Thursday, September 11, 2008

5 weeks old!

We had Peanut's one month appointment today with his pediatrician!

Guess who now weighs 10 lbs. 3 oz.?

ZIKES!

I don't think Bean weighed 10 lbs. until she was 3 months old!

He's 22 inches long now, too. My baby boy is growing so fast. It's amazing.

He is very alert these days, looking around when he's awake and really focusing in on my face and trying SO HARD to smile and laugh at his Mama. Sometimes he just stares and stares at me and opens his mouth up and the corners just baaaaaaaaarely turn up and he makes this little "AHAAAAAAAA" sound. SO CUTE. He also occasionally tells me "Goooooooo." and "OOOOH." Mostly in the morning, right after he wakes up and eats and he's sitting up in the bed with Bean and me.

He's just so sweet.

He's outgrown, obviously, all of the preemie clothes I bought for him (not many, but enough to get him through those very tiny early days) AND most of his size Newborn things. I'll be buying him size 1 diapers next time because his Newborn sized diapers are starting to mash his little cheeks together in back and leave creases and lines.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The doctor noted that Peanut is still slightly jaundiced and although she's certain this is just normal breastmilk jaundice, she wants me to take him to the hospital for a little blood draw and some tests to rule out anything more sinister. He's fine though. He's growing really well and showing all the signs of perfectly normal development. The tests are basically to cover the doctor's you-know-what. I don't relish the idea of blood draws and a trip to the hospital, but I'll do it anyway.

The only real "cure" for breastmilk jaundice, apparently, besides just waiting it out, is to feed the baby formula for 24 hours (while the mother pumps). I am seriously not into that idea, but since it is likely breastmilk jaundice he's "suffering" (if you can call being slightly yellow suffering, that is), that's what's going to be offered to me as the solution. Either that or he just stays yellow for another month or two, which honestly wouldn't bother me, really.

Anyway speaking of pumping, I have a pretty nice supply of milk stored up now from pumping several times over the past week. I pumped last night after 4 hours (I was out at Bunco and came home after Peanut had gone to bed and likely wouldn't be up for another 3 hours or so) and got a total of 5 ounces of milk. Wow!

So that was about it for the doctor's appointment. Peanut didn't get any shots today and we discussed briefly that at his next visit (2 months) I only want him to have a couple of the vaccinations he'll be due for, and then I'll take him back at three months when he isn't DUE for a visit or anymore shots, to get the remainder of the ones due at 2 months. I don't like too many of them going into his tiny system at a time.

Anyway after that Bean, Peanut and I made a quick trip to our local Penney's to exchange some MORE outgrown shoes of hers (her feet are suddenly enormous to me, and to her shoes, apparently) and I picked up a few little 0-3 month outfits for Peanut. For some reason when I've shopped for him earlier I've bought Newborn things and then 3-6 month things and completely omitted the 0-3 month size. I guess those are harder to find on sale or something so I just didn't buy them? Or did I think he was going to be born small and then wake up one morning BIG? (Not so very far off what has really happened!) Anyway so now I have three more little cute outfits for him so he won't have to wear Newborn snap-crotch shirts and kinda hunch over because they're too short! (Hee hee, I really haven't made him do that!)

Let's see. Peanut has had many baths in his little bathtub on the bathroom counter and he hates them as passionately now as he did his first one. This is a boy who simply despises to be chilly! Bean never cared a bit about that, but Peanut really gets himself worked up EVERY TIME I take his clothes off or change his diaper and he really, really, REALLY can't stand bathtime, even if I try my best to keep as much of him covered as possible with warm washclothes while I'm washing. He also passionately dislikes WIPES on his bummy. Those are good for some real screaming, as well. I used to think wipe warmers were a silly waste of money, but come wintertime I may have to have one for my little NO COLD WIPES ON MY BUMMY boy or I think I'm going to be listening to a LOT of crying at diaper-change time. I tried using warm water and cloth wipes but it takes forever to get the water in the kids' bathroom to warm up AND that breastmilk poop's impossible to rinse out of those things! IMPOSSIBLE. Heck, it's impossible enough just tryin' to get it off of nice, smooth SKIN.

He's going about 3 hours between feeds in the daytime and his first sleep at night, which usually starts between 8 and 9, lasts 5 hours or more, then he sleeps another 3 hours and eats again, and then about another 90 minutes. So his nighttime "schedule," which he's setting himself and has kept very regular for weeks now, is bed by 9, up at 1:30, up at 4:30 and then up for the day at about 7 AM. The days are a little bit more chaotic and I haven't tried to force a schedule but I am learning his patterns and tricks (as is Al, who is the Baby Whisperer in some respects!) that make for less crying and more happy time and more sleep in the crib during the day vs. sleep in the Snugli, which has been lovely but the boy weighs 10 lbs. and having him strapped onto me all day is starting to really do my back in.

