Posts Tagged ‘Max’

Max at Three Months

Sunday, October 6th, 2013

Our boy continues to grow and change each day.  I forget just how quickly they can change at this young age!  He is still eating every two hours or so (which is a little exhausting for this momma, but so worth it)!  Here are his three month stats:

Weight – 6kg / 13.2lbs

Length – 24 inches

Head circumference – 16 inches

According to our calculations that puts him in the 50th percentile in weight and length, which is much lower than we thought he would be.  He just seems so big to us, and the Swazis. 

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Sunset, Max 3 months 118

His sleeping patterns are still very inconsistent.  At the beginning of the month I thought we had made a turn toward sleeping through the night.  He had a week where he would go to bed around 7 or 8 and sleep until 4 or 5, nurse and go back to sleep for an hour or so.  However, that was short lived.  After a week of this he returned to his old habits of waking to nurse every two hours or so.  he will now go to bed around 7 or 8 and sleep until 1 or 2, occasionally early, and from then on he wakes up every two hours.  We had stopped swaddling him for a short period, but have started that again and he seems to sleep a little sounder at night, even if it isn’t for a long period.  Nap times are hit or miss.  He will regularly wake up for 1-2 hours and then take a short 30-45 minute nap.  He usually takes two longer (1-2 hours) naps mid-morning and sometimes in the afternoon and then will dose off again for a  short period around 4 or 5.  I am trying to make sure he is in the crib for most of these naps, but we are still so inconsistent with nap time schedules.  Not sure how we were able to get Mikayla on such a good schedule!  On a typical day he will take at least one of those naps in a baby carrier. 

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Sunset, Max 3 months 145

Speaking of, I use my baby carrier so much more with Max than I ever did with Mikayla.  Max is "worn" everyday!  It makes it easier to get things done with a 4 year old around, plus when we are traveling to the hostel for various meetings and groups it is easier to carry him in one than it is to carry him in my arms.  He sleeps great in the baby carriers too, and will fall asleep almost instantly when you put him in one.

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The hostel kids and staff are still enamored by Max and will often fight over who gets to hold him.  If he is awake when we are there, I hardly see him!  That is until he cries and they bring him back to nurse, their default response for when a baby cries.  As soon as I calm him down, often without nursing, he is whisked off again!

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Max’s personality continues to grow and change each day.  He is smiling and cooing more and crying less (most days)!  He is even making a real effort to laugh.  It is really funny to watch him try to make noises.  It is almost like he tries to make them in the back of his throat, but can’t quite get the sound to make its way out.  But when he gets going you could keep him talking for several minutes.  Mikayla absolutely adores this and is constantly trying to engage him in "talking".

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Max is still not a big fan of tummy time, although if you can catch him in a good mood he will tolerate it for a few minutes.  While on his back he is able to wiggle around, so much so that if you walk away for a minute he will be in a different position entirely when you return!  He is still rolling from belly to back, but not vice versa yet.  Although he is now rocking himself up on his side, so I don’t think it will be long now.

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Like Mikayla at his age, Max has a full head of hair but it is a little awkward looking.  He has a small cowlick on the crown of his head which makes it look like he is wearing a toupee!  Ben is ready to shave it off, but I am not there yet.  It does look a little silly,  but he is a baby after all!  Speaking of appearance, he is still sporting his three birth marks.  The forehead one is fading some, but still there and the other two are still very red.

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Max really enjoys pushing up and standing on his legs when you are holding him.  And again, just like Mikayla, he loves to face out and check out what is going on.  I think he is going to be social like his big sister! Ben also got smart and started rolling a towel to place in his tub to make bath time a little easier!  Genius!!

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First "swim"!

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I have been meaning to write a post about how we chose Maxwell Simo for our son’s name, but haven’t gotten around to it.  Thankfully my amazing husband wrote one so I will just share his with you.  You can find it here.

