I'm one month old!
FirstsWell, pretty much everything has been a first for her this past month, but a few notable firsts are:
-First time in her swing, rocking chair, bouncer, floor gym, and in tummy time
-First walk outside (4 days old)
-First time going out to dinner (PF Chang's, 3.5 weeks old) and out for happy hour (Dicken's Tavern at 1.5 weeks old)
-First smiles (while sleeping) and occasional coos
-First bath (12 days old)
-First family visit (Grandma and Grandpa Boyte)
-First time using pacifier (4 weeks old), though she doesn't like it that much yet
-First visit to a pumpkin patch (post coming soon)
-First time in the moby wrap (3.5 weeks)
Growth and Development
We won't have another doctor's check up until she's two months old, so I can't say how much she weighs or how long she is now, but I'll wager a guess that she's easily over 10 lbs, and probably close to 10 and a half pounds at the rate she'd been growing previously.
Emma wears 0-3 month sized clothes now, and size 1 pampers diapers. We did try using cloth diapers on her just about a week ago, but they are still a little big and bulky. I have also decided that we'll forego using cloth overnight, as I do like the added absorbency of disposables during her longer sleep stretches when she doesn't get changed as often, but I would like to try to do the cloth during the daytime at least.
Showing off one of her 0-3 month winter outfits, just before she had a blow out and needed changed out of it! She was also a bit chatty this afternoon. (3.5 weeks old)
Size perspective as she lays on her fluffy pink knit baby blanket
Playtime and Sleeptime
In the past week or so, Emma has started having more awake time and fussy time. Typically for an hour or two in the evenings, and also a bit in the mid-to-late mornings. She typically sleeps most of the afternoons away (although yesterday was an exception when she slept all morning while we were out and about and then had some awake time in the afternoon). She still nurses about every 1-2 hours during the day, except during her 3-4 hour nap (again, that is typically in the afternoon to early evening). I think a lot of her fussiness is from gas unfortunately. And what pains my heart is to hear her scream, literally, she shrieks in pain from her gas sometimes. I am going to start trying to alter my diet a bit and see if that helps (avoiding green veggies like broccoli and others that some websites I've read recommend avoiding if baby's gas is bad) and we are trying to use the anti-gas drops again too (thought when we tried them before I didn't think it helped much). I found out that last night rubbing her belly in a clockwise motion really helped, so I'll keep that trick in my back pocket for future bad episodes.
During her awake time, I try to read some books to her. In particular I read "Faces for baby" and "Peek-a-who" (both gifted to Emma and both of which have a mirror on the last page for Emma to see her own face), and a black and white crinkly book that has shapes of Australian animals (Nana got this for Evan, but it's been great for Emma now too). I just ordered a new black and white book as well ("Look look", as I've read black and white (high contrast) are best for young babies. I also read a lot of other things to her just for her to hear my voice and hear me speaking. Things like my old blog posts about Evan at her age or Baby Center weekly updates about her are common things that I read aloud to her.
Hanging out on my lap during some awake time
She spends time in her floor gym and in tummy time when she's awake too. I've noticed she has started to notice and look at the toys hanging above her in the floor gym, as well as the birds that spin around above her in her swing, or the firefly that hangs above her rocking chair. The swing often puts her to sleep (especially when it has the music on), and sometimes her rocking chair (with vibration on) does too. Evan will let me know when her swing music has timed off and tell me to turn her music back on. :) And then I still love to gaze into her eyes while she's awake too. I can't explain enough just how beautiful I think her eyes are!
She spends time in her car seat when we go out shopping, to dinner, or to do things with Evan. Most of that time she sleeps, which is amazing. She must find her carseat so cozy. And then the few times she wakes up (typically because she's hungry), she goes right back to sleep after I feed her and put her back in her seat.
Hanging out in her carseat while Evan plays in the leaves
Emma smiles a lot while she's sleeping (in fact she did just now while I was writing this...oh it was so cute!), and I have seen what may be the beginnings of her first smiles while awake on rare occasion. They come and go so quickly though, and so I rarely get a photo. She has also let out some of her first coos and other cute noises (some remind me of the "all clear" sound prairie dogs make, which is a kind of high pitched "aheeee"sound). Again, no video to capture them, as they are fleeting moments when they occur.
She has given us a few nights where she went almost 6 hours between feedings. Granted, both of these nights her last feeding before bedtime was around 8pm, so we didn't go to bed until closer to 10pm and thus only got a 4 hour stretch of sleep. However, a 4 hour stretch is still better than 3 or less! She commonly wakes up around 2am (sometimes it's been in the 1 o'clock or 3 o'clock hours), and then again around 5 or 6am for feedings.
Hanging out with Daddy (left 3 weeks old, right 1 month old while watching football with Daddy tonight)
Mealtime
Emma still just nurses on one side at a time and I've somewhat given up trying to offer the other side to her. In part, because she usually refuses it, but also because the few times she does come back for more, she ends up vomiting big time. She typically does have one big spit up (or projectile vomit) once per day, and the worst ones seemed to have happened after she ate too much (both sides at same feeding time). I'm not sure how much milk she gets per feeding, especially since she just does one side (even at the nighttime nursings!), but I guess it's enough because she had been gaining weight good. I typically have to pump at least once in the middle of the night to help alleviate engorgement of the side that hasn't been nursed for awhile and also to help keep my milk supply up.
Speaking of my milk supply, because I've been pumping so much more in this first month (than I did with Evan) I've already got a good start on my back up supply. I'm really hoping to have a good stash ready for when I go back to work, so that I don't get so close to running out as I did with Evan. Plus, all the extra pumping now I hope will help keep my milk supply up too.
In the next few days we'll try to start her on bottles, and we will keep trying out the pacifier with her too. Not that I want her to need a pacifier, but it can be useful if sucking would help soothe her during her fussy periods (especially if those fussy periods happen while we're out and about), and it's also recommended to help reduce SIDS risk if they are put to bed with a pacifier. If she really doesn't want it, then so be it, but otherwise, we'll give it some time and see if she takes to it or not.
1 comment:
Love it! Jealous of your supply. :) Nora never really took to a paci either- but the good news is, no bad habits to break later. :)
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