These past five weeks have gone by so fast, but so many things have happened! I want to remember little milestones and moments that I'll probably forget later on, so here's a little update on Aidan.
The first couple of days were great. We were able to take Aidan home from the hospital, which was the best ever. It was so nice to have a little baby with us. I didn't have to come home to an empty house.
A few days later were a little rough though. Aidan got jaundice and he was on the bili ribin blanket for four days. It was hard feeding him and carrying him around with the blanket on him 24/7. But even though it was hard to go to the hospital every day and have his foot pricked, I was grateful he didn't have to stay in the hospital until he got better. It was nice having the option of keeping him home. Modern technology is awesome. My mom called him my glowing baby! :)
We tried hard to get the whole nursing thing down, but the stress of everything going on in life caused a decrease in my milk supply. No matter what I did, I just couldn't get it up to par. At his first doctor's appointment Aidan lost a whole pound and only gained an ounce in a week. I prayed hard about it, and despite wanting to nurse so badly, I felt strongly to bottle feed him. Having another option has been a huge blessing. After being solely on formula, he gained a pound in one week! Way to go kiddo! :)
He takes a pacifier sometimes, mostly just when he is tired and needs something to suck on.
He has recently discovered his tongue. He sticks it out and rolls it around in his mouth. He'll stop and stare at me if I stick out my tongue at him and do the same motion. :)
The doctor told us to wait a month before bringing him out to public, crowded places. We kind of cheated and his first trip to the store was when he was 3 weeks old. We figured it was alright since he was asleep and covered in his car seat the whole time. I think it worked because he didn't get the sickness that's been going around.
He went through a growth spurt when he was only three weeks old. He would wake up starving after only 1-2 hours after eating and then eat only one ounce during one feeding and then 4-5 ounces during another feeding - that lasted about 3 days. So glad he is back to eating his typical 4 ounces every 3-4 hours!
He loves being swaddled. Sometimes when I can't get him to go to sleep, I realize that I haven't swaddled him yet and it does the trick.
He has rolled over once during tummy time but hasn't since. It shocked me when he did! He looked pleased with himself. Now every time we do tummy time, I have my phone close by so I can try to record it in case he does roll over again!
He is like his momma and loves being in the sun.
And he LOVES moving around in his sleep. Observe:
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| Starting to escape |
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| Worked himself free |
When he was born he was 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 20 inches long. As of 10/30/14, he weighs 9.44 lbs and is 21 and 1/4 inches long.
And in the past five weeks I:
- have been peed on more times than I can count
- am up at least 1-3 times a night
- have cried at least once a day
- have kissed Aidan's chubby cheeks about a billion times
- have taken so many pictures
- need a five-minute break but then miss him after five minutes
- have sung out loud more often than I have in a long time
- have taken hours to do one homework assignment that should have taken me an hour
- have felt more love than I ever thought possible
I am smitten with this little man of mine, and I am so grateful he is here.
Dad & I too are so smitten. I miss you, Jayze & Aidan so much! I absolutely LOVE the pictures too! 17 days til we are on our way to see you. Can't wait! ~ Mom
ReplyDeleteI love this so very much. Your description of what you've done in the past week (crying once a day at least, singing out loud, being peed on) brought tears to my eyes. Believe it or not, as hard as it is, I miss those days of having a newborn. There's just something so special (and yet so SO very vulnerable and difficult) about having someone take up every ounce of strength you have. It's a special kind of sacrifice, and I love it.
ReplyDeleteI also love the pictures of him working his way out of his swaddling!! Maggie was a swaddle baby, too--if she didn't sleep, I'd swaddle her, give her a pacifier, and she'd go right to bed. It's wonderful.
Glad that the formula helped. Just having the option to have someone else be able to feed your baby will be SUCH a blessing when you do need those five-minute (or longer) breaks. And missing your baby? Also very normal. :)
Love this. You'll be so grateful to look back on what you've written about these times.