One Month Old

One month down, 239 more to go!

Four Saturdays ago, we were rushing to the hospital to be greeted by Sierra.  It’s been an interesting ride so far and here is what is on our mind lately in regards to the baby.

Fussiness: Sierra definitely has her ups and downs.  It seems that after a feeding in the morning, she is great to be around.  She will stare at you, interact with you, play at her play structure…all while being calm and being all baby-like.  But when the afternoon/evening hits, it gets a little less fun as she grunts and cries all the time in between feedings.  Some night we are lucky and she goes down in between feedings in the middle of the night, but a few nights have resulted in constant grunting and choking sounds which keeps Vero up all night long.  The internet is a friend and an enemy in times like these.  Everything from reflux to colic have been mentioned.  Vero found out about lactose overload which actually seems to line up with pretty well every symptom we are experiencing.  She will ask the doctor about it this Wednesday.

Weight gain: One of the symptoms of lactose overload is abnormally large weight gain.  Considering the doctor said a baby puts on an average of 20-25 grams a day and Sierra is now clocking in at 42 grams a day…I would say that’s better than average!  This resulted in chubby cheeks which are adorable though and we’re not worried about weight gain.  Why should we?

Attention span: While it’s not an alarming difference, we can definitely see her attention span changing over the weeks.  She will focus on our faces for a bit, or focus on the tv in the room.  They say babies are attracted to contrasting colours so we introduce those once in awhile.

General interaction: I would say that the first three weeks didn’t have much interactions from her part.  She was just laying there looking around like all babies do.  But in the last week I see her grasping and holding onto my finger, and being amused by when I put her hands to her toes to introduce her to the fact that she can touch her toes.  I’m really interested in child development so I keep reading whatever I can to see what we can do to promote good development.  Are we the best at it?  Nah, we’re just trying to survive at this point considering the lack of sleep!  But we do what we can when she is not crying.

How’s the sleep?: A constant question at work and something I was worried about leading up to this moment.  I have to say that I am definitely faring better than Vero which is understandable as she is there feeding the baby all the time which can be a drain on energy.  At four weeks old, I would say her general sleep schedule is as follows: Feed in the early morning (6-7am), stays awake for a few hours until the next feeding.  After the next feeding, sometimes she drifts off, sometimes she stays awake again until the next feeding.  The afternoon seems to be a time where she will crash into a deep slumber, ESPECIALLY if we take her out on the road.  It just knocks her out for four hours.  Then the evening (the witching hour!) is upon us and generally she will feed, cry, feed, cry, and if we are lucky, she will just be fussy and not cry but squirm and grunt for those times.  Of course, as any parent would do, we wonder how we can fix this and we wonder things like “So if we had her sleep for four hours in the afternoon, is she just really hungry?” or “Is it a lot of gas all of sudden?  Let’s get rid of this!”.  If we are lucky, she feeds a few more times until around 9-10pm and then sleeps for a good four stretch, wakes up around 1-2am, and then after feeding, wakes up again around 6-7am for the cycle to repeat.  So I have to say that if all days were like this, it wouldn’t be too bad to just wake up around 1-2am for one feeding.  Some days are like that, some are not.  I suppose I’m writing this down for historical reference as to how Sierra was when she was a baby.  With my memory, I will forget how it is in about 24 hours time!

How the parents are doing: I would say we are doing pretty good overall.  It’s a tough job for Vero to be here with the baby all day when I go to work.  She rarely has the energy to do anything until around noon but that is totally understandable.  As we have realized…as long as the baby is fed and the mom gets sleep, that’s all that needs to be done in the day.

How the parents are really doing: Hey, we have a healthy baby who seems to be interested in what her Dad shows her on TV, so I think we’re going to be good!   We also have a lot of family coming to visit in the month of July which will be great for Sierra and great for us.

It’s interesting how everyone says “They grow up so fast.”  I have realized that this line of thinking is because time is something we can’t go back to.  Sure, we can go out for a beer with a friend whenever we want, or go hiking, or go fishing.  We know that time is well spent with a friend, and we can do it again and have a similar experience.  With friends, we don’t think of “Our time together is passing fast.”

But the past month with Sierra is something we will never get back and the only way to have a similar experience is to have another baby.  We won’t ever see her try and roll over again.  We won’t get to see her dopey smile after she feeds again.  We won’t get to be surprised every time she passes gas which is loud enough to wake the neighbours!  Even diaper changes will eventually fade away as a thing of the past.  We are enjoying all the moments, the good and the bad, that comes along with this adventure.

Onto the next month!

Then

Now