A Month of Brooks

Surprisingly my pregnancy went by really fast for me and I didn't expect that. However I did expect this first month of Brook's life to fly by because all new moms say so and I can confirm it totally does!

My favorite Brooks story from the first week was when we took him to get his 2nd PKU heel stab. They poke them pretty good in the heel (OW!) and have to take a good amount of blood. Dan held him and I just expected him to SCREAM. When the nurse pricked him his eyes got all wide in shock, then he looked at the nurse with the biggest glare and let out a forceful, 'EH!' and that was it. Not another peep! The nurse was like, 'Wow... I've never gotten that reaction before.' I was so shocked and every time I think about his face I start laughing!

The face he gave the nurse was close to this one.

Other fun moments in his first weeks of life include shooting poop and getting peed on, the usual. My mom and I were hysterically laughing as we were cleaning up poop because that boy's got some range! I mean in the hamper... dude come on..and when it's your own baby's bodily fluids, it's suddenly not gross- or maybe I'm alone in this thinking?

Brooks figured out his day and night pretty quickly (hallelujah!) so within a day or two home from the hospital he wasn't wide awake at night anymore. With some guidance from his pediatrician we developed a night time routine that works for us and he's usually really good about going back to sleep. For the first week or two I was making sure to feed him every 3 hours to establish his weight and my milk supply but now I just feed on demand. When he wakes up at night I'll change him first, swaddle him back up then feed and burp him. 

Dan's company sent us a care package with logo wear, how freakin cute!

It's like I don't feed him or something...

This is his pooping face. The white nostrils have me in tears laughing!

He loves tummy time

Hello Ladies

I feel like my baby isn't a newborn anymore. When you first bring home a newborn all you really have to do is feed them when they wake up, change them and then they drift off on their own (at least my newborn!). Now he's getting to that common stage of being fussy at night and I have to coax him to sleep and take naps. It sounds so naive when I say it out loud but I thought little babies would just sleep when they're tired (like he did as a newborn). Well I'm sure some babies do but mine does not anymore. I didn't catch on to this for a couple days resulting in a very overtired and cranky baby. Bottom line is that the baby swing is my best friend!

After a blowout. he likes being naked

Around this time Dan had an all day softball tournament with his work out in Arlington. I wanted to go at least for a little bit and try to be 'out and about' with a baby in tow. This was pretty much my first outing, by myself that wasn't just to the store real quick. We ended up being there all day! At first I was anxious thinking about, 'What if he screams?' 'What if I can't calm him?' 'What if he won't sleep' 'Where do I change his diaper?' and thinking about breastfeeding in public for the first time. Luckily the idea that I can always leave and go home if this trip went downhill fast was comforting, but like usual my anxiety and worry was unnecessary.

Guess what- he did scream [briefly] but I was able to calm and soothe him, he did sleep in his stroller or my arms, we changed his diaper on the grass and no one cared and I breastfed with a cover in public twice and no one cared! It was really good for my confidence and in between games Dan was such a big help. Dan really grounds me when I start getting overly anxious about silly things. We got there at 10am and I was planning on leaving around noon but we stayed until 4pm! Brooks was a champ and we had a lot of fun.

Halloween!

His goal in life is to get out of his swaddle.

When my friends have had babies in the past and they do updates I'm like, 'Wow, already 1 month? It's seems she just had the baby yesterday!' and now that I'm a mom, it still feels this way!

Growth

• Clothing size: NB & 0-3 months (depends on the brand)
• Diaper size: 1 (he was in NB for maybe 2 days)
• 10 lbs 11 oz (71%), 22.75 in (93%)
• His eyes are blue?

Likes

• Eating (obviously, right?)
• White noise (aka my saving grace)
• Being sung to
• His swing (saving grace #2)
• Mornings
• Tummy time
• Diaper changes
• Baths
• Football (Says Dan)

Dislikes

• Pacifier
• Bottles (we're working on this!)
• Evenings
• Getting his head washed
• Waiting for food

General

Overall Brooks is a healthy baby. Don't get the wrong idea, our lives aren't perfect and we're still figuring things out but I'd say we're doing pretty well! He is very happy and calm in the morning but as the day goes on we definitely experience a case of the 'witching hour' in the evening. It's common for babies to get very fussy at night. And sometimes even during the day for him. More often than not, I can't just set him down and let him chill. However I can always calm him down. Swaddle, white noise, singing and the swing. So although he cries often we know how to soothe him. This still makes me a bit anxious to go out with him by myself.

