Miscellaneous update that lacks a creative title...

Well last week my mom came to offer a bit of relief to the sleep-deprived new parents.  We were SO glad to have the help (and an extra set of hands!)  She was dying to get her hands on her new grandson, so it worked out quite nicely.  She even "babysat" (can you still call it that when it's grandma time?) so we could go to dinner... twice!  So we did have our first post baby date night.  I kept joking with Ryan that for our  first night out, I just wanted to check into a hotel for a few hours and sleep.  But he talked me into actually going out to dinner.  In the meantime, here's what C was up to with his Lee-Lee...

I'm not sure what they were talking about, but he seemed to enjoy it.  (Coupon girls, take note of my GIANT pink binder on the table behind them... that is my final couponing system, and I LOVE it!)

I'm pretty sure she was trying to tell him that he should be an Auburn fan.  Now he was only 5 weeks old, but you can tell by his face that he already knows that is NOT the way to get on mom's good side.  (Although Georgia is not giving us a lot to cheer about this season so far.)

Once Lee-Lee left us, it was back to our old routine, which includes mommy and me push-ups.  Frankly, we both hate them, but Cameron manages to look much cuter than I do while doing them. And yes, this means I cheated- I had to stop my push-ups to take this sweet picture.   

Look how strong I am!

I also ordered a book from my bookclub (it's not a real book club, but I call it that because I don't know what else to call it.  It's http://www.paperbackswap.com/.  You should check it out!  It's a great way to trade the books you are finished with.  Best of all, it's free!  But I digress...)  My book was on baby sign language...

This was NOT exactly the first sign I was hoping he would learn.  But I guess it would make him a baby genius, considering we just got the book that very same day he "learned" this little hand gesture.

And lastly, I could not let this go without being documented.  I'm pretty sure this is the last game C will be able to wear this onesie.  He's outgrown all of his other newborn sizes, and really, I had to force this one because I love the onesie so much.  It hasn't exactly brought the Dawgs good luck, so maybe it's a good thing that we're retiring this one.  No worries though- I have 3 other Georgia onesies on deck in the 0-3 month sizes.  Hopefully they will bring about better luck than this one.



Where to begin?

I was pretty sure having a baby would put me behind in the blogging world.  I mean, my track record hasn't exactly been the best anyway.  Throw in a baby who cries often, and will only sleep when being held and I was destined to fail.  But alas, here I am with another quick update. 
Cameron does not have colic!  He has reflux!  I think I said that in the last post, but if there was any doubt let's just kick that out the door right now.  We've been on zantac for a couple of weeks now and he is MUCH better.  We are starting a probiotic though to offset other intestinal distress (sorry, but that's about as delicately as I could put that) so I'm hoping between those two things our baby will really be the happiest baby on the block soon enough.  For now though, he's doing pretty darn good. 
Long stretches of sleep during the night still evade us.  But last night we did get 5 hours in a row, so for that I am eternally thankful.  No, seriously.  So.  Very.  Thankful.  The cumulative effects of sleep deprivation are starting to get to me.  I read somewhere (though I can't remember where- you'll soon realize how very ironic that is) that "mommy brain" or massive memory loss are the biggest effects of sleep deprivation.  I'm pretty sure I can back that claim up.  I often start doing something, walk out of the room because of some distraction, and come back DAYS later to find that I never finished that little task.  My poor husband has even fallen victim to this phenomenon.  He actually put sorbet in the refrigerator instead of the freezer the other day.  I discovered the melted mess the next morning when it was too late to salvage it.  And we do NOT waste desserts in this house, so it was long-gone at that point. 

I feel like I had a point to this post when I started it, but alas, it escapes me (insert mommy brain comment here).  So I'll quit rambling and give you what you really came here for anyway...
PICTURES!!

He really really REALLY hated that hat.  But he faked it for a few pictures for my benefit.

Our first family photo!

I spent a lot of time making faces at him in an attempt to get him to smile...  so far, no luck.

I just love this one.  I don't know if it's his super blue eyes, or how he's just cuddled up to his monkey, but I really like it.  Really Really like it.

