Thursday, September 13, 2012

5 weeks old







SO, the PKU test that I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts came back totally normal. Turns out the one in the hospital had been a fluke. Relieved to here it. Matthew had his one month checkup last week & weighs 9 lbs 2 ounces & measures 22 1/2 inches long!! Looks like we are going to have a tall/skinny baby according to the percentages. We will see. He had a small temperature of 99 degrees, but the nurse said not to worry about it. 

Sleep

Matthew is sleeping 5-8 hour stretches each night. With the exception of sometimes waking up every 3 hours on other nights, but we have had a steady few nights. He seems to sleep better when the lights are dimmed, temperature is just right, clothes on, pacifier in his mouth, & swaddled very tightly so his arms/hands don't flail around. We have started using our noise machine to calm him down when he is fussy, along with the noise on the swing & he really likes the frog noise on both of them. 

Nutrition

I hate to admit it but I've been using more formula than breast milk. It seems like each day that goes by I use less & less breast milk. My days are getting busier now that I feel up to be out & about, and it's just been really inconvenient to breastfeed for me. Matthew seems to be very peaceful after breastfeeding & falls to sleep faster, but with the formula he stays fuller longer & asleep longer. He gets so excited when I put him up to my chest, flails around, & makes cooing noises. It makes me emotional, & I feel selfish when I don't do it, I guess my main issue is convenience, milk supply, & pain. If I pump in the morning I can get 120 ml, & if I go all day & do it again at night I can get the same because the longer I go the more engorged my boobs are so there is a lot, but if i try to pump/feed in between those times Matthew gets extremely fussy because there isn't enough milk & starts tugging EXTREMELY hard on my nipple or I only get 30-60 ml (2ounces) with the pump. If I don't give him between 3-4 ounces, now, he gets fussy till he feels full, & 20 min on each boob is already a long time for me & painful. 

We are starting to work on tummy time 5-10 minutes, any more than that & he gets too fussy. His neck is very strong. He can defiantly tell the difference between people's voices, especially mine & Adam's. When he hears our voice he will stop sucking on his pacifier till we give him attention & then he starts sucking again. Too cute. He still hates having his clothes off, & he has a TON of hair. We have started using the swing a lot, he likes to look out the window & listen to the frog noises on the swing. He is still sleeping in the nap nanny next to us & sleeping on the boppy in the living room during the day when he naps. He doesn't generally stay up longer than 30 minutes before he goes to sleep again, he is one sleepy baby. 

4 comments:

  1. He's getting so big. Sounds like things are going good. With Breastfeeding you do what you have to do. I was only able to bf both my girls for 3 months before my milk ran out. He is a cutie

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    1. How am I going to know when my milk runs out? Will it just literally stop "squeezing" out of my boob?

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  2. Matthew is such a cutie!! One small tip on breastfeeding- drink tons of water!! It should help increase your supply.

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  3. BFing is no joke! We went six months and we just were lucky it was easy to take to. You have to remember that it's a supply and demand....the more you demand the more you supply. If you were to pump every three hours, your body after the third day would get it. That includes waking in the middle of night. It's hard to choose convenience of formula and the nutrition of BM. You can take a few different herbs to up your supply, but you have to be religious about it. :) good luck!

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