A month old!

Sunday, October 21 – one month old

Daniel and Callie are one month old today. I can’t believe it’s been a month. It’s been an amazing ride. I’m mostly over the emotional roller coaster, which is nice. Some days it seems like it’s been a long time, and other days it feels like just yesterday they were born. And it feels like just yesterday that I was pregnant –sometimes looking in the mirror catches my by surprise – I expect to see the pregnant me. I have to say that I still really miss being pregnant.

Callie has discovered that she has a tongue – she sticks it out and will touch the end of the nipple with it. We try to do some tummy time each day, and she’ll lift her head a few times, but mostly she just wants to sleep. Her eyes are getting a little lighter, they look like a dark gray/blue now. And when she is awake and alert her eyes dart from side to side, like she’s taking everything in.

I’m having trouble breastfeeding her – she likes it just fine, but she’s lazy. She will make little pacifying type sucks, but not a lot of strong sucking and swallowing – she doesn’t work very hard. So as a result, she is often still hungry after breastfeeding, and so we have to give her a bottle. I’ve been working on getting her latched on better and really paying attention to her sucking, and maybe I’ve seen a little improvement in the last day or so. She’s better in the morning – when the breasts are more full from the night and the milk flows faster. But in the evening or overnight breastfeeding her is frustrating. She’s also a little lazy when it comes to holding her head up.

I always heard that boys will pee when their diaper is off. And of course Daniel does this occasionally – but our real pee-er is miss Callie – get that diaper off and some fresh air on her and she pees. I didn’t know girls did this.

Daniel has such a strong neck – he lifts his head and turns in all directions. He seems to like his tummy time. I have started putting Daniel in the baby bjorn a few times – just to carry him around the house in. Since he is over 8 pounds now, he can get in it.

Callie is still the better sleeper – she will go for 4, 5 and sometimes close to 6 hours. But Daniel maxes out at 3 hours, and then he is hungry. So he pretty much drives the schedule. We usually wake her up to feed her when he wakes up, except for maybe one overnight or early morning feeding – that way we can keep them somewhat on the same schedule and manage to get some sleep. Callie is hungrier during the day, perhaps because she often is getting one less overnight feeding than her brother.

They are both gaining weight really well. On our home scale today, Callie weighs 8 pounds and Daniel weighs 9 pounds. The visibly look like their gaining too – their legs aren’t so skinny any more, and Daniel’s face is filling out. Callie is getting a little bit of a double chin.

Me on the other hand – I have lost 41 pounds. I gained 38 when I was pregnant, so I now weigh 3 pounds less than when I got pregnant. So I’m feeling pretty good about that.

Friday, October 26, 2007 – 5 weeks old

It feels like we’ve turned a corner – we’re getting the hang of things. We have started trading off the overnight feedings – we both do the 10:00 – 11:00 session, then I take the 2am, and Jim does the 6am. So we’re both getting a 5 to 6 hour stretch of sleep, and it makes a world of difference.

Both babies are both starting to discover that they have tongues – they will stick their tongue out a little, touch the nipple or pacifier with their tongue as if to taste it. And they are discovering their voices a little. Daniel especially – he makes all kinds of noise. Callie will coo and squeak a little, but she’s much quieter than her brother.

I think we’ve also turned a corner with breastfeeding – they are both sucking consistently and strongly enough that they get a full meal from breastfeeding for 20 minutes or so – they no longer need a supplemental bottle after. We’re trying to breastfeed about 3 times a day – the day time feedings – and doing bottles for evening and over night.

They are growing so fast, they will be outgrowing some of their clothes soon – things that seemed way to big for them when they were born. I don’t really notice the growth since I look at them every day, but I do see the difference in pictures, and definitely notice in their clothes.