ONE Month!

Oliver is ONE month old today.  Everyone says time will fly by when you have a baby.  I used to say 'duh' to that, but it's so true - and not just in the obvious sense.  The first week is a total blur because your labor was 23 hours and that day really turns into two and even though your baby is just hours old you find yourself saying 'yesterday' when reality is your baby was still inside the womb yesterday... and it's still the same day.  It's a total and complete blur.  Then when you go home, family is still there, sleep schedules are flipped upside down and by the time you know it, the first week is done.  over.  finished.  Weeks two and three are spent trying to adjust to a schedule (huh?  what?) and you realize how sleep deprived you really are because the adrenaline has slowly finished dripping through your veins and reality sets in just as you realize it's time for another feeding.

When week four comes around, you realize that your baby - your tiny, sweet, once pink and wrinkly infant child is almost ONE MONTH old.  WHEN did that happen???  Sometime during the above mentioned activities, that's when.  Point in case.

Ollie has been SUCH a great baby!  He is always happy (unless he's far from his boob) and for the most part sleeps pretty good at night.  I didn't think I'd do the monthly stat posts, but I read one a couple days ago in my reader and appreciated it so much more now that Oliver is here.  I found myself comparing him to the baby in the post and that's when I realized how fun it can be to keep up with other babies his age.  So... I caved and here we are!  We'll call the series 'don't blink.'

FOUR weeks ago today... visiting hours had just started at the hospital.  Oliver was 10 hours old.  I had probably just gotten him back from the nursery where he was bathed, had his hearing checked by the audiologist, and had his first check up with the pediatrician.  Last week, this felt like yesterday.  Today, it's starting to feel more distant.  Sigh...

At ONE month (four weeks!) old....

-Oliver is right at 9lbs.  I haven't measured his length because I don't feel like fighting him to straighten his legs.  He hates that at the doctor and I am not about making him cry.

-He is in between newborn and 0-3 month clothes.  I've found that Old Navy sizes 0-3m are smaller and not quite as big as Gymboree and Carter's.

-He wears both newborn and size 1 diapers (Pampers Swaddlers).  The newborn size is more or less too small and the size 1s are definitely too big.  His BumGenuis dipes are still much too big, so we're still in disposables because I don't have it in me to do prefolds or other systems.  I would imagine that by 10 or 12lbs we should be in our BGs.

-On average, he gets a bath every three-ish days... depending on how often he sprays himself or his diaper leaks (see above).  He generally enjoys the bathtub and I'm excited for when he's big enough to splash around and play with toys in there!

-He is exclusively breast feeding and I am nursing on demand so we don't have a set schedule for eating.  I couldn't even guess how often he eats because he also uses nursing to soothe and there are days when he'll eat for 30mins at a time or three hours on and off.  When he nurses he either has both hands on either side of his booby or he has them crossed over his chest.

-Just this week I've noticed that his afternoon nap is usually around 12:30 or 1:00 and lasts anywhere from 2-4 hours.

-He has bad gas.  The painful kind.  Mylicon is a joke, but I still use it because I'm convinced it's better than nothing since it's pretty harmless.  Burping often seems to help lessen it, but not prevent it.

-He goes to sleep between 11:30p and 1a and is up once or twice during the night.  The early mornings are hit or miss with him either being asleep until 6:30 or up and down from 5a to 7a.  He's usually down (or up and down) until 9:30 or 10 and then awake until noon.

-Around three weeks, I noticed he was focusing with his eyes and could follow toys we held up for him. This was also about the time he 'coo'ed' for the first time.  He's done it a handful of times since then and has the cutest voice ever.

-He LOVES to stare at the framed 'H' we have over our bed and at the ceiling fan (when it's off).

-Gas prevented Ollie from sleeping soundly in his pack 'n play (beside the bed) so we put his nap nanny in it so he sleeps at an angle.  That helped for a while, but he was still up a lot and just wanted to be cuddled.  Now, he sleeps in bed with us.  I will not insert a *gasp* here because after talking with friends and actually reading some of the books I have, the line seems to be more 60/40 in favor of co-sleeping.  We all sleep better.  He will still wake up crying because of gas and then stop as quickly as he started.  We're hoping his digestive system matures sooner than later.  :(

-Oliver is a mama's boy.  (Or he could just be really attached to his booby

-His nicknames include:
     -Olligator (hungry baby = chomp latch, 'nuff said)
     -Rover (I often look at Nola and say 'Oh I love that puppy!' and caught myself doing the same to    
     Oliver, who is not a puppy... I still catch myself saying it to him.)
     -Rooter (Did I mention he nurses on demand?  And uses it to soothe?  Uhuh.)
     -O-Man (This is Chandler's thing, I have no idea.)
     -Ollie (The interchangeable.)
     -O-Baby (No idea...)

-He's still learning to sleep alone during his daytime naps.  It's not uncommon for me to wear him in the Beco while I am doing laundry or cooking dinner.  It's also not uncommon for him to be nursing during those activities either.

-He sleeps on his back unless he's just finished nursing and if he falls asleep on my shoulder or belly, I let him stay that way because he seems to have less gas.

-He won't take a paci despite our tries with four or five different kinds.  I'm indifferent to the paci.

-So far, I haven't noticed any foods to bother his tummy.

-He poops with every feeding and goes through no less than 12-15 diapers each day.

-The car seat and stroller are the least exciting things to him, but he loves being outside.

-He likes us to rap when we bounce him.  He'll have mad rhythm one day.

-He just started to appreciate the swing.  We realized that speeds one and two are silly and finally amped it up to 4 and five with the white noise.

-He LOVES his Sleep Giraffe - therefore, so do we! :)

-He spends at least an hour or two on his play mat/play gym each day.  He still prefers black and white, but also enjoys looking at himself in the mirror above the gym and when he's being changed in his bedroom.

We are so lucky to have such a good baby.  

We LOVE you SWEET BOY!!!