Growth check: Ant grew another inch, and put on 2lb 8oz in the last four weeks. Also added 3cm in head circumference. He’s gone from being around the 50th percentile for both height and weight to being a bit of a porker – 66th percentile for weight but only 39th for height. I think they gypped him on the height measurement though, because he was screaming at the time :-). They also gave me the percentiles for his head circumference, which I kinda wish they hadn’t – he was in the 7th percentile at his one month appointment, and is now in the 21st. So he’s got a little head for his size. I hope it doesn’t mean anything about his brain development! At least he’s growing nicely there too.
Tummy-time: He’s now definitely able to hold his head up, I counted 30 seconds the other day. And his head is pretty stable when I’m holding him up on my shoulders. I think he’s almost ready to use the Bumbo and go forward facing in the Baby Bjorn.
Focus: Ant still isn’t interested in objects. He loves looking at the ceiling, curtains, and paintings on the wall. I did just make and print a black and white bullseye, and he’s fascinated by that. That object he will follow, for sure!
Smiles: Oh my goodness. He’s smiling a lot more now, and it’s totally adorable! He does have dimples, although they don’t show all the time. If he ends up with blue eyes and dimples he’s going to be a real ladykiller!
Hands: Still a good grip, but not grabbing at objects yet. Seems to be really good at finding all the hairs I shed though. He does bat at the toys on the gymini, but I think they just happen to get in his way as he’s waving his arms and legs around.
Feeding: He’s now going between 7-8 hours between his last evening feed and the early morning one, and then 3-4 hours until the next one (last night, for example, I fed him at 9:50pm, then 5:27 and 8:40am). So if we could actually get to bed at the same time as him we’d get a decent amount of sleep. But no, I do things like write this instead – went to bed at 1am. Silly! During the day he generally goes around 3 hours between feeds, with a range of 2-4 hours.
Eyes: Still a medium blue. Can’t tell if they’re changing yet or not. But what’s neat is that his eyelashes have gotten much darker, so you can definitely see them now. Not much in the way of eyebrows yet. He started crying real tears over the past few days. So much more heartbreaking when he cries now. Last night he was crying before I fed him, and little tear slipped off his nose. Waaaaaahhh!
Complexion: Cradle cap is gone, for the most part. Still some rough patches around his eyes and nose though. Don’t really know what (if anything) to do about that. I’m putting a little moisturizer on every now and again, hopefully that’s all it takes.
Sleeping: He is doing really well with sleeping at night. We can even put him down when he’s not asleep yet, and that works out fine. For some reason it’s completely different in the daytime. He won’t take a nap unless he falls asleep on me first, and on the rare occasion when I can put him down without waking him up in the process, he only sleeps for a few minutes more before waking. Must figure out what to do about this! Although if I had to pick a time of day for him to not want to sleep as much it would definitely be day rather than night, so I really can’t complain too much.
Me: Back to biking and ice hockey!!! First practices were last Saturday and Monday. I could definitely feel muscles I wasn’t used to using, but was surprisingly not sore afterwards. Yay! I have missed hockey so much, it is really nice to be back. Good for my mental health as well, I find that I am a lot more on edge now than I used to be. I get frustrated and upset a lot more easily (which I am chalking up to lack of consecutive sleep). Taking a few hours for myself to do something fun like hockey really makes a difference. In other areas, my linea nigra seems to be getting lighter. My belly is still shrinking, although it’s hard to see the difference until I try on clothes and see how much better they fit each week. I do have a diastasis (separation between my abdominal muscles) of 3-4 fingers, so need to do some exercises to rectify that. First, though, I need to get Ant to sleep somewhere else during the day besides on ME! Bleeding stopped at right around 5 weeks. Hmmm… what else? Weight loss has stopped, I’d like to lose another 5-7 pounds of my IF weight, but “they” always say not to diet while breastfeeding. It’s hard not to fall back into the “must be thin” habit / mindset (which is what got me into the HA in the first place), but I keep reminding myself that I’m doing this for my babe.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Ant diary: 5 weeks
Growth check: At his 1 month doctor's appointment, Ant had put on more than three pounds over his lowest weight, tipping the scales at a whopping 9lb 10oz! He also measured at 21.5 inches, a gain of 1.5 over birth. Both of which we can see in his clothes which he fills out a lot better, and his diapers - he's just about outgrown the newborn size. He also has cute little plump calves, not the chicken legs he was born with.
Tummy-time: I keep meaning to have him spend more time on his tummy, but he gets fussy very quickly when he's there so I don't do it unless he's in the "calm-alert" state which doesn't last very long, so we don't get to it much. He does lie on M on his tummy, and is already able to hold his head up (albeit briefly) at a 90 degree angle. Very cool.
Focus: Yesterday was the first time on his gymini when Ant actually spent time looking up rather than having his head to one side or the other. Still not really looking at the toys, but getting there. Today I went over to a friend's house (our first car trip on our own), and there he actually followed me out of the room with his eyes when I went to get something. Shwing!
Smiles: They're still involuntary, mostly after he's finished eating, but they are SO adorable. He's going to have dimples!!
Hands: He's started grabbing onto things - mostly my skin, while he's feeding. Boy can he give me a good pinch. Ouch!
Feeding: We've started him on the bottle, he doesn't like it as much as he likes me, but he'll take it. He's taken a room temp bottle a few times, but M isn't pushing as hard for him to go room temp / cold as I would. Since he's doing the bottle feeding, I'll go with it. Although somehow I'm always the one who prepares the bottles, so perhaps I should push a little harder. It would be really nice if he would take them cold!