Breastfeeding

I'm full of so much gratitude that this is going well for us! The hospital I delivered at holds a free breastfeeding seminar every Thursday with their lactation consultants. I wasn't having any issues but I thought why not, I can always learn something. I'm glad I went because it gave me confirmation that we're really good at this one aspect, gained confidence and they gave me a couple tips!

While I was there I learned Brooks is very different from the other babies there his age. First of all he's huge! And second of all he is a fast and efficient eater. For the life of me, I cannot get him to nurse for more than 9 minutes. He's usually 7-8 minutes, one side only and he's done. That's all I've ever known so I thought it was normal. We weighed him before and after and Brooks ate 3 oz in 5 minutes. That's not even a full feeding time for him but he downed a full feeding. Babies this old will eat anywhere from 2-4oz. I can't imagine how much he's getting when he eats for his full 9 minutes! All the other babies took anywhere from 10-20 minutes to eat. It seems I have a speed demon on my hands. Anyways it was good to know that I have plenty of milk, he's getting plenty of it and that our latch looks good to the LC.

Sleeping
One thing no one ever told me was how NOISY babies are when they sleep! Grunts, smacking, sucking, coughing, fake crying. It's hysterical sometimes and I've gotten used to sleeping through the noises he makes while he's still asleep. At first though, it was really hard to tell whether he was awake or still asleep, I think I got it now.

He is doing great at night and pretty good during the day. He usually takes three 2-3 hour naps and maybe 1 short nap in the evening. His first nap I try to have him sleep in his pack n play and I'll nap with him. The other two naps almost always happen in his swing and that's when I get stuff done. If he's really not going down I turn on some white noise and he will usually fall asleep. Evenings are harder and we're usually cluster feeding so he just sleeps on me, in my arms or sometimes he's just wide awake. 

At night he's not quite a perfect baby, but pretty close so I'll take it! I'll put him down anywhere between 9 & 9:30 and he'll usually eat around 1am, 4am then be up for the day between 7-8am. He eats quickly and usually goes back to sleep the first time I put him down. Sometimes I'll have to pick him up and rock him. Maybe once a week he'll have a hard time going back to sleep. If he's struggling I'll try the rocker or the swing is my last resort. He slept for a four hour stretch once at night and I'm hoping I'll see those more often! Overall he sleeps anywhere from 15-17 hours a day on average.

I tell him to smile and he gives me this FACE

My baby just went all teenager on me

Looking forward to...

• Seeing more baby smiles! When I get them they melt my heart!
• 4 hour sleeps at night (or longer!)
• Taking a bottle so Dad can feed him
• Fall to come so I can dress him in his cute warmer clothing (it's still hot in TX)

My Recovery

I just had my 6 week postpartum check up with my OB and everything is good! My body isn't 100% healed from giving birth but we're on the expected track. She gave me clearance to ease into exercising and all other normal activity. The only thing I brought up to her is the lingering back pain I'm having from the epidural. Thankfully she told me 95% of her patients resolve their back pain with in 2 months and that mine should go away too. Once I start strengthening my core and back again I'm crossing my fingers it should resolve.

Emotionally I'm doing really well. My hormones have leveled out and I don't cry at ASPCA commercials anymore. The times were I do feel a bit overwhelmed are always the times when I need a nap. I wake up and feel like a new person! My advice to new moms is that you have to TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. You need to know yourself and your limits. For me I start to breakdown once I dip under a certain level of sleep. Just be kind to yourself and don't expect yourself to be supermom.

Overall we're doing well! Brooks and I are just figuring out life together! Our next goal is to make it through all 3 hours of church. How do moms do it with a cranky baby?