Chunky monkey! A smiley chunky monkey! Our little man, is still little by newborn standards, but he has grown SO MUCH! I love that he still looks little and can snuggle into the nook of my shoulder on my chest so nicely...but, you guys....
ETHAN HAS GAINED ALMOST 5 POUNDS!!!
Here's what Ethan's growth looks like so far:
Birth: 6 lbs 5 oz
Discharge: 5 lbs 15 oz
2 weeks: 7 lbs 15 oz
1 month: 9 lbs 3 oz
6 weeks: 10 lbs 13 oz
The only thing I was concerned about at his 6 week appointment is that he's still jaundice. Sometimes I doubt myself....but clearly in these pictures he's still a tinge yellow. His color is slowly improving, but our doc is sending Ethan for blood work just to check things out (boo!) so I'm hoping that it's all well and that it will just clear up on it's own. He certainly doesn't act like a jaundice baby!
So from our discharge from the hospital at his lowest weight, he's gained almost 5 pounds in 6 weeks! Just unbelievable! This 100% makes me not worry about him being so spitty. I talked to my sweet friend Jac about Ethan's spitting, as her son was also very spitty too. We tried some of her tricks and they work! It's not 100%, but it helps and it varies day to day. Some days (or nights) it seems like he spits up everything...(but obviously he doesn't!), and other days he just has a quarter-sized spit. Mostly undigested milk just dribbles out the side of his mouth. I can live with having (another) healthy, spitty baby. It truly is just a laundry problem. (And also I hold my breath and pray that he won't throw up all over whoever is holding him!)
Back to the smiley part! This week, right when he turned 6 weeks on Tuesday he started smiling on purpose. My mother-in-law always says to Ethan "are you going to give Mommy some smiles now? She deserves it you know!" and he listened! Oh he's just so so sweet and him smiling on purpose is just the icing on the cake. He's also trying to coo....but he grunts SO much (as you have heard on Twitter if you follow me, surely!) that it's hard to distinguish anything other than a grunt!
He had his 6 week growth spurt right on time and I was up from 4:30 AM one day until 2:30 AM the next. Eat, eat, eat! No wonder why he's gaining so much weight! He also took a bottle for the first time yesterday, just a breeze! Guzzled 3 oz and then nursed on one side after. Can I get a "FREEEEEDOMMMMMM!!!!" and a "hallelujah!!" please!? Actually, Jay and I are planning a matinee date to celebrate Ethan's bottle-taking abilities! I'm not ready to sacrifice my sleep at night yet until he starts sleeping longer, so we'll go out in the afternoon.
Speaking of sleep, all is still fairly well in that department. He sleeps anywhere from 4-6 hours the first stretch, eats, and then sleeps another 2-3 hours. But since he turned 6 weeks this week, he had a growth spurt and it's thrown him off a bit, as he thinks it's cool to party in the middle of the high again, which I hate! It makes me feel like SUCH a mombie (that's zombie + mommy).
He naps really well too, but I can tell he's getting out of the "I'm-a-newborn-and-will-sleep-anywhere-anytime-through-anything" phase! Sometimes he will sleep while being passed around (when I want him to be awake, of course!) but other times he's up for hours because there's too much going on around him.
Breastfeeding is going really, really well. I love this instant bond that I've had with both of my babies because of this. My supply is abundant and as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, he goes though phases throughout the day of being really spitty and then not so much. Just praying that he outgrows this sooner than later! I think his latch could still be better, but it doesn't bug me and it doesn't bug him, other than potentially being spitty.
I'm starting to have to take a little more time to get him down for a nap too. He falls asleep nursing, but with his insane grunting (seriously, this baby is the loudest, gruntiest thing!) I have to rock him into a deep sleep or he'll be unsettled with his grunts and eventually spit himself awake. If I'm impatient (like I often am in the middle of the night), and try to lay him down too fast then he spits and I have to start over. It doesn't take long, and I'm soaking up all the snuggles I can!
Have I mentioned how much I still love my camera, tripod, and remote? Love that I have been able to take all of his photos, they mean all the much more to me! Phew! That was a long post, hey!?
