It’s been 5 weeks…almost 6 now since Bean has touched our lives.  He is growing and changing so quickly!  When I look at the hospital pictures, I can’t believe it’s the same person that I’m sitting next to now.

Bean is now 9lbs…yep, my heavyweight is packing on the pounds.   He was 5lb 11oz at birth so that’s quite the growth in 5 weeks.  He’s also 21 inches now, and he was 19.5 inches at delivery.  I’m not sure where he falls in percentiles…it’s just a good feeling to know that he’s doing so well given that he came 3 weeks early.

Sleep…what’s that?  No, I’m kidding.  The first 2 weeks were aggressive…waking every 1-2 hours to nurse.  I was delirious.  Bean’s Dad and I have made some adjustments and we get more sleep these days.  Bean is also sleeping in longer stretches, 3-4 hours.  We’ve gotten two nights with a 5-hour stretch, one of which was last night ::praise break::

Nipple confusion… In the first week home from the hospital, I gave Bean a pacifier which seemed to confuse him when I attempted to nurse him that night.  It was terrifying because I was already so invested in nursing.  The next morning, he latched on again, but I became weary of bottles and pacifiers.  Around week the end of week 2, I gave in to giving Bean bottles…sleep deprivation is so real.  A few positive outcomes…Bean’s Dad gets to join in on feeding him and Mommy gets more sleep.  I was fearful of another nipple confusion moment, but Bean has been able to seamlessly switch between bottle and breast.  Again :::praise break:::

Tummy time…To be honest, I didn’t even think about anybody’s tummy time in the first two weeks.  I was just trying to maintain…or maybe regain my sanity.  Tummy time on the floor was disastrous.  He laid there…comfortably, but that’s not the task.  After more research, I realized there were other options.  Bean has now done tummy time on the Boppy and on our tummies.  He started holding his head for 5 seconds at a time.  Today, he surprised me and held his head for a minute.  It took all his focus and as much as I wanted to capture it on my phone, I was scared to throw him off.

Those are the major updates for month 1…please feel free to ask questions about anything mentioned or anything I’ve left out.  Time for a nap…kidding, maybe.