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It’s no surprise to anyone around us that Riley has been a handful. From the first day he came out screaming and hasn’t stopped since. 7 days ago that all changed.

During one of our baby classes an instructor mentioned the book The Happiest Baby on the Block as a good resource for parents. It’s chock full of tips and techniques for soothing a angry baby. At our wits end, we picked it up last week.

The main technique the book outlines is a 5 step process for calming your baby down. Court gave it a whirl last week and had the kid quiet within minutes.

We were absolutely astonished how well the techniques worked. For the last week we have been practicing them religiously and Riley seems to be responding to them. We had started feeling like we were failing as parents. When your kid will only give you the stinkface for 3 weeks straight it’s hard not to take it personally.

One week ago, today, Riley was waking up 3 times a night. He never went longer than 2 1/2 hours without fussing. We had a hard time putting him in is bassinet because he cried every time he was out of our arms.

Last night Riley slept for 5 1/2 hours straight, in his crib. I was flabbergasted this morning when I woke up at 3:30am. I did a double-take to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was so excited that I couldn’t fall back asleep.

Okay, so I’m posting this one day early. But saying “Two Weeks” is a lot easier than “One week, Six Days, and Four Hours.”

First off, Life with Riley has been awesome. Regardless of any story I might tell you, this kid is the greatest thing in the world (minus tacos, Manwich, and my wife). Riles spends the majority of the day being a perfect little soul. He hangs out, makes funny noises, and poops his pants. He has somewhat of a permanent scowl which I can only assume he’s inherited from me. I’m hoping he grows out of it by 4 months. I make sure to not scowl in front of him too much.

Now, the not so great part.

Riles is turning a tad colicky. From Day One this child has not been a big sleeper. He likes to be awake. He really likes to be awake at 2am. And if you are boring him at 2am when he is awake he likes to tell you so by screaming. We had hoped we dodged the colic bullet. The first few nights, while frustrating, did not include a screaming baby. But the last couple have had us reaching for any book possible to find out what we can do.

We found out that colic doesn’t set in for a few weeks. Colic isn’t anything to “cure” necessarily. It just means the kid cries for no apparent reason without any way to comfort him. The medical definition of colic is a child that screams for 3 hours a day for 3 days a week (or 3 days in a row, I can’t remember). We are far from the medical definition but closer that we would like.

We’re still trying to work out the specifics but it appears that if we wake Riley up anytime between 6pm and midnight he will scream. We have to wake the kid to feed him at least once. Of course, he will wake on his own and start screaming as well. To remedy the situation we try to strategically plan when we wake him so that we can get a little rest ourselves.

The whole waking baby process is about a 2 hour cycle. The first hour is spent waking him up with a diaper change, changing any clothes that he pooped or puked on, and feeding him. The last hour is spent trying to figure out what will calm him down. Once he’s done eating there is a 10 minute grace period before the evening’s fuss-fest. Nooks, more food, rocking, holding, playing all get cycled through.

Sure, at 2am when all hell seems to be breaking loose it’s very frustrating. Courtney and I do well together. If one of us is getting overwhelmed we just hand him over to the other for a break. By morning I’m typically ready to give it another go. By the evening when I’m getting home it’s time to start it all over again.

Riley Adam

Born: 10/31/2006 at 11:20am
Weight: 9lbs 10oz
Length: 22 inches
Apgars: 8 to 9 (Whatever that is)

We arrived at the Hospital at 7am for a planned 9am c-section. The morning was filled with poking and prodding and a lot of laughter. We were bumped until 10:30am by another emergency c-section. We were glad that we had chosen to do the procedure instead of getting hours into labor only to realize a c-section was required.

At roughly 10:45am our number was called. Court, a nurse, and I walked to the operating room. The nurse gave me a seat just outside of the O.R. while they prepped Courtney. The chair was uncomfortable and the surroundings were scary. I was sitting outside of an O.R. door by myself in a hallway. The chair was situated outside of a medical closet that had people coming and going from it frequently. I spent about 10 minutes nervously waiting by myself in the hallway.

