Happy one month birthday Bee! Wow, didn’t that month just fly by….
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| Happy 1 month birthday to me! |
I’ve resisted blogging too much about you up until now, as I wanted some time to get to know you. And I think we are there now. I know you. Obviously you’ll change as you grow, but that’s no matter, because I know who you are, right now. And I like you! Oh, I love you too of course, but liking is a different thing. So yes, Mummy loves you and likes you too. We’re going to have some fun together, on this journey called life…
So anyway, what have you been up to?
Thanks to my Baby ESP smartphone app, I can tell you that in the last 30 days you’ve:
* slept for a total of 17 days and 18 hours
* slept for an average of 14 hours per day, with 8.5 hours being “overnight”
* your longest sleep is 6 hours
* you’ve nursed 484 times so far
* total time nursing is 3 days and 20 hours (about 3 hours a day)
* average nursing session is 11 minutes
* average time between nursing is 1 hour & 40 minutes
* 204 dirty nappies so far (about 7 a day)
* you’ve had 9 baths
* you’ve projectile vomited 11 times
You are really good at breastfeeding. You can latch on, and stay on. Quite a few times I’ve had to pick you up mid-feed and go running after your sister, and you just keep on feeding regardless. We “demand feed”, so I let you feed as often as you want to. As you can see above, this is about every 1.5 hours. But you often cluster some feeds close together. We’ve had quite a few 4 hour marathon feeding sessions where you’ve basically swapped from boob to boob the whole time. Great way for building up my supply.
You’re a bit refluxy. We have you sleeping on a 30 degree angle, which you seem to prefer. Luckily our pram & car seat allow for this angle too. You’ve had a few (11 actually) major projectile vomits that look like the chuckie doll. It’s amazing to watch. You don’t really retch, just open your mouth and a stream of vomit comes out like a fountain. It doesn’t seem to bother you, but it sure makes a mess of whatever I’m wearing at the time!
You seem to have a good temperament. Sometimes, after you’ve napped, we’ll find you awake, and not crying. Just gazing up at the world. And then sometimes, you just go back to sleep on your own. Mind you, “sometimes” doesn’t mean “often”, but I marvel that you’ll do it at all. Often when you wake at night for a feed, you grunt more than cry. I love that I can respond to your grunts before you get worked up enough to actually cry. It makes me feel like a good mum.
But having said that, you are getting a bit over-stimulated lately and needing a lot of soothing over the evening “arsenic hour” from around 4pm onwards. Lots of shushing, covering your eyes, letting you suck on one of our fingers, or cluster feeding. But we expected this. Your father is very good at settling you at these times, maybe because he doesn’t smell of milk like I do, maybe because he is uber-patient with you, and maybe because he is an awesome dad.
A couple of times when we have been out visiting friends over this arsenic hour period, you’ve been fine whilst we were out, but wouldn’t settle overnight unless you were being held. Just too much going on in your little brain I guess. Nathan and I tag-teamed holding you all night, which makes for very sleepy parents the next day.
We’ve tried to introduce a dummy as you really enjoy sucking, but you’re not taking to it so far. You much prefer one of Mummy, Daddy or JJ’s fingers. Sometimes your sister can be a little overzealous in her concern for you and tries to stick her fingers a little too far in your mouth. She means well. But you are quick to tell her that you don’t like it, and she is learning.
JJ’ll also coo to you “It’s OK Baby Bee” over and over again if you are unsettled – it’s lovely to watch how much she loves you. You also seem to love her! You turn your head to her voice and will smile and bat at her face. You’ve been hearing her voice from within the womb.
We’ve not put you on any schedule, but you’ve decided to make one for yourself anyway! It’s quite remarkable how predictable you have been. You sleep, cluster feed & become unsettled at roughly the same times each day.
You love movement. If you start crying as we put you in your car seat, you’ll stop within 100 metres of driving off. I’ve been “wearing” you in the Hugabub a lot lately, and you sleep so soundly in there. Head to my breast, hearing my heartbeat. This makes me feel like a good mum too.
I can see quite a bit of myself in you – in the shape of your eyes and the shape of your mouth. Your hair is still quite long and thick. I don’t think it is going to fall out. You were born with very dark brown hair, but the roots seem to be growing through fairer. Dare I say it, but you might be blonde? (Don’t be fooled by my current dark hair, I was a blondie as a bub).
Your skin is a bit dry, so we’ve only bathed you every couple of days. (Um, yes, that’s a good excuse!). We’ve been putting olive oil in the bath which has been great for your skin. It also makes your hair look like it has product in it.
Over the last couple of days, your poos have gone a really pale yellow colour, your wees are quite dark, and your skin has gone all orange. So we popped up to the hospital tonight to have you checked out. The doctor has ruled out jaundice based on your skin colour, but your wee is showing positive for infection. We’re still waiting on most test results to find out more, but the doctor wasn’t overly alarmed. Hopefully whatever you have will be minor and you’ll be better again soon.
Mummy and Daddy love you as much as bees love honey!
xxxx