Normally I'd talk about how fast time is going, and how I can't believe my baby is x months old at this time. However, this last month has seemed very very long. Not in a bad way, I just feel like Eva has been with us for much longer than a month. I have to remind myself that she's only 4 weeks old quite often. Is it possible for a newborn to be an old soul already? I feel like she is haha.
I could basically copy and paste Emilia's 1 month post in here and it would be accurate.
Haha she looks a little unsure
Weight: 10 lb 8 oz (80th percentile) +11 oz from birth.
*From our home scale*
Height: 22 inches (85th percentile)
*somewhere between 21.5 and 22.5 inches... hard to measure a newborn by yourself haha!*
Likes:
- Our hexagon shelves.
- Sleeping... eating... Babies are boring
- Baths. We bathe her in the kitchen sink with our flower thing and she loves it. Never a peep sitting in that warm water.
Dislikes:
- The car seat. This one is a little inconsistent, but she doesn't love it for sure. If the van stops moving she wakes up and cries, and if she's tired she'd rather cry than drift off into a deep sleep in there.
- Being tired. That's mostly the only time she cries. She gets occasional gas cramps (was much worse during the first 2 weeks), but mostly as long as we follow her wake times she's quite content!
- The soother. She won't take it from me at all, and fights it with others as well. Eventually she'll usually give up, but it's definitely not a crutch for her.
Notes:
- Wearing size 0-3 and 3 month clothing. Size 1 diapers. She never actually fit newborn clothes or newborn diapers, so lots of lost opportunity there to wear Emilia's adorable newborn clothes!
- We give her vitamin D drops and Bio Gaia probiotic drops every day.
- She is a wonderful sleeper for a newborn... so far! She sleeps in the bassinet beside our bed. We zip her into her Love to Dream swaddle, I sing a song, turn on the fan, turn off the lights, and lay her on her tummy. Yes, she's a tummy sleeper. I feel confident in that choice for us right now.
- At night we've been getting 4-5.5 hour stretches, followed by a 3-4 hour stretch. One night she gave us a 7.5 hour stretch and it was awesome, but my boobs did not thank me. I think I'd rather a slightly shorter stretch of sleep for an easier nursing session afterwards!
- She has a hard time settling in a stimulating environment, so having her sleep downstairs during the day is a challenge. She was fine the first couple weeks, but since she hit 3 weeks or so she sleeps SO much better in the bassinet.
- Her wake time is 40-60 minutes. I try to follow the EASY routine (Eat - Activity - Sleep - You time!) so our awake time usually looks like this...
- Nurse for 20-25 minutes total (usually with a diaper change in the middle)
- Stare at the wall or something for 15-20 minutes
- I bring her upstairs for a nap at the 40/45 minute mark since she woke up from her nap, and do the above-mentioned bedtime routine and lay her down. Most of the time if we follow that routine, she'll be asleep before the hour is up and sleep for 2+ hours. I often have to wake her from her naps during the day to make sure she's eating enough.
- She's an efficient eater, but does struggle with my overactive letdown. My supply has been all over the place this month, as has her weight gain. She went from 20-25g/day to 12g/day to 40g/day to 34g/day to 20g/day. I'm hoping things level out and she just gains like a normal baby for a while... I'm not really stressing about it though (joys of 3rd baby).
- She's not a great latcher. Probably because of this overactive letdown. She clicks whens he nurses and it's often a shallow latch. It doesn't usually hurt me or anything anymore, but we are working on a better one.
- Like Emilia, she doesn't love to be handled.
- She will take a bottle! I've been using the haaka when I'm feeling pretty full, so it just suctions to whatever side I'm not feeding on and catches the letdown. On an average feed I can get about an ounce, but if I'm very full it's closer to 2-3 ounces. That's INSANE for me because even if I were to pump I'd hardly get that. My body does not respond well to a pump for whatever reason. Anyway, we rarely do bottles because we just don't need to, but if she's cluster feeding all day and I just. need. a. break. then at least it's an option for Dave to give her a couple ounces to tide her over.
