Well, I know all parents say this, but I can’t believe how fast time has gone!!! My baby boy is already over a month old! I had intended on doing weekly updates during his first few weeks of life, but it was such a whirlwind of everything that I simply did not get around to it! (Heck, I barely posted this one month update and he’ll be two months in two weeks!)
Anyways, these posts may not interest everyone, but I want to have them to look back on as my baby boy grows up. Read them if you’d like, don’t if you’re not interested. Either way, here’s our first month with our sweet baby Jedidiah.
Jedidiah- month 1
Weight: 9 pounds 1 ounce
Height: 22 and a half inches. I do realize this is the same as his measurement at birth, but he HAS grown. At birth, he had quite a bit of swelling on top of his head (from crowning for so long) which has now gone back down. I think the swelling accounts for the difference (or lack thereof) in height.
General observations: Jedidiah’s hair is much lighter than I thought it would be. Both Trent and I have very dark brown hair, so I figured it would be darker. It probably will be eventually, but for now, it’s a light brown. He seems to have his daddy’s nose, but no other features that are noticeably “Trent” or “myself.” His eyes are very dark blue, as most newborn’s are, so we don’t know what color they will end up being, but I keep hoping that they will be like his daddy’s! (Me and the rest of the world- Trent’s eyes are GORGEOUS!) Jedidiah is a very observant baby; he loves to look around, quietly taking everything in. He’s got a super strong neck and was holding it up and looking around even in his first few days of life.
Only 2 days old and already holding up his head!
He also seems to have really good control over his little arms. He loves to suck on his fists and seems to move his arms and hands with purpose. Trent and I find ourselves just watching him… for hours at a time. We love seeing every little expression he makes and hearing all his different sounds. It’s amazing to think that we MADE this little guy!
Health: Thankfully, Jedidiah is a very healthy baby. Since he had such a hard time coming out, he sustained some head trauma, and therefore we chose to administer the Vitamin K shot. Babies that have this shot have a higher chance of getting jaundiced, so we had to make sure that he got at least 30 minutes of sun time every day. We really enjoyed this time just “soaking in” (pun intended) the time to watch him.
One thing that gave us a major scare was his little tremors. The first time they happened, I thought he was having a seizure. His little sleeping body convulsed somewhat rhythmically and it lasted for more than a minute. I just held him close, prayed over him, and cried. It happened a few more times within the first week and a half and each time I got more and more worried that something was wrong with my precious baby. Thankfully, my girlfriend Heather helped me out and looked up his symptoms on the internet and we found that he has what they call “Benign sleep myoclonus.”
From Medlink.com, this is defined as:
• Benign neonatal sleep myoclonus consists of myoclonic jerks of the distal extremities, occurring in clusters during quiet NREM sleep and disappearing during wakefulness.
• Benign neonatal sleep myoclonus occurs in early life, especially the first 6 months of life, rarely persisting during childhood.
• Benign neonatal sleep myoclonus is not associated with EEG abnormalities and occurs in otherwise neurologically normal children.
• Benign neonatal sleep myoclonus may be induced by repetitive sound stimuli and by gently restraining or by rocking the child, especially in a head-to-toe direction.
Anyways, Heather put my mind at ease that Jedidiah was okay and that it wasn’t anything scary or dangerous that was happening. My midwives confirmed this.
Eating: This boy is an eater!!! Since I am breastfeeding, there are times where I literally feel like a 24 hour cafeteria, but he’s happy and healthy so I can’t really complain. First thing I want to say is that breastfeeding is HARD. Wow. I had no idea how painful those first few weeks would be. I blistered, I bled, I cried… it was terrible. Jedi also had several nights between 2 and 5 weeks where we thought he might be colicky- he would cry for hours at a time and be otherwise inconsolable- but I think we determined that he just gets bad gas. He has a REALLY hard time when I eat or drink dairy products, so I’ve all but eliminated them from my diet so that we can all be happier. When he’s having a tough time, we’ve found ourselves re-making old hip-hop songs and singing them to him. Two of our favorites are “Push it” by Salt’n’Peppa and “Walk it Out” by Unk (changed by us to “work it out”…”South side work it out”).
At the beginning he was eating every hour or two. I was feeding him between 14-20 times a day!!! Talk about a full-time job! He was eating for 10-20 minutes at a time. But we learned that newborns have such tiny stomachs that they really can only take in a small amount, and once it’s digested, they are hungry again. The frequency by which he has been eating has changed as the month wore on. Now we are feeding every one-and-a-half to three hours and he eats for 20-40 minutes at a time. It’s much more tolerable now, and since my nipples don’t hurt so bad, it has actually become a time I am starting to enjoy with my little bubba.
What do we call him? Well, truthfully, I find that we call him little pet names much more often than we use his actual name. Both Trent and I default to “bubba” or “bubs” for short most often. I find that when I am talking to him, I usually use his full name, Jedidiah. But when I am talking about him, I use Jedi or J.J. instead.
