5 Months Old

Weight:  {Next appt. November 30} 

Length:  {Next appt. November 30}

Head Circumference:  {Next appt. November 30}

Clothing Size:  He's still wearing pretty much the same size clothing.  His 3 month Carter's stuff is getting a little snug, but he can still wear them ok.  He can also fit in 6 month stuff though in some brands.

Feeding:  We're dealing with him being super distracted while eating during the day now.  Usually that means he will only eat the bare minimum during the day and then load up during the night...which = very little sleep for mommy.  :(

Sleeping:  He really hates naps and it varies day to day whether he even takes naps at all.  He's been sleeping fairly well at night lately, but that varies sometimes too!

Loves: The exer-saucer, showers with mommy, breastfeeding, sucking on his fists, standing, talking, mornings, funny faces, mirrors, peek-a-boo, his toes, the jogging stroller, splashing.

Hates: Sleep, bottles, his car seat, not being able to see everything.


Favorite Moments

Thoughts on the fifth month

5 whole months old little man!  I can't believe it!  I know I say that every month, but it just feels like every day flys by with you!  You're getting so much bigger and so much stronger.  You can already hold Daddy's hands and pull yourself up to stand.  You rolled over for the first time a couple weeks ago and you're starting to enjoy time on your tummy much more than you did before.  You love it when I take you into the shower with me.  You flap your little arms around and smile when the water hits you! You're grabbing at all of your toys and you love to put your little monkey in your mouth.  In fact, everything goes in your mouth these days!  Tomorrow is your first Halloween and you're dressing up as a shark.  Hopefully we'll get some pictures of you, but who knows since we've been in the middle of a hurricane the past few days!  Your first hurricane buddy!  Thankfully it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, but Mommy was pretty scared for a bit.  You particularly enjoyed having both Mommy and Daddy off from work for a few days!  We love you so much and really enjoyed the time home with you too!

4 Months Old

Weight:  {Will find out October 9} We're estimating around 15-16 lbs, but we're just weighing him with one of us and then weighing ourselves without him and subtracting to find the difference.  So it's just an estimate. 

Length:  {Will find out October 9}

Head Circumference:  {Will find out October 9}

Clothing Size:  He was getting pretty chunky for awhile and fitting into his 6 month stuff.  But I think it may have been just because he hadn't hit his growth spurt length wise yet.  Now that he's leaned out, he's fitting back into some of his 3 month stuff and most of his 3-6 month stuff too.  He can still wear the 6 month things he was wearing before, but they're looser on him.

Feeding:  He's still breastfeeding really well, but our biggest challenge now is biting.  You'd think it wouldn't be because he doesn't have teeth yet, but he still bites pretty hard!  I have about 85 oz of milk in the freezer for him, so we're still working toward that 300-400 oz goal.  I'm going to have to look into investing in a small deep freezer!

Sleeping:  He's doing much better with napping, but he still doesn't love it.  We're full time co-sleepers now.  Originally he was in the rock n' play, but he sleeps so much better when he's in the bed with me. Plus, I get more sleep because he just rolls over, nurses, and then goes right back to sleep.  He pretty consistently sleeps from about 10:30pm to 9am (if I'm in the bed with him).

Loves: Bath time, breastfeeding, sucking on his fists, standing, talking, mornings, funny faces, mirrors, his toes, the swing, the jogging stroller, splashing.

Hates: Sleep, bottles, his car seat.


Favorite Moments

Thoughts on the fourth month
And just like that, you're done with 1/3 of your first year!  It's flying by so fast!  I still love coming home to see you on my lunch break and I'm so thankful that I get to continue working while spending as much time with you as I can.  You are laughing up a storm!  Your favorite game in the world is to stand in the sink full of water in front of the mirror and SPLASH like crazy!  You laugh and laugh and laugh at yourself.  It's the cutest thing I've ever seen!  You've still only played with your toes a few times, but you LOVE your little fists!  Those things are in your mouth constantly.  Thankfully, you've weaned yourself off of television a little bit.  You still love to watch certain shows, but you're having fun doing other things now, which makes me very happy.  You love going running (you like to go with daddy more than with me) and you cry the second we stop to walk.  It amazes me how much of a boy you are already, you already laugh when you poop and fart!  Little stinker!  You're getting so big and so strong and I'm so excited to see your personality develop even more.  I love you more each day little boy.

