April 15 - We are one month old already. Time does fly, but in some weird way it seems like the baby has been with us forever, as neither DH nor I can imagine our lives without him.
At the doctors appointment on April 16 the stats were as follows:
weight 5.06 kg
height 57 cm (he grew 4 cm since birth)!
Our little one's achievements:
* he smiles a lot, and now it is not a pure reflex or something. He smiled when DH was singing to him, over and over at the same spot. He smiles at me when he is fully fed and has milk dripping from his cheeks or when he is just content with everything (usually in the morning).
* he follows objects. My sis gave us a cradle swing which has kind of like a mobile on top, at first he ignored it completely, but now really loves those birds, butterflies and leaves.
* he has been putting his wrist in his mouth. I've noticed it more the last couple of days. He is also very funny (and sometimes annoying) when I am trying to breastfeed him and he extends his arms against my breasts and pushes himself away. There were a few instances where he actually pushed the nipple in his mouth with his hand, but I am not sure if it just happened or he consciously did that.
* he has been pushing himself up when we put him on our chests. We put him low and then he ends up right next to our throats :). During tummy time if I hold my hand to make a kind of support for his legs, he moves along on the mat.
* we have been swaddling him since day one. First he learned how to unswaddle from one blanket, so we instituted two blanket rule, and for the past couple of days he has been unswaddling from the two blankets. The problem is when he unswaddles he doesn't sleep well (or at all). So we ordered a sleeper which acts as a swaddling blanket. It is on a zipper so he will not be able to get out of that.
Last week I have been trying to put the little one on the routine. I've read the book, the baby whisper and was very keen on following her EASY routine (eat-activity-sleep-you time). It kind of worked great on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as I was able to put him for his nap in his bassinet during the day, and he would actually sleep there for a long period of time (I had trouble waking him up after 2.5 hours napping on Tuesday). I was so happy as with him having constant naps during the day, his night sleep improved as well and after 11 -11:30 p.m. feeding, he would only wake up twice before it was time to get up (usually 7-8 a.m.). But then on Friday, I had a big set back as I wasn't able to have him sleep in his bassinet for his first nap. I tried for almost an hour then I held him in my arms and let him fall asleep there and sleep for about 15 min, then I moved him to his bassinet where he only lasted for 30 minutes and then he slept in my arms for another hour as he was still very sleepy, but couldn't fall asleep. For the next nap I had him in the stroller and went for a long walk. Thereafter, BIL & SIL invited us for Shabbat dinner (my sis had other plans), since the little one was fussy I tried to have DH decline, but he wouldn't budge. So the little one was napping in his car seat, but was again very fussy, and ended up cluster feeding every hour that evening. The dinner was fine, but once again we ended up coming home close to 8 p.m. and had to also give him a bath. The good thing that after I fed him around 9 p.m. and then had a "dream feed" at 11 p.m. (which for the first time was exactly by the book - he didn't even wake up and ate for 8 minutes), he only woke up at 3 a.m. and then 6 a.m. So it was a good night.
I also try to breastfeed him for longer periods of time. He is usually done in about 8 minutes, and I try to coerce him in sucking for longer periods (over 20 minutes), which I think helps him to sustain without food for longer periods of time. We are aiming for 3 hours, but he does have many cluster feeding episodes. His pediatrician said that it is normal especially close to the evening and he tends to have those pretty often, so we have to be carefully for him not to turn into a "snacker".
On Saturday (April 14) the cleaning lady was coming, so we were happy that the little one was still asleep at 8 a.m. which gave us some time to tidy up. I couldn't follow the routine at all on Saturday as we were out of the house most of the day. When the cleaning lady came, I just finished breastfeeding the little one and we were out the door. We had to stop by a store to buy some stuff for the cleaning lady and drop it off at the house. Then we went to a restaurant for breakfast, and the little one was doing ok. He was sleeping in his car-seat most of the time. The plan was then to go to my parents' house and I would feed him there, but he started yelling in the car and we just stopped at a parking lot for me to breastfeed (which was very uncomfortable). When we finally got to my parents' house, my mom and i decided to go for a walk to a store and we barely made it back, with the little one yelling for food from the top of his lungs. By the time we got home it was already getting late. That night he had two cluster feeding episodes - one at 3-4 a.m. and then the next one when he ate at 6, 7 and 8 a.m. Definitely step back.
