Monday, August 20, 2012

Babyhood Weeks 1 through 3, and a 3 Week Picture

Well Greyden boy, you have now been in our lives for three whole weeks! Funny how your presence in our family already feels normal, like you've been there all along. Boy do we love you. :)

Here's a run down of how the first three weeks went:

You were born on Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 5:44am, about a week early. You weighed 8lb 6oz and were 21 1/4 inches long. I must be honest - especially since you came out big and healthy - that I was super thrilled about your early arrival. :) Your momma's body was wearing down!!




Some quirky things we noticed right away about you are that you have a birth mark on your eyelid, another birth mark on the back of your head (that ironically matches your brother's!), and that you love to stretch your legs out straight (which you always did in the womb). Oh, and that you have webbed toes. That's right the second and third toe on both of your feet are webbed halfway up. At first it threw me off, but now I think it's cute. :)


You've really been an easy baby so far. The first week you were an absolute angel baby. When you were awake, you'd happily sit in a swing or bouncy seat and just look around. Then you'd doze off, wake up to eat, and gladly do it all over again. Obviously you were held a lot, because everyone wanted to love on you, but you didn't need to be. You were content all on your own.

Once you hit a week old, your real personality started to shine through. No more sitting in the bouncy seat or swing. You wanted to be held - ALL THE TIME. I've since then been able to tame you a bit, and you'll sit in some type of baby station occasionally throughout the day, but for the most part you want to be held when you're awake. As long as you're being held, you don't fuss much. There have been some evenings (such as this current one) where you're crabby and we can't seem to make you happy, but for the most part you're content as long as you're in someone's arms being held in the position you want.



Speaking of being held, you hate to be picked up under the armpits (you always squawk at me when I do it) and prefer to be held upright most of the time. Your favorite position is way up high over someone's shoulder, with your armpits at shoulder height and your arms draped over their back. Then you like to practice holding up your little head and look around.


I tried letting you sleep in our room at night at first, but just like with your brother I couldn't handle it. Every grunt, hiccup, and squeak woke me up. And I needed my sleep! So on Sunday of the second week, when you were 8 days old, you went into your own room. You've slept in there every night since. Sometimes you sleep in your Moses basket and sometimes in your rocker. I always swaddle you to keep your arms snug against your body. I did the same thing with your brother - swaddling works wonders!


Nursing is going well. We had some latching issues at first, and I was getting super duper sore, but my friends told me to buy a shield and it solved all our issues. Now you latch well about 90% of the time. You eat about twice as fast as your brother did, which is such a time saver for me. You're usually full within 10 to 20 minutes. We also use a pacifier with you, just like we did with your brother. It works pretty well at soothing you when you get in a funk. :)

You nap during the day much better than your brother did. Sometimes you'll sleep two hours or more. During the day you eat every 2 to 3 hours. In the evenings you often want to cluster feed and eat every hour and a half. For the first two weeks I woke you up during the night once it had been four hours since your last feeding. At your two-week checkup I got the pediatrician's approval to let you sleep as long as you want at night, and since then you've been going up to five hours between feedings. That means I can get some four-hour chunks of sleep, which sure is nice!

Lately you've really loved your mobiles. I'd say it started when you were about two weeks old. I can lay you on your changing table and turn on the mobile, and you'll just lay there and look at all the fishes for quite a while. It's very sweet. And it's great to know that you can see, too. :)


Some people say you look a lot like your brother, others say you look totally different. I think you look similar to how he did as a baby, but not the same. I can definitely tell your baby pictures apart. But you have a lot of resemblances, especially through the eyes. In fact, yesterday your big brother was watching a video of himself as an infant, and he thought it was you. So apparently he thinks you look alike!


A friend of mine took newborn pictures when you were six days old, and although I've only seen portion of them, I already know she did a great job. I'm so excited to get them back and hang up pictures of you on the wall next to your brother. I also took a few of my own, so maybe I'll frame some of those too. :)

The jury's out on whether or not you like baths. You absolutely hate sponge baths, just like your brother. You lost your umbilical stump on Tuesday of the third week (when you were 2 1/2 weeks old) and after that we began regular baths. You seemed to enjoy the first two but screamed through the most recent one. So who knows.


You grew out of all your newborn clothes by the time you were 11 days old, which was somewhat depressing for your mommy here. Newborn clothes are soooooo cute! At your two-week appointment, when you were 16 days old, you measured 23 inches long (98th percentile), 10lb 1/2oz (81st percentile), and your head was 14.5 inches around (41st percentile). You had been down to 7lb 15oz by the time we left the hospital, so that means you gained over 2 pounds and almost 2 inches in two weeks. Crazy!!





And to finish up, here is your Week 3 photo with a frisbee. Such a growing boy!




Looking forward to all the weeks ahead baby boy!

Love,
Your Momma

No comments:

Post a Comment