So Cooper is now 1 month old. He turned 1 month old on November 17, 2014. It seems like the time is passing by so fast. Overall, he is doing great. He is sleeping and eating pretty good and becoming more alert and aware of his surroundings each day.
Weight:
The main concern with Cooper over the first month has been his weight. Cooper was 6 lbs 13 ounces when he was born and dropped to 6 lbs 4 ounces by the time we left the hospital two days later. This was within the 10% weight decrease so it wasn't a concern at that time. However, he continued to lose a bit of weight after we left the hospital. When the midwife came to visit us at home 4 days after he was born, he dropped a bit more and only weighed 6 lbs.
At this point, he had lost about 12% of his body weight which is past the acceptable amount of 10%. It seems that he was losing weight because I was trying to breastfeed and my milk had not come in yet or it was extremely low. Therefore, the midwifery student suggested that I start taking Fenugreek which is a herbal supplement to increase milk supply. Mitch went out that day and bought some and I started taking it right away. The midwifery student recommended that I take 16 pills a day which seemed like way too much since the bottle says only to take 6 capsules a day. I started taking the 6 capsules a day and I think it was working but I found it dehydrated me so much so I cut down especially after my milk came in 6 days postpartum.
Cooper continued to gain weight slowly throughout the 1st month. He made it back to his birth weight at 3 weeks. The midwife gives 3 weeks for a baby to reach its birth weight but most doctors like to see babies at their birth weight within 10 days which is very tricky if you are breastfeeding and there is a delay with your milk coming in. This is why a lot of doctors are quick to suggest supplementing with formula which is something I didn't want to do. Instead I started to pump and supplement with the pumped milk after feedings and I also think pumping really increased my milk supply and he eventually started getting more at each feeding.
At our last doctors visit which was on November 14, 2014, Cooper weighed 7 lbs 4 ounces but I suspect he has gained a few ounces since then.
Circumcision:
In the Jewish religion, the bloodline follows the mother so since I am not Jewish, Cooper is not considered to be Jewish and therefore we couldn't have a Briss but he was circumcised at around 3 weeks. I know that this is a controversial decision these days but for our family it was the right thing to do so please don't judge. I already heard an earful from the midwifery student in this regard, which I was really annoyed about.
The procedure was preformed in the office of a very well known and recommended paediatrician. In fact, I really like this doctor and wish that he was Cooper's regular paediatrician but he is located across the city. I am still trying to convince Mitch to switch doctors.
Anyway, during the procedure, Mitch and I were both in the room. They gave Cooper a local anaesthetic and we also gave him brown sugar water during the procedure. He was fussy when they were first preparing him for the procedure but he was really calm during the actual procedure and he really seemed to like the sugar water. Overall, the procedure went smoothly. We went back to see the doctor who preformed the circumcision a couple times for follow-up visits just to ensure it healed ok, which it did. We did have to apply polysporin to the area for about 2 weeks afterwards at each diaper change to keep it from getting infected.
Breastfeeding:
Even before Cooper was born, I intended to breastfeed Cooper for at least the first year. I researched it a lot and there are so many benefits for both the baby and mother so it was really important that I breastfed. However, breastfeeding was SO much harder than I thought it would be. As I mentioned previously, my milk didn't come in until 6 days postpartum which made it hard. I also had to deal with a bad latch which meant cracked bleeding nipples and I think I also had thrush at about 2 weeks postpartum which made breastfeeding even more painful than it was already. I have to admit that there were a couple times that I asked Mitch to go to the store to buy formula out of complete frustration but luckily he knew how important it was for me to stick to exclusively breastfeeding and he didn't buy it.
As I mentioned above, I had a great support team which is essential if you are serious about breastfeeding. This support team consisted of my husband, my sister, and my midwives. Mitch was there to encourage me on a daily basis, my midwives also encouraged me and helped improve Cooper's latch, and my sister breastfed my niece for a couple of years so she had experience. One of the main things that got me through the difficult first couple of weeks was that my sister told me the first 3 weeks were the hardest and if you can get through those 3 weeks, you can breastfeed as long as you desired. Through every difficult feeding I kept this in my mind and tried to just get through that feeding and it really did get a ton easier at the 3 week mark. His latch improved a lot by 3 weeks and my milk supply was also up. Something really just clicked for us at the 3 week mark. So for anyone that is struggling, just stick it out for at least 3 weeks and it will get a ton easier!
