Monday, May 07, 2012

6 Weeks

Jack is 6 weeks old today! My little man! He is definitely starting to act like a little boy and not a baby. Ok, so that might not be completely accurate, but it sure seems like it! 

Here's the little man. He's in 0-3 months clothes now. He can still fit into newborn onesies and pants, but this gives him a little more space and are so darn cute! Or... doggone cute! 


Feeding: Jack still eats every 2-3 hours. In the afternoons he likes to cluster feed, which takes up a lot of time for mommy. It's ok though, I love spending extra time exclusively with my little buddy. I figure when I return to work we'll be just bottle feeding him during the day, so I should take advantage of all the nursing time I get now. 

Sleep: At night Jack primarily sleeps when he's not eating. He eats every 2-3 hours at night. Thankfully, no cluster feeding then. I've been trying to get him to sleep in his sleeper more. We're up to about half the night in the sleeper and the other half with me. I know it's horrible, but it's what works for us.

1 Month appt: Jack had his 1 Month appt today. It was a little late since we were in Michigan (again, posts and pictures to come). Jack weighs 9 pounds and 15 ounces, the 50 percentile. So almost 10 pounds, big boy! It's so good that he's gaining weight and able to nurse now. I can definitely tell that he's gaining weight. It gets harder to hold him after a shorter period of time. Nothing a pillow under the elbow won't fix. He's still such a snuggler! He is now 22 inches long, so he has grown 1.5 inches since birth, in the 74 percentile. I still can't believe he was inside of me! I am surprised I don't feel "lighter". His head circumference is in the 75 percentile, but it's seriously the most perfect baby head shape. Such a little round ball. He is such a perfectly sized baby boy.

Speaking of his size, he has such chubby little thighs now! I call him a little chunk, but my sister says he's still a string bean. I guess I'm comparing him to when he was born, but don't know how he compares to other babies. His upper arms are rounding out too. I love the little chubs. Daddy loves his buddha belly.

Mommy stats: My muffin top is gone! Woohoo. I bought a new sports bra (running with these new girls? Yowza!) so we'll see if I continue running or just go back to my typical workout on the elliptical. It's nice to be back to my normal size without having to work at all at it. Nursing is amazing! The head and neck surgeon (we had a follow up appt today. everything is healing up fine) said that nursing "puts the pounds on baby and off mommy". So true! Unfortunately, I still have some work to do. My abs are almost entirely gone. Have to build up that core again. While my muffin top is gone, I still want to flatten out that middle more. Enter the cardio. I also am 6 pounds away from my pre-preggo weight. Should be cake. I have my postpartum dr. appt on Wednesday, but I'm pretty sure everything is healed up just fine. 

Parenthood: It has been such an amazing journey so far. Jackson is teaching me so much. I have always struggled with patience, but he pulls it out of me. He brings me more joy than anything else ever has. He teaches me to appreciate the man his Daddy is and the man I hope he grows into. He teaches me all about little boys, with some help from Daddy. The phrase, "Matt... is this supposed to do this..." may or may not have been part of our diaper changes. I also now understand when other moms only post on their blogs every so often. It's hard to get time to put the baby down and get on the computer (for instance, this post has been written in bits and chunks as the baby is calm). I also realized that I often go hours before going to the bathroom or eating. There are days when I think, "Huh, I didn't eat lunch today... or breakfast...". Now, our baby may be spoiled since he's hardly ever set down... but I certainly don't mind snuggling with him! I do need to start putting him down during the day and night so he gets used to being on his own. 

We've been cloth diapering. It has been so much easier than I anticipated. Matt has been surprisingly on board with the whole process as well. We are still using the xs/newborn diapers and are eagerly anticipating him fitting into the Bumgenius onesize diapers. He probably can fit now, but I want to get the most use out of the smaller ones as possible. We have a sprayer on the toilet to knock off the poo and then do the wash every other day. His diapers haven't leaked too often. The few times he's leaked it was our fault for leaving him too long or it was before he chunked up and was too skinny for the diapers. He is a very sweaty baby so he normally soaks his onesie right above the diaper, but it's definitely not pee or poo juice. 

And... the end of the post. Baby has been fussing off and on. So it's now time to devote my entire attention to him. Love him!