Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Leo - 1 Week

My baby is already a week old!!
Where does the time go?!

To say that this has been the greatest week of my life would be cliche... right?  But it has!
Every single morning I wake up thanking God that I have the privilege of being Leo's mommy and so so so so thankful that Lee is my partner through all of this.  To say he's adapted to the role of father amazingly would be an understatement.  He is the best.  Leo and I are so lucky to share our lives with him,

So what has Leo been up to?

A lot more than I expected actually!  I'm not sure he knows he's a newborn.... or that he isn't even due to be born for another 3 days!
I'm still in shock that he came 10 days early!

He is very active and incredibly strong.  He loves to kick his legs and move his arms like he's swimming.
He can even roll on his side... either one and sometimes from right to back to left all at once.
The  first time he did it freaked me out, as I was NOT expecting it at all and had him lying on a towel on the kitchen table!  Now we know we can't leave him lying anywhere, even for a couple seconds.
I posted a video on facebook joking that we thought he was "so advanced" and some people obviously didn't get our joke... I got several "that wasn't a real roll over" remarks.... haha the dude was just 3 days old, obviously he couldn't roll over all the way.

He does climb up your body when he's hungry.  He'll plant his little feet, basically stand up, inch his way up, and bite your cheeks.  It's hilarious.
But he also knows exactly where the milk is.  He'll root his way around until he finds the spot if I'm not moving fast enough for him.  He's like a little puppy. haha

He can lift his head too.  When he's doing tummy time he'll lift his head and move it from one side to another. He mostly does this when he's lying on your chest, but he'll do it on the floor sometimes too.  It's amazing.

And it seems that the hungrier he is the stronger he gets!

Speaking of hungry... he is a very hungry little guy and continues to be a great nurser, but he has also been giving me a break at night.  Sleeping sometimes 3 hour stretches at a time... which feels awesome for this new mommy.
We only had one mostly sleepless night and that was this first night home from the hospital.  He was so hungry and my milk hadn't come in yet so there was no way to appease him.  He nursed pretty much constantly all through the night and I thought there is NO way this can be how it is.
I considered giving him a pacifier, but decided not to before we talked to the pediatrician about it.  Instead I woke Lee up and he kept watch over him and I nursed asleep.  I'm terrified of falling asleep with him on me or in bed.  One of Lee's hardest days in the hospital was when a mother brought in her baby that she had rolled over on in the night and he didn't make it....
No amount of sleep could ever be worth that.

Thankfully around 11 am the next day I felt a significant change in my breasts and my milk started to come in!!  Ever since Leo has been a much happier little guy!

At his first pediatrician appointment at 3 days old he weighed 7lbs 11oz, so he lost 5 oz from birth, but I am confident that he has gained all that back.... we can see him getting chubby in his cheeks and even a little second chin!  He goes back to the Dr on Friday so we'll find out how much he weighs then.

The diaper department has been very active.
It's funny to think back now to his first day of life when we were so worried because he hadn't peed.... and now he pees like 10 times a day.
And the poop... while it is small and easy to clean, it does stink.  Everyone who said newborn, breastfed baby poop doesn't smell lied, or at least hasn't smelled Leo.  I mean it isn't terrible... nothing like an adult poop, but it does have an eggy smell. yuck.  Apparently this will get better in a couple weeks.

His circumcision is fully healed,  it was after about 4 days I think.
Now we're just waiting for this awful umbilical cord to fall off.  Which could take weeks more. ugh!


So yea sleeping has been much better than I thought. I usually get at least 7-8 hours over the course of a 10 hr stretch.  We go to bed around 10pm and I get up for the day around 8, with 3-4 feedings in there.
I've found that during the night feedings I just stay constantly on my phone to make sure I stay awake.
Lee has pretty much been sleeping through the night and then getting up early, around 6am to hang out with Leo while I get a couple more hours of sleep. I haven't been taking naps during the day... but I've never been a good napper.  So far this schedule is really working for us.
At night we swaddle Leo and put a hat on him because our room is a little colder than the rest of the house and I think that is helping him understand that it's sleeping time, and we keep it dark except for a night light.  During the day I open the blinds and let as much natural light in as possible, which is a lot with the reflection of the snow actually, because I read that helps them differentiate from day to night.

I am SO lucky that I have Lee here to help me 24/7 for the next 3 months.  I am so happy that he decided to go along with my "lets have a baby during your break" plan :)  Oh did I mention that Lee is FINISHED with medical school? as in he is officially a doctor?!


Overall I cannot complain about anything.
I really feel like I have the absolute best behaved 1 week old possible.
He never cries.... ok unless I'm trying to set up a photo shoot.... so far he hasn't been a great poser for my photos. lol. but I'll forgive him.
The first couple of days he hated to get his diaper changed, but now he's pretty used to it and doesn't cry. He'll also give us a ton of clues that he's hungry before crying, so I'm even usually able to get to him in the middle of the night before he cries because he makes lots of smacking and grunting noises. haha


And did I mention the facial expressions?!  He is so expressive!




Grandpa Coghill :)





Lee and I actually spend the majority of our time just staring at him.  We are still amazed that he is actually ours.  I cannot believe I gave birth to such an incredible, beautiful child.  Every move, every frown, every noise we are just in awe.
We love you Leo!!!



2 comments:

Amber said...

He is so perfect! I love him already!

Anonymous said...

I don't normally say this but your baby is so stinking cute. All babies look the same to me but he is so adorable. Congrats :-)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...