Anora: One Month

Anora's one month check up went well. Despite the fact that plans changed at the last minute and I ended up taking all of the kids with me to the appointment. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal if it was a 10 minute drive to the office, but it's a 45 minute drive so we ended up making an afternoon of it. Anyway, that's a later post perhaps.


Stats:
9lb 5oz (50% - I'm not used to an average sized kid at this age)
21 1/2 inches (70%)
37cm HC (50%)

Dr. Macias said that everything looks great. I asked about vitamin D and iron supplements for her and he said I didn't need to start those right now. I let him know that she slept 6 hours a couple of times at night and he said that she's gaining weight just fine and to let her sleep as long as she'd like at night, but continue 3 hour feedings during the day.

Anora has been fairly easy so far. She fell into a sleep, eat, awake routine pretty naturally which is great! She prefers to sleep on her side and she likes to fall asleep with her pacifier, but spits it out when she's almost asleep most of the time.

From day one she was a great eater and I hardly had any latching issues with her. As a result, she went longer between feedings right away (2 1/2 - 3hrs during the day and 3 1/2 - 4 1/2hours at night). That was great EXCEPT it made my engorgement period more difficult and I ended up with Mastitis. NOT FUN! If you don't know what that is, it's a breast infection caused by clogged milk ducts and the symptoms are high fevers, some breast pain (some women have pain while nursing, but I didn't) and flu-like symptoms (body aches, headache, etc.) Once I was on the antibiotic for 24 hours I was 100% better.

Last night (at 5 weeks old) she slept 6 hours (this is her 3rd time doing that) between feedings. Luckily her last feeding was at 9:30pm and I pretty much went to sleep right after I fed her. Yay for a good night's sleep!

Her naps during the day were not the greatest at first, but then we figured out that dairy was making her gassy so I cut down on cheeses and switched to almond milk for awhile. In a couple of weeks I'll slowly bring it back into my diet and see what happens. We also started giving her Gripe Water at night and Mylicon gas drops during the day which seemed to help a lot.

We also figured out that she does not like to be cold. I put her in a onesie, pants, socks, night gown (with little mittens over the hands) a sleepsack AND swaddle her in a blanket at night. Part of that is because I like the room a little cold while I sleep and she still sleeps in the room with us (well, sort of ... she's in our emptied out walk-in closet).

Anora is such a sweet baby. I wouldn't say that she's laid back because she definitely has to speak up if she wants something with two other little boys in house vying for my attention. Half of the time I have to wake her up for her day time feedings and half of the time she wakes up on her own. Usually she fusses herself to sleep and/or I have to put her pacifier back in a zillion times.

She's pretty easy to console when she's upset with the exception of a few times she's woken up almost in a panic in her car seat (I hope she out grows that). Jackson has mastered the "shh-shh-shh" technique, although he thinks if he does it louder it will work better. HA. He's also a HUGE help with her in the car. Micah just thinks the car seat is a toy he can play with.

Anora is smiling more, but it's not predictable or easily coaxed yet. She's also started to make some vocal coos just this week. I LOVE that stage and can't wait for her to verbalize more. I'm sure we will since her awake time during the day is getting longer each day. She's usually awake for about an hour and a half to two hours in her 3 hour feeding schedule.


She handles the attention the boys give her very well. She lets Jackson touch her hands and head without a fuss and he does it a lot. Both boys are pretty good at helping me burp her and they can usually get one out better than I can. Overall nursing her has been easier than Micah because at the time Jackson had no one else to play with and now Micah and Jackson can go off and play with each other while I feed Anora. I LOVE the fact that they play so well together.


Emotionally going from 2 to 3 has been easier than from 1 to 2 so far. Logistically I'm able to handle the scheduling of 2 to 3 better than 1 to 2 AT HOME, but when we go places it's much more difficult going from 2 to 3 than it was 1 to 2. I TRIED to take all three kids to church by myself yesterday ... WHAT WAS I THINKING?!! Next time I need to make sure I ask church family to help me with the boys (especially if I have to feed Anora in the middle of the service).

Overall, Anora has been such a delight! I'm so excited to see what kind of little girl and woman she will become.

Quick Update on Sleep

Micah has made a few changes in his sleeping habits these past couple of weeks and I wanted to be sure that I made a note to myself about them for the future:

1. I stopped putting socks on his hands because he had figured out how to pull them off by himself and because he seemed to accidentally scratch himself less and less.

2. I no longer give him a pacifier for naps or night sleep unless he's inconsolable or we're in a different sleeping environment (for example: I still give him a pacifier when I expect him to sleep in his car seat at church... but he hardly ever keeps it in).

3. As Micah has begun to eat more food during meals he's needed his third nap less and less. I'm not sure if they're related, but it's just my observation. For awhile I was putting him down for about a half an hour before dinner time so that he wouldn't be exhausted by bedtime and fall asleep nursing, but after awhile he just wouldn't fall asleep anymore. So, he's completely dropped his third nap now and is sleeping between 1 1/2 to 2 hours for his other two naps during the day. He's getting less and less cranky around bed time but I still struggle with him falling asleep nursing (I DON'T want that to become a habit).

