When I look at the photos of his birthday, I think, how come you have the look in your eyes like you know the whole world and the wisdom of it. I cherish each day with him and I'm so happy he decided to join our family.
November 22 I've written: "When he is alert and awake, his eyes are big and a little troubled, he looks like he knows everything."
Another month has passed and he is so much bigger already, smiling, moving, recognizing us and being way more alert for 3 weeks. We have had many baby visits this time around :-)
Sleep:
His awake time is 1-1,5 h, but it is hard to do as feeding takes a long time. He has 3-4 naps (either outside in the stroller or in the stroller in the living room, in our arms or sling or carrier, I'd say that he prefers the sling).
He can't fall asleep on his own yet; funny how I had forgotten about it, already in the kraamweek I had put him to bed just to come back and find him looking around there and moving his little limbs a bit. Otherwise he sleeps well and long, his naps are usually 1,5-2,5 h, occasionally 45 min or 3 h. Needs to be rocked or held or fed to get to sleep and some rocking when the sleep cycles are changing. He has 2 (and occasionally 3) nightly wakeups, for quite some days he hasn't taken formula then and will just breastfeed.
We have started using sleeping bags, Puckababy and Love to Dream. At daytime he is lightly swaddled when he sleeps in his stroller. His arms move a little but not hardly as much as for the big sis. We use white noise but I'm not really sure he needs it. All in all, at 2 months he is a way better sleeper than the big sis was.
He is showing much clearer sleep signals, he will yawn and cry fussily, when offered breast or bottle might refuse it but fall asleep when rocked. Sweet spot seems to be at 1h15min.
Feeding
He is breastfed but not exclusively, sadly. Feeding has been hard this month as about 5-6 weeks in he started getting restless on the breast, let go, wouldn't latch. We saw our lactation consultant for the 3rd time around, she gave some tips and suggested going to the children physiotherapist as she said that he seems to have some bodily discomfort (some little release was done on the neck, back and chin).
He would breastfeed every time (7-9 times), I pump (4-6 times) and he gets breastmilk and supplement (300-400 ml per day). At night, he would usually only breastfeed. I pump handsfree over the daytime for more flexibility. This all is hard but doable at the moment, nevertheless a lot of sadness is involved around breastfeeding not going smoothly again. I am trying to be thankful for every day he is breastfeeding and just to think one day at a time. It kills me though to think that this little guy - with a beautiful latch from the first moment, who was soothed by breastfeeding and wanted to do that for comfort, who didn't like bottles (would and still is frowning!) and still doesn't really like his paci - is not exclusively breastfed. I am at the same time thinking that in a year there will be much more than just breastfeeding and the strong feelings have passed a little bit.
At the moment it is going a bit better with feeding than 2 weeks ago.
Adjustment from 1 to 2
The first month was tough, very tough. The 2 days I had with 2 kids alone when C was working were heavy, I ended up crying both late afternoons - also because of little sleep and hormones. C has been occupied with his PhD and work and handling a little less sleep (despite me doing all the nights) very badly, so it has been a lot on me. We did get help arriving from Canada, my parents in law who stayed for 5 weeks. It was extremely helpful to have them here, bringing M to school and to her hobbies, my mother in law bottle feeding so I could pump or taking the baby at times so I could sleep.
Big sis has gotten used to his presence more, she is his biggest fan, wants to hold him, help, play with him, show him stuff, sing to him, read books, hug him, etc. Some mornings before school she would want to hold him and say, I need to hold him because otherwise I would go to school without having held him. Her emotions have been tough at times (always targeted to us though), this has improved some last week too. We have seen regression in sleep, eating and emotional matureness. It didn't help that she was just feeling a lot as the Sinterklaas and Christmas period came with a lot of excitement.
General
O is usually satisfied, calm and happy; sometimes I would come to the room and find that he is just lying in his little bed and looking around and moving his little arms and legs just a little bit.
Smiles since the age of 6 weeks and can laugh! Started cooing.
Loves his big sis, likes to look at faces and lights, he can recognize us. His favourite thing is the Christmas tree, loves looking at lights ☺️🎄
Easy to take along, we went to a Christmas market in Onnen and he slept 4 h and to the Estonian Christmas party in Amsterdam, he would sleep both ways 2 hours and another 2 hours at the party.
Had his rotavirus vaccine 1st dose on the 10th of Dec, sleeps more and has some digestive issues after that, but we are very very happy this vaccine is now available.
Hard days are still not very hard at the moment at least!
Schedule
He has 4 naps usually (3 if they are all long). Regular schedule is not set yet, but approximately it might look like this
6:30/7:30 awake, breastfeed, topup (I pump), little play time (chaotic time because of the morning, getting big sis to school etc.
8:30/9:00 1st nap, usually in the stroller outside or in the living room, sometimes on the go, something from 1,5-2,5 hours
11sh awake, breastfeed, topup (I pump, usually handsfree), his awake time; 1 time a week his bathtime follows
12/13sh 2nd nap in the stroller
(14:00 M needs to be picked up from school if I need to do it)
15sh awake, breastfeed, topup (pump handsfree if I can)
16sh 3rd nap, might be a little shorter
17sh awake, breastfeed, topup (very chaotic time because of dinner and M's bedtime nearing)
18:30/19 4th nap, 90% time in the sling or carrier, sometimes in our arms; still hasn't succeded in getting him down to his cosleeper at this time, although it is very desirable. Sometimes I try to go to sleep already then.
21/22sh awake, last feed, I breastfeed and pump and try to go to sleep and have him have his topup and put to bed by his dad
At night awake 2-3 times.
Statistics
Mostly still in size 50, but some outfits (e.g. Hema cotton rompers) are getting tight.
10 Oct he weighed 4950 gr and was 57,6 cm long. 20 Oct self weighed 5110gr.
Add: in Nov I had written down how he likes to look at balloons and how he smiles in his dreams and moves the lips in a way that makes me think that he is dreaming of milk.
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