One Month Old

I know, I'm late with the one month post since Colin is 5 weeks old already, but this whole parenting thing and blogging milestones thing is new to me.  I also don't have a picture specifically of him at one month that I can compare to two months, six months, etc... (you know, the one where they are in the same chair or next to the same stuffed animal each month) but I will start that soon, I promise (let's shoot for 2 months for that one).  So without further ado, here is little man a few days after his one month birthday.

Yo - I'm one month old!!

We didn't have a doctor's appointment at one month so I don't have "official" weight and measurements for him, but I did take him to my new favorite nursing/mothering store, Sweet Beginnings, and weighed him there.  They have medical grade baby scales that you can use free of charge.  On the day after his one month birthday he was 8 lbs 13.5 oz.  According to KellyMom's Weight Gain Calculator, he was gaining 8.4 oz/week since birth.  (Just for the record, I weighed him again yesterday at the store and he was 9 lbs 6.7 oz, gaining 9.2 oz in the past week.)  Not that any of that is too important, but it just goes to show that my kid likes to eat.  According to the same site, a breastfed baby should gain an average of 5-7 oz/week.  At this rate, Colin may eventually go up in percentages, too.  I'll be interested to see where he falls on the curve for his 2 month appointment.

The first month has been truly incredible.  I can't believe how big he is (despite the fact that everyone tells us how small he is).  He has taken to nursing like a champ and apparently so has my body.  I'm working on getting a supply stored up for when I have to go back to work (insert crying here) on May 6th and not having much problem with that at all.  I have been attending the breastfeeding support group at Sweet Beginnings for the past couple of weeks.  It is run by an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and they are there to answer any questions you have and help evaluate how you and baby are doing in the way of breastfeeding.  It's also a great way to meet and talk to other moms of babies from newborn and beyond.  Additionally, you are able to weigh baby before and after nursing to determine how much he is taking with each feeding.  Colin, both times we have gone, has taken in 4 oz in a feed.  According to the lactation consultant, he needs at least an ounce for each hour between feedings... other than once or twice at night, he has never gone 4 hours between feedings.

The first couple of weeks, Colin stayed in the bassinet in our room to sleep.  Once the chair was put in his nursery, we started transitioning him to his own room.  The problem with him sleeping in our room was that he wasn't sleeping - or more correctly, I wasn't sleeping.  The first few days, he'd last (or really, momma would last) an hour or two before losing it and just bringing him back to our room to sleep since I knew I'd get better sleep with him in our bed than worrying about him in his own room.  I'm not sure when it happened but I eventually just left him in his own room and he started sleeping longer and longer stretches, relatively of course.  So now he'll go anywhere between 3 and 4 hours between feedings until about 5:00 AM.  Around then (and it's usually only been a couple hours since his last feeding), he starts having his morning awake time.  Granted, I often make him stay in bed with us for an hour or so, but he's not soundly sleeping by any stretch of the imagination.  There's lots of grunting and gas and wanting to be awake and somewhere where there are lights to look at.

He's also starting to have more awake time in general.  He's starting to interact a little bit and to track with his eyes some.  I'm pretty amazed how every day he is a little bit more like a baby than a newborn.  Hopefully in the next week or so I'll be able to capture a smile on camera!  I can't wait for his first real smile.  His eyes have been smiling the past week or so (seriously, you can see a difference between smiling eyes and just plain, old looking around eyes) and his mouth is close behind, I just know it!