It’s hard to believe that 1 month ago, today, I was getting
ready to give birth to the most beautiful baby boy. Time is flying by and it’s
blowing my mind! I look forward to so many more weeks, months, and years with
my little man- just watching him grow up to be absolutely amazing in every way.
Being a mom is pretty exhausting but extremely rewarding. I wouldn’t trade it
for anything!
David came up to visit Labor Day Weekend, and we all had a
great time together. M got to bond with his daddy and loved sleeping on his
chest and wearing matching Redskins gear. Michael also had a couple of big
outings, on which he was very well behaved. Soon enough we’ll all be seeing
each other much more often – more Daddy & M time to come!
Now that I’m feeling a lot better and more recovered, I have
discovered how much work I have to do on myself. Today, Monday, is Day 1 of
whipping my butt back into shape. I gave myself 1 month of recovery time and I
think it’s time for me to buckle down and slowly regain all the strength,
muscle and endurance I lost. Weight-wise, 1 month later…I went from weighing
143 to 116 – less than when I first got preggo. Woohoo! Now it’s all about toning up. I also need to tan. I’m
soooo pale. Yuck. Next, I need to shop for some new clothes. Let’s just say my
hips got a bit wider pushing out a baby and all so now my super skinny, skinny
jeans are history. Boo.
Temperament
I may have spoken too soon during my last post when I said
that M never cries…hmph. He is certainly developing his own little personality
and crying so happens to be a part of it. Not surprising, as afterall, he is
but a baby. He is generally in a good mood, although I am discovering that he
really doesn’t like being put down by himself. When he isn’t napping, I find myself snuggling with and
feeding him for the majority of the day. Setting aside his bouts of fussiness,
he is usually very easy to please and like any baby, loves being held. He likes
to sit in his swing and just observe everyone around him, wide eyed and
intrigued. When he has had enough, he lets us know. He is certainly not shy
about vocalizing.
I started reading “Happiest Baby on the Block” by Dr. Karp,
and his “5 S’s” method, has become a total lifesaver in helping Michael get to
sleep without needing to nurse or be in my arms first. I won’t get into the
details of the book, but anyone with an infant should make it a priority to get
this book. I promise that you will sleep better at night!
Feeding
Michael is a CHAMP when it comes to feeding. He loves to
eat, and can easily switch back and forth from bottle to breast – no nipple
confusion whatsoever. We have kept with the routine of giving him one bottle a
day in order to help him practice taking a bottle and it is working perfectly. He
sometimes tries to hold the bottle with his little fists on either side of it.
So cute! I guess the only problem he has in this department is that sometimes
he is so hungry and so excited to eat that he can’t relax well enough to latch
on perfectly on the first try. Other than that, 90% of the time, his latch is
right on. The amount he can eat is also rather impressive. Nursing, I’m not
quite sure how much he gets, as he eats until he is full, but bottle feeding,
the most I’ve given him in one sitting is 7oz! Wow. Little glutton…!
He still eats on a schedule of about every 3 hours now, to
include nights. The stretches are occasionally longer depending on how long he
decides to nap for. I don’t wake him up, I’m still feeding him on demand which
just so happens to be around every 3 hours or so. Thing is, once he lets me
know that he’s hungry, I better hurry up and feed him within minutes or else he
gets quite upset -_- Thankfully though, the growth spurt is over, for now, so
no more cluster feeding at night! I finally get to sleep a little! Next growth
spurt is around 6 weeks…sigh…
Sleeping
Again, reading the book by Dr. Karp has proved to be a total
lifesaver in the sleeping department. While he was never a bad sleeper, he
would often fight sleep throughout the day and then be over tired and just
unable to sleep at all. Swaddling him up, putting him in the swing and turning
on some white noise, gets him to sleep within minutes. It’s amazing to see! We
only follow this method during the day. At night, we have found that giving him
his bath, followed by a feeding, swaddling him up and putting him in his
bassinet, he will fall asleep right away. He’s still young, so he sleeps a lot,
not to mention, he is growing at a rapid rate! His big naps are in the
afternoon for 3-4 hour stretches. He is most awake in the mornings from about
7am to 11am and in the evenings from about 5-8pm. At all other times, he will
awake randomly, eat, look around, and go back to sleep.
Health/Milestones
Birth
Height: 22 in
Weight: 7lb 4oz
9 days
Height: 22.25 in
Weight: 7lb 13oz
17 days
Height: 22.5 in
Weight: 9lb
27 days
Height: 23.25 in
Weight: 10 lb 4 oz
1 month
Height: 23.25 in
Weight: 11 lb
He is still a perfectly healthy little baby. He poops
all.the.time. Big, loud, obnoxious, smelly farts, sharts, etc. Yuck. He will
occasionally have the hiccups, but they go away pretty quickly. He is growing
super fast and gaining lots of weight. At his 1 mo appointment, doctor and
nurse were impressed with his rapid growth! All good things :) His next
appointment will consist of his first vaccinations…probably won’t be a very fun
visit.
His first official social smile took place on Sept. 7th.
He spent the whole day just responding to us when we smiled at him, tickled
him, made funny noises…he loved it! Now he smiles at us all the time! I have
yet to snap a picture of it though. He is still doing tummy time every day, and
is constantly getting stronger. He can hold his head and most of his upper body
up by pushing with his arms. Very impressive. He has made some very small
attempts at rolling over, but nothing too solid yet. We’ll see what happens
with that.
Size
With all the eating this little guy has been doing, he can
no longer fit into NB size clothes, and 0-3 month clothes are getting to be a
bit snug. He is in that in between faze where the 0-3 are barely fitting, but
the 3 mo sizes are still a tad big. He has so many cute outfits in that size; I
can’t wait for him to fit into them! (Onesies are getting kind of boring)
Diaper wise, he graduated to Size 1 a couple of weeks ago, probably right after
my last post. Those should continue fitting him for a while.
Activities
We’ve continued with all the activities I listed in my last
post, but now he takes big boy baths in his little tub in the sink (which he
LOVES). We have also ventured out of the house and to a few different places –
Babies R Us, TJ Maxx, the mall, TCBY, the big park, petting farm, and another
fro-yo place in town. He is generally really well behaved on outings as long as
I’m armed with his paci, and as long as I’m ready to feed him. I pack his
diaper bag with everything I could possibly need, resulting in a heavy bag. To
keep curious people (and germs) away, I’ll cover up the carseat or stroller
with a blanket. He usually just sleeps anyway. Yesterday, we were at a fro-yo
place and I had to BF him in public as he got quite hungry. It wasn’t as scary
as I thought it would be, and no one said anything to me or made any rude
comments. Score!
Updates
Mastitis SUCKS! I have had it twice now and I wouldn’t wish
it on anyone. Now, I’m just trying to get over a cold. Wahhh. I forget if I
mentioned this in my last post, but I decided to post-pone Grad school for a
few different reasons, and so far, I am quite happy with my decision. No
regrets – I have the rest of my life to go back to school.
My next update (provided I have the time) will be about our 1 month favorites - the items I and M could not live without during M's first month at home! Stay tuned :)
I am totally loving these updates and wish that I did them myself! I remember saying the same things about the crying when Grace was his age. I was like, wait, what happened to the baby who never cried? I thought I was so lucky. :'( I have read that their voice boxes are higher or something at that age. Probably to ensure that they are fed when they need to be. Hence the mirror-shattering newborn cries. I cannot believe that he polishes off 7 oz already! I was so lucky if Grace finished 4 oz! Not to mention, he's already half Grace's weight! So great.
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