Benjamin, Month 2

This month has been a crazy busy one with Daddy's birthday and all the Christmas festivities.  Benjamin was a champ and went with the flow as we drove all over the place to visit family.

Developmental Milestones this Month: Benjamin (like Andrew) fits into the textbook category for his development.  He can do the following (all age-appropriate according to What to Expect the First Year): smile in response to your smile, startles at a bell/clapping sound, lifts his head 90 degrees and raises his chest when he's on this stomach, rolls over from his stomach to his back, holds his head (relatively) steady when sitting upright, grasps rattle/toy held to his hand, pays attention to small objects in front of him and tracks them as I move them.  The only thing that he's not doing yet is vocalizing, he's a quiet boy.  He squawks at us when he wants something or is bored.

Things Benjamin likes: Mommy is his favorite person, but Daddy gets the most smiles!  He loves his swing.  He has spent so much time being held by family and friends, that he hasn't spent a lot of time exploring our home.  He loved the Christmas tree lights. He likes to be held tightly, likes his pacifier

Things Benjamin doesn't like: He's the easiest ever... he is pretty much chill.  He doesn't like being hungry, when Andrew moves him all over the place

Sleeping: Benjamin likes to sleep at night.  He started having a longer stretch by week three and now he's up to 7-8 hours (9 pm to 5 am, with a dream feed about 10:30 pm). He wakes up and eats sometime between 4:30-6 every morning and if you're super quiet and fast in getting everything ready, he'll go back to sleep from the bottle to about 7 am.  It's nice.  Napping during the day is consistent, but not long.  I need to swaddle and put him down quicker (actual follow the Baby Whisperer rules), but I've enjoyed holding and snuggling him.

Eating:  Ben eats 4 oz every 3 hours with an extra feeding at night and dream feed at 10:30.
We are still holding on to breastfeeding although it hasn't gotten any easier.  Originally the goal was 6 weeks, but we were going strong, so then it was 8 weeks, then 2 months.  I know that the end is very near and I want to end of a happy note instead of with rejection.

Diapers: Still in size 1--I have no idea how many we've used (unlike with Andrew... because first time and second time mom is so different)

Clothing: Ben is still in newborn clothes, except sleepers where he is in 0-3 months because of his length.  He's a peanut; doctor's appointment on Thursday to get the actual measurements.

Benjamin, Month 1

Milestones this Month: What a month to be born!  Ben started his life with so much excitement; Thanksgiving, celebrating Great Grandpa Ed's 90th Birthday, prep for Christmas, and so many visitors.  He's a very loved baby

Things he appears to really like: pacifiers, bath time, necks (like having his face snuggled up into it), being held tight, patted on his bottom (pretty hard at that), his swing

Things he appears not to like: being hungry, cold wipes, being bothered by brother when he's almost asleep

Sleeping: Ben has been a pretty consistent sleeper since the first week home from the hospital.  We had out first 5 hour stretch at night as a two week old (then we were instructed to wake him every 2 hours to eat so he could gain wait, we did that for a very long week) and it's pretty consistent every night.  His typical night sleep a 5-hour stretch, eat, and then sleep a 3 hour stretch before being up for the day.  During the day, he eats, is alert for about 30-45 minutes and then sleeps if you help him.  In order to sleep well, he needs to be swaddled just like big brother.

We're working on making that 5-hour stretch start when we're going to bed (instead of 6 pm which has happened a few time) and to make that "eat" in the middle of the night a bit quicker because being awake over a full hour is exhausting despite the fact that he's sleeping a pretty long stretch.

Eating/Breastfeeding:  The breastfeeding with Benjamin has been much easier than with Andrew because I knew what to expect; that said, it hasn't been "easy."  I was prepared for it not to work, but I has some intense hope that it would; I am not as devastated this time and just happy for the success that we are having right now.  That said, I still wish that I could be that mom that just whips out her boob in public to calm a screaming child (there is something unproductive of whipping out of the boob, the nipple shield, the SNS, the formula container, and tape to set it all up to nurse).

I still have a severe under supply and despite having and doing everything possible, it isn't increasing enough to feed him exclusive breast milk.  He is getting about 20-25% of his daily intake of breast milk and the rest formula via the SNS (supplementary nursing system, aka a little tube in his mouth that runs from a bottle).  I hate the pump with a passion which probably has to do with the fact that it confirms how little BM there is (like 0.5 oz from both boobs) but I still do it 3-4 times a day and he gets 2-3 oz of pumped BM in one of his SNS bottles of the day.

I didn't want to introduce the bottle because of the experience with Andrew so we waited until week four.  He still only has a bottle once, maybe twice a day.  So far it hasn't caused any problems with the BF latch or rejection as I feared.

Diapers: We ran out of newborn diapers so we've moved onto size 1 (which are HUGE on him, but not leaking).

Clothing: He is wearing newborn clothes and they fit perfectly with the exception of sleepers.  Most of the sleepers are already too short and pull at his neck. The 0-3 are huge, but he's in them.

How's Mommy? Great! A scheduled c-section was the way to go! The first week was brutal (but still better than Andrew's delivery) and I took Norco and Motrin pain meds around the clock.  I weaned off the Norco during week two and just used Motrin; by week three, I was off everything.  I love that I can go to the bathroom without pain, stand up, sit down, etc.  The only real limitation I seem to have is bending over which feels super tight on the incision. I have overdone it a few times, but nothing major.  I'm exhausted, but hey, that's normal.