Life with Holden: Weeks 5 & 6

Stats:

Weight:
5 weeks: 9.6 pounds (on our home scale)
6 weeks: 10.6 pounds (on the home scale)

Diapers: Size 2s, still in disposables only for right now. How is my 6 week old in Size 2 diapers, already!?! Too many blow-outs in the size 1s.

Clothing: Completely in 0-3 & 3 month sized clothing right now. His ON stuff is still fitting him the best & he has a few things that are still too big like his overalls & his Cherokee brand stuff.



Milestones:

11/16: First happy cooing noises.

11/19: 5 weeks old!! First time having gripe water. =( Ordered my Sakura Bloom sling. =)

11/21: Appt. with the Pediatric ENT to check out his tongue. He basically has what the physician called a Hemangioma (for lack of a better term), but it is more like a vascular malformation. Basically, when the two parts of his tongue were growing together some extra tissue was formed resulting in the tiny bump on his tongue. It will likely grow slightly bigger as his tongue grows, but will not negatively effect him. Needless to say, we aren't going to have it removed because it doesn't affect his eating or health. If he wants to remove it when he's older we will discuss it then. He weighed in at 10 pounds even.

11/23: First time in the Sakura Bloom sling! So far, I love it. It is more comfortable for me & seems to be safer positionally for H. Yay!!

11/24: First size 2 diaper.

Nursing: Nothing much new to add as he only gets better at it & more efficient as time goes on. He is still nursing about every 2 hours with the occasional 3 hour stretch thrown in there, but we are still very much nursing on demand. He hasn't been cluster feeding nearly as much though so he is down to about 9-10 feedings daily on average. He definitely has a favor for my left side, but it is my higher producing breast so no surprise (C preferred the left side too). He has taken only two bottles thus far (drank about 2ish ounces & finished the other ounce later) & will likely take another this weekend just for practice. I need to make sure that he will drink frozen BM as we have yet to test this. I think we are going to stick with trying 3oz bottles for now. He rarely spits up (which is marvelous!!) & usually burps himself before we even get a chance to pat him on the back. I love this kid's ease when it comes to food!!

Sleep: He is still a better sleeper overall then his big brother. He goes down much easier for naps & still sleeps "like a newborn" meaning that he sleeps a lot during the day & goes down most of the time without a fight. He is still up 3-4 times at night & the longest stretch of sleep he has yet to give me is still about 4 hours (still slowly decreasing the time between each wake-up). He is still going back to sleep quickly & easily after nursing though, so I can't complain too much. I'm not sure at this point whether it is hunger that is waking him so much as it is tummy troubles. The kid is pretty gassy at night & definitely wakes himself with the grunting & "pushing". C dealt with a lot of gas issues as a little baby too so we know that it is a phase that will pass before we know it. He has been starting to fight sleep a bit at bedtime, but it's not a big deal to me since he goes to bed before I do & I'm not usually exhausted at this point. Hopefully, keeping him on a bedtime routine (like his brother) will eventually start to help the bedtime woahs. He is usually down for the night between 8:30 & 9PM & nurses again around 10:30-11PM before I go to sleep. He is still napping in the afternoon while C naps which is awesome!


Other: We've been dealing with a lot of gas/system regulation issues this past couple weeks. Usually this means that we have no dirty diapers all day or not *very* dirty diapers & then we have the resulting blow out. Oi! Granted, he usually feels a lot better after the blow-out, but changing clothes multiple times a day is not so great. We've pretty much had near daily blowouts this past couple weeks. We started giving him some gripe water in the morning with his vitamins & that seems to help a little bit with the colic & hiccups. He takes medications orally without a fuss (thankfully!) so that is another vast difference from C. He is still loving his bath & I think it's still one of his favorite times (other then when he is eating). He also loves to be in the baby carrier & due to his gas/tummy issues there have been a few days where he has wanted to be worn constantly! I love having him close to me & it makes getting things done much easier, but my HotSlings carrier was just not cutting it for hours & hours of wear. My back, shoulder & neck were KILLING me. I ordered the Sakura Bloom sling in hopes of a better baby-wearing experience for both of us. So far, I really like it! He loves to be snuggled up to me & will calm instantly or pass-out in it nearly every time. His hair is still magnificent & I don't think he's going to lose it (if anything it seems to grow overnight!). He still tolerates tummy time okay most days & loves to look at his reflection in the mirror. Instead of whining about it he will just lay on his tummy in protest & stare around. He can now bat at the toys on his play mat the majority of the time & I can't believe his hand-eye coordination. He loves to hold my finger or onto my shirt/necklace while nursing & he is definitely going to he a hair puller. Oi! He still goes a little cross-eyed from time to time while trying to focus & has been smiling more & more lately. He always gives grandpa (my dad) the biggest grins of anyone else (including momma!). He takes a pacifier a lot better now & will pull it out of his own mouth if he doesn't want it in there instead of spitting it out. He also tries very hard to get it back in on his own & has almost succeeded several times. I have no doubt he'll be re-inserting it himself any day now. He isn't "talking" as much as his brother did at this point & rarely makes happy cooing noises. H is more about the grunting & whining noises...lol. H is definitely NOT as easy-going a baby as C & does like to be held/carried around a lot. He cries more often then C did & tends to be a bit more high maintenance while awake. I still can't decide if he is a "good" or "easy" baby or not. I will just say that my kids are the perfect example of how every child is different. They have very few similarities thus far where anything is concerned. I definitely wouldn't call H a content baby at this point, but I don't know if I would call him challenging either. He is definitely "vocally strong willed" at this point. =)

Likes: Bath time, nursing, being in the baby carrier, Grandpa, being naked

Dislikes: being in the car seat, diaper changes, having to wait for food, bedtime