The past month has absolutely flown by! I can’t believe our little munchkin has already been with us for a solid month. And we lived to tell the tale!


Baby Markers at two days old.

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Baby Markers at one month!

Stats

At her one-month doctor’s appointment yesterday, she weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and measured 21 inches long. She’s right in the middle on both growth charts in the 50th percentile. She’s still wearing all her newborn clothes; Gap and Carter’s seem to fit her the best. I expect she’ll grow out of the tiniest things in the next week or so, especially in length.

Eating

I worried a lot about breastfeeding before Baby M was born. Would it be easy? Would she latch on? Would we struggle with low supply, clogged ducts, mastitis, etc.? Well I’m happy to report that she latched on quickly at day one and has been eating like a champ ever since! I’m so relieved that it’s going so well. Right now she eats every 3 hours throughout the day and every 4-5 hours during the night.

At three weeks, we introduced a bottle and she took 2.5 oz right away. Now Mr. Markers gives her a bottle for her last feeding of the night, usually around 11pm. Since she took the 2.5oz so quickly, I’ve been slowly increasing the bottles by half an ounce. We’re going to try 3.5oz tonight – hoping she’ll take it and it will keep her full longer, which means more sleep for mommy!

I do have a bit of an oversupply, so I’ve been careful about not pumping too much or too often. Right now it takes about two pumping sessions to get 3.5oz, which I typically do once in the morning and once in the evening, switching off breasts. Now that she’s taking a bottle nightly, I try to pump during that time so I’m not doubling up.


I can’t get enough of her funny faces!

Sleeping

For the first three weeks, she fought the swaddle if she was awake AT ALL when we put her down. This resulted in a lot of rocking, swinging, swaying and bouncing until she was completely asleep, then we would carefully swaddle her and try to keep her asleep while setting her in the bassinet. If she woke at all, we’d have to start the process all over again. This was clearly not going to work longterm and I was going a bit insane from lack of sleep.

This week, I tried a new tactic: when drowsy, I swaddle her up, put the paci in and lie her down. I told myself I would pick her up if she really started crying (as opposed to just grunting, kicking, making baby sounds). The first night, she made a lot of noise but never really cried. It took an hour of me re-inserting her paci before she finally fell asleep. After her 4am feeding, it only took 20 minutes. After a few days, she seemed to become accustomed to this new “plan” and now she falls asleep within a half hour of being set down. A miracle!

Even though she’s still tiny, I’ve started to try and implement somewhat of a bedtime routine – even if it’s just for my own sanity. I usually feed her around 6pm and then we start our bedtime routine, which consists of bathtime, lotion/massage, ten minutes or so of rocking and singing, and if she’s fussy or wide awake, I’ll let her nurse a bit. She starts to get drowsy around 7:30pm, so I swaddle her up and put her in the bassinet with a pacifier. She’ll kick her legs and grunt for a while, and I’ll just keep going in to reinsert the paci. After about 30 minutes, she’s usually fast asleep. She wakes up around 11pm for her bottle with dad, and thankfully he lets me sleep through this feeding. After she’s done, she’s swaddled right back up and goes back in the bassinet. She’ll sleep until around 4am when she wakes up to nurse, and then sleeps until 6-6:30am when we’re up for the day – and another feeding.

Sample Schedule

Here’s what a typical day looks like for us:

  • 6am – good morning! time to eat: nurse
  • 7-9am – awake, playtime, short naps on mom
  • 9am – nurse
  • 10am-12pm – nap
  • 12:30pm – nurse
  • 1-3pm – nap (in the carseat, usually when I meet a friend for lunch or run errands)
  • 3:30pm – nurse
  • 4-6pm – nap
  • 6pm – nurse
  • 6:30pm – start the bedtime routine! bath, lotion/massage, quiet playtime, singing, rocking
  • 7:3om – short nursing session
  • 7:45pm – down in bassinet for the night
  • 11pm – bottle with dad
  • 12pm-4am – sleep
  • 4:30am – nurse
  • 5-6am – sleep
Depending on if we’re at home or out and about, she’ll either nap in her carseat, swing or (rarely) the bassinet. She still sleeps through anything, so we’ve gone on a few lunchdates where she’s slept in the carseat the entire time. I’m going to start working on getting at least two good naps in the bassinet per day, as she still sleeps best when swaddled.

Development

Baby Markers loves tummy time! She holds her head up so well and can turn it from side-to-side with ease. She likes to be held up on your shoulder so she can look around and see what’s happening. We haven’t gotten any social smiles yet, but she focuses in on us intently with her eyes.

Likes: nursing, snuggling, looking out the window at the city lights, diaper changes, bathtime, generally just being naked, her paci, morning playtime with dad, music, car rides

Dislikes: the swaddle, gas pains, waking up to discover she’s been set down, losing her paci, being awake in her swing, sleeping after 6am

Overall, she’s generally just a happy baby! I can’t even describe how much joy she’s brought into our lives. I’m not sure what I imagined the first month of motherhood to be like, but this has far exceeded my expectations. Sure, we’re a little tired (OK fine I’m exhausted), but then she looks up into my eyes and all that is forgotten. I know this time while she’s so snuggly and tiny will go by fast, so I’m savoring each and every moment.