Sunday, April 3, 2011

Mr B is 2 months old!


I can't believe my little baby is 2 months old! To mark the occasion, here's a comprehensive posting about what's going on (I stole the idea from others -- seemed useful!)

BREAST-FEEDING: Thanks to all for your input and support on my "I hate this breast feeding crap" post. We've settled into what I think is a good place and hopefully we can keep it going. At this point, I pretty much just pump and feed breastmilk from a bottle. I put him up to my boob directly once a day or so, but at this point, he gets a little annoyed by the slower pace. Is it what I had envisioned? Nope. Is it time consuming to pump and feed? Yep. But is it working? Yes. And supply has increased so he gets very little formula. In fact, the only reason he gets any is because he appears to have reflux, and so the formula we use is helping that.

SLEEP/FUSSINESS: Right now, he's the best night time sleeper EV-ER. (Here, I have cursed myself. I'm sure the next post will be all about how he doesn't sleep.) He goes to bed at 8ish every night and usually sleeps through until about 3am. Then he's up for a feed and back down until about 6.30am. My husband works some magic on him and snuggles with him in the morning and can get him to stay asleep until 9am or so, and then we start our day. Of course, I can't get him to sleep past 7 or so in the morning, but that's still pretty ok with me. We have a bed in his room, and so every once in a while one of us decamps to his room so that the other can stay asleep and we don't have to go so far to see what's going on. Bear in mind, of course, that we are talking about a NYC apartment, so nothing is really far, but at 3am, not having to walk those extra 15 feet helps. He grunts and groans a fair amount while sleeping, but we are learning how to discern which noise is serious and going to lead to a crying baby and which noise is just gas or a dream or something we can ignore.

He used to be really easy to put to sleep, and could be put in his crib awake and he would just fall asleep after some time. Now, however, he needs rocking, patting, etc. and has to be pretty drowsy before he can be put down. Case in point -- he finally fell asleep at 930pm after starting with bedtime feeding at about 8. Not the end of the world, but I miss the old days!

In terms of where he sleeps, he's been in his crib since day 1 -- we put him down there for naps and at night. Since his reflux/ spitting up has gotten worse (about 2 weeks ago) we have him sleeping in his car seat, but that's not going to last, and we are going to have to talk to the ped about a better solution when we go in this week.

DEVELOPMENT: He hasn't smiled yet, but he is doing a whole lot more looking and following people, their voices, images in his books (esp. the b/w ones). Considering he was so early -- he really is only one month past his due date -- we are assuming he is fine. But man -- I'd love to see a smile. Sometimes when he is dropping off to sleep he makes a bunch of funny faces, to include a smile, but I don't think it counts unless he is fully conscious. But despite the lack of smiling, he does appear to know who I am and his eyes follow me around, which is remarkably emotionally gratifying.

On the physical development, though, his small size appears to be helping hi -- he is great pushing up his chest and head, and, in a move that we don't think was either intentional or replicable, he rolled over from tummy to back last week. It surprised the hell out of everyone and, while I think it's pretty cool, am hoping that he doesn't start moving too soon! He also uses his newly developed neck muscles when he is up against my shoulder and looks around or, if he's hungry, bops his head around looking for something to suck on. It's actually quite entertaining, although I'm worried he's going to bash his head into mine.

SIZE -- He's probably around 10lbs at this point, but we will find out exactly what is going on with his weight and length gain on Tuesday at his appointment. He's already outgrown some newborn size clothes and has moved from newborn to size 1 diapers (see -- I told you my little boy was growing up!). And amusingly, he has outgrown a lot of his socks -- he has big hands and feet!!

OTHER STUFF -- I still am beyond happy and grateful that I get to be this little boy's mom. I'm tired, but I'm ecstatic.

9 comments:

  1. OMG I can't believe Mr. B is 2 months old! It is so weird how we calculate ages as B and M are only one week apart in gestational age but M isonly 3 weeks old tomorrow. Seems like someone ought to reconsider this.

    B sound wonderful. I hope M picks up some of his sleeping habits.

    And you sound wonderful, really wonderful. I am so happy for you!

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  2. He's just the most handsome little boy! Glad to hear you're doing so well and impressed that you can get him to sleep alone as mine opens his little eyes as soon as we put him down :)

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  3. Sounds like things are going pretty great! So wonderful!

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  4. He is so, so cute. He looks so wise and alert in this photo!

    I am jealous of the sleeping situation- P only sleeps in 2 hour increments still! Yawn!!! Everything else sounds so great too-- especially how strong he is! isn't this all just an absolutely amazing experience?

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  5. He is so handsome! I just want to give him a huge kiss, please pass one along from me!

    It sounds like you're doing great, Mom. One thought on the reflux, I've read about putting a wedge under his mattress to create an incline, so his head stays elevated. Maybe you can ask the doc about that.

    Keep up the good mommy work!

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  6. Happy two months! He is really the cutest baby :).

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  7. He sure is a gorgeous one. He's got kind of a movie star look going on, don't you think? I'm really glad things are mostly-good on the BF front--that sounds great to me! And yeah, I hear waiting for that first social smile is torture--I hope you get it today!

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  8. All sounds good. Glad to hear it!

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  9. Ah, he's beautiful:) And I bet a smile is right around the corner.

    Sounds like you're getting onto a very good schedule. Fingers crossed that the doctor has a good suggestion when it comes to the reflux.

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