When they called me into the O.R. Courtney had been prepped. I took my seat next to her head and smiled. She had on an oxygen mask which I knew from our hours of A Baby Story watching that women are given the mask when they react poorly to the anesthesia. Courtney has a violent history of reacting to anesthesia. We had done our best to warn all the doctors and nurses about it so I was confident they had done her up right. I asked Court about it and she said, “Yeah, I had a little freak out. But I’m fine now.” I looked at the nurse and she explained that Courtney had the typical reaction with the spinal tap and was unable to tell if she was breathing. A little oxygen soothes the soul.

The team of doctors and nurses went to work. Within 10 minutes Riley was born into the world. Throughout the entire operation Courtney and I talked and joked with everyone in the room. It was odd but quite easy, honestly. The doctor said there was no way Riley would have come out easily naturally which helped us feel better about it all.

The nurses whisked me away with Riley to the nursery. Once there they started measuring and doing their “thing” with the new baby. They told me I couldn’t go back to see Courtney. I was struck with a gigantic feeling of helplessness. I hadn’t planned to have the first moments of my child’s life to be with just…me. Court knew everything and I planned on just going with the flow. Without her there I realized I had no frickin’ clue what to do with a baby.

I stumbled around a bit. Picked him up, put him down, and finally took him out to meet the grandparents. The nurses assured me Courtney would be wheeled out of the O.R. shortly and then we could bring Riley to her.

After about 45 minutes she hadn’t been brought by. I started to get nervous. I worried about any complications from the surgery. When they did finally bring her out they had snuck her out and into a recovery room. As we had expected she was reacting violently to a sedative given to her after the actual birth. One of the anesthesiologists thought Courtney could use a little “something” to take the edge off. Courtney spent the next 4 hours in a recovery room puking because of it.

Our first day took a minor detour because of the recovery process. What we thought would be filled with friends and family quickly became a quiet resting time for all of us. The happy grandparents left us and it was soon just Courtney, me, and Riley. Courtney laid in her bed sleeping off the narcotics given to her for the pain. I was left to figure out this baby thing on my own.

For the first 20 hours of Riley’s life I was the soul support. I all of the sudden was scared t death. As Riley lay there crying and squirming I wished I had paid a little more attention to all the knowledge Court had tried to impart on me over the last 10 months. I learned to change a diaper from the nurse taking care of Court. Riley also managed to pee on me twice by the time he was 8 hours old. I would have given anything for Courtney and I to figure this stuff out together. I had a hard time dealing with it.

By 6pm Courtney was starting to feel a bit better. She was awake and was able to hold Riles for awhile. She couldn’t get out of bed, nor could she hold down any food. I spent my time taking care of both of them.

By 8pm Riley was starting to realize his place in the world. Typically you hear the first 24 hours of a baby’s life is a quiet time. They are tired from the birth and also not hungry quite yet. They sleep for most of it. Riley was everything but. I always joked that my kid would come out kickin’, screamin’, walkin’, and talkin’. I couldn’t have been more right. By the night Riley was in full “baby” mode. He wanted to eat, held, and changed. The entire cycle would take about an hour. Once done, he’d take a 10 minute break before starting all over again.

That first night we made the tough decision to send him to the nursery. We needed a little sanity time. We didn’t want to feel like we were giving up but we needed just a little time to ourselves to sleep and come to terms with what this whole baby thing was going to take.

Well, Riley made it into the world succesfully. Court’s a little worse for wear. The c-section was tough on her so our first day together as a family has been more laid back than I thought. As of right now Courtney is doing much, much better than at noon. She’s been able to hold Riley and get to know him too. As for me? I’ve been regulated to diaper duty. Since Courtney is bedbound until at least tomorrow morning I’m the go to guy for just everything. I’m enjoying the moment.

We are starting to count down the weeks until Riley Adam (a.k.a. Riles or Ramrod) shows up on our doorstep. Although Courtney is due is roughly 9 weeks we’re working under the assumption that he’ll be here sooner than expected. The doctors will tell you that birthing time and ETAs are not hereditary but mothers will tell you differently. At this point we’re preparing for the earliest, hoping for the best. After spending the weekend with my 10 week-old nephew I’m quite ready to have one of my own. We’re lucky that Drew and Michelle have allow us to “cut our teeth” with babies on Avery. He’s a perfect little guy.

Other than that life has been a waiting game. Court and I spend our time pontificating on new life situations. Sometimes agreeing and sometimes not agreeing at all but both of us are excited for whatever adventure will pop up next.