This smile came only when we told him it was over and we wouldn't take any more pictures.  Luckily, Amber was ready to capture the ONLY smiling moment we had.

Those were from the session we did with Amber Price.  If you haven't checked out her site, well, you're crazy.  Do it.  http://www.amberpricephotography.blogspot.com/

One of my best friends in the universe came to visit us and meet Cameron, and I attempted to do the impossible:  group picture!  Her kids are the cute blonde ones.  Mine is the beet-red kid that is screaming as if he's being attacked by fiery hot pokers.  I swear we were not torturing him in the least.

Later, all that crying wore him out, so he took a nap in the Moses basket by the back door.  Fresh air works wonders on this kid.  After the morning we'd had, Bella had to come see what actually managed to quiet down the noisemaker.

You know how people always tell you to "sleep when the baby sleeps"?  Well, easier said than done my friends.  This is one of those rare moments when I actually got to do just that.

My mom is coming to stay with us for a few days, so perhaps I'll have a moment to do a more insightful post while she's here.  Or perhaps I'll just sleep.  We'll just have to see.

I know I haven't updated lately, but I will have to make this quick, as the C Monster is in the middle of an episode (dad is on duty to give mom a much needed break). 
Over the last week and a half, Cameron really ramped up his crying.  He cried every single night from 10 pm until 2 am, then he would either cry through all of his morning naps, or all of his afternoon.  That's his idea of variety, I guess.  I had an appointment with our pediatrician last week who diagnosed him with colic.  While it's nice to slap a label on it, colic comes with many downsides.  The first being, it's just a fancy way of saying "we don't know why your baby is crying."  The second, and far more terrifying, is that colic just magically disappears at 3 months.  We just hit 3 weeks.  I know for a fact I cannot do this for 3 months.  I can't. 
So I put out a call to my mom friends on Facebook to see what they have done to help calm their colicky babies.  I got a ridiculous number of responses right away.  Even today though, I am still getting emails with the same underlying message:  "I was told my baby had colic, and it turned out to be reflux."  I can't tell you how many messages I got with that same bottom line.  I lost count after about 15 or so.  So I googled infant reflux, and in particular, silent reflux.  And I watched.  All weekend long, he exhibited about 85% of the symptoms consistently throughout the weekend.  We made an appointment for Tuesday morning. 
I was prepared to lay down in the hallway and kick and scream until they agreed to try him on something.  Our Dr's office is very much in line with my philosophy on drugs- don't give them unless absolutely necessary.  So for me to say that I HAD to try it, I was pretty convinced that he had it.  But I knew I would have a harder time convincing the doctor of the same, just because so many people today toss pills at the problems they have without really analyzing why they have problems in the first place (but that's another blog in and of itself).  Amazingly, she agreed with me right off the bat, and prescribed baby zantac for my little monster.  We started it yesterday, and are about 30 hours in.  From what I've read, it takes 48 hours to really take effect, so I'm hoping that tomorrow starts a magical period of peace for us, and a painfree time for baby C. 
So that's the Cameron update.  This next comment/picture is totally unrelated, but can NOT go without commentary.  Over the weekend, our next door neighbors started a little spring cleaning.  Better late than never right?  Well let's just say it was WAY overdue.  Here are the pictures of the trash they put out for the garbage men on Tuesday morning. 

Since I am home with C, I had the luxury of watching the garbage men's reaction to this mess.  Let's just say that there was a lot of head-shaking, and obscenities flying when they pulled up and saw this.  But yes, they did actually take it all away.  And it only took about 30 minutes for them to load it all up in their truck. 

Now I can't end a post on that pathetic note, so here are some cute pictures of C to round out this miscellaneous update.

This was the 300th picture dad had taken.  I think Cameron is officially over pictures at this point.

Dad's first time feeding Cameron. 

Tummy Time!  Funny, this picture does not properly depict how very much he hated this experience.

And finally, Mom is sou proud!  Cameron can call a touchdown!  Go Dawgs!