Tuesday, June 14, 2011

1 Month Update

I apologize for not keeping up with my blog lately.  Life with a newborn has been much more hectic than I ever imagined.  Since I don't have time to do weekly updates, I'm just going to post when I have time and am in a bloggy mood :). 

A lot has happened in the last few weeks.  Logan is now a month old, yay!  He's growing so stinkin' fast and time is flying by.  We went to the doctor when he was 3 weeks old and he weighed 8lbs 7oz and was 21" long, which means he had gained 2lbs 3oz and he was 1.5" longer than at birth.  We go back to the cardiologist tomorrow and I'm excited to see how much bigger he is.  I think he's definitely over 9lbs now :).  I can't help but be proud of myself for helping him get to this point.  I knew I would feel great about breastfeeding, but I had no idea until I saw his weight.  Add the little chubby cheeks and baby fat rolls he's getting and we've got a healthy little boy on our hands :).  He still eats like a champ, but I've had to learn a few things along the way. 

It's amazing the things you learn when becoming a mom.  For example, you keep track of your baby's wet and dirty diapers.  You also monitor the color of their poo and if it changes even slightly, you jump onto google and search "newborn green poop normal?", ha :).  This happened last week and I freaked out a little bit.  After researching a bit, I learned that I have an oversupply of milk and that Logan wasn't getting enough of the hind milk (the more fatty/rich milk) because he was getting too much fore-milk (more lean/watery).  I've been trying to keep better track of this and I make sure he drains one side before offering the other.  This seems to be helping, not only with his poop but it also seems to keep his tummy from getting upset.  Once again, I chuckle whenever I find myself talking about baby poop or other bodily functions... I guess you'll only really understand if you're a mom ;).

Logan's heart is still doing pretty well.  At the last appointment the doctor said the hole is still there and it's still pumping blood from one side to the other, which isn't a good thing.  If it doesn't close on its own (we're still praying that it will) we will have to make a decision about surgery.  There are a few options to choose from but the main ones are to just fix the hole (VSD) or to fix everything (VSD & L-TGA).  Please continue to pray for his healing and also pray for us to make the best decisions we can.  We go back for another ultrasound tomorrow and I'm hoping that everything will continue to look great.

Logan still hasn't learned that bedtime means "go to sleep before midnight".  Most nights he wakes up around 9:00 and then is wide awake until 12:30 or 1am.  Once he's asleep he's good for about 3 hours before needing to eat again... and since I'm carrying his food, I get to be the one to get up and feed him.  I have to go back to work in a couple of weeks so I'm hoping bedtime will get a little easier by then.  He sleeps for about 3 hours at a time during the day.  Most of the time he'll sleep in the Pack 'N Play, but he also loves to curl up on my chest and sleep too :).  He's so snuggly that it's hard to put him down :).

His skin has been peeling for the past week, which is apparently a normal thing for newborns.  He also has a little bit of baby acne, which is also normal.  He gets a bath 2-3 times each week now.  He isn't very excited about it, but he doesn't fuss unless he's getting cold.  I can't wait until he takes fun baths, splashing around and making a mess for his mom to clean up ;).

We've taken him out in public a handful of times now and he's usually pretty good about it.  We had an interesting experience in Target, though.  I was looking at baby toys and Jason took Logan to the front of the store (in his stroller) to get a soda and Logan woke up and started screaming.  I heard him from the other end of the store and thought "huh, a baby's crying.... oh, that's Logan's cry!" and had to go help calm him down.  It's funny how you can recognize your baby's cry and differentiate it from other baby's cries.  I felt kinda like supermom after that, even though I didn't really do anything special ;).

I guess that's about all I can think of for Logan.  I'm still healing up, but my incision looks great and it doesn't really hurt unless I poke it.  My bleeding has pretty much stopped (yay!) and my belly isn't looking 6 months pregnant anymore :P.  My organs are still going back into place, but I feel much better about the idea of wearing non-maternity clothes.  I'm still wearing my maternity jeans because the panel helps to control the last bit of my belly that's poking out, but I'm going to be buying a belly band soon so that I can start wearing normal jeans again.  Of course, that means my old jeans have to fit and I have yet to try them on... I'm kind-of avoiding that, but I'm hoping at least some of my old jeans will fit soon.  We shall see :).

I'm still working on finding a good balance with everything at home.  Logan is my priority, but I've started finding time to take a shower daily, put my makeup on (yes, it's necessary), and eat 3 meals each day.  I've also started to cook dinner a few nights each week and I'm working on cleaning things around the house when I can.  I'm not stressing out about making sure the dishes are all clean or the laundry being all folded (trust me) but I try to sweep when I can or straighten things up to make the house look a little less disaster zone-ish.  Hopefully by the time I go back to work, I'll have things even more under control but I'm not going to beat myself up if I'm not June Cleaver :).

As you've probably noticed, I posted a sneak peek of our birth announcements at the top of the blog.  I ordered them a couple nights ago and I'm super excited to get them!  Hopefully they'll get here soon so I can start sending/handing them out.  I hope they look as great in person as they do online :).

I guess that's about it for now.  Logan's asleep so I'm going to try to sneak a shower in.  Until next time...