Pumping is going incredibly well - I don't know what it is, but I truly am a milk factory. I pumped four hours after feeding him last on Monday, while I was out, and got 9oz. In FIVE minutes! It's totally crazy. It also means that I'm a champion leaker. I was talking to my mom on the phone, and had forgotten to put a nursing pad in. All of a sudden I noticed I was feeling damp - looked down to see this!. With a puddle on my leg. Ha!
Eyes: They're currently a medium blue. I wish they would come out that way in pictures, but they really don't. I'm so curious to see what color they end up being. Mine are green, M is brown-green. I think they've gotten a little lighter since he was born, but it's so hard to tell.
Complexion: His milia have all disappeared, which is nice. He's getting a bit of cradle cap though - eww. I'm trying to keep him well-moisturized.
Sleeping: Really lucked out on this one - he's sleeping really well at night. After his last evening feed we'll often get five hours until he wants to eat again, which I really count my blessings for. After that it's three hours between feeds, which still isn't too shabby. He's still sleeping reasonably well during the day, although sometimes will only sleep on me, which makes it hard to get things done! He has been fussier in the evenings, but we're slowly learning how to calm him. I found that he really liked going up and down stairs, which translated into deep knee bends also calming him. That's tough on the knees though - but my mom reminded me that we have an exercise ball that we can bounce on, and he really seems to like that as well. It's hard on the back though! M came up with the good idea of using the boppy while bouncing on the exercise ball, which does help with the back quite a lot. Funny-looking, but when he's screaming, whatever it takes!
Me: Only one pound to go before I'm back at my pre-pg weight. Of course then I still have to lose my IF weight after that. I still have a decent sized baby belly, which I didn't think had been getting any smaller until I found I was able to put on a pair of pants today that didn't fit me last week. I also went for my first bike ride yesterday - it felt fucking fantastic. It had been almost five months since I was on my bike last, as I stopped once my contractions started at 25 weeks. I was surprised at how good my stamina was - hopefully that bodes well for when I start playing hockey again in a couple of weeks!
Tummy-time: I keep meaning to have him spend more time on his tummy, but he gets fussy very quickly when he's there so I don't do it unless he's in the "calm-alert" state which doesn't last very long, so we don't get to it much. He does lie on M on his tummy, and is already able to hold his head up (albeit briefly) at a 90 degree angle. Very cool.
Focus: Yesterday was the first time on his gymini when Ant actually spent time looking up rather than having his head to one side or the other. Still not really looking at the toys, but getting there. Today I went over to a friend's house (our first car trip on our own), and there he actually followed me out of the room with his eyes when I went to get something. Shwing!
Smiles: They're still involuntary, mostly after he's finished eating, but they are SO adorable. He's going to have dimples!!
Hands: He's started grabbing onto things - mostly my skin, while he's feeding. Boy can he give me a good pinch. Ouch!
Feeding: We've started him on the bottle, he doesn't like it as much as he likes me, but he'll take it. He's taken a room temp bottle a few times, but M isn't pushing as hard for him to go room temp / cold as I would. Since he's doing the bottle feeding, I'll go with it. Although somehow I'm always the one who prepares the bottles, so perhaps I should push a little harder. It would be really nice if he would take them cold!
Pumping is going incredibly well - I don't know what it is, but I truly am a milk factory. I pumped four hours after feeding him last on Monday, while I was out, and got 9oz. In FIVE minutes! It's totally crazy. It also means that I'm a champion leaker. I was talking to my mom on the phone, and had forgotten to put a nursing pad in. All of a sudden I noticed I was feeling damp - looked down to see this!. With a puddle on my leg. Ha!
Eyes: They're currently a medium blue. I wish they would come out that way in pictures, but they really don't. I'm so curious to see what color they end up being. Mine are green, M is brown-green. I think they've gotten a little lighter since he was born, but it's so hard to tell.
Complexion: His milia have all disappeared, which is nice. He's getting a bit of cradle cap though - eww. I'm trying to keep him well-moisturized.
Sleeping: Really lucked out on this one - he's sleeping really well at night. After his last evening feed we'll often get five hours until he wants to eat again, which I really count my blessings for. After that it's three hours between feeds, which still isn't too shabby. He's still sleeping reasonably well during the day, although sometimes will only sleep on me, which makes it hard to get things done! He has been fussier in the evenings, but we're slowly learning how to calm him. I found that he really liked going up and down stairs, which translated into deep knee bends also calming him. That's tough on the knees though - but my mom reminded me that we have an exercise ball that we can bounce on, and he really seems to like that as well. It's hard on the back though! M came up with the good idea of using the boppy while bouncing on the exercise ball, which does help with the back quite a lot. Funny-looking, but when he's screaming, whatever it takes!
Me: Only one pound to go before I'm back at my pre-pg weight. Of course then I still have to lose my IF weight after that. I still have a decent sized baby belly, which I didn't think had been getting any smaller until I found I was able to put on a pair of pants today that didn't fit me last week. I also went for my first bike ride yesterday - it felt fucking fantastic. It had been almost five months since I was on my bike last, as I stopped once my contractions started at 25 weeks. I was surprised at how good my stamina was - hopefully that bodes well for when I start playing hockey again in a couple of weeks!
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