Dominic - 1 Month Old

A whole month has gone by since Dominic Stuart Kimber entered this world. 

What is he like? Well... he's a baby! He eats, sleeps, poops and cries. He's got QUITE the set of lungs on him!

Weight: 9 lb 10 oz. (up 1 lb, 2 oz. from birth weight)
Length: 57 cm (up 6 cm from birth length)

Likes:

• Car Rides
• Walks in the stroller
• Being swaddled/curled up in a tiny ball
• Bright colours and bold patterns
• His play mat
• Nursing 
• His soothie
• Sherlock *okay... maybe he more tolerates the Sherlock kisses ;)*
• Tummy time on our chests
• Bath Time
• His hands. He almost always has his hands right up by his face. He sleeps with them up there, and when we pop the soother in his mouth he brings his fists and shoulders up like, "Oooohhhh that is JUST what I needed! Mmmmm :)" 

Dislikes:

• Gas cramps. He has QUITE the set of lungs on him when he is uncomfortable. 
• Diaper changes

Notes:

• Has started tracking objects
• Catches our eyes every so often
• Has seen his hands in his vision and become mesmerized by them
• Will lock his legs for a few seconds on our laps sometimes
• Plays with his tongue (sticking it in and out and making noise)
• Has started making noises other than whining and crying, like cooing and gurgling. 
• Feeds every 2-3 hours during the day, and every 2.5-4 hours at night
• Seems like he's close to smiling for real at us!
• Sleeps in the swing beside our bed at night with white noise. During the day, we've started putting him down in the bassinet for naps so he doesn't sleep too deeply and gets used to sleeping in something flat, that isn't a swing. Step one to getting him transferred to the crib!
• Can hold his head up for 5+ seconds during tummy time. Strong guy! The nurses at the clinic where he was circumcised were commenting on how ridiculously strong his legs are. David is hopeful for his basketball player!

Me:

• Surprised how well I can function on 2-3 hour naps for the last 4 weeks. Such broken sleep!! **yawwwwwwwwnnnnnn*
• My postpartum body is almost ready for regular life again! We will be starting up dog agility with Sherlock again on February 1st. I have my belly-button ring back in now! I am definitely NOT into my pre-pregnancy jeans yet. I wore my skinnies the other day, but they were nowhere near buttoning up. Good thing I still have my Belly Band from pregnancy! Was nice to wear a cute outfit again that wasn't stretchy pants and a baggy sweater!
• I have serious FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) when it comes to Dom. I feel like if I miss documenting a moment with a picture (mental or digital), then I'll forget it happened. Everyone keeps reminding me to cherish every moment at this age, and that it goes so quickly. I get panicked that I'm going to look back and regret not documenting things, or feel like I didn't "cherish" the time enough.

Time for the important part... the pictures!!

Peace man! 1 Month old!!

For reference... Photo from January 1st (4 days old)

Loves his Hello Baby book!

Very awkward shot of him being happy in the sink bath haha

Enjoying the sites on his play mat we got for free from someone in our neighborhood!

As mentioned above, when he's fussing because he wants his soother and we put it in his mouth he scrunches his shoulders and brings up his fists like this. So funny. 

A rare nap in the bassinet... naps seem elusive today

Big brother Sherlock is never far away!

4 Weeks of Parenthood

Dominic is 4 weeks old today, he will be 1 month old on Friday. Wow!

What a profoundly challenging, fun, rewarding and educational 4 weeks we have had. Nothing can ever prepare you for the first few weeks with your first child at home. 

While this is the hardest thing we've ever had to do together, I would say the transition in our life has gone as smoothly as it possibly could have. I feel like, for David and I, the huge transitions in life seem to go this way. Getting married, moving in together, buying a house, moving a few times, getting a puppy, starting a business... People tend to ask, "So? How does it feel? Were you prepared? How's life with a baby?" To be honest, it just feels... natural. It feels like the natural next step our marriage was supposed to take. We were as ready as we could be, but I think it was just the right time for us. As with all our other major life changes, it's not easy, we do struggle, nothing is perfect, but we make a great team and tackle the changes together. 

Along the lines of learning to work as a team, we've learned a lot about ourselves and each other. We are learning about our different levels of patience, coping skills, and communication through frustration, sleep deprivation, screaming babies, etc. 

On the lines of sleep deprivation, I haven't slept longer than a 3 hour stretch of sleep in 4 weeks! How am I functioning? These 3 hour stretches just started a couple days ago too. Before that, it wasn't longer than 2.5 hours. Life really is/was just a series of naps. 

Life with a newborn reminds me in some ways of life with a puppy in some ways. Our lives and conversations again revolve purely around baby's poop, pee, whining/crying, eating and sleep. I am starting to be able to decipher Dom's cries most of the time. He has a new one now which is his "overwhelmed/overtired" cry. He has just started becoming more aware of his surroundings, which can cause him to be overstimulated and become inconsolable until we go to a less stimulating environment. We don't often hear the hunger cry as I try to catch his earlier hunger cues when possible. Then there's the pain cry... This one is sudden and shrill/piercing and usually lasts as long as his cramp lasts, sometimes just a few seconds.

I am surprised how quickly I've fallen for this new man in my life. I've heard it can take a long time, and I expected to not feel the love for at least 4-6 weeks or so. There are so many adjustments and challenges and learning curves the first few weeks, that it can be hard to feel a bond for this intruder that is constantly attached to your boob or crying. It wasn't immediate, but it did happen quicker than expected... probably around the time breastfeeding became routine instead of a stressful experience... 2.5 weeks? 