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Max at Two Months

Wednesday, September 4th, 2013

At two months, Max is already starting to show some of his personality.  He is smiling more and more each day.  Within the last two weeks he has started to show some interest in his toys and will contently play on his exercise mat for up to thirty minutes at a time.  The cooing and noise making has begun, although he doesn’t do it all the time.  If you are talking with him he will often talk back.  He still hates being on his tummy and cries almost the instant you lay him on it!  IMG423

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Max is starting to get in somewhat of a routine.  He will wake up about 6am, eat and take a short nap.  Then he will eat again, play for a bit before taking a long morning nap.  He has been taking this nap in his swing because every time I lay him down in his crib he wakes up!  After he wakes up, he eats again and then plays for a bit before falling asleep for his afternoon nap. This is the nap that I usually have to hold him for.  He will sleep if I am sleeping with him or holding him in my arms or on my chest.  Eventually, I would like for him to take all his naps in the crib, but don’t want to wish away the moments that he will let me hold him!  After this nap he will eat and play for a bit before I have to start supper.  During dinner prep and dinner he will either take a short nap or cry.  Most of the time Ben or I end up holding him throughout the meal because all he wants to do is cry if  you put him down.  He will play and eat off an on throughout the evening until he usually calls it a night about 10 or so.  For the last few nights he has been sleeping longer stretches and only waking up to nurse 1 or 2 times!!  We even had one night where he slept for five hours!

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Have I mentioned how much this kid loves to eat?  When awake, he wants to nurse.  I am talking like every two hours or so!  It is exhausting, but well worth it in the end.  Whenever he is crying around one of the Swazi staff they tell me he needs to eat, even if he just got finished nursing!  I guess that is their solution for crying.  All his eating is paying off because he is getting quite chunky.  When we took him in for his 6 week check up he had already gained 1kg, over 2 pounds, since birth!!  All of the Swazi’s comment about what a big baby he is.  One staff member even said he looked like he was five months old!  I don’t know about that, but he is a big boy!

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Max’s neck is getting stronger everyday.  He can hold it steady for long periods.  He still enjoys being held often and hanging out in the baby carrier (where he spent most of his time last week during camp).  Speaking of camp time, the hostel staff is in love with Max!  They "fight" over who is going to hold him.  He is also known as Simo at the hostel to most people.  This poor kid isn’t going to know his name!  Ben and I call him Max, Mikayla often calls him Maxwell and most of the Swazi’s refer to him as Simo.

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Zodwa, a hostel employee, and Max at the dam during camp!

Mikayla absolutely loves her brother!  Sometimes too much!  We have had to have several talks with her about picking him up when an adult is not nearby.  Let’s just leave it as we have had a few close calls!!

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Max still has the three birth marks mentioned here, but the one on his forehead is starting to fade.  The one on the crown of his head is still very red and gets bright red when he is mad and screaming.

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Bath time is becoming more enjoyable with Max.  He is actually starting to enjoy this time, rather than screaming through the whole thing.  Although I have to be honest, he does not bathe as much as Mikayla did at his age.  We are having a hard time getting into a bathing routine with Max for some reason.

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Max at One Month

Friday, August 9th, 2013

Last Sunday Max turned one month old.  It is crazy how fast this past month has flown by.  Ben and I were actually just talking last night about how much he has grown and changed in the last month and just how quickly it has gone by.  With Mikayla that first month seemed like an eternity, but with Max it has gone too fast.  Maybe it is because we also have a very active four year old to look after!

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Grow with me owl at 2 weeks.

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Grow with me owl at 1 month

Max is quite different from his sister.  While she was always pretty laid back he is a little more high maintenance (although he is starting to come out of this phase).  He definitely cries more than his sister ever did and he is a lot bigger than she ever was!  He is a chunky monkey and eats like a pig!!

Max loves to be held, and during the day actually sleeps better in someone’s arms or in a baby carrier than he does in his crib.  At one month he is starting to get in somewhat of a sleeping routine.  He usually takes a mid-morning nap, an afternoon nap and an early evening nap before calling it a day around 9 or 10.  He sleeps pretty good at night and most nights gets up to nurse 3-4 times and goes right back to sleep.  On rare occasions he likes to have a party around 3 or 4am!  He will often have a crying spell right around dinner time, which has made for some interesting meal times!

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We started Max in cloth diapers after his umbilical cord fell off (around two weeks).  We only have 11 at the moment so we alternate between cloth and disposable, but mostly cloth during the day.  I am also breastfeeding Max and it is going much smoother than with Mikayla.  I had a low supply with her and seem to have an abundance with him!

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Max’s first cloth diaper!

At around two weeks, Max rolled over for the first time (belly to back).  He has been doing it pretty consistently since then, but absolutely hates time on his tummy.  As soon as you put him on his tummy he starts screaming.  We keep trying, but so far he just seems to hate it.  Which is ironic because he loves to fall asleep on your chest where he is essentially on his tummy!  He also has really good neck control (both of our kids have had this).  He can hold his head steady for several seconds and is even able to lift it up when on his tummy.  That is when he isn’t screaming.

