I know we wore her ragged, but I think she enjoyed her time with Mercer. She did a ton of dishes and laundry. She rarely sat still -- even when baby was napping. It was a huge help having her here this past week. She also got to catch up with a number of her friends as well. Thursday, a friend of hers drove 2 hours to hang out for awhile. Friday, a couple of her friends shes maybe once or twice a year came over for lunch. I tried to hang with them some, but each day -- yes with company here -- I napped! Digging these mid-day naps. I really do need them it seems.
There was another thing that happened today in terms of his progress: we fed him solid foods this morning and he'll get it tonight too. So - he's moving to 2 feedings per day (at the urging of several people). But, we also heard from a neighbor that we may be feeding him too much formula now / I saw a recommended feeding chart in a magazine this week. We're thinking that by adding more solid foods, we should be able to cut back a little bit on his bottle feeding. When Mercer goes in for his 7 month visit next week (remember, he's a month behind) -- I'll talk to the doctor about the feeding schedule / amounts / his weight / etc.
Anything else? Oh yeah - The "outing" today was to go to a nearby park. We've definitely had Mercer outside a lot in the past (back yard / "play dates" at neighbors yards / the square) -- but we've not intentionally taken him to a park to play. Now that he's able to pretty much sit up on his own, that will undoubtedly change. We put him in the baby swing and he seemed to like it for a minute, then grew bored with it / sort of zoned out. Oh well. We had to try it! We'll try it some more another day.
I think that's about it. (That's a lot!!) So many things are changing so quickly this week it seems. I feel very attuned to his (rapid) development this week as an observer from the outside. I tried holding him a couple of times yesterday and each time he squirmed / got me in one of my incisions. ouch! So - I will hold off on that for awhile longer. It's SO hard!!
I've not taken any pain medicine (unless you count a bunch of Aleeve) today -- except -- certain areas still hurt. I tried to go without the meds yesterday, but couldn't. Overall, however, each day gets better. I don't know why I'm compelled to share this with you, but I looked up some stuff on wiki about the surgery. Check out this link if you're interested in seeing this incredibly intimidating picture of what "operated" on me (I'm glad I didn't look this part up beforehand!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Laproscopic_Surgery_Robot.jpg The difference in my OR table and this one... mine had a yellow "gel" pad on it that you lay on.... and it was warm. It wasn't a cold, hard table. I'm not sure why they didn't put me out before I got into the Operating Room. I could've done without seeing this crazy Dr. Jekyll / Mr Hyde piece of equipment!
Oh yeah - another thing about the surgery: Quick weight loss. Now that I'm eating pretty normally & everything has settled from the surgery / prep / hospital routine... I've dropped about 4 1/2 - 5 lbs. I'm pretty sure that was attributed to the fluid in the cyst. Funny - a couple of months ago, I was complaining to a neighbor about weight gain that I couldn't figure out. My eating habits hadn't changed. I guess this would explain it! Now the rest of the weight gain I could explain: late night feedings the first few months of Mercer's life -- eating cheese & crackers in the middle of the night... and dark chocolate M&Ms.
I should run and take a much-needed nap. My outings each day actually wear me out. Guess most of my energy is put towards healing and that zaps me?
I don't know if I'll blog this week. I'm supposed to go back to work (from home) and doing stuff w/out my mom here (dishes, laundry, cooking, etc). I'll just have to see how the energy level is. I'll do a check in next weekend & report on Mercer's (and my) progress.
Candice
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