Hellobee

I think my mom’s saying about time is so true — “The speed with which your life travels is equal to your age.”  That means my life is currently traveling at 32 miles per hour, my mom’s life is traveling at 57 mph, and Charlie’s life isn’t even traveling at 1 mph yet!

But now I think time really starts flying disproportionately once you have kids because I can’t believe Charlie turned 4 weeks old yesterday!

Weight

We’ve been weighing Charlie regularly with a baby scale we have at home.

28 days – 10lbs 10oz (+8 oz)
21 days – 10lbs 2oz (+16 oz)
11 days – 9lbs 2oz (+9 oz)
5 days – 8lbs 9oz (+ 3 oz)
Birth – 8lbs 6oz

During a growth spurt, breastfed babies nurse more often than usual (sometimes as often as every hour) and often act fussier than usual…  Common times for growth spurts are during the first few days at home and around 7-10 days, 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months and 9 months (more or less). (source)

Charlie’s umbilical cord also fell off exactly at the 2 week mark.  And his beautiful baby complexion is no more because he’s developed baby acne on his cheeks and forehead.  Baby acne often develops within the first 3-4 weeks on the cheeks, chin and forehead and is usually caused by hormonal changes that occurred during pregnancy.  It’s more common in boys, but luckily it goes away on its on in a couple of weeks and doesn’t require any treatment.

My Body

I’m not sure exactly how much weight I gained while I was pregnant because I stopped weighing myself the last week or so, but based on my last weigh in, I’ve lost 27 pounds over the past 4 weeks without any dieting or exercising. I have 11 more to go. Not bad at all! They say the last 10 pounds are the hardest to lose though. I hope it ain’t so!

I didn’t get any stretch marks, but it looks like my linea negra is going to be here for a long time. I’ve read it can take over a year to disappear.

My c section incision area isn’t sore, but my stomach is still sore to the touch, and it still hurts to sneeze or cough. I’d say that it really took about 3 weeks to stop feeling significant stomach pain from the surgery. In fact I purchased a pair of maternity tights after giving birth because they were the only pants comfortable enough to wear. I’m still not 100% — it’ll probably take another week or two at least, but my carpal tunnel is getting better!

I’ve been sweating like a muggle every night and waking up because I’m cold from being drenched in sweat.  I just thought that I was having really bad nightmares.  But this sweating was really excessive so I finally researched it online and found this:

It’s common to perspire a lot in the weeks after giving birth, especially at night. Sweating is one of the ways your body gets rid of the extra water you retained during pregnancy.

Your kidneys are responsible for most of the purging, which means you’ll be urinating more than usual for the first week after you give birth. But your pores also work overtime to shed the extra water. The emotional stress of new motherhood might be causing you to sweat more, too. And though no one knows for sure, it’s possible that the dramatic drop in estrogen that occurs right after delivery also contributes.

Even after the water weight is gone, you may continue to sweat more than usual if you’re nursing. Again, the cause is not well studied or understood, but theories include hormonal and metabolic changes associated with breastfeeding. (source)

File this under another thing I had no idea about what happens to your body post labor!

Schedule

Charlie sleeps and eats when he wants to, but we have a general schedule.  This is what most of his days are like lately:

8:00pm – Sleep (4 hours)
12:00am – Eat
12:30am – Sleep (3 hours)
3:30am – Eat
4:00am – Sleep (3 1/2 hours)
7:30am – Eat
9:30am – Sleep (30 minutes)
10:00am – Eat
11:30am – Eat
12:00pm – Sleep (3 hours)
3:00pm – Eat
3:45pm – Sleep (2 hours)
5:45pm – Eat
7:00pm – Bath
7:15pm – Eat followed by very long burp session to ensure gas-free deep sleep. He usually falls asleep while he’s being burped.

Sleeping, Peeing, and Pooing

The average newborn sleeps about 16 hours a day, and that’s about how much he’s sleeping.  Charlie poops about 2 times a day and pees about 8 times a day, which is average as well.

In the first two weeks, we got sprayed by Charlie’s pee several times when we opened his diaper, but for the past week he’s been very good. Just in case we always have a washcloth on his changing pad so we can cover his weewee when changing him!

Charlie poops less frequently than he used to (which is normal), but now his poos are like 4 poos in one. Sometimes I’ll have to change 3 diapers in a row because it just keeps coming out. Yesterday he had one of his monster projectile poos that leaked though his diaper, onesie, sleeping gown, swaddle blanket, and onto my robe!

Milestones

We do tummy time several times a day for as long as Charlie will tolerate it.  Sometimes he can do 10 minutes at a time, and even turn to one side — a big milestone!

But Charlie’s biggest milestone for the week is he started cooing! And he giggled once too.  He is becoming stronger and more alert and more fun!