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He is starting to enjoy playing on his back.  He will occasionally "talk" with us making small cooing sounds.  And he is starting to smile some, smiles that are not your typical gas smiles. He also has more periods of wakefulness than he did two weeks ago.

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We took Max up to the hostel for the first time last week when the kids were there.  They were absolutely in love and almost knocked us over when we got to the gates.  They all wanted to see him and said what a beautiful baby he was.  I don’t think he will be short on people who love him.  He handled the interaction like a champ, slept right through it!  😉 There are also some cultural differences between raising an American infant and a Swazi infant.  The biggest is the way we bundle up children.  For us Max is sufficient in a long sleeve outfit with pants, a lightweight blanket and maybe a hat depending on temperature.  In Swaziland they bundle their babies up until they are sweating – thick wool blankets and at least three layers of clothing in 80 degree weather!  We often get scolded because Max is not bundled up appropriately!  Just one of the many differences we are finding.

Mikayla is in love with her brother and has been a great helper this past month.  She is on "diaper duty", helping to take care of dirty diapers and pick out his outfits each day!  She loves to snuggle with him and hold him on the couch.  She even seems oblivious to his screaming.  Yesterday he was crying really loud and Ben was talking to him to calm him down.  Mikayla told Ben to that he was being too loud.  When he asked her if Max was being loud too she said no!

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Max was born with three distinct birth marks.  One on his forehead that looks like a triangle, one on the crown of his head and one on the back of his neck.  All three are still very visible, although the forehead triangle is starting to fade some.  Ben likes to refer to this one as the arrow to show "white people’ where to feed the baby!!  His eyes have bounced between being brown and blue, but within the last week they are consistently blue so we are thinking we will have two blue eyed children.

We are starting to get into a pretty good groove and it feels completely normal to be a family of four!  We head to the doctor next week for a six week check up and some shots.  Anxious to see how much my (not so) little boy weighs!

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Mawell’s Birth Story

Friday, July 5th, 2013

Yesterday, July 4, 2013, we welcomed our son into the world.  He was born at 12:45 Central African Time at Mkhiwa Clinic in Manzini, Swaziland.  He is perfect and all of us are absolutely in love, especially Mikayla!

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I wanted to take the time to write out his birth story while it was fresh on my mind.  I waited almost 16 months to write down Mikayla’s and forgot too many details.  The story below might be a little too much information for some folks out there so consider this your warning!

About 4:00am I was woken up by a POP and then a small trickle of water.  At first I thought I had peed the bed and then my mind got to wondering if it could be the amniotic fluids starting to leak.  I tried to lay back down, but kept wondering if it was indeed my water breaking.  I wasn’t having any real strong contractions at this point.  About 5:00am I woke up Ben.  His sat up quickly and asked "Is it time?"  I didn’t know the answer, but figured he should be awake and know what was going on.  I decided to take a shower since I wasn’t sleeping.  We already had a doctors appointment scheduled in town, so we figured we could just go in early to check.  When I got out of the shower (around 5:30am) there was a huge gush of water that was in fact my water breaking.  Even though I was only having a few small contractions we decided to finish packing up our stuff and head to the hospital.  (Once your water breaks  you have a 24-48 hour window to give birth before concerns about infection start to arise and you have to consider interventions).  We ended up leaving our house about 6:45.  I will be honest I got a little teary as we were waving goodbye to Mikayla (who was staying back at home with Joe).  It sounds ridiculous I know!!  Thankfully the road out of the mission, is already half paved – I was not looking forward to bumping all the way in.  The asphalt sped up the trip and we only had to stop once so I could get through a contraction.

We rolled into Manzini about 8:00 and stopped at the grocery for some bananas thinking they would be good energy food to munch on throughout labor.  We got to the hospital around 8:30 and started the process of checking in.  Ben actually had to leave at this point to go find an ATM to pay the bill up front! (The total bill for a normal delivery is one of the highest in Swaziland, and still only amounted to about $850).  It wasn’t until 9:30 that I had my first internal exam of the pregnancy.  They don’t actually check for dilation and effacement at any of the prenatal checkups.  To my dismay I was only 1cm dilated and 50% effaced and the contractions were weak and widely spaced.  At this point I was really concerned about the labor going slow and not progressing fast enough to make in the 24 hour window.  Little did I know that Max had other plans for us! 