It is a bit harder for David to bond with Dom. For a few days there Dom just cried all day long, Dave just felt like the baby cried every time he was holding him, and that was a struggle. We are working on figuring out good ways for them to bond. For now David helps out wherever he can... burping, rocking, soothing, changing. It is tough when all D want to do is nurse. It will become easier as Dom becomes more interactive. Dom is getting so close to smiling at us for real I think! He's just started having more happy awake time, and more awareness of his surroundings. He focuses on patterns, lights, faces, and his hands. Can't wait for those first smiles <3.

As much fun and craziness this month has been, I do wish life wasn't so difficult the first couple weeks so we could really cherish the first few moments of our newborn son. Very normal I'm sure. It's so hard to appreciate the new life when yours is turned upside down. 

Anyway, lessons I've learned from our first 4 weeks?
- Don't forget to take care of yourself. It's like the oxygen mask on a plane... always make sure yours is on before you try to care for anyone else. If you're not healthy (not eating, sleeping, taking time for yourself, etc.), you are going to be no good to anyone else.
- Don't be too hard on yourself. This one I learned the hard way after our struggles with breastfeeding. I felt like a failure, like feeding Dom formula from a bottle was somehow going to mess up future breastfeeding attempts, like my body was failing me and him. These were very real feelings at the time, but looking back, they were fueled purely by lack of sleep and crazy hormones!
- Be honest. When people ask how it's going, don't just say, "Great!" Everyone knows that's a lie... The first few weeks are hard. Be honest with yourself and others. If you don't, you may miss out on valuable opportunities for support. I have tried to be vulnerable and open with everyone about how things are really going, and I have never felt such an overwhelming amount of support and love from family, friends, acquaintances and even people I've never met! If I hadn't been honest, I think I could have quickly slipped further into terrible habits of the first two items on this list!
- Care for baby to the best of your ability. I don't have any advice on actually taking care of baby... Every baby is different, everyone's experience is different, and I highly doubt there is any pattern. 

I'm sure there is much more I could add to this list, but I had to squeeze in what I could between feedings while D was sleeping! **Cue crying baby**

Now for a few (out of order) pictures from the first 4 weeks as a family of 4!

Day 4

First week at home

Day 1!

1 Week old

1 Week old

2 Weeks Old

3 Weeks Old

Little hoodlum!

Nap time with Mom

4 weeks old!

Thankful Thursday - 74

Thursday again?! Life is just a series of naps now... I haven't slept more than 2.5 hours straight in 3 weeks! Fun times eh?

This week I'm thankful for...

1. Dominic has surpassed birth weight! This was a big day for us. As of our appointment on Monday, Jan 16 with the midwives, he weighed in at 8lb 13.5 oz!!!! Hooray!!! He is thriving! On that note, he is recovering very nicely from his circumcision yesterday. Everything was routine and there have been no concerns so far. Whew!! hopefully it continues to go smoothly! He doesn't even seem to notice there is anything going on. 

2. Getting out for some exercise. We got out to Tynehead the other day and ended up walking the full paved loop! Felt so good to get out in the sun and cold. 

3. Some adult time! On Sunday evening David offered to stay with Dom for a few hours so I could go to my parents' house for some games and fun with the family! Love the bits of normalcy! And so appreciate David offering to do that!

We played a few rounds of Codenames!

Newborn Photos!

We had Damara from Damara Moe Photography come to our house on January 3 to take newborn photos of little Dominic when he was 1 week old! She also took our maternity photos back in November, so it was great to see her again and introduce her to our new addition.

She stuck around our house for 4-5 hours, and spent a ton of time with Dominic upstairs exercising incredible patience in getting the perfect shots. We so appreciate the time she spent with us! She also managed to make us look good considering we were trying to figure out life with a newborn at the time (we still are!), and I still had all my postpartum swelling. 

First we did some "lifestyle" photos, and then some family photos around the house. When those were done, she set up in the nursery where the lighting was best and did the baby-only newborn shots. I just love them. 

FYI, there are some nursing photos in here, but they are tasteful :)

Without further ado, I officially introduce... Dominic Stuart Kimber! <3

The view from the nursery/nursing chair

Sherlock stealing the show

In a previous post I talked about the SNS feeding thing we had to use to help with nursing. It's a syringe filled with breast milk or formula that we insert into his mouth and he ingests that along with breast milk from me while he's feeding. 

This is our life. Sherlock always close by keeping an eye on things 

Love this burping face <3

David gets weirded out when Dom roots while he's trying to burp. He throws his head to the side haha

He was pulling all sorts of faces while we were trying to take these pictures. This naturally caused a giggle-fit

We covered all the feeding bases this day! Breasfeeding, breastfeeding with SNS, and bottle feeding!

I love that Sherlock came and joined the shoot for a while. He just wanted to be a part of things <3

This is one of my favorite family pictures from the shoot. I feel it accurately (and romantically) reflects the best parts of our life right now. 

I love the close-up shots Damara took. Some of them are photos I never would have thought to take!

Little arm rolls! They're even more rolley polley now that he's packed on some more weight!

Smiley man!

Dominic's lips <3 They are my absolute favorite thing!!

So much pout!!!

Howwww did that fit inside of me?!