Sleeping: I will say that Jedidiah does a pretty good job sleeping at night. That’s not to say that he sleeps through the night, but despite the feedings, he seems to know day from night. After he eats, he quickly falls back asleep, and this tired momma does too! He tends to sleep late in the mornings, and there are days where he and I don’t get out of bed until 10 or 11 in the morning. That being said, he wasn’t a good “napper” during the day for the first few weeks. In fact, he’d hardly sleep at all during the day. This made for long days once Trent went back to work. But once he figured out how to take a pacifier, then he started sleeping more during the day. Now he’s taking one or two longer naps during the day and a few random cat naps. It sure helps me feel more productive!
Look how cute he sleeps! Always with his arms up.
Diapers: We are going to be using cloth diapers eventually, but we got so many diapers from our baby showers and as gifts, that we wanted to use these diapers first. They’ve lasted the entire first month, although I never thought it possible to go through this many diapers! Disposable diapers also made the most sense now because Jedi’s body is so tiny, I feel like the cloth diapers would swallow him up! They were also easier to use right away as we were adjusting to everything as new parents.
My girlfriend Catherine had people write little messages of encouragement on diapers at my “Mommy to BEE” baby shower (read about that in my post Showered with love! Part 1). Those really were a blessing in those first few weeks of parenthood. Thanks Cat!
Clothes: Despite being born at 8 pounds, he fit into his newborn clothes. I thought they’d only last him a week or two, but they’ve fit him this whole month! I’m not sure how much longer they’ll fit him, but we got a good month’s use out of them, so I’m a happy camper.
Social: Wow, this kid has quite the social life! (Much like his parents) He’s had many visitors in his first few weeks of life. We stayed at home for the first few weeks, venturing out only to “Nana’s” house and for occasional walks.
He went on his first road trip to meet my aunt, uncle and cousin who live in Weatherford, Texas, and then also to meet his “Auntie” Heather and “Uncle” Zach in Georgetown, TX. You can read about this trip in my post Bubba’s first road trip.
Then he went “out” to Nana and Popo’s house for his first Thanksgiving. This was right after he got circumcised, so he wasn’t the happiest little guy. But he did get to meet his cousin, Cohen, and Cohen LOVES his Jedi!
Jedi’s first “real” public outing was to Revolution Church about two weeks after he was born.
Then in the following weeks we went to a birthday party, Trent’s work Christmas party, the Cibolo Holiday parade, our chiropractor, and out to meet his new cousin!
Hanging with Mickey at Kaden’s birthday party
At the Cibolo Holiday Parade
Trent’s sister, Katey, had her little girl only two weeks after our little guy was born. Shortly thereafter, Jedidiah got to meet his adorable cousin Audra!
Difficulties: Like I mentioned before, breastfeeding was VERY hard at the beginning. Jedidiah really didn’t like having his diaper changed for the first few weeks and would scream and cry every time we’d try to change him. We bought ourselves a wipe warmer after the first two weeks and that seemed to help a bit. Now he seems to be getting more used to being changed and for the most part, won’t fuss too much. We also found that he would fuss during transitions- moving from person to person, in the carseat and out of the carseat, etc. He still fusses a little bit when he’s moved around, especially if he’s just waking up, but he’s getting much more used to these transition moments.
We held off on giving Jedi a pacifier, since we wanted to make sure that our breastfeeding routines were clearly established first, but when we eventually did try to give him one, he wouldn’t take it. We tried several different kinds and eventually found ones that he will take. He’s still figuring it out, but has taken it a few times now.
His first time with a pacifier!
Jedidiah also seemed a bit colicky for the first few weeks, but that has seemed to pass.
Memorable moments and “Firsts:”
- He took his first walks with mommy and daddy, just around our neighborhood.
- His first smile! This one happened on November 23rd and I tried so hard to catch it on camera, but all my attempts came out blurry. This was what I got…
Now he’s starting to smile more often.
- First bath(s). He seems to like the water and it seems to calm him.
- He hadn’t peed on either of us, but he has peed on himself a few times… once it even got in his mouth! Gross! Parenting FAIL!
- He had his first (of likely many) photo shoot. My bestie, Traci Lippincott, of Tcup Designs, took some newborn photos for us. Unfortunately baby boy was not so cooperative that morning and was awake almost the whole time (which makes it much harder to take photos). We still got some good shots, but maybe not as many as we had hoped. You can check out her facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TcupDesign/?fref=ts. She also took our maternity pictures. She’s awesome!
- The first time I brought him to Bible Study, the girls were asking me if he’s had a blow-out yet and if he spits up. He hadn’t done either, but in that one night, he both peed out of his diaper and drenched my shirt AND spit up what was, to that point, more than he ever had (which was basically not at all). Clearly, I spoke too soon.
- He was circumcised- in Dallas… by a rabbi. You can read about that in my post Bubba’s first road trip.
Highlights of the month: Trent being home for the first two and a half weeks after Jedi was born! I love watching him in his new role as a daddy!
Logsdon's big adventures! 