Friends, this has been a somewhat bumpier entrance for our new little Sweet Pea than may have been hoped, so please forgive my brevity and the decision to skip creating a Course Update video for you again this month.
If you missed it, in late September I sent out an email to my community sharing our joy at the arrival of our new Sweet Pea, and the “highlight/lowlight” overview of the stories from those first few weeks (birth plan pivot, 911 Emergency Call, and NICU time included…)
At the time I’m now writing, she’s 6-weeks old, and to all appearances our Sweet Pea is a reasonably happy, healthy baby.
However, we have been navigating a few ongoing issues all related to the events that started soon after her arrival. (See Course Update #35 for details.)
Basically, her ongoing reflux MAY be causing some issues with sleep apnea, so we’ve been back in the thick of things with doctors and testing to determine if that is, in fact, the case and what can or should be done about it.
As the parents of any newborn know, the one thing that can TRUELY wake you with a jolt at night is the anxiety about “Is she breathing?”
Well, that’s genuinely “a thing” in this case because firstly, we have to follow a whole protocol to ensure that she doesn’t choke after eating due to the reflux.
But, now we also have to monitor her when she sleeps to make sure that any reflux “events” while sleeping aren’t creating a pattern of obstructive apnea which can progress to central (neurological) apnea… i.e. not breathing because something’s blocking your airway can turn into your brain just forgetting that it needs to keep you breathing (Not good :(.) … so that whole “sleep when the baby is sleeping” wisdom handed to parents CONSTANTLY… yeah, this problem makes that recommendation a WHOLE lot harder.
Bottomline, we just don’t know exactly what’s going on yet. Less than a week ago, they had us do a sleep study for her.
May I say, I genuinely hope that you NEVER need to have such an experience with your newborn because it was utterly traumatizing for both her and me. At time of writing, we don’t yet have the results from that study, so we’re now just in a waiting game.
The good news: she’s eating, gaining weight, and overall a fairly cheerful, happy baby who’s generous with her smiles, even in her sleep, and since she did successfully keep growing through her first month, the pediatrician gave us the green light to allow her to sleep as long as she wants through the night.
That means that (anxiety aside), according to my Apple Watch data, we’ve gone from getting around 4+ hours of sleep per night during her first 4 weeks to getting closer to 6 hrs in the past 2 weeks.
That’s usually broken into two sections, so not 6 continuous hours, and it definitely varies.
However, left to her own devices, our Sweet Pea is often fine with just one middle of the night feed around 4am, but will give us a good sleep stretch from 10:30pm – 4am on many nights.
Now… for those of you who have never been parents of newborns… you may not be able to relate, but really… that’s GOOD. Many kids will be up every 2.5 – 3 hours day or night, so getting 5+ hour stretches multiple nights in a row feels like hitting the lotto as a parent. However, sleep deprivation is still definitely a constant in our lives, and it’s going to take us a WHILE to start approaching “normal” yet.
That said, we have managed to have a few SMALL adventures in the last two weeks in particular.
Pumpkin was begging to go to the splash pad a couple weekends ago, and the weather here in Florida is finally becoming more comfortable, so we managed to get all four of us dressed and out so she could have some water play fun.
Then, we TRIED to go exploring and take a walk at Blue Spring State Park, which was only marginally successful. We did see an alligator, turtle, and LOTS of vultures, but no manatees yet… and both Sweet Pea and Pumpkin were somewhat cranky about the heat and humidity that day.
We had a bit more success the following weekend going for our Fall Farm Fun at a local farm with a corn maze, hay ride, and bunch of kids games. Our Pumpkin definitely found some joy in our explorations that day. Sweet Pea… well, she ate and slept… ’cause that’s what baby’s do *hahaha*.
However, I think our most fun, family adventure yet was just a few days ago when we drove to Orlando to go to Disney Springs. We ate dinner outside by the lagoon then wandered around Disney Springs. That’s the closest we’ve yet come to entering Disney World here in Florida because we feel strongly that we want Pumpkin to get her Covid vaccine before we actually take her to the parks.
Unfortunately, since she’s still just 4 years old even the excellent news about the approval for the Pfizer 5-11 year old children’s dosage doesn’t change our current situation… just a few more months we hope. That said, with the case count numbers (even here in Florida) improving so much in the past few weeks, we may plan for Brian and I (who are both fully vaccinated to have a Disney Date in November or early December if we can’t yet safely bring the Pumpkin with us :(. )
All this to say… we’re in the thick of things adjusting to life as a family of four, navigating some tricky medical roads, and just taking it one day at a time as the parents of all newborns do. But, we’re also getting the parental leave experience we wanted with opportunities to sit out in the sunshine… and go to outdoor restaurants and have people bring us food and drinks. So, one could say “mission accomplished.”
And… now time to feed the baby (and maybe grab another nap ;). )
Catch you all next month!
