Roman - One Month

I really like having Brock's monthly posts to go back and look at, so I want to try to do the same for Roman over the course of his first year. I'm a week behind already, but Brock's first monthly post was late too so I'm just being consistent.

We went for Roman's one month checkup last Thursday, and he now weighs 9 pounds, 10 ounces! He was 6 lbs, 13 oz at birth, dropped down to 6 lbs, 7 oz before we left the hospital with him, and then gained back up to 7 lbs by his one week checkup. But in three weeks, he has gained almost three pounds, the little fatty. I think this is mostly due to my overactive milk supply (it's ridiculous really and slightly unfortunate for me because I think I'd have to feed an entire continent of babies in order to actually burn any calories from breastfeeding). But he's clearly a good eater, and I'm thankful to have had two babies who did well with this whole nursing thing. He also measured 21.5 inches now, so he has gained an inch and a half since birth. I'm not looking up the whole percentile rank thing this time around because I really just don't care as much anymore about comparing my children to the averages (I also haven't googled any milestone checks this first month either or worried that Roman might be autistic because he won't look me in the eyes yet. I'm a completely different mom this second time.)

Here is some of what Roman has done this first month:

• He eats every 2.5-3 hours for about 20 minutes at a time. The pediatrician told us to feed him every 2.5 hours during the day and don't let him sleep more than 2 hours at a time so that he'll get his days and nights straightened out. That worked pretty well because he had several nights where he would go 5 or 6 hours between feedings. I've moved him more to a 3 hour schedule during the day now though because I felt like all I was doing all day long was nursing him.
• I wake him for the last feeding at about 10:00 at night and then I let him wake himself. He usually wakes up sometime around 2:30 and then again around 6:15, so he goes about 4 hours between feedings at night.
• He had a growth spurt around 3 weeks so he was waking up more frequently to eat. Since I knew to watch for it this time around and knew not to fight against it, I just fed him more often, and it was over after about a day or so.
• We moved him out of the bassinet in our room and into the crib in his room at about 3 weeks. Here's a distinct difference between the first-born and the second-born. Brock stayed in our room until he was 5 weeks old. If I hadn't had a c-section and had been more mobile, Roman probably would've been in his room the first week. He'll be better off for it though. I can't wait to see how his little personality will be, but I already think he'll be more resilient and confident than Brock just because it has become clear to me how much we coddle and worry over our first babies.
• He spits up, a lot, just like his brother did. I'm going through 4 or 5 burp cloths a day. This is another symptom of my hyperlactation, and it's annoying, but I guess it's a good problem to have.
• He usually poops after every feeding, so we've almost gone through 250 diapers in one month. Literally. I have a 106-count box of diapers that we've just about finished off, and we used up about 5 packs with at least 25 diapers in each of them. It's a lot. I'm sorry to the future generations and to the landfill. But I'm not cleaning 8-10 poopy cloth diapers a day in my sleep-deprived, exhausted state. I'm just not doing it.
• His umbilical stump (yuck) fell off after about 2 weeks, so he had his first real bath after that. (I'm only recording this because I didn't write down when Brock's fell off, and I kept wondering with Roman how much longer it would take.) I felt guilty because I kind of kept forgetting to give him his sponge bath those first two weeks. Three days would go by, and I'd be like, "Oh, crap, Roman needs a bath!" But babycenter.com made me feel better when I read that newborns really only need to be bathed every other day. We've gotten into a routine now, so he should smell baby fresh to anyone who holds him in the future (or he might smell like spit up because he particularly likes to do that after I've washed him).
• The newborn size clothes started fitting him at about 2 weeks. Before that, they were just enormous on him, which is crazy because they looked so tiny before he was born. He outgrew the newborn size diapers (they started leaking) around 2.5 weeks so he's using size 1 now.
• He does NOT like for me to pick his nose, which is a shame because I really enjoy it for some reason. But he will scream if I don't get the booger out on the first try. I went back and read one of Brock's monthly posts and saw that I loved picking his nose too. So... I'm a weirdo.
• He might be an even easier baby than Brock was, and I felt like Brock was a pretty easy baby. He is really content and only cries if he has gas or if he's hungry (or if I'm picking his nose). He sleeps great and is just really easy-going so far. And I am counting my blessings because I thought for sure I used up my good-baby card on my first one. But he's great!

I don't want to always compare them to each other, but I did want to put their one month pictures side-by-side. Roman is a lot more alert than Brock was at this age, but Brock was born three weeks early, so I think he had a little catching up to do. My two little guys...

                                         
       

      

                                         

Now, a few things about me I want to record in case there is a next time (the verdict is still out on whether we can have any more babies and keep our sanity):

• I could lay on my side about 3 days after coming home so about one week after surgery. What is ridiculous is that I had to lay on my side for like the previous 8 months and really just wanted to be able to sleep on my back or my stomach again. Then I have the baby and can only lay on my back but just want to be able to sleep on my side again. The grass is always greener...
• I started being able to move at normal speeds by about 1 week after surgery but still had to take it easy. If I moved or walked around too much, I would be more sore.
• I stopped needing the prescription strength ibuprofen (I didn't fill my prescription for the heavier pain-killers) around 2 weeks post-op, and the majority of my pain was mostly gone by 3 weeks.
• My incision healed up by the 2 week checkup, and you can't even see anything there now other than a faint little line.
• Nursing pain was starting to ease up by the end of the month, and I wasn't having to use the Lanolin as frequently, but it did hurt a lot in the beginning like it did with Brock. Most of my engorgement issues resolved themselves after a couple of weeks too, but I didn't pump at all this time around because I wanted my supply to base itself solely off of Roman's demands.