James 1 month update
James is now 1 month old! It's such a cliche but he is seriously growing up so fast. Time is just flying. It seems like I only just gave birth like last week!
It's been a challenging few weeks for both Adam and I but completely worth it. Newborns are demanding little divas. It's such a huge adjustment from our previous lifestyles. We are finally settling in though and getting used to being parents and the around the clock care for our gorgeous bubba boy.
Weight: We had a child nurse home visit today where she did his measurements and an overall health check. He is now 4.37kg!! he was 3.14kg when he was born so he has gained over 1kg since birth.
Height: He is measuring at 50cm. 1cm more than birth. I think this is a bit off though as he is soo much longer than he was when he was born.
Routine: I know that newborns having a routine is pretty near impossible but he has his regular sort of activities which I can predict he will do roughly the same time each day. He will wake up properly around 6 - 8am, have a feed, change then be wide awake. While Adam and I are waking up properly, we have morning snuggles with him in our bed. :) My favourite part of the day. I love seeing his little face first thing in the morning. Sometimes he will go back to sleep or stay awake. If he stays awake we hop up and put him in his little bouncer (which he looooves) pop him next to the dining table and then Adam and I have breakfast. Around midday he will have a long nap, followed by a few more naps in the afternoon. By late afternoon he becomes pretty fussy and unsettled. This lasts until the evening until he is ready to go to bed. We bath him every 2nd day and he usually goes down around 8-9pm. He will wake up once and cry but after some cuddles and settling, he will go back to sleep and sleep in 2- 3 hour blocks, waking up for feeds and change inbetween then straight back to sleep. I feel so lucky to have a baby that sleeps that long through the night.
Feeding: I've had issues with breastfeeding James right from the start. I thought he was fine the first few times I fed him but turns out he wasn't latching properly. My nipples were left literally red raw as turns out he was just sucking on the end which made them bleed and not get the colostrum properly. I was so upset and felt like a failure of a mother who couldn't feed her own baby. After a day of having to express colostrum into a cup and feed him using a syringe which broke my heart, a midwife suggested we try the "football grip" way of holding him to breastfeed and he began to latch properly and get the hang of feeding. Since then though, I have had more issues. I've been able to transition him back to the usual cradle holding grip which is great but for the first few weeks he was feeding constantly. I mean constantly! Every hour or less except for over night. It was sooo exhausting and I felt like my milk supply couldn't keep up. Thankfully, that phase is over and I think it was due to a growth spurt because he is turning into such a little chubba after being born a skinny little thing. Also, I had mastitis! Do these problems ever end?! haha. Mastitis is absolutely horrid and I was left a crying, sick mess trying to feed my unsettled baby last Friday night. Thankfully I didn't need antibiotics for it as I was able to clear it myself. I called the breastfeeding hotline and googled what to do which cleared it up by Monday. The latest issue I'm having with breast feeding now though is he is constantly unlatching himself and then crying. It is extremely frustrating as feeding takes twice as long and he has a ridiculous amount of gas so I have to burp him every time he unlatches. The child health nurse was able to answer what was going on and turns out it's an overload of lactose. It is a mixture of my hormones and his demand that is creating a dense, over supply of milk. He also has what I thought was nappy rash but it's actually a result of the lactose irritating him. He has constantly been spitting up too which is apparently also a result of the lactose as his stomach becomes unsettled from it. It's such a relief to have an answer to this as I've been scared he was going to refuse the breast and go on a hunger strike and I would have to formula feed which I absolutely do not want to do! She said this will pass around week 6 as my hormones settle down and my supply becomes completely regulated by James demand. Thank goodness because I absolutely love breastfeeding and hoping to breastfeed for at least 12 months.
Milestones:
- This still blows my mind but he has been lifting his head on his own since he was 3 days old! He did it for the first time while we were in hospital when I put him up on my chest like a little koala for the first time. He just lifted his head and looked around. He is so clever! Since then he has pretty much complete control of his head. He can hold it up for ages before flopping it down for a brief second then picking it back up again for another long period of time. The child health nurse who visited also was amazed at his head control for his age. :)
- Since he can hold his head up so well, he absolutely loves tummy time. He will stay on his tummy and prop his head up for ages just looking around at everything.
- He "cooed" for the first time while he was in his bouncer. He absolutely loves that thing. He sits in it for ages, stares up at the toys and every now and then goes "oooh!" in the cutest little voice. Last week he started to react to noises, he turns his head now when you shake one of the bouncer toys near his face. So cute.
- He is even trying to crawl now too!! He kicks his legs but can't control his arms the same way so they just get stuck under his body while he gets frustrated trying to kick enough to crawl haha. He can also roll from his tummy to his back! My baby is soo clever. The first time he did it we thought it was just an accident. A few days later he did it again. We put him back on his tummy and he did it again, and again. I am so proud of him. He is going to be a handful in a few months time!
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