4 Months Postpartum

I'm down 1 1/2 pounds from my pre pregnancy weight!  Now my focus turns to toning everything up!

3 Months Old - A little late

I started writing this post before Maxwell's 3 month birthday, but haven't had time to finish it!  Being back to work leaves very little time to get anything done and priority one (after taking care of little man of course) is spending time with James & trying to keep our house in order!  So here it is, the 3 month update, about a week late!

Weight:  13 lbs, 2 oz 

Length:  22 1/4 inches

Head Circumference:  16 inches

Clothing Size:  Max is a little chunker now!  He started out so petite, but breast milk is doing him well.  Most babies double their birth weight by 4-6 months and he's already pretty much done that!  He went from being in the 25th percentile in weight at his last appointment (6 weeks ago), to 75th percentile at this appointment.  Needless to say, he's pretty much already out of most 3 month and some 3-6 month clothing.  I was thinking that he was going to be in 6 month clothing around Christmas time, but now it's looking more like I'll need 9 month clothing for winter!

Feeding:  He's clearly still doing well with eating.  Our breastfeeding problems are pretty much gone and he only gets bottles (still breast milk) while I'm at work.  I've been doing well building an emergency freezer stash and I have about 72 ounces so far (about 3 days worth of milk).  I'd like to get to about 400 oz. eventually so that I have a little over 2 weeks worth.  Then when he eventually starts solids I'll have enough saved up to continue giving him breast milk long after he's been weaned.

Sleeping:  He still doesn't like to nap, but he's a pretty decent sleeper at night.  With the exception of eating, we're big on schedule and routine for him.  He eats on demand still, but we always give him his bath and put him to bed at the same time every night.  Usually he's asleep by 10-10:30pm and he'll sleep until 3am.  He has one feed then (in bed with the lights off) and goes right back to sleep until about 8am.  Of course, he does have crazy nights when he doesn't fall asleep til midnight or wakes every hour, but for the most part he's pretty good.  We're still struggling with whether to swaddle or not...he sleeps better with it, but he can't fall asleep swaddled, so that's a big challenge.

Loves: Bath time, breastfeeding, the Boba wrap, talking, mornings, funny faces, mirrors, his toes, the swing, the jogging stroller.

Hates: Sleep, bottles, his car seat.


Favorite Moments

Thoughts on the third month
You change so much so fast!  It's so hard to believe that a quarter of your first year has already come and gone.  I'm so thankful that I'm able to work across the street from home and that I can come see you on my lunch break every day.  You smile so much and have even laughed a few times!  I look forward to hearing you laugh more and seeing you reach all of your little milestones.  Yesterday, you found your toes for the first time and you thought they were SO fun!  Next you'll be putting them in your mouth!  In spite of mommy trying not to let you watch TV, you still crane your neck to watch Daddy's TV shows.  At least you're starting to let Mommy read to you a little bit!  I have a feeling you're going to skip the whole crawling thing!  You don't like to be on your belly and you're already putting all of your weight on your fat little legs!  We love you so much and we're having so much fun watching you grow!

Our Adventures In Breastfeeding

Now that things are going pretty well with mine and Maxwell's breastfeeding relationship, I rarely think about how difficult it was in the beginning.  It's funny, because people always used to tell me that you would forget about how hard having a baby is once the baby is born, but it's apparently true with the first few weeks of breastfeeding too!  I want to write about it because if this helps one person I would be happy. 

The one thing that I hope anyone reading this remembers is:

Breastfeeding is not always easy...especially in the beginning.

