Graeme turned one month last Friday, May 1st! I can’t believe I have a one month old baby! It’s so true what they say, the hours go by SO slowly, but the days fly by so fast! It feels like just last week the three of us were leaving the hospital, yet we have grown and learned so much!

At birth, he weighed 9 lbs, 6 oz and was 20.2 inches long. At hospital discharged, he weighed 8 lbs, 13 oz. At his one month check up, he weighed 10 lbs, 15 oz and measured 23 inches long! Growing boy! He’s ranking 95% for height/length, so we’re thinking basketball player 🙂

While at the hospital, and for the first couple of weeks home, we were going by his schedule for feeding and sleeping. Some days he would feed every 3 hours and sleep during and after feedings. Some days he’d be hungry only 45 minutes after his last feeding. Still slept all the time though. Tummy time was a slow start.

Breastfeeding didn’t come easy at first and in fact didn’t quite click with him until week three. There must be something about that week… Week three he started what they call “witching hour” which really was more like HOURS. From around 10pm to 1am he would fuss/cry and did NOT like being put down to sleep at night. Naps were different. He’d sleep anywhere for naps. What the crap, right? So I started sleeping on the couch, propped up, holding him JUST so the both of us could get some sleep at night. Listen, I never thought I’d do that but when it comes down to it, and when you’re up every 30 minutes and getting NO sleep whatsoever, you do what you gotta do. I’ll elaborate on that in a later blog post.

After three full weeks at home, we began a sleep/eat schedule based loosely on the Babywise method. I say LOOSELY based because he’s still an infant and you can’t really MAKE infants do anything they don’t want to do. I’ll go into further detail about his schedule also in a later blog post because it won’t be changing for a while. One thing I will say is THANK GOODNESS for routine!

LOVES:
+ Sleeping. In fact, when he doesn’t nap well during the day he is majorly fussy.
+ Eating. When he doesn’t nap well, he doesn’t eat well, and then he doesn’t nap well. Which makes him fussy. Which makes Mommy cry.
+ Sleeping on Mommy. Sound sleep happens best when laying against or being held by Mommy. Of course, this is only from Graeme’s (and Neil’s) point of view. I do not sleep as well, nor do I get anything done during the day. For the first few weeks, that was OK but now? Not so much.
+ Being outside. Seriously, he can be screaming bloody murder and as soon as we step outside, he calms down. If there’s a slight breeze, even better! He loves outside noises as well so we crack a window near wherever he’s napping. The summer’s night noise on the noise machine in our bedroom and the one in his nursery mimic it well enough.
+ Sucking on Mommy’s pinky. It doesn’t seem illogical to me but I don’t know what made me think to do it… I started helping him pacify in the hospital by letting him suck on my pinky finger. It’s the next best thing, y’all. And it works 80% of the time and the other 20% is only when he’s actually hungry. It’s convenient because it works so well and once he’s calm (or asleep) I can remove my pinky from his mouth and all is good. It’s inconvenient because he won’t easily take a pacifier from others and will never take one from me.

LIKES:
+ Bath time. I would have categorized this as LOVE but he’s not quite there yet. He’s never disliked his bath, thank goodness, but he sometimes wears this look of apprehension during bath time.
+ Being burped. By his daddy in particular. Mommy can’t do it as well but burping helps release all those bubbles that later turn into gas pain so I try. Seriously though. Neil gets him to burp 2-3 times each burping session!
+ His glider rocker, swing, thing. Another blog post for another time: products that we can’t live without. He works through his morning hiccups in his glider, which sits right next to a window that’s cracked open for him. He can only tolerate it for so long though.
+ Stoller rides/walks with Mommy and Daddy. It’s in the LIKE category and not the LOVE category because it’s being outside and with mommy and daddy but he’s not being held and sometimes the sun gets into his eyes.

HATES:
+ Being swaddled. Unless he is in deep sleep, he will NOT cooperate. Of course, he doesn’t sleep well when’s he not swaddled because of the startle reflex. Essentially, ever nap and bedtime is a struggle. But ah. The sleep that results for both of us because of him being securely swaddled? Worth it.
+ Being lotion-ed up. Oh my goodness, does this kids screams during lotion time! Like the quivering bottom lip, stops breathing screaming. After two weeks of applying lotion every night, and him screaming about it every night, I finally stopped doing it altogether. I love how the lotion makes his skin feel and smell but it’s not winter and it’s not worth it.

I’ve been slowly writing his birth story, complete with pictures from my photographer friend Makenzie and form my iPhone during the c-section. Hopefully I’ll have it ready for next Friday!