4. A couple days before and after Micah popped his first tooth he woke up in the middle of the night and needed to be consoled. I ended up giving him Tylenol and swaddling him (which I haven't done in a LONG time) in order to get him to go back to sleep. After a couple days he's back to his normal 12 hour sleep without any interruptions (praise the Lord for that). By the way: I was unsuccessful at snapping a picture of his tooth in the picture above... ah well.

I think that's about it ... my little one is awake now and ready for breakfast, so I better bring this blog to a close.

Pacifiers

Both of my boys took pacifiers when they were very little (about 4 - 6 weeks old). I've always debated about whether or not I wanted to give them one in the first place, but it was either a pacifier or they wanted to nurse in the middle of the night all of the time and THAT wasn't going to happen. Maybe I should just let them discover their thumb ... although, I personally think that it's easier to take a pacifier away than it is to get a child to stop sucking their thumb. Plus pacifiers may help decrease the risk of SIDS.

However, I've read that it's harder to break pacifier use after 6 months. When Jackson was about 6 or 7 months old I asked one of my close friends who had an 18 month old at the time what she did about the whole pacifier issue (I wanted to know if she had any tips on how to wean Jackson from the pacifier). Her response was, "when you figure it out let me know." The next day I took Jackson's pacifier away. I didn't go cold turkey, but I limited it to the car seat and his crib. By 8 months Jackson wasn't taking a pacifier at all.

So, now I'm starting the weaning process with Micah. He already only takes the pacifier in the car and crib which is good (with a few exceptions when he's visiting family/ friends where I don't want him to be fussy). I decided that today was going to be the day that I attempt to put him down for a nap without a pacifier. His first nap was a success! He cried for about ten minutes and then put himself to sleep. He even woke up in the middle of the nap, cried for two seconds and put himself back to sleep. The second nap he cried for two minutes and then went right to sleep, but he woke up half way through the nap and couldn't sooth himself back to sleep, so I gave in to the pacifier. He hasn't had a third nap yet and that's usually his toughest nap (he's transitioning out of this nap very quickly, but still needs it most days) so we'll see how that goes. I'm just going to take little steps at a time. I'm sure I'll have some setbacks along the way (like the shots he'll be getting on Monday), but we'll get there.

5 Months

It seems like it's been awhile since I've posted about our progress. Colin was on vacation for a week and a half so we've been traveling like crazy! It's been wonderful to visit places and see people, but it has been difficult on our routines.

Micah was doing about a three and a half hour feeding schedule with one two hour feeding towards the end of the night to keep up the five feedings and to also keep up the twelve hours of sleep he was getting at night. I also started feeding him baby oatmeal once a day at his 5 o'clock feeding. However, when we were on vacation in the Midwest Micah was not nursing well. He'd eat one side (maybe) and then nurse only a tiny bit on the other side. I attributed it to a flexible routine and him having a cold. There were a few times that he went longer than three and a half hours and he nursed MUCH better (I thought maybe he was getting ready to go on a four hour feeding schedule before we left, but I wanted to wait until we were back from vacation and in a normal routine), so I "sucked it up" and switched him to a four hour feeding schedule and added one more feeding of oatmeal at the end of our trip. I was surprised at how easily he fell into a four hour routine. Now Micah's routine looks like this (knock on wood because as soon as I write this something will change I'm sure):

7:30 nurse
9:30 nap
11:30 nurse and feed solid food
1:30 nap
3:30 nurse and feed solid food (although I'm thinking about doing solids around supper time instead, so that when he's weaned from nursing it'll be an easier transition to our meal time, but I don't want to create a habit of eating every 2 to 3 hours still)
5:30 short nap (this nap can get easily skipped if need be)
7:30 nurse and bed



Micah also started rolling from his tummy to his back pretty consistently this month and he can sit up for a few seconds without assistance. His drool output has definitely increased this month and perhaps we'll be seeing a tooth in the next little while (Jackson didn't get his first tooth until 7 months so we'll see). He's a happy little guy and although he hasn't made any consonant sounds yet he loves to jabber. He's a cuddle bug too. Sometimes if he fusses at the beginning of a nap all I have to do is cuddle with him for a few minutes and then put him back in his crib and he goes right to sleep. (By the way, I'm still swaddling him for his naps and he still takes a pacifier. For bed time, I put socks on his hands (I know it sounds silly)so that he doesn't accidentally scratch himself and to discourage him from sucking his thumb.) He's also very tender hearted when it comes to his brother ... if Jackson is crying Micah will cry too and the minute Jackson stops so does Micah.

I haven't had much Mommy and Jackson time lately due to our traveling, but Jackson has not been deprived at all (time with great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins, going to Disneyland, etc.) He's grown up so much these past couple of weeks. I LOVE watching him play with other children ... his personality begins to shine. Despite being sick with a cold at the end of our vacation Jackson has been SUCH a trouper with all of the crazy traveling we've been doing lately. I really am proud of his maturity in that regard.

My boys are growing up WAY too fast, but it's been such an honor and a blessing to watch!!