Nicole Tasker Woods

I’m sure you all care so much about Aidan’s bowel movements, but like I said before when I blogged about my boobs–it’s my blog! I get to talk about whatever I want!

The A-man has been having problems pooping more frequently than once every week. And I tell ya what, seven days is a LOOOOOONG time to go in between poops. And when he finally did poop, it was clear that it was incredibly painful for him.

I thought it was normal because I googled it (as I google every baby question) and everyone online said it was normal for a baby to go seven days without pooping. Ryan was adamant that it was not a good thing, but what does Ryan know!?

At Aidan’s 4 month check up, the pediatrician told us that it was NOT GOOD AT ALL! He said that Aidan can not go more than five days without a poop, otherwise we need to use a glycerin suppository. What!?!? Honestly, I do not want to stick anything up my son’s butt–however, if that’s what I have to do to get him to poop comfortably, I’ll do it in a heart beat! After the suppository, if there is still no sign of poop after two days, then we have to call the doctor. I had no idea it was so serious! Damn you google! Now I have to use a suppository AND tell Ryan he was right. Yuck to both!

As a remedy for the poop problem, we started Aidan on baby oatmeal and pureed pears and apples as well as water and watered-down prune-apple juice every day. I am happy to say that all of it has worked. He has only gone five days between poops and this past week he pooped two days in a row. I can only hope that more of this oatmeal and fruit will help him become more “regular.”

It is so funny how the things you find important in your life before you have kids, are now not important at all. Those once important things are now trivial compared to poop.

Since starting the baby oatmeal, the Big A slept through the night for 4 nights in a row. But then out of the blue on the 5th night, he woke up at 3:30am. I was shocked because it was going so well. But after he chugged down 7 ounces and was still wide awake, I put him in his crib, covered him up with his blankets and kissed him good night. He looked at me with wide open eyes and I was convinced he would be calling my name by way of shouts within minutes of me closing his bedroom door. But I laid awake for 30 minutes waiting to hear something–anything–but he was able to drift off to sleep on his own. I was so proud.

He has continued to do that every night since the baby oatmeal; if he doesn’t sleep all the way through the night, when he does wake up, he is not fussy nor does he cry when he is put back in his crib wide-awake. Definitely makes my life 1,000 times easier!

Aidan has graduated to baby oatmeal because he is such a BIG BOY now! Although it wasn’t a lot of food, he ate about a dozen baby bites of the oatmeal mixed with breast milk and pureed pears. He seemed to enjoy it, but it has only been two days, so we will see if he continues to enjoy it over the rest of this week. If he does, then I see some prune juice in his future. The poor little guy has such a hard time pooping and is going 7 days without a booty squirt and that just isn’t right!

Ryan has been out of town on business since Tuesday and he missed this milestone of feeding Aidan his first bite of solid food. But I know there will be many milestones ahead and I look forward to both of us being a part of them.

Aidan slept through the night last night, yay!

He had teased us about a month ago by sleeping through the night for 7 days in a row–it was pure bliss! Then on the eighth day, he woke up twice in the night, we were so shocked. We didn’t know what happened to our sleeping boy.

Since that day, he has woken up once in the night, usually between 3:00 – 5:00am. On really bad nights, he wakes up at 1:00am and then again at 4:00am. We were so concerned that he wasn’t getting the right kind of sleep if he kept waking up so often when for a week’s time, he was sleeping for 10-12 hours straight! I understand if he was waking up hungry, but we could tell that sometimes he had just woken up because something startled him.

After thinking about it, we came to the conclusion that he was probably cold and was waking up because he was uncomfortable. The evening temps have dropped drastically since the summer ended so it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the reason.

Last night we decided to attempt to increase his comfort level by lying him on the afghan that my Grammie Allen made him. It is the biggest & thickest afghan I received at my NH baby shower and it made his sleeping space so warm. After his bath & bedtime bottle, it doesn’t take long to rock him to sleep. Sometimes he dozes with the bottle in his mouth. Once he’s out for about 5 minutes, we swaddle him up really tight so he looks like a delicious baby burrito and then continue to rock or sway with him for another 10 minutes. Then we set him in his crib and swaddle him one more time with another one of his afghans.

It seems like a lot, but I tell ya what, being able to sleep straight through the night because Aidan never woke up was awesome. Getting a solid 6 1/2 hours was incredible and I felt so refreshed. And I’m sure Aidan feels better too!

Variety is the Children’s Charity of Southern California. I have participated in this charity over the past 7 years in one way or another since it has heavy emphasis in the film industry and I work for a movie studio.

December 4th is the 2nd annual Santa Walk, which will consist of walking laps around the Westfield Topanga Mall. All of the film studios encourage their staff and their families to participate in the event and I heard that last year’s event was not only fun, but a huge success in raising funds for Variety.

This year I have decided to create a team–lovingly called ‘Aidan’s Elves’–and I am collecting donations so that when Aidan & I dress up like Santas with the rest of the masses, we can raise money for a good cause. In case you don’t know what Variety is or does, it is a charity that provides lifesaving support for physically-challenged, abused, and disadvantaged children in Southern California.

If you would like to donate, please click Aidan’s Elves and you will be directed to a secure website to make a donation–any amount is going to help, even if you can only donate $1.

If you are in the Los Angeles area and would like to be one of Aidan’s Elves, please email me (nicki.woods44@yahoo.com) and I will send you simple instructions for how to become a member of the team.

The coolest part about participating in this event (where all you have to do is walk, seriously, it’s not brain surgery!) is you will receive a Santa costume upon registering so you can blend in with the sea of Santas…

My little man slept from 8:30pm – 7:00am the past three nights, I’m so proud! He’s getting so big! I remember fumbling in the dark to warm a bottle while Ryan changed his diaper with one eye closed…and now we are no longer woken up by a baby’s cry, but the ding-dong of our alarm clocks. I love sleep.