One Month Update

Today Micah is 5 weeks old.  5 weeks!!!  I cannot believe how fast time has gone by!  He has already changed so much.  His eyes are open longer every day.  He's more alert and he watches me like a hawk.

Friday was his one month check-up and he's up to 8 lbs. 2 oz. and is 22 3/4 inches long!  So he's growing like a champ...  almost 4 inches in a month!!!  He's in the 90th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight - tall and skinny!

People keep asking if I'm sleeping and if he's a good baby - like the 2 are somehow irreversibly connected.  Having nothing to compare to, I always say of course he is!  And it's amazing how quickly your perception of a good night's rest changes!!!  In high school and college, 6 hours was pretty standard; maybe 8 on a weekend.  When Eli and I got married, 8 hours became more my standard.  And while pregnant, 8 hours was a must - 10 ideal!  Now, my hungry little man eats every 2-3 hours for almost an hour at a time.  (By the way, I never realized that when people say newborns eat every 2 hours that means from start-to-start NOT finish-to-start!!!)  That means I'm sleeping in 1 or 2 hours increments.   In God's perfect design, pregnancy has prepared me for this though - since I was up that often making trips to the bathroom anyway!!!  Recently he has occasionally made it 4 hours between feedings, and 3 hours of sleep pretty much feels like 8 now.

As for being a good baby... I'd have to say that Harvey Karp's book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" has been a life-saver in so many ways.  It teaches you that you can't spoil a newborn - which is good to know and comforting because I don't know how you can resist going to pick them up when they start to cry!  But, most importantly it teaches you the "5 S's" to calming your baby:

1. Swaddling - Micah loves this!
2. Swinging - sometimes this helps.
3. Sucking - mostly he wants to nurse, but he has occasionally taken a pacifier now.  And he loves sucking on his fist.  Last week he gave himself a hickey from sucking on his forearm!
4. Side/Stomach - he does like to be carried sideways.
5. Shushing - perhaps the most amazing and counterintuitive of the 5 is that babies love loud white noise (like they heard in the womb) - we have found that our vacuum cleaner works like a charm on Micah.  Just another reason we love our Dyson!  ;-)

In those lonely late night feedings, I have watched a lot of TV episodes and instant streaming movies on Netflix.  My favorite so far:  Castle - Season 1.  I've also read a lot of books (I am so thankful that I can "turn the page" with one hand on my Kindle!).  Also have loved the website breastfeeding.com by The Bump/The Nest/The Knot crew.  It has a whole list of "Things to Do with One Hand" including hilarious videos, lullabies, audio-books, and more!

We have been so blessed that Eli has been able to be off work and home with us this entire time.  He goes back to work tomorrow though which is going to stink.  However, since he works 24 hours shifts, he'll only be gone about 9 days a month.  That's not a bad gig.  And we fortunately will not need any daycare for Micah with that schedule.  I'll be going back part-time in another 2 weeks, but as a Realtor and as Crown Realty's web designer and online marketing IT person, I can do MOST of my work from home with Micah on my lap (like he is right now as I type this blog!) so that's pretty wonderful!

I guess that's about it for now... I will leave you with this adorable photo from Halloween: