1 month on October 29
I think it's safe to say that we had one fussy baby on our hands during the first month! The first few weeks, it was a rare moment in our house when Lucy was awake and actually content. She would last about 5 minutes before she started getting fussy and crying. After seeing if she was hungry or needing her diaper changed, I typically would either put her in the carrier to calm her down (or get her to fall asleep) or would hold & rock her to calm her down which only works for a few minutes. Tummy time has been few and far between because again, she's usually fussy when she's awake. This past week though I feel like she made a turning point and is happier during the day when she's awake or maybe I'm just getting better at figuring out what she wants and likes. We still have trouble sometimes getting her down to sleep at night but I'm hoping next month will go better. There have been some very long and trying days in the past month and this is by far, the hardest thing I've ever done but I think I'm starting to get the hang of this mom thing.
Weight: 9 lbs; 40th percentile (at her 1 month appointment on November 1)
Length: 21.5 inches; 75th percentile (at her 1 month appointment on November 1)
Clothes: Newborn diapers and clothes although we didn't buy a ton of fall/winter newborn clothes so I have had to put her in some 0-3 month long sleeve onesies and pants but they're huge on her still.
Eating: Breastfeeding has been going well and I try to pump in the morning too after her first feeding to start building a stockpile so Todd can give her a bottle if she wakes up while I'm teaching Spin/TRX in the early mornings. During the day, she seems to go anywhere from 1.5-3 hours before getting hungry and at night, she will typically go about 4-6 hours. We have had a few nights when she has slept for 8 hours straight! It was wonderful but isn't a regular occurrence yet.
Sleeping: Her naps during the day can be hit or miss. Sometimes she'll be up for 3-4 hours before taking a nap and other times she'll be back asleep after only being up for an hour. She's been sleeping in her nursery at night from the first night we brought her home from the hospital. We put her in her crib the first 1.5 weeks but she had a hard time being put down and staying asleep in her crib so we now have her sleep in the Rock 'n Play. For the first 3 weeks or so, she would get really fussy anywhere between 7:00 PM-11:00 PM and it would take about 2-3 hours to actually get her to fall asleep. Once she was asleep though, she'd go 4-6 hour stretches, eat, and then would fall back asleep until about 8:00 AM. We swaddled her in the Halo Sleep Sack/Swaddle for the first couple weeks but she really seemed to fight it and would try to get her arms out. We started swaddling her again last week and she seems to like it now. I don't think we were swaddling her tight enough at first but now it's so tight she has no chance of moving her arms. I will say too that, knock on wood, again this past week has been much better. She's been asleep every night between 9:15-10:00 PM and then sleeps until about 4:00-5:00 AM, eats, and falls right back asleep until 8:00-8:30 AM. I think swaddling her again has helped as well as not trying to force her to go to bed around 7:30-8:00 PM.
Likes: Bouncing on the stability ball, napping in the swing, sleeping in the Rock & Play, eating
Dislikes: Getting her diaper changed, putting clothes on/off, getting a bath, going to sleep at night
Milestones: Met lots of family & friends in her first month, well visit with pediatrician, first time in stroller, umbilical cord fell off at 8 days old, first bath at home, took her first bottle, first trip to Target, and becoming more alert & aware of her surroundings
6 comments:
Aww! What a precious little lady! This post was super helpful for me - I know every baby is different but it's giving me a glimpse into what to expect:)
So sweet! She's growing so fast! Sorry that the sleep thing still stinks but 4-6 hour stretches are pretty good! Up until two nights ago, we were only getting 2-3 hours at a time.
So sorry about the fussiness!! Someone told me early on that newborns shouldn't be awake for more than 2 hours at a time or they get over tired so I've stuck with that and it's really worked for us. Now that my son is 4 months he's just starting to stay awake longer than 2 hours during the day and not have a meltdown.
I used the Baby Whisperer EASY method as a rough guideline for wake and sleep times and it's really helped.
I used got it off this blog: http://noobmommy.com/2008/12/easy-routine-from-baby-whisperer.html
As far as bedtime we're just getting to the point at 4 months where he will go down around 8:30pm and sleep through the night before that is was 9:30 or 10 but we found if we put him down too early he'd be up at 3 or 4 and ready for the day!
So glad breastfeeding is going well- being a mom is hard, hang in there it gets easier as they get older!
So fun getting to meet you and the family this weekend at Target!! Lucy is even more precious in person than in her pictures :)
Henry was also not a fan of tummy time for the longest time. I worried that he'd get a flat head and never learn to roll over. ;) I think so much of being a new mom is figuring out your baby and what they like/don't like--learning to read their cries, cues, etc. I hope it gets easier for you though, I know that is so stressful!
Oh my goodness, she is precious!! I'm so sorry she's fussy tough :( Mia was really fussy her second week of life and when we took her to her 2 week check up she hadn't gained wait so we figured out she wasn't getting enough to eat. Once we fixed that problem everything was right in her world!
And Mia was all over the place with her sleep as a newborn. I always thought newborns were supposed to sleep all the time, but not my baby! She slept great at night but she didn't really sleep much during the day. I was able to establish a better routine for naps when she got a little bigger, like 2 months old. Also, one thing that REALLY helped Mia sleep was when my lactation consultant suggested leaving one arm out of the swaddle. Babies are so used to having their hands by their faces in the womb but once they are born we swaddle them and they don't have access to their hands. But it's such a comfort to them! Mia loved the one arm swaddle! But I've had friends who tucked their babies hands by their faces and swaddled them that way. It looked tricky but worked for them!
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