- She is our earliest smiler! Emilia was pretty early at 3.5-4 weeks, but Eva gave us her first social smile before 3 weeks. They're elusive still, only a couple a day tops, but it's awesome. I'm so excited for her to be a bit older and interacting with the kids more.
- I feel like I'm enjoying the newborn stage way more this time. Actually, I remember enjoying Emilia as a newborn, but I also had a 16 month old so it's really foggy for me. I just feel like Eva and I have bonded on another level. I "get" her. With Dom it took a good 6-8 weeks for me to really fall in love I think, with Emilia it was quicker, but again, foggy. With Eva I think I had that moment when I was in the hospital with my postpartum hemorrhaging. She saved me during that time. She was what kept me going, what kept me levelheaded.
- She has a little bit of baby acne, but it's really minor. Same with cradle cap. Nothing crazy. She's still quite pretty/smooth haha.
- I mentioned it above, but she's a very content baby over all. She really only gets upset when she's overstimulated or overtired. When she is, it can seem like colic. She screams and won't settle for hours. She cramps up and it manifests similar to gas. I think this was so much of the problem with Dom when he was a newborn, but he also definitely had reflux. Once we got him on a sleep schedule and reflux meds he was a different baby!
- Even though I mentioned enjoying the newborn stage a lot more this time, I have to keep an eye on myself for postpartum anxiety (I haven't had any signs of postpartum depression). I've noticed some signs of it, but so far it's relatively manageable. I think most of it is likely just transitioning to life with 3 children, and having a traumatic hospital visit, and being a little bit traumatized still by Dom as a newborn. I like to have control over things, and with newborns the only thing I have control over is her schedule. I am forcing myself out of my comfort zone to do things that I know will throw it off and maybe make her overtired. It's important for me to do that or else I become too wrapped up in it and too OCD about it and too anxious about it. I get anxious about going out, thinking about what the rest of the day will look like. It's hard to explain. I know it's irrational, but I get a tight chest, and rapid heart rate and other anxiety symptoms. Pretty frustrating, but I'm aware of what's happening and we have an appointment with Reproductive Mental Health this week to talk about that, and the hospital visit from the first week. Gotta keep myself in check and make sure I don't rabbit-hole.
- I haven't gotten the official all-clear to exercise from the midwife yet because I forgot to ask at my last appointment, but I did my first postnatal barre blend workout yesterday! It's very low impact and I took it easy. Amazing how much weaker I am than I was! I'm looking forward to getting in shape again though.
Daily Schedule:
We are doing loose sleep-training, which is just a little crying, and trying to teach independent sleep. I put her down awake for a few naps per day and let her fuss around for a bit. I'll let her fuss and cry for 30-60 seconds at a time before picking her up to snuggle or patting her. Quite often she'll wind down after a minute, but occasionally she needs a few snuggles. I figure it's worth it for me to practice this now because I can't always get to her right away anyway. So at least if she's used to falling asleep on her own, it allows me to be present with the other two!
Here's a sample of a daily schedule. Our wake time varies greatly - anytime between 6 and 830 depending on what time(s) she's up during the night, but this would be an average/rough ideal.
730: wake up for the day
830-1030: nap
1130-130: nap
230-430: nap
530-730: nap
830: bedtime
Night: up 1-2 times to feed.
Again, this is very ideal, and I don't think it's ever worked out this way. She typically doesn't like to fall asleep for the night until 10-11. She'll cluster feed, fuss, and fight sleep from 7 onwards usually, and we often have to fight her to get her to settle for the night. Once she's settled, she's down though!
Look how much hair she has (and how dark it is) compared to the other two! Dom was straight bald, Emilia had the old man cul-de-sac going, and Eva just has this thick head of hair still. I'm so curious to see how she grows and if she'll look more like her siblings! <3
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