Dear my sweet, cute P.I.T.A (Pain In The You Know What) Challenging One-Year-Old
Today is your first birthday and although we love you, a lot…I still don’t know how we survived your first year. Let me reminisce for a moment of how we got here.
You threw us for a loop when we were told that you only had a 2 vessel umbilical cord, rather than 3. So, we had to visit the doctor every other week to get monitored. Your birthday was scheduled via c-section (so we thought, yeah, easy birthing experience)
Nope!
It took the anesthesiologist 40 minutes to find the right spot for the spinal tap. An hour and a half later, you were in my arms. While at the hospital I couldn’t get you to latch properly so we sought out lactation consultant after lactation consultant, each doing different things, to get you to nurse. Leaving the hospital, I was only able to get you to nurse on one breast and I had to pump the other.
The first two weeks were bliss and I was on a high thanks to my placenta pills.
Week four hit and we had no idea what we were in for. You were our second baby so we thought we knew how to handle it. You cried..a lot, at the same time every night for sometimes close to 5 hours straight. Everything I read was pointing to colic.
We tried everything; drops, rocking, bouncing, swaddling, white noise, car rides. We learned this colic thing was no joke. The colic continued but while dealing with that we also found out that you had severe reflux. We tried multiple medications, multiple formulas and I even had to give up nursing at 3 months because you couldn’t be in that laid down position to feed. (And this whole time I was only nursing one side and my other side dried up so I was looking very lopsided.)
Daycare + Teething = Misery
At four months, I had to go back to work and you were put in daycare. The daycare was great and the teachers were awesome, but with daycare comes sickness. A week after you were there, you got sick. Very sick. Congestion, cough, throwing up…an ear infection. (the first of many)
Also around this time came the beginning of teething. Sleepless nights with you screaming and us thinking we were giving you way too much Tylenol and Ibuprofen. The teeth came in with a vengeance. Again, something we didn’t experience with our first.
Six months was an all-time peak in your reflux. You were a hefty baby so you weren’t losing weight, you just ate a ton to relieve the pain and with that came the spitting up…nonstop.
And it sometimes wasn’t just spitting up but projectile vomiting all on daddy at times. A trip to the GI doctor and an increase in medication got you on the right path.
A trip to the GI doctor and an increase in medication got you on the right path.
Between 6 months and 12 months, you got 5 ear infections. You often choked on any food you ate because you were so congested. Countless times you would throw up in your high chair and then afterward go about and continue to eat.
Now you have a “beautiful penis”
One week before your 1 year birthday, you had surgery and were finally circumcised. This was a long process to finally get this done. You see when you were born the doctor thought something could have been wrong with your urethra. So, we saw a urologist but because of insurance and referrals taking longer than it should have, you were too big to get circumcised like they would have when you were a newborn. And because you are Jewish it was something that had to happen. Luckily, you did great with that surgery and now you have a “beautiful penis” (a quote from his doctor) and your future wife will thank me.
So, my child, you haven’t been the easiest. But, through all this, you are so loved. We love to hear you laugh, love to see you smile, and the little smirks you give us just melts our hearts. True, you have been our difficult child so far…but just wait till your sister is hitting puberty.
I’m almost positive you will be the easy one.
