Has It Really Been A Month?!

I cannot believe it has already been a month since our baby boy was born! I swear he changes every day. It is so fun to watch him learn and grow. He is already too long for all of his newborn pajamas and fits in 0-3 month pajamas perfectly in length, although he still has some filling out to do. His newborn pants are a little short, but the next size up is too big on his skinny little waist. I cannot believe we have such a tall baby.

Our happy boy!

Overall I think we have officially adjusted to having a baby in the house. I plan my schedule around his feeding times and plan ahead to leave the house so I can make sure he has a clean diaper and I have everything we might need. I am still able to shower and do my hair and makeup every day. I get us both dressed for the day every morning. Since Ryan's parents left I have stayed caught up on laundry and kept the house clean as much as I can with my limited movement while I heal. (While Ryan's mom and dad were here his mom did all my laundry and kept the house clean while his dad worked on projects around the house and even sanded and refinished the floor of our tiki hut...we got pretty spoiled by them!) Our house has officially been taken over by baby stuff!

Our living room

By two weeks, babies are expected to be back to their birth weight. At his two week appointment, at 17 days old, Dean was three ounces over his birth weight, which is good considering he lost so much in the hospital. At his appointment he weighed eight pounds and two ounces (40th percentile), was 22 inches long (85th percentile) and had a head circumference of 37.7 cm (80th percentile). So we have a tall, skinny little guy with a big head (maybe the c-section was a blessing!)

Look at that milk belly!

I am recovering well. The three week mark was a big one for me: that is when I started to feel noticeably better. I am still a little sore and my tummy is still swollen around the incision, but I am no longer in considerable pain after too many trips up and down the stairs in a day or a walk around Walmart. Sneezing still hurts, but not like it did two weeks ago, and I still get stabbing pains when I move certain ways or try to lift much. I am still not able to lift Dean's infant seat in and out of the car, which means I am pretty much just stuck at home all day. I am not supposed to do things like vacuum, but I can bend again and stand long enough to cook dinner. My biggest complaint right now is my achy back--by bedtime my back muscles feel tired and sore. It's hard to believe that I am going to feel good enough to exercise in just two weeks, but I am hoping!

I found a way to grocery shop (with some help)!

Two things that worked out in my favor: I did not get a single stretch mark (okay, well one very tiny one on the side of one boob) and I am only seven pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant, although none of my jeans fit quite yet, so I am still wearing maternity pants. I have already lost 21 pounds thanks to breastfeeding (and the weight of the baby and water that I lost right away). I do have this (still rather large) scar across my lower abdomen though so I feel like that makes up for the lack of stretch marks!

My favorite baby boy...worth the scar!

Breastfeeding is still a bit of a challenge for both of us, but we are getting better! We saw a lactation consultant last week and she taught me some more new stuff--basically told me to do what I was doing before everyone at the hospital told me how to breastfeed. Now I feel like Dean is having to relearn what came naturally to him to begin with. Some days he opens his mouth real wide and we get a good pain-free latch, other days he just does not quite get it and I take him off and put him back on until he gets frustrated and I give in and use the nipple shield. Other times we have a good latch, until he moves and then it just gets messy trying to get him back on. Overall I am still using the shield more often than not, but we will get this down eventually.

At the lactation appointment, they weighed Dean before we got started: at three weeks (technically 25 days) old he weighed eight pounds and ten ounces! That means he gained eight ounces in a week. After eating, he was three and a half ounces heavier, so between knowing what he is eating in a feeding and seeing his weight climb, we know he is getting what he needs and enough of it from my milk. Knowing I can provide what he needs made me feel good despite our struggles.

Milk coma

Dean is still a wonderful sleeper. He will sleep anywhere too. He sleeps between us in a little cosleeper in our bed at night, but in the daytime he naps in his bouncer, the play pen, the swing (his least favorite) or his crib. He took his first nap in his crib last week and sleeps great in there! An added bonus is with our video baby monitor Ryan can watch him sleep on an app on his phone at work. Hopefully putting him in different places with different levels of noise to sleep makes it so he will sleep on vacations and in his crib at night when we move him...which is going to be very hard! I always said that as soon as he was sleeping through the night I would put him in his own room, but we love having him in ours so much that it is not going to be easy! I am having a hard time moving him to the bassinet because just next to the bed seems far away.

View from the baby monitor

My trouble might be because Dean sleeps so good at night that he doesn't keep us awake by sleeping in our bed. We are getting on somewhat of a regular schedule too. Dean usually wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30; I change his diaper and feed him, then if I snuggle him he will usually go back to sleep for an hour or so. Once we get up he is awake and alert for a while, then he eats again between 10:00 and 11:00 in the morning. He usually naps after eating until I wake him up between 1:30 and 2:30 to eat again. That is when I get a good hour or so of him being awake before he is snoozing again! From there he basically eats every three hours with hour long naps here and there, then he's awake from about 7:00 until 10:00 every night. I feed him right before we go to sleep between 10:00 and 11:00 then he just wakes up once between 2:30 and 3:30 in the morning.

Morning snuggles

When he isn't sleeping, Dean is actually a pretty fun baby. He makes little noises sometimes and even lets out a little squeal every once in a while. He hardly ever cries--in fact he really only makes little fusses when he's tired and drops his binky. When he's alert he could care less about the binky and he usually drops it once he's in a deep sleep, but he likes it when he is falling asleep. Sometimes when his binky falls I like to just watch him because he will move his face towards it, push it with his hand or try to shrug it up his shoulder (depends on the position he is in), like he is trying to put it back in his own mouth! He is already learning that mommy comes running every time he makes a sound, so sometimes I think he continually drops it over and over just so I will eventually get tired of putting his binky back in his mouth and pick him up. Once I am holding him, the binky stays in his mouth just fine.

He often holds onto his binky...and pulls it out of his own mouth then gets mad

He has started grabbing things. When I change him he likes to reach above his head and grab the burp cloth, new diaper, or whatever else he can get his hands on. (Speaking of changing him...he has pooped on me three times and peed in his own face twice.) He has only grabbed my hair once, but he grabs at the friendship bracelet my nieces gave me all the time--I have to put him down so I can have a free hand to pry his little fingers open. He has a really strong grip and likes to squeeze my finger while he's eating.

He pulled his burp cloth up to snuggle while he napped

He is also looking at his surroundings much more that he did at first. When we carry him upstairs to bed or around the house he looks ahead to see where we are walking with him. When he is in his bouncer or his swing he will sit and study the little plush birds hanging over him. He watches everything! He is looking at our faces more too and I think he definitely recognizes Ryan and me.

Hanging out in his swing

Some firsts he experienced recently:

• First trip to Walmart, where we kept him safely covered by a blanket: May 20
• First bath without crying--he even let me rub him down with lotion for the first time: May 21
• First time watching a thunderstorm with daddy on the porch: May 27
• First movie in the theater, which thankfully he slept through (The Avengers: Age of Ultron): May 30
• First time hanging outside while mom gardens (for a whole 15 minutes...it was windy and mommy's back was hurting): June 1

New experiences!

He is smiling more and more (although his little grins are so hard to catch on camera). Smiling is my favorite thing he does so far!  I get smiles out of him at least once a day now. I can't wait until I can coax them out of him more often--right now he usually surprises me with them. His cute little smile just melts my heart and makes me want to cuddle and kiss him! When he grins at me I feel so proud of him and so excited that he is happy! We just love this boy of ours and can't wait to see what he does next!

Look at all those happy smiles!