Gabriel at 1 Month Old!

2 Week Stats
Weight: 9 pounds, 4 ounces (66%) [at 11 Days: 8 pounds, 13 ounces]
Length: 21 inches (72%)
Head circumference: 36.5cm (38%)

"Ceiling fan!" We said that a lot.

Likes:
-Being held tummy down on an arm or laying face down on your chest
-Patting his back
-Looking at ceiling fans, lights or the television
-His vibration seat
-His swing

-Riding in the car
-Bath time

 Dislikes:
-Having gas
-The nasal aspirator
-The initial getting-buckled-in to his carrier. Once he was in the car, he was out!

Clothes/Diapers:
Gabriel wore a mix of both NB and 0-3 month clothes. We switched him to size 1 diapers (both Pampers and Huggies Naturals) at 4 weeks old. We recorded every time he peed & pooped for the first week & a half... before it became too much. It was apparent he was getting enough to eat so there was no need to continue.

Eating:
We also recorded every feeding, including which side he nursed on, otherwise I couldn't keep track. He nursed every 1 1/2-2 hours {breastfeeding is very rewarding but also very exhausting at times!}. I used the Boppy and positioned him in either the football or cross-cradle hold. Perry gave him his first bottle at 3 1/2 weeks old; we waited until breastfeeding was well-established but needed to get him used to taking milk from a bottle since I would be returning to work in a few weeks. We had 4 different brands to try and ranked them based on what we thought he would like the best (shaped most like Mom). Turns out we were right- Tommee Tippee (Closer To Nature for Sensitive Tummies).

Sleeping:
I can't remember specifics, but I think Gabe slept 2-4 hour stretches. We kept him in our room for 4 weeks. He slept in the bassinet that my Grandpa made!

As nervous new parents, we liked that we could keep a closer eye on him. The downside was that we kept a light on all night which made it more difficult for Perry to sleep, even with it being very dim. If we took turns getting up to rock or change him, the other person was usually still disrupted. Since he is exclusively breast-fed, I had to wake up a lot more frequently than Perry. Having him in our room, I could crawl out of bed, scoop him up and hop back in before my side of the sheets got cold. It was a great arrangement until he started crying after feeding due to bad gas and would scream right in Perry's ear. Some nights we had to "walk the floors" for hours, trying to get him to be quiet soothe him. He was swaddled until 4 weeks old- when we moved him into his crib in his room!! Blankets worked okay, but we really liked the simplicity of Summer Infant's SwaddleMe's with velcro tabs- and he couldn't kick his way out of it!

Hair & Eyes:
Very dark blackish-brown, oily hair. His forehead and little ears were hairy, too! His eyes were mostly grey but looked bluish in certain lighting.

Randoms:
-At birth, he had a little bit of a draining eye but we noticed the amount of discharge gradually increased. We took him to his Pediatrician at 11 days old (even though we had an appointment in 3 days for his 2 week well visit!). They suspected it was a blocked tear duct but prescribed erythromycin ointment to be used 4x day. His right eye was effected for a little while but it was mostly his left. It finally cleared up after 8 weeks!
 -He was a gassy boy. It was horrible!! He seemed so uncomfortable; he would thrust his legs out straight and scream. It was a different cry, like he was in pain :( We thought it might be colic but we're pretty sure it was gas-related. Patting his back and "cycling" his legs helped a little, but Little Tummys Gas Relief Drops probably did the most good.
-He had baby acne. I think it started around 3 weeks old but cleared up after maybe a week.
-His umbilical cord stump fell off at 9 days old. No, I didn't keep it. Yes, we took pictures!
-We had our own "photo shoot" with different backgrounds & props when Gabe was 2 1/2 weeks old. My great-grandmother knit the blue & white blanket (top left), the blue booties were Perry's as a baby (top right), and the yellow blanket (center) was cross-stitched by Perry's Mom when she was pregnant with him!

-A majority of the time, his facial expression was very serious. It made us smile.
-He met a LOT of family & friends in a month! {Sorry if I forgot anyone}

-I never noticed a major change in the fullness of my hair while pregnant, but when Gabriel was a couple weeks old, my hair came out in clumps! 
-*Warning: Getting ready to share TMI* Breastfeeding went well for the most part; I'm not going to lie- it was pretty painful for ~1 week but I pressed on through it. There really wasn't another option to me. I would wince when he first latched on, but the pain subsided after a minute or two. Thankfully I never cracked but I did use Lansinoh Lanolin cream for a few days. The menstrual-like cramps I experienced while nursing were bad, but I guess I should be thankful that it's the body's natural defense against bleeding after giving birth. Since I had 2nd degree tears & a 3rd degree laceration {ouch}, I was sore for a while. I sat on a donut or just leaned to the side...

What a way to end a blog post... but I LOVE my boy!!!