Sunday (April 15) the weather was terrible. When we finally gathered to go for a walk it was drizzling, so we managed to get to my sis' house and spent some time on her porch - socializing. With DH home it is kind of hard to follow our routine, to do that I need to be on my own with the baby. We thought of inviting sis & BIL, BIL & SIL, and one couple in the evening to celebrate our one month, but sis and that couple had made other plans, so we decided to just make it a party of two when the little one was asleep. I even had some wine :)
Monday (April 16) we had an appointment with pediatrician. He took all the measurements, and asked about feedings. I told him that we are usually around 2-2.5 hour but mostly 2.5 hours close to 3 and he said that at this age we have to try to keep him occupied until it is 3 hours. The little one also has some rash, and he said it is normal (which I agree as all of my friends' babies have that) and is caused by estrogen changes in my body. We waited for over an hour for the pediatrician, which made me pissed off a bit. Because of that the little one's schedule got screwed up again, and I had to feed him in the parking lot again. We went to a store afterwards, but got home at a decent time. I tried to do a dream feed again, but it didn't work. He just didn't take the breast while sleeping, and anyways woke up just around midnight, although the rest of the night was pretty good with only 2 more feedings (around 3 and 7 a.m.). DH took him at 7 a.m. and I had a nice nap until he left for the office close to 9 a.m. on Tuesday. I was so happy, and decided that I will let DH sleep through one feeding at night (and try to swaddle him myself) and then have him take the little one after the 6-7 a.m. feeding. The time with DH is activity, and then when i get him, I just put him back to sleep. That's what happened on Tuesday. Tuesday evening he wasn't sleeping much and the night was a total disaster again.
I fed the little one before midnight again (didn't even bother with dream feeding) and then he only slept for about an hour, and then it was a circus! He was screaming asking for food, but it has only been 1.5 hours since he ate, so I tried to delay feeding him. I managed to salvage another 30 minutes (which was a pure torture) with shushing and patting and singing and walking etc. I gave up and fed him, but he wouldn't fall asleep. It took at least another half an hour for me to calm him down, and I was still up and down until the next feeding at around 4:30 a.m. When the clock was showing 5 a.m. I finally gave up and woke DH up. I just passed out and DH was dealing with him for another hour until the little one fell asleep. Then during the day on Wednesday (18th) I was hard to follow the routine. Everything was against me today. First, I went downstairs with him to have breakfast with DH and then BIL came to pick DH up. The little one was kind of sleepy but then I missed the window and my BIL actually woke him up. Of course, it was close to impossible to put him to bed thereafter as he was overly stimulated. I did manage to have him asleep in his bassinet but he woke up after an hour and the rest was sleeping on my arms. I fed him and was burping him when the phone rang. I was about to go for a walk with him. It was a friend of my mom's calling and she needed an advice, and I ended up spending 40 minutes on the phone with her. During that time the little one fell asleep on my shoulder and it was late to go out at that point, so I put him in his crib (unswaddled as I didn't want to wake him up). Which meant that he was up in 30 minutes again, and spent another 1.5 hours sleeping in my arms. Urgh.... I did manage to go for a walk with him and when we were done DH came home a bit early as it was my SIL birth day. I fed the little one took a shower and we were off to celebrate with her by 6 p.m. The little one was in a car seat - sleeping. He stirred a few times, but was quickly lulled back to sleep by DH just walking back and forth with the car seat. We had dinner and when it was 3 hours since his feed I was ready to go upstairs to feed him, but he wouldn't wake up. I was very anxious, but my sis (who was sitting next to me) was trying to calm me down, saying that it doesn't matter that he sleeps a lot now, that he would still sleep through the night. He didn't wake up all through dinner and deserts and when the clock hit 8:30 p.m. (his previous feed was at 4:30 p.m.) I told DH that we better hurry home and I will feed him there. He did end up waking up just as we got home and with being changed twice (as he pooped) and burping, I ended up feeding him for almost an hour as he was on one breast for over 20 minutes, plus another 5 on the other. Then DH and I decided that he needs some activity time so only now trying to put him to bed. We will see what tonight brings. Wish me luck!
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