Now that the pregnancy portion of our journey is through, I
didn’t know which direction to go with this blog. Although my life is filled
with the repetitive sleep, eat, poop/pee, play (sort of) schedule, I have so
much to talk about! Well, in hopes of not inundating my blog (or readers) with
too much information, I’ve decided to start this next chapter of my mommy blog
by summarizing the first month.
As forewarned to us, the first two weeks were pretty much
chaos, controlled chaos that is. Just like any infant, Oscar had no concept of day
or night and seemed to be insatiably hungry all the time. Although we were able
to get nursing down pretty quickly, his cluster feeding sometimes had him
eating every hour – yikes! On top of this, Oscar left the hospital with
borderline bilirubin levels (aka jaundice). His levels were such that he was
safe to be home with us but the pediatrician order labs almost every day for a
week to monitor. After a few days, his levels were not going down so he had to
wear a Billi-blanket (see picture below).
The Billi-blanket is light therapy
that is supposed to help flush the bilirubin out of his system. He wore it 24/7
for two days. This treatment was helpful and did help with his levels but
having to keep our baby plugged-in was awkward and uncomfortable. As of last
week his levels have gone down to a safe enough point (hooray!) that we don’t
have to keep going in for lab work, which makes me happy not only for his
health but because I hate lugging him to the doctor everyday and having him get
poked by a needle. It’s enough to make any mama want to cry!
This week we are attempting to get him on a schedule. I know
that this is a daunting task that may fail miserably, but it’s definitely worth
a try. Yesterday and today have been successful so I’m optimistic. The schedule
works on a three-hour cycle: nap for 1.5 hours, wake, change, feed, stay alert
for 1.5 hours. The cycle continues up until three hours before bed. Then we
keep him awake for those three hours so he’ll sleep longer at night. Last night
he slept for 6.5 hours! What a difference. The beauty of the schedule is that
it does allow for flexibility. If he doesn’t go to sleep at exactly the right
time, I start the clock when he finally does. Or if I need him to sleep a
little longer because I need to shower or something, I can. Wish us luck with
this :-)
I’ll end this blog with a few pictures as well as a few
documented developmental items.
At one month: turning head from side to side, lifting head
and chest for short periods, following faces and objects with eyes, small glimpses
of a social smile, recognizing our voices and faces, and lastly (and sadly) the
development of tears.
Current nicknames: Monsieur Fussy (when cranky), Munchy Boy (when hungry), Bumpkin (when cute - aka always),
Fussykins (when fussy), Happykins (when happy), Gruntersons (when he's gassy), and Oskie Boy (at random). Whatever we call him, we just can't get enough of him!
