1 Month Old

Joshua turned 1 month old last week. I figured I'd do an update on how things are going.

Stats: I don't have any official stats this month, but I should have some next month, since he has a doctor's appointment. I did weigh him by weighing myself and then weighing myself while holding him, and according to our scale, he's 9.5 lbs! I know our scale isn't completely accurate, but even so, I knkow he's more than 8 lbs, which is about where he was at 2 weeks, so at least he's growing. I put him on my cloth cutting mat to measure him, and according to that, and my unprofessional opinion, he's 23 inches long, which is only 1/4 inch longer than at 2 weeks, so a) he isn't growing length-wise (yeah, right!), b) the doctor's office wasn't very accurate, or c) my measurements weren't very accurate.

Sleep: He's always been a pretty good sleeper (for a newborn). He seems to have his night and day figured out. He doesn't sleep as long, often, or deeply during the day--usually only an hour or so, tops. During the night he will sleep 3 to 5 hours straight, wake up to eat, poop, be changed, and then will go right back to sleep, unless I haven't gotten all the bubbles out. He's getting pretty good at falling asleep on his own. He'll toss and turn and grunt for a few minutes, but will eventually fall asleep if left alone.

Eat: He definitely has the hang of nursing. He never eats longer than 10 minutes. I think that has to do with how my milk supply comes. If he stops eating at all during that first 5 minutes, he gets sprayed all over his face. It's actually really funny. After he's done eating, it takes anywhere from 1 minute to 30 minutes to get the burps out. If he falls asleep while being burped, it usually takes longer, which means he's more unhappy about it by the time they surface.

Poop: Ok, I'll be brief about this one. He's been gassy lately, which means more fussiness, and more blowouts. I'm trying to avoid dairy products this week to see if that helps him digest better. It's going to be a long week. I'm hoping it's related to some caffeinated beverages I had last week, and not the dairy.

Other: When he's awake, he's awake. There is no in between stage for him. When he's awake during the day, I try to make sure he's mentally stimulated. I've been putting him in his cow chair. It has a vibrator on it, and when he's in it with the vibrator on, he blows lots of bubbles.

He had his first official tummy time today. He gets plenty of "tummy time" because he takes so long to burp, so he has already been developing his neck muscles. Today was his first flat-on-the-floor tummy time, proceeded by some time with the boppy pillow. We only did a few minutes of tummy time today, but here are some videos if you really want to watch them: