Weeks 1-4
Birth stats - 7 pounds 8 ounces, 19.5 inches long
Hospital discharge - 7 pounds 4 ounces
1 week visit - still 7.4
3 week visit - 8 pounds 15 ounces, 22.5 inches long
The first few weeks are already a bit of a blur so this is why I need to do better about writing things down! Agh! We came home after 2 days in the hospital and Malachi did great with his new baby brother. We didn't have any issues of jealousy or anger toward Zeke. He pretty much ignored him but when he would hear him crying or something he would just look at him like "what are you and what are you doing here." Hehe :)
My mom came into town after we had been home a few days and that was such a huge blessing. She was pretty much on Malachi duty and they both loved that!
Jeff's mom came into town to help at the end of January, when Zeke was about 3.5 weeks old and was here for a few days. That was also such a blessing!
Zeke was a chill baby from the start and would sleep a lot. He was pretty much eating every 3 hours from the start. I would make sure to wake him every three hours during the day to help with the day/night confusion and he was waking every three hours during the night. After about 2 weeks I started letting him sleep at night until he woke on his own but he would never go more than about 4 hours.
I let him sleep on his belly pretty early on. He never liked sleeping on his back, even in the hospital he needed to be on his side otherwise he would scream. So when I felt like his neck was strong enough to turn from side to side I let him and he slept well from then on. I also noticed pretty early on that he slept better at night with a noise machine. I don't remember why I tried it but it seemed to help, so we used that from pretty little.
He has been much chunkier than Malachi and growing a lot faster. I think we were already pulling out the 3month clothes at around a month old!
Weeks 5-8
2 month visit - 12 pounds 12 ounces, 24 inches long
Right around a month old my sister came to visit for a week. It was so nice :)
Zeke also started sleeping a bit longer at night only waking once in the middle of the night, around 3-4am and then would sleep until I woke him up to start our day about 7:30/8am. He would go down after his last feed about 10pm and would sleep till he woke up which was usually 3 or 4am.
At almost 8 weeks old he slept from 10pm-6am for the first time. It didn't happen every night after that, he not back and forth a bit but he did start sleeping through the night sometimes for me and I was so excited! :)
Around 6 weeks or so I started noticing that he would have a really hard time going down after his bedtime feed around 7:30 or 8pm. He would cry and cry and not seem to be able to get settled. He wasn't having this problem at any other time of the day. At every other nap time he would petty much lay down and go to sleep without much fussing. I finally figured out through some research on one of my favorite baby sleep blogs that he was probably having what people call "witching hour" - which is basically a few hours usually in the evenings that the baby is just unhappy and not easily soothed. At first I thought it might have been gas related because it would usually start up while I was feeding him but then I realized that he was not acting like he was in pain. Although we did utilize gas drops quite a bit during this period because I think there was some gas being made worse by all the crying. Anyway, once I figured out the witching hour thing it made it so much less stressful because I wasn't constantly trying to figure out what was wrong. Nothing was wrong, he just needed to cry for a little. So we would rock him till he calmed down or jut held him. It usually wouldn't last for a long time but we just figured out that we couldn't just lay him down at that nap of the day.
He also gave us some of his first smiles at about 6 weeks - so fun!
At his two month visit I had to ask our pediatrician about his pooping habits that had decreased to maybe once a day, sometimes every other day. But she assured me that at his age there was such a wide range of "normal" that it wasn't concerning. As long as he was eating good and giving regular wet diapers everything was fine.
Weeks 9-12
Around 9 weeks I gave up trying to take his thumb away. He is a thumb sucker and he has been since the beginning. I remember in the hospital he was trying to get his hands and thumbs in his mouth. I kept trying to break it and give him pacifiers instead but it finally got to the point that if I didn't get the paci in fast enough the thumb would go right in. So I just decided it wasn't a fight I was willing to have right now. It's kinda cute and definitely not the worst thing!
He started sleeping through from 10-7ish more consistently. Almost to the point that he hardly wakes up anymore. It's a surprise if he wakes up in the night or early morning. And honestly when he does wake up its usually like 6am, so not really ever in the middle of the night anymore. Thank The Lord! I am so excited!
Around 10 weeks I started to notice that he was batting at toys hanging over him and can hold on to the toys that hang off of his swing. He seems to have pretty good hand coordination at this age, maybe it's the thumb sucking. That is supposed to encourage hand control from a very young age.
I just pulled out 3-6month and some 6month clothes this past week! Hard to believe. The 3 month clothes have been packed away. And he is now in between a size 2-3 in disposable diapers! He's a hefty little guy.
At 12 weeks this is our rough schedule of the day-
7/7:30am- wake, nurse, change diaper, get dressed, hang out while mommy and chi eat breakfast
About an hour after waking- nap, this is his longest and most consistent nap of the day usually
10:30/11- nurse, change diaper, play and then hang out while mommy and chi get lunch
About an hour later- nap
2ish- nurse, diaper, playtime with mommy while chi naps
3/3:30pm- nap
5pm- nurse, diaper, playtime with daddy
He usually take a cat nap in here somewhere but usually no longer than an hour
7:30/8pm- nurse, diaper, pajamas, bedtime
10/10:30- dreamfeed and then right back to bed
This is all I can really think of right now but I am so thankful that I can write things down to hopefully remember better. We love Zeke so much and are so thankful for him! :)
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