As previously noted, I have
continuously turned to my friends and family as a resource for various
questions and help. I am always amazed
that at times these women could provide such detailed insights and at the same
time not remember key details or events.
And now just 12 weeks a mom, I understand…. Just yesterday a mom of a
four week old baby in our Mommy Group asked for advice and I honestly couldn’t
remember what it was like having a 4 week old… and that was only 8 weeks
ago! So in an effort to save the
memories for when Oskar is older, here is what I can remember so far:
Breastfeeding was hard at first
and around 4 weeks became incredibly easy.
Those first few days and weeks were like preparing for battle. Each morning I would organize the daily
supplies both on the couch and in the bedroom including two full water bottles,
the phone charger, TV remote, snacks, more water, boppy, and a swaddle. Everything had to be laid out ahead of time
so I was ready when he was hungry… Which felt like all of the time.
Night feedings were especially
challenging logistically. In the first
two weeks, I spent so much time just trying to get him to wake up and be alert
enough to eat that by the time he was in position and ready to go, he was back
asleep which required efforts from both me and Martin to keep him awake. It also didn’t help that I needed full light
to see what was going on… so in an effort to let Martin sleep, I began each
night feeding in those early days by moving Oskar and I to the couch which
defeated the purpose of the co-sleeper Martin built him. Thankfully the process evolved and soon we
were doing night feedings in bed with the lights on (sorry Martin) which
transitioned into just a bedside table lamp, then the light of my iPhone and
finally now, no light is required.
I was so afraid of starving Oskar
that anytime he made a noise or appeared to get fussy, I immediately assumed he
was hungry. As the primary provider of
food, I wanted to make sure I was doing my part, (and to be completely honest,
I was afraid of him crying)… on the other hand with Martin being solely
responsible for diapers in those early weeks, any fuss or cry and Martin would
assume Oskar either had gas or needed a diaper change. On one crazy night at 8 weeks, this conflict
of interest resulted in Martin handing me a purple faced Oskar wearing nothing
but socks…halfway through the diaper change, Martin gave up and handed Oskar to
me to comfort through food.
For diaper changes, we had no
idea what we were doing. Each diaper
change resulted in pee on the wall and each poop required in a new outfit and
some stain remover. I think we washed
the changing table cover at least daily and finally gave up on using one altogether. I would truly hate to have a black light in
our house CSI style… it would find everything covered in milk, spit up, pee and
probably poop. The diaper blowouts and
spit up were probably the result of me overfeeding Oskar; but who really knows.
Not only did Oskar eat all of the
time, but I did as well. I was hungry
and thirsty all of the time in those first few weeks. I made sure to have a bowl of nuts by the bed
to snack on in the middle of the night and a large bottle of water to rehydrate
throughout the day. I have finally
stopped eating in the middle of the night (my dentist is thankful for that) and
Oskar and I now have a pretty consistent eating routine of every three
hours.
Overall I think we are doing well
and I am curious and excited to see what the next 12 weeks bring. And I suppose we have a few years to see if
any permanent emotional damage has been caused by our mishaps.
Other key milestones included:
At 3 weeks, Oskar got his first
real bath (yes we were a bit late to the game there) and we started laying down
the foundation of a night time routine. Unfortunately
he also began grunting each morning from 2am to 7am so we stopped swaddling him
at night to see if that helped… it didn’t.
At 4 weeks, he was still on his
own schedule or lack thereof so we had to cancel our anniversary brunch plans…
instead of our annual meal at Foreign Cinema we opted for the local Original
Joes. He has since been back to Original
Joes more times than I like to admit… I found something that works and we are sticking
with it.
At 5 weeks, we enjoyed our first
five hour stretch of sleep during the night!
At 6 weeks, Oskar stopped pooping
at night which meant diaper changes were no longer required. We invested in a box of 12 Hour diapers and
Martin was able to stop changing diapers at night and in theory get a little
more sleep… that was assuming Oskar wasn’t keeping us awake with his grunting.
At 7 weeks, Oskar was nothing but
smiles and really began sleeping well at night
At 8 weeks we went to Germany and
all hell broke loose in terms of progress
At 10 weeks, Oskar laughed out
loud! It was in response to my rendition
of “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” and I hope it was due to my funny faces
rather than my vocal skills
At 11 weeks he began grasping for
things and clasping his hands together.
And the grunting finally stopped!!
He still squirms and grunts a little in the morning but only enough to
fart and then he falls back asleep
It is amazing how much he has
changed in just a few weeks and I can’t wait to see how he progresses from
here!
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