Maxwell and I were dealt a pretty crappy hand when it came to establishing breastfeeding.  Since he was taken to the nursery pretty quickly after birth (due to breathing issues), we were not able to get him latched on before he was taken away.  And then, because he was in the nursery getting poked and prodded, he was too tired to try again until the end of day 2.  They did set me up with a pump so that we could work on getting my milk to come in.  All of these things contributed to him not getting a good latch right away and me being very sore.  I kept pumping and the nurses were giving him bottles of my breast milk...little did I know, the bottles were making it even more difficult for him to learn to latch properly.  Eventually, one of the nurses suggested a nipple shield and he finally latched on and we were able to slowly wean him from the pumped milk.  By the time we left the hospital (8 days after he was born) he was nursing the majority of the time, but I was in SO much pain I could hardly stand it.  My toes would curl every time he latched on.  A few days later, I asked to be seen by a lactation consultant because of the pain.  It turned out that his latch was fine with the shield, but she wanted to get him off of the shield because we ended up having Thrush (the cause of my pain).  Something that the hospital didn't mention...nipple shields are a huge breeding ground for Thrush.  She gave me a plan to start weening him off of the shield, but I really felt like I needed it for the pain because my nipples were starting to crack and bleed!  I should have listened to her though, because I then developed Mastitis due to the cracks in my nipple.  That was a horrible, horrible experience.  At that point, I really started considering the fact that we might have to exclusively pump in order for him to get my breast milk.  I really didn't know how much more I could endure.  And then, something crazy happened.  He started latching without the shield!  And breastfeeding started to hurt less and less!  By 5 weeks he was latching like a pro and I was having minimal discomfort.  

I tell you this not to scare you.  I tell you because there was a point where I felt like it would not ever get better, but it did.  Breastfeeding is not always easy in the beginning, but it usually gets better.  So if you are determined, you can make it through.  Everyone I talked to before having a baby always said that breastfeeding was so easy and natural and I was not mentally prepared for what I endured.  But now that I've made it through the rough part, it was so worth it in the end.  Also, if you're having issues, my biggest piece of advice is to see an IBCLC.

2 Months Old

Maxwell's Stats

Weight:  {Will find out on August 23}

Length:  {Will find out on August 23}

Head Circumference:  {Will find out on August 23}

Clothing Size:  We are officially out of newborn clothes!  0-3 months fits him the best, but he can wear 3 month clothing from Carters.  He's definitely filled out since last month and has been wearing size 1 diaper for most of the month and will probably soon move on to 2's!

Feeding:  I'm happy to report that most of our breastfeeding issues are over!  He still has an occasional issue with latching, usually when he's very tired, but he's nursing the majority of the time now and only getting about 1 bottle (of pumped breast milk) a day!  That will increase a bit since I'm going back to work, but I'm confident that he's finally gotten the hang of nursing.

Sleeping:  This baby does not like to nap!  For most of the month he was sleeping about one 4-5 hour stretch at night, but waking up quite a bit after that.  Last night however, he slept through the night!  Which, for a baby his age, is sleeping for more than a 5 hour stretch.  He slept from 9:45pm to 4:45am without a peep and then went right back to sleep after nursing and didn't wake up until 7am.

Loves: Bath time, breast milk, sleeping on mommy's chest, his bouncy/vibrating seat, vocalizing, mornings.

Hates: Nap time, tummy time.




Favorite Moments

Thoughts on the second month
Another month has flown by!  I'm so thankful that I got to be home with you for 2 whole months!  I'm sad to go back to work and leave you some of the time, but I'm so happy that you'll have most of that time to spend with your Daddy.  You have changed SO much this month and are getting so strong and have such a little personality!  You still love to be able to see everything and you don't like when you're laying flat on your back where it's hard to look around!  You smile all the time!  My favorite time with you is in the morning when you first wake up.  We go out to the couch and you lay there and SMILE and COO and SMILE some more at me!  I can't wait to hear your first laugh!  You are so curious about everything and you are starting to recognize even more sounds.  You stare at the TV when the shows are on that I used to watch with you in my belly.  You almost pushed up on your arms during tummy time the other day and we were so proud of you!  You're going to be mobile before we know it!