Knowing now that he needs to be headed back to sleep about 90 minutes after some wakings (some wakings he goes immediately back to sleep after he eats - the 90 minutes awake thing happens 2 to 3 times a day right now) has made for many fewer hours of trying to soothe an overtired little boy to sleep as he screams and cries and flails his little arms around. As long as he's tightly swaddled and has a nice full tummy 90 minutes after he last woke, he easily goes back to sleep and stays asleep for 2 hours or more in his bed.

When he wakes, I feed him, change him and then Bean and I play with him gently for 15 or 20 minutes. After that he's usually just pooped out so I'll either put him in the Snugli if I need to be up and about, and he'll fall asleep in there and I can pull him out and put him down, or I swaddle him and put him in his vibrating bouncy chair for a few minutes, until he shows signs it's time to go get rocked to sleep and put in bed. Of course it doesn't work every time and sometimes he DOES get overtired and then we are IN FOR IT, because once this child is overtired, he fights sleep with EVERY THING IN HIM. Just like his sister did.

Oh, there's more to say but I'm tired, (overtired) and snippy and in need of a hot bath and some mindless TV before bedtime. Tomorrow is Friday. After tomorrow, I'll be able to say I managed a WHOLE work week with my two children, alone.

And in a few more weeks, it'll hopefully all seem a lot easier. If it weren't for the aching back and the crying, I'd say it's almost fun to experiment and tweak to find the right routines for these kids of mine. ALMOST.

What IS fun is how cute they are, and how much more I love them both every single day. Yay!

11 comments:

Mari said...

My - you are really feeding that boy well! I think I did predict a football player way before he was born! Glad you are all doing well and you know I'll be praying that those tests on Peanut come out fine!

Melissa said...

Gosh! Mookie didn't weigh 10-3 till she was almost 3 months old! Wowzers, Batman! You're doing a great job of growing that boy!! :o)
We're working out the sleep-before-overtiredness-sets-in thing here, too. Sometimes I make it, but more often than not, I miss it. :-(
Keep up the good work!

Tequilamonkey said...

Wow biiiig boy! You're doing such a great job building tht boy up :)

I don't reckon you were too crazy with the clothes sizing. Jaya did just that, she was born little and then just grew and skipped the 0-3 size altogeher! I eneded up with all these clothes she never wore!

Aw good luck with the tests. Do you remember that they wanted me to take Joveyfor thos and then the day of the tests it just cleared up?

http://tequilamonky.diaryland.com/better.html

Frequent breastfeeding did the trick as well as lots of sunshine :)

There actually isn't any reason you should have to stop breastfeeding, even if it's "breastmilk jaundice", there's a good article on it here too....
http://www.kellymom.com/newman/07jaundice.html

xxxxx

Anonymous said...

Boo had breast milk jaundice pretty badly when she was born, we had to get blood draws every other day for the first two weeks and then twice a week for the next few weeks. Annoying! They never once recommended that I stop breastfeeding. In fact, they said that nursing frequently was the BEST thing to do with some time in the sun being second best. So don't stop nursing, even if they recommend it! Only you know what's best for him as far as milk is concerned, honestly.

Anonymous said...

Obviously, haha, I didn't read the comments before mine or I would have just said, "What Jemma said." :)

I am also still so glad that breastfeeding is going well for you. Yay!

T with Honey said...

I just looked it up and Princess was the same size as Peanut at 10 weeks old. That is one big healthy boy your back has to lug around.

I'm amazed at how well you know his needs and schedule. Is it just easier the second time around to pick up on these things?

Sounds to me like you're doing a great job of figuring out this mom-of-two thing. :)

Heather Oller said...

Yeah, I second what Jemma said. You may want to read up on "breastmilk jaundice" cause that is a new one to me and I know a La Leche League consultant would never tell you that formula supplementation would be the "only" cure. Do some research girl and get that boy out in the sun:)

JesusFreak said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Wow, he is getting so big! And I thought Sophie was big at over 9 pounds now! And stick to your guns about the breastfeeding/jaundice. I really don't see why you should stop breastfeeding him, even only for a day. I hope it all works out. :)

Peter and Nancy said...

Congrats on making it through the work week! Sound like you're doing a fantastic job of listening to your son, and rolling with the days that are a wee bit chaotic.

My 2nd son was a cold/bath/wipes screamer too -- I was so glad he wasn't my first, or I would've developed irrational phobias about all those things. :o)
Cheers,
Nancy

Anonymous said...

Hi Peanut!!

Nathan had breast milk jaundice for 3 months. He is still a little yellow :) just kidding!

Ava weighs 25lbs and Nathan 29lbs.

Peanut is going to pass them both if he keeps growing so fast!

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