Right now Cooper is feeding like a champ. When he was first born his feedings were about 20-25 minutes per side so about 45-50 minutes long in total. The paediatrician thought this was too long and said they should be about 12-15 minutes long per side. In the last week or so his feedings became a lot shorter and now they are about 12-15 minutes per side and he feeds every 3 hours or so during the day and he can go 4 hours between feedings at night. I think he has become a much more efficient eater in the last few weeks so he is able to get enough milk in a shorter amount of time.
Overall, breastfeeding is becoming second nature and I am so glad that I stuck to it. I hope to breastfeed for at least the first year and to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months. At 6 months I plan to start "baby led weaning" which I will discuss in more detail in a future post.
Sleep:
Cooper has been a pretty good sleeper since he was born. He always slept 3-4 hours and sometimes there would even be a 5 hour stretch. There have been about 3-4 days in the last month where he was fussy and wouldn't nap throughout the whole day. Yesterday being one of them. He was up from 7 am until 3:15pm where he barely slept. During this time he would dose off for about 5-10 minutes and then wake up. He seemed a bit gassy so I am not sure if it was something I ate but he slept pretty well at night.
So far he has been sleeping in his bassinet beside our bed and sometimes taking naps in his swing or bouncy chair but I try not to leave him in those things for too long. The last couple of days he has napped pretty well laying on my chest which is fine with me. I will cherish newborn snuggles for as long as I can.
We don't really have a schedule yet but he usually sleeps for 3-4 hours, feeds, gets his diaper changed, is up for another hour (we bath, sing songs, tummy time etc.) and then goes back to sleep. I would say on average he is up for 2-3 hours in between his naps. During the night, I have been able to get him back to sleep within an hour which is nice.
Our new trick to get him to sleep is playing ocean waves on YouTube. For some reason he seems to love it.
I plan to keep him sleeping in his bassinet for 4-6 months (depending on when he grows out of it) and then putting him in his crib. However, I may start him napping in his crib soon and see how that goes. Overall, I can't complain about his sleep schedule. I think he is a pretty good sleeper.
Baby wearing:
So in theory I am a big fan of baby wearing and I intended to baby wear a lot more than I have. Before Cooper was born, I bought two different carriers. I got the moby wrap and the Ergo with the infant insert. However, in the first few weeks, we both didn't like these carriers so I didn't wear him as much as I thought I would.
We both weren't big fans of the moby wrap at first but it is starting to grow on us. I found it very complicated to wrap and he didn't find it comfortable but now I am getting used to wrapping it and since he is getting better at holding his head up, he is finding it more comfortable.
As for the Ergo, I find it hard to clip the shoulder straps together at the back but he does fall asleep pretty fast in it. However, he wakes up so easily if I try and transfer him. I personally don't find the Ergo that comfortable to wear.
I bought a ring sling a couple days ago and tried it once so far. He didn't like it but I am not sure if I had him in correctly. I really want to try the Mei Tei carrier and see how I like that one. I really want to baby wear more often so hopefully I find a carrier that we both like.
Cloth Diapers:
Early on in my pregnancy I learned about cloth diapers and decided then that I wanted to try it out. I wanted to try it out both for the environmental reasons and also because I thought it was healthier for my baby not to be exposed to the harmful chemicals in disposable diapers. Plus it saves a lot of money depending on what type you use.
We currently use prefolds. I have about 30 bummis prefolds and I have about 5 covers. I will do a separate blog post and discuss our stash in more detail but so far we both like cloth diapering. Mitch was unsure about it when I first mentioned it, but he finds it easier than he thought it would be. At first I wanted to cloth diaper from birth but we didn't start using our cloth diapers until he was 3 weeks old. I have enough diapers to last 2-3 days without washing. I do find that it is hard to get the stains out of the prefolds. I have heard that leaving them in the sun to dry gets out the stains but that is hard to do in the winter. I will try and leave them near a window in the sun if we get a sunny day soon and see if that works. If any of you have any other tricks to get the stains out of prefolds, please let me know.
Now that Cooper is getting bigger, I plan to try our AIO applecheeks diapers. As I said above, I will try and do a blog post on our stash and I will also include a review of the various brands we tried.
Babysitting:
So far I have left Mitch alone with Cooper a couple times while I went to yoga/the gym but I haven't left him alone with anyone else. I think I will feel more comfortable leaving him with other family members once he is a few months old. I am still not sure what we will do for daycare once I go back to work, but we have a while to think about that.
Coopers likes/dislikes:
Likes:
- breastfeeding
- bouncing
- being sung to
- sleeping on mama's chest
- pacifier
Dislikes:
- getting his diaper changed
- bath time
Here are some pictures of Cooper during his first month:
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