Jenson update: One Month Old

Jenson is almost 5.5 weeks now, but I was waiting on his 1 month appointment before doing his monthly update.  Or I forgot to do one.  You pick.  He had his one month appointment on Tuesday and it went well.  His growth is perfect and he made it through his Hep B shot, though he cried pretty hard for a minute or two.  I’ve been taking weekly and monthly shots, so here’s his 1 month picture:

It’s crazy that it’s been 5 weeks since we brought him home from the hospital!  While we aren’t pros at this yet, we’ve come a long way since those first few nights.  They were so hard!  We slept downstairs on the sectional with Jenson in the bouncer for the first couple of weeks.  We starting getting a handle on things after about 2 weeks and taking turns at going up to bed for a few hours at a time.  There were still rough nights of course, and we know they aren’t all behind us.  Hopefully we’re past the stage of having to wheel him around the downstairs in the stroller for an hour to get him to stay asleep and parking him outside the bathroom with the fan for the white noise while he slept.  Now Lo swaddles him after I’ve topped him off for the night and I go upstairs for some sleep.  He usually settles down pretty quickly and Lo stays up and watches tv or naps on the couch until Jenson wants to eat again.  He brings him up to me to nurse and either takes him back downstairs or put him down for the night in our room and gets in bed himself, depending on the time.  After that, I nurse him as needed and get up for the day with him when it’s time.

Lo is home until Monday, and after that, I’m on my own at home during the day.  I think I’ll be fine, but I’ve been so spoiled with him getting 6 weeks off work!  I don’t have to handle all diaper changes, and if he’s fussy, I can pass him off for a little while.  It also will mean that I only have another month home with him before I go back to work.  We’re so lucky to have someone we trust to leave him with, but it’s going to be so hard either way.

• Age:  5 weeks and 2 days, technically
• Weight:  9 lb, 15 oz. (39th percentile)
• Length:  21 3/4 inches, (46th percentile)
• Clothing size:  He’s just grown out of most of his newborn clothing in length and wearing 0-3 months, though many of these are pretty big on him still.
• Hair:  Brown and getting long in the back.  It’s not growing or filling in much on top, but it’s definitely over his collar in the back.  He’s on his way to a mullet!
• Eyes:  Still dark blue for now.
• Teeth:  None, thank goodness
• Sleeping:  At night he sleeps in stretches of 3-6 hours at a time, though closer to 3 more regularly (and has gone as long as 7 hours without nursing).  It’s always alarming when he’s been asleep for a long time – I always am anxious until I can see him breathing.  When he’s downstairs with Lo, he sleeps in the corner of the sectional (away from the edges and back, in case he somehow rolls over), or in the bouncer.  When he is sleeping upstairs, he’s usually in the rock-n-play instead of the bassinet because it’s easy to pull it up close to the bed so I can rock it if he’s fussy.  He seems to sleep better in it since it snuggles up around his body a little. He still sleeps a lot during the day, but is regularly awake for 1-2 hours at a time.  We haven’t bothered with any sort of schedule yet, but it’s probably time that we can start to work on that.  We don’t try to get him to sleep until I’m getting ready to go to bed around 10 or 11, but often he’s napping as late as 8 or so anyway.
• Eating:  All breastmilk.  Lo has given him 2 bottles so far and he took them well and had no issues going back to the breast.  He’s a decent nurser, but he won’t latch if I’m not holding him the exact way he wants.  Sometimes I have to let him arch his back and essentially nurse lying in a back bend across my legs.  Other times I have to let his head lay on my leg and dangle feed.  When he’s sleepy, he’ll usually do pretty well, though he’s always a super-noisy eater.  He squeaks and grunts and makes all kinds of noise.
• Movement:  He’s a very strong baby.  His neck is strong and he doesn’t bobble it around a ton.  Obviously we still support it, but we don’t usually need to much.  He can hold his head up during tummy time for over a minute.  He doesn’t hate tummy time and moves his legs like he’s swimming.  He sometimes pushes away when held against our chests.  He arches his back a ton and it’s hard to get him to bend when he does, but the doctor said if he doesn’t act like he’s in pain, it’s probably not reflux and nothing to worry about.  Even though he pushes away a lot, he’s still usually a cuddly baby…he mostly does it when he’s trying to poo.
• Milestones:  Has dined out several times (Yabo’s Tacos, Pint Room, Beer Kitchen 101, and Tanuki), shopping (sears, target, etc.), and to a few friends’ houses.  He doesn’t like getting strapped into his seat, but is fine once he’s in there.  Most of our family have met him now, and a lot of our friends.  He started looking at us and smiling on purpose at a little over 3 weeks.  His first on-purpose smile was at Sofie the Giraffe.  He likes a pacifier (but only the specific “Soothies” kind from the hospital, and seems to be able to find his fist or fingers when he wants to suck on something.
• Favorite toys/activities:  Sofie the Giraffe is the only toy he reacts much too so far.  He loves nursing and being held, of course.  His favorite spot in the house is on his changing table on the pack-n-play…he loves laying there no matter what and especially if the paper lantern that hangs in the corner of that room is on.  He likes tub baths and being swaddled, and going on neighborhood walks, but its usually too cold outside now. He likes tummy time enough to tolerate it – probably because he can lift his head pretty well.  He’ll hang out in the swing, but he doesn’t fall asleep – he just sits there and looks at the mobile or towards the door.  He also loves the huge picture of Amsterdam that hangs above our couch – he stares at that all of the time when we are holding him.
• Dislikes:  Having to poop – he grunts and pushes and gets upset when he has to go…and then it’s all liquid, of course.  I don’t understand why it’s so hard for him to go!  Maybe it just hurts his belly until he gets it out.  He hates waiting to nurse when he’s ready.
• Sounds and Words:  He’s a noisy baby.  He squeaks and grunts while he’s eating, he grunts and whines while he’s trying to poop, and he makes all kinds of noises when he’s sleeping.  He takes about a 1/2 hour to wake up fully in the morning and he grunts and whines that whole time.  He’ll also just randomly wake up and screech or scream and then go immediately back to sleep.  He’s starting to coo happily now too.