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Hanging out in the ward watching Big Bang Theory waiting for
labor to fully begin!

During the first exam they found Maxwell’s heart rate was 170-180, which is really high and caused some alarm. They also wanted me to hook up to an IV, but I asked to avoid that so I could move around more during the labor process.  The midwife had no problem with that decision as long as I stayed hydrated and wasn’t throwing up.  I am very glad we made that decision.

After the internal exam, I was moved to a regular room to progress through labor.  Once we got settled in they checked the fetal heart rate again and it had returned to normal, but the doctor asked to hook me up to a fetal heart monitor for to keep an eye on the situation.  I had about thirty minutes to move around, but couldn’t find a comfortable position.  At this point contractions were between 7 and 15 minutes apart and with varying intensity.

The midwife came back at about 10:00, checked the heart rate again (still normal) and decided to go ahead and hook up the fetal monitor.  I had the monitor on for about 40 minutes and towards the end of the time, the contractions really started picking up and I was having a hard time finding a comfortable spot.  Since things were normal with the baby, I was able to remove the fetal monitor at that point and move around.  I think I tried just about every position I had read about in the books and literature and none of them were comfortable.  I had a great partner in Ben and he did a fantastic job of coaching me throughout.  He would help me get my breathing back on track when I started to panic during contractions.  And he even let me bite him, which I still feel really bad about, when they got really strong!

Around 12:00, the midwife came back in to do another exam.  I remember having a pretty strong contraction when she got there so she had to wait a few minutes.  She started the exam and it was so painful because the contractions kept coming.  To all of our surprise I had quickly moved to 6cm dilated and fully effaced.  She said that we needed to move to the delivery room.  This was really difficult for me because I was in so much physical pain I literally couldn’t make myself move.  Ben came to the rescue and somehow got me moved.  I remember him saying that is we didn’t go ahead and move I would have to delivery outside the maternity ward.  I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but he certainly was, I was going through transition and entering the last stage of labor.  Somehow I was able to make it into a wheel chair and across the hall into the delivery room.  I climbed up onto the bed in the room and the nurse left to get me a gown to change into. 

I had very strong contractions for about 10 minutes – so strong that I couldn’t help but scream (and cuss) in pain.  Out of nowhere I got the overwhelming urge to push and knew things had  progressed very quickly.  At this point there was no nurse in the room.  I told Ben to go get someone, but every time he tried to go, I pulled him back because I couldn’t let him leave my side.  Thankfully, the nurse heard the ordeal and quickly came in.  She was shocked to see we were already ready to deliver.  I told her I could feel the baby coming and she got pretty worried as she rushed to scrub in and get her gloves on.   I remember a lot of screaming and the sensation of the "burning ring of fire" the books all talked about.  By the time the midwife was ready, the head was already crowning.  I was in so much pain I could not move, so Ben and another nurse had to roll me over, prop me up and hold my legs for me.  Pretty sure this was the point where I took a few chucks out of Ben’s arm.  I am very thankful things went quickly because things were so intense, I don’t know how much more I could have taken.

Because of the speed at which things progressed, the doctor did not get there until after things were well on their way.  He supervised and allowed the midwife and nurses to take care of the actual delivery.  Once we reached this stage, it only took about 3-4 big pushes to get Maxwell out.  A few minutes later, lots of screaming,  and some claw marks on Ben’s arm, Maxwell entered the world.

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Welcome to world Maxwell Simo Kickert.  He was 8lbs 8oz, 20 inches long, and his head measured 36cm. 

I had a small tear that needed repaired so the doctor scrubbed in and took care of that while Max was being looked over.  He was a bit purple and blue at birth, but quickly gained his color and was in great shape.  Ben helped take care of him while I got cleaned up.  We weren’t able to do skin-to-skin like we had with Mikayla, but because of the situation, we were much more connected to the actual process of birth.

All in all it was a fast delivery and I am so thankful for that.  I don’t handle pain very well and with no access to an epidural here I was really concerned about it but thankfully was able to make it through with no interventions.  I never could have done it without the loving support and guidance of Ben.  I took a lot of my pain out on him and he handled it like a champ!  I am so glad we are a team and were able to be together on the delivery of our son, Maxwell Simo Kickert!  Our world will never be the same and we are excited about being a family of four!

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First mommy and son picture.  He was cracking me up with all the spit bubble action!

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Daddy and his son!

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Mikayla meets Max!  She was so excited.

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Already such a good big sister!

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Touchdown!

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