The Michael Family Musings: Nate, Month 2

Stats:

Weight: Just over 11 pounds. He’s dropped to the 17^th percentile for weight, but his doctor isn’t concerned yet. He eats well, and his stats for height and head circumference are still in the upper percentiles, so we’re just keeping a closer eye on it for now. We discussed that he nurses for long sessions (30-45 minutes usually), and that can actually impact his weight negatively. Apparently sometimes when babies nurse for more than half an hour, they can actually burn more calories trying to continue to nurse. The doctor has suggested I try shorter feeds (half an hour or less) but more frequently.

Height: 23.25 inches; 60^th percentile

Size: Size 3-6 month clothes and size 1 or 2 diapers.

Appearance: His appearance hasn’t changed too much in the past month. He is starting to get some leg rolls, and some of the bald spots he had from losing his newborn hair are starting to fill in. He still looks a lot like big sister did as a baby!

Food:

Nate is still exclusively breastfed. I did have to have a surgery at the beginning of January (more on that below), so since I didn’t have much of a pumped supply yet, he had formula for 2 days. He did really well adjusting, and went right back to nursing once I was able to again. During the day he eats about every 3 hours.

Sleep:

Sleep has really been all over the place this month. At the beginning of the month, he was sleeping 7-8 hours a night. Then around 7 weeks we hit a growth spurt and he was waking up every 2-3 hours at night. He’s now settled back to sleeping about 4-5 hours at night. In the past 2 weeks, his tentative “schedule” has started to emerge.

He’s settled to taking about 3 good naps a day. He generally wakes up around 6:30 or 7. After he eats, he goes back to sleep until his next feed, around 10. After that feed, he’ll stay awake until 11:30 or so, then nap until his next feed around 1. After his 1 pm feed, he generally goes right to sleep until about 3 pm. He’s usually (mostly awake) after this until around 7. After that feed, he naps again, but usually only in our arms or in the swing. He eats for the last time around 11 or 12. We generally have one middle of the night feed around 4 am. Some of his naps are in the car seat, some in his pack n play or crib, and some are on a blanket on the floor while I play with big sister. This is all pretty flexible. With Mia, I didn’t really start trying to establish a nap schedule until she was around 3 months, so I’m not super stressed about it yet.

Milestones:

He has rolled over, both ways! He’s only rolled over back to belly twice, and I didn’t witness either time. The first time, he was 7 weeks old and I had put him down on a blanket on the floor while I went to the restroom. When I came back, he was on his stomach. The second time he did it was in his sleep. He rolls over belly to back a lot more frequently (the first time was about a week ago).

He can hold his head up really well. When he’s on his belly, he can use his arms to push himself up.

He’s started bearing some weight on his legs.

He’s getting better at maintaining eye contact with us, and he focuses on things or faces that look “strange” or new to him.

The social smiles have started, and oh, my heart! He is such a smiley little dude.

Nate celebrated his first new year! Unfortunately, I was not with him. On NYE, I wound up in the ER with extreme stomach pain (or so I thought). It ended up being a gall stone in my bile duct. I ended up having my gallbladder removed 2 days later. This was a really difficult few days for me. The test they ran made me radioactive, and for their safety, I was advised not to touch either kid for 3 days afterward. This included feeding Nate, so he was on formula for a few days.

He loves hanging toys like the mobile on his play mat. The always make him smile, and he tries really hard to smack them with his hands and feet.

He’s started “talking” to us. He makes cooing noises.

He’s discovered his tongue, and he love blowing spit bubbles.

He recently started putting his hands in his mouth.

His kidney reflux has cleared up! He had an xray that showed that there was no reflux, and his renal pelvis was back to a normal size. Hooray!

Things I want to remember about this month:

Nate loves his sister! She’s very good at making him smile, and he always stares at her so attentively when she’s talking.

The smiles. All the smiles.

He is a VERY snuggly baby, particularly at night. He loves being held, particularly by mommy. He’s finally starting to come around to letting daddy hold him too.

How Mia is adjusting:

Mia has done MUCH better this month. I think she’s finally figuring out how to exist with her brother around. She’s learned how to play by herself while I feed Nate, and I make an effort to play with her while he’s sleeping. She continues to be a really great helper; she likes to retrieve clean diapers, get me clothes and his paci, and help to burp him.

She still has the occasional “bad” day with crying and tantrums, but I’d say now they’re no more frequent than they were before Nate was born. She has backslid a little in potty training… she’s had several accidents. We’ve started having to remind her again to go to the bathroom most of the time. I’m hoping this levels back out!

And now, the pictures!