On January 10, 2014 Peter turned one month old! Like many things in my life right now, this post is woefully late. Peter is actually 6 weeks old as I type and getting ready to get his first round of vaccinations tomorrow morning (Ouch!). I am going to try to keep his first month straight from whats been going on in his second month, but some of this may blur together. This is going to be long and filled with things I want to remember. You may get bored if you are not me reading this!
Peter:
At one month you have mainly been eating, pooping and crying. Note that I don't mention sleeping, because that has not been your favorite.
When we left the hospital you weighed 7 lbs and 4 ounces, down from your birth weight by almost a pound. We were told this was normal and we were also told we should expect it to take some time for you to get back up to birth weight, especially since you are breastfed. However, you exceeded expectations big time. When we went for your two week check-up on Christmas Eve you weighed 8 lbs 10 ounces and you had grown almost a whole inch! In a little more than a week you had gained almost two lbs and grown almost a whole inch!!! Your dad and I high fived right in front of God and everyone in that office we were so excited! Then I took you back a week later because I thought you were having some reflux issues and you weighed 10 lbs and 3 ounces! This was all big news because you had a touch of jaundice when you left the hospital and we kept having to go back for checks of your bilirubin levels. You were eating great, but you weren't really gaining weight or having proper bodily functions. Turns out you weren't getting hind milk which is high in fat and helps baby livers clear bilirubin out and start functioning. Once we figured out what was wrong we learned how to correct the problem. It wasn't easy, but the fact you had gained so much weight in a matter of days meant we had done something right (and that the lack of sleeping was not for nothing!)
Since day one you have been a great eater, great latcher, great burper. For the entire first month of your life you ate almost every two hours on the dot. Occasionally you would eat every hour and a half or go as long as every three hours, but that was the exception not the rule. I'll be honest, your eating schedule was very exhausting. You would occasionally do a three hour stretch at night, but not often. You also HATED napping. I could sometimes get you to do a 2 hour nap during the day, but most of the time the longest you would sleep was an hour or so at a time. You would also sleep mainly two hour stretches at night. This led to mom being at her wits end with exhaustion! Plus, there was a great deal of crying when you were awake that we were having a lot of trouble getting a handle on. The weekend after you turned one month old, Mimi and Pop came to give your parents some sleep relief. That Friday night you slept 5 hours straight, woke up once to eat, went back to sleep quickly and then slept almost 6 hours! It was amazing! You took great naps and then Saturday night did similar lengthy stretches. I thought we had turned a corner and I was so grateful. Then that Sunday night you went to sleeping, maybe 45 minutes at a times for about a week. GRRRRR little boy. GRRRRR.
We have mainly put you in your crib to sleep at night and for naps (when not being held, see below). At first this was pretty hard for me, I wanted you to sleep in our room, but now I am glad we did that. I have started letting you sleep in the pack n' play in our room or nap in the swing/bassinet downstairs, but that is an explanation for your two month post.
Speaking of Mimi and Pop, they came to stay the first week you were around town. Your dad was off work while we were in the hospital for a week, but had to go back that next Monday. He took off several days around Christmas and then your Grandmama and Aunt Abbey came for a week after Christmas day. I had so much help with you at first, I can't imagine what people who don't have that kind of support do. I was still recovering from surgery so all I did was cuddle with you, feed you and sleep. Everyone else did everything else! Plus, we had so many people who brought us food and I had made up several casseroles, that we still have half a freezer full as I type this post and I have not cooked a meal from start to finish yet!
Peter, you hated tummy time this month and I am guessing that doesn't change anytime soon. You didn't take a pacifier, didn't really like your swing and in general just kind of stared into space. We would sing to you and you would start crying. We would try to patty cake or play peek-a-boo, you would start crying. The one thing you seemed to really like was a rainforest vibrating chair that your Aunt Maggie gave you. It was a lifesaver!
You mainly wore newborn clothes and some 0-3 month. However, it really was like you skipped over a size, because now you wear mainly 3-6 month clothing due to your length. You have clothes coming out of my eyeballs, but if I do buy you anything I am hoping you will stay in the 3-6 month range for a while.
Peter, I am guessing that between your grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and of course, your dad and I, there are a thousand pictures of you! You have every stuffed animal I can think of, most of the books I have heard of for kids and every conceivable form of electronic soothing device, activity mat and plush toy. All that to say you are spoiled rotten! We have such a time putting you down to sleep and I am convinced its because the first two weeks of your life none of your grandparents would really lay you down when you fell asleep in their arms. Neither did I though, so I share fault on that front. I did start to ask people to put you down, but you would have thought I was torturing people with that one.
We took your one month pictures and I couldn't get you to prop up by the stuffed animal I wanted to measure you by, so I have several of you either laying down or sitting in the aforementioned rainforest chair! However, we have tons of other "one month" pictures that I will have to thumb through with you one day.
Peter, you are so loved! Frustrating at times for sure, but so loved. I have never seen anything like your dad looking at you and to be honest, I have never felt like I would jump in front of a train for someone until I got to know you this month. I wouldn't say either of us were immediately that way, what with surgery and just the overwhelming sense of responsibility that comes with parenthood initially, but by the end of this first month you had both of us around your fingers along with everyone else!
I can't wait to watch you grow up and I am looking forward to writing next months post bubby!
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