Baby to Bee: Avery: One Month

Yesterday, Avery turned one month old!

She won't have her one-month appointment until Monday, so I'll update after that with her current weight, height, etc. and how she compares to other one-month olds!

Clothing: Avery is just now transitioning into 0-3 month clothing. She wore newborn clothes (mainly footed pajamas) for her entire first month. She is tall, so the main reason she is in 0-3 month clothing now is so that her legs can stretch out straight instead of being bent in the newborn footed jammies. We call her a "frog baby" because her little belly is so round but her legs are so short and most of the time are scrunched up in the frog position. The 0-3 month clothing is so big on her tummy and waist, but it's just the right length for her. We'll see how this goes. She might end up progressing out of 0-3 month clothing before she's actually 3 months old, simply due to her length!

Diapers: She's wearing size 1 diapers. She could still fit into newborn size if I made her since her waist is so tiny (although I only have 4 newborn diapers left). However, I am totally fine with her wearing size 1 diapers because it gives a bit more room for blowouts (which have happened about 3 times).

Sleeping: Avery sleeps great. She takes good naps during the day and she sleeps for one long stretch at night before waking once or twice afterwards. My problem (and I do this to myself, so I can only blame myself) is that I really should give her a "dream feed" around 10:30 or 11:00pm, but I'm so tired that I end up just going to bed and then waking up in pain from over-fullness. Last night, for example, Avery took a 2oz bottle at 7:15. She really should have eaten more than that, but she was content. So I pumped at 8:00 and went to bed at 9:30. I woke up Avery at 12:45 to feed her because I was so full and uncomfortable. So, she went from 7:15 to 12:45!!! If I was smart, I would have given her a dream feed at 11, so that she could extend throughout the night and so I could have gotten a bit more sleep without waking so uncomfortably. I paid for it, too, because she ate a little bit at 12:45, and then woke at 3:45 on the dot and also was fed this morning at 6:45. So she has one long stretch and then has two stretches of 3 hours or less between feeds (the night before was only 2 hours between stretches after midnight). I think part of it is that I'm still on maternity leave and can get by with interrupted sleep patterns, but I really need to start getting myself on a schedule so that I can actually function in 2 weeks when I return to work full-time.

Feeding: Pretty much covered that above, but anyways... Avery can go 3-4 hours during the daytime between feeds. She's an efficient feeder, but not all the time. She quickly falls asleep while nursing and I have to work to wake her back up so she can finish eating. Sometimes, this fails and I have to finish the feeding by pumping so that I'm not messing up the supply-and-demand of breastfeeding. I try to pump once or twice a day at least but it ends up being about 3 times a day at least, which is fine since I'll pump 3 times a day when I go back to work anyhow. I'm building up a good stockpile of expressed milk which I'm super excited about! It's a confidence booster to be sure. Avery can take a bottle and she does it without a fuss. I had to work a bit to get both of my boys to take bottles, but Avery took one no problem. I usually put 2 to 2.5 ounces in a bottle for her and she'll drink it quickly and be content. It's annoying to wash pump and bottle parts (especially since I explicitly use the Dr. Brown's bottles which have 5 parts per bottle!) but I enjoy building up that stockpile and I also enjoy not being engorged, so that makes it worth it.

Tummy Time: We're creative about this. I don't necessarily put her face down on a blanket on the floor like I did with my two boys. We accomplish tummy time through holding her upright on us, and through letting her nap on her tummy while she lies on us. She's got pretty good head control so I'm happy about that.

Fussiness: This week has been a fussy week by her standards. Avery is a super good baby. Probably the most mild out of my three. She hardly hardly cries (and I've paid my dues in the crying department with both boys but particularly Noah, who still is the loudest child today). But this week for Avery has been a tough one. She's been super gassy and actually hasn't pooped for 24 hours (sorry for TMI). So, since she's a baby and can't just pass gas when she needs to, she's gotta wait for it to come out on its own, which causes tummy pain. So she likes to be held and likes for the one holding her to stand up while holding. On Monday this week, I held her for the duration of my 4-mile Walking DVD workout. She just could tell when I put her in her rock-and-play, and she'd let me know! Most of this week has been spent giving baby cuddles and I'm okay with that. I've given her some Mylicon this week to help with the gassiness and I've paid attention to my food intake in order to avoid foods that are known to make babies gassy. Also, I know around the 5th week, that babies go through a mental growth spurt of sorts and they can be super fussy that whole week. That's right about where Avery is, so I'm keeping that in mind as well.

Habit: Avery has quite the head of hair as you can see. However, she has pulled her own hair on quite a few occasions. Mainly while she's on her back during a diaper change, her hand will flail up by her head and she'll graze her hair with her open hand. Sometimes, that graze will clamp onto a fistful of her own hair and she'll pull. So, she'll scream/cry and her hand grasp will tighten. It's extremely hard to get her hand open, console her, and also make sure she doesn't yank out a fistful of hair! Therefore, we put her in a baby hat during diaper changes to make sure she doesn't get a hold of her hair. Poor girl!

Pink: You guys, I've had a house full of blue and green for five years now. Five. Years. When we found out we were having a girl, I knew I was going to dress her in pink and in hairbows until she's old enough to choose her outfits and accessories for herself. I read all the time about moms of girls who purposely dress their girls in blue and yellow and green and don't want their daughters in dresses or in shades of pink. I'm not a part of that crusade. I'm not saying they are wrong-- they have their reasons and that's fine. But I'm going to dress my little girl in all the pink I can find. As noted below: lots of pink blankies, pink onesie, pink burp cloths, etc.