9 Week Postpartum Update!

I don't have much to say about myself. I saw my nurse practitioner yesterday for what should have been a "6 week" check up. She said everything is great and healed up perfect. I got the go ahead for everything. Which isn't a surprise since I'm 9 weeks postpartum haha! I was going to weigh myself and I totally forgot! I think I'll just use a scale at Walmart next time I go haha! I do notice a big change in my body over the last month! Thanks breastfeeding!
I haven't been exercising per say, but we do try go for a walk every day. It's been rainy and cold outside, so we've just been staying warm indoors. I also haven't really been eating the greatest. I need to start planning meals that are healthy and take about 15 minutes to whip up. I don't have much spare time on my hands. This baby of mine doesn't like to be alone for very long.

Now onto Hunter!

Height/Weight: 

We just had Hunter's 2 month appointment today. He is 9 weeks and 1 day.
He is 62.5cm long.. 3.5cm in 3 weeks! My tall baby.
He weighs 13 lbs 12 oz.
His head circumfrence is 42 cm.
Our nurse practitioner, Kelly, said he is at the top of the charts for his age!

Routine:
Our routine hasn't really changed much in the last 3 weeks, except for the fact that the 4-5 hour stretch of sleep he had going on, no longer exists.
We wake up around 7am & play because he is so frikkin smiley and happy at this time. Then he eats and goes to sleep again. Then when he wakes up, I feed him & then entertain him for a little while. It usually doesn't take too much effort to keep him happy in the morning. He then goes back to sleep, wakes up, eats and then this is about the time of day where he needs a bit more entertainment. He actually loves watching cartoons for a short period of time. He likes Betty Boop. Nap. Wake up & eat. We usually go for a walk around this time if its nice outside. Come home, more entertainment. Nap, wake up, eat. Do things. Nap, wake up, eat. Do things. Bath. Bedtime.
Then he sleeps for about 3-4 hours, which is his longest stretch of sleep.. That is, if he doesn't go into one of his insane crying fits. Then instead of falling asleep, we bounce on the yoga ball & I usually end up having to feed him again before he goes to sleep.
He's a good sleeper at night. He wakes up to eat and then crashes right out again. I don't need to put him to sleep like I do during the day. Depending on when he goes to sleep "for the night", he'll wake up around 12am, 2 am, 4-5am, then up around  7 "for the day".  

Sleeping:
I've been trying really hard to get him to take longer naps during the day. When he starts fussing and waking up, I stick his soother back in his mouth. If that doesn't work, I'll pick him up and bounce him on the yoga ball. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. He usually starts fussing about 20 minutes into a nap. If I try really hard, I can get him to sleep for around an hour.  Night time is a breeze. Even though I wake up every couple hours, he's so quiet and efficient, that we fall right back asleep.

His sleepy smiles are so cute!

Eating/Feeding:
He normally eats every time he wakes up from a nap. It only takes him about 10 minutes to feed on one boob. He's also started nursing from the other side again, which takes about another 5-10 minutes.
We've also started to give him a bottle of pumped breast milk. That boy doesn't know what "nipple confusion" is. He's drank from 2 different bottles, has a soother, and still nurses like a champ. Makes my life much easier in the feeding department, thats for sure! We've only given him 3 bottles over the last few days. 1 was just to test at home to see how he'd like it. The other 2 were brought for long car rides.

Sizes: 
I feel like he just grew into 0-3 month clothing, and now he's pretty much starting to grow out of them. The onesies all fit, because they have a good stretch to them haha! But soon I'll be packing them away because he's been wearing a few 3-6 month outfits & is quickly growing into them with no problem what so ever.
He's also in size 2 diapers. There was a couple size 1's in his diaper bag that I didn't use, so I put one on him the other day, just so they didn't go to waste. HA! Yah... right. They don't fit. 

Milestones:

He found his hands & it was the cutest thing to watch!

He's much more aware of his surroundings. He was entertained by a toy hanging from his car seat. He sat there for like 15 minutes just looking at it & trying to reach for it. 

His vision must be getting much better as well. He can see me standing across the room. 

He is so interactive! He's getting ticklish, which is so cute. 

He smiles and giggles <3 Melt my heart. 

6 Week Postpartum Update!

I wanted to wait until after my 6 week postpartum check up to do this post, but that appointment was moved to June 1st and I'll be 9 weeks by then! So I thought I would do it now. Im a little closer to 7 weeks but thats ok. Close enough! Plus Hunter has changed so much since 3 weeks! So I need to do an update!
I'm feeling pretty much back to normal, recovery wise. My belly is nowhere near where it was pre-pregnancy. It's still squishy & there's stretch marks all over the lower part of it.. but that's ok. I feel as though breastfeeding is helping with the weight loss & shrinking the belly though. I really don't exercise much, besides for going on a walk everyday.... and it's nothing intense, believe me. Now that it's nice outside [finally], it's easy to be outdoors! I'll probably start kicking those walks up a notch now. I just wanted to take it easy for the first little bit, while I was healing.
 As for my milk supply, it's doing good & I've started pumping and freezing. I only have 5 or 6 bags in the freezer, but I'm in no rush to get a huge stash right away. I'm always with him, so he doesn't ever really need a bottle. It's nice to have a stash in the freezer though, just in case. I have to pump in the morning anyway since I'm usually pretty engorged by then. I have to pump one side while I nurse him on the other. I find I don't get as much in one sitting if I was to just pump on my own.
Also, my nails are growing so fast, and they're so strong!

As for Hunter the last 3 weeks! I can't believe he's almost 7 weeks old. Unreal. He's going to be 2 months soon!


Height/Weight: 
We measured him the other day, and he's at 59 cm!! That's 6 cm longer then when he was born! He's growing way too fast. I'm not sure of his weight, we'll get that at his next appointment on June 2nd.

Routine:
Slowly but surely, we'll have a routine. Right now, he has a bath around 7, then he nurses & goes to sleep around 8. This is when he sleeps the longest, usually about 4-5 hours. Then he wakes up to feed, goes back to sleep, then wakes up 2 more times to nurse before waking up for the morning at 7am. Everything after that is kind of a go with the flow kinda schedule.

Sleeping:
He sleeps really well at night, as in, he wakes to feed & falls right back asleep for a couple more hours. He's so different during the day. He fights sleep so hard, that he's exhausted by the time we finally get him to shut his eyes... which takes an hour or 2 sometimes. Then when he's finally sleeping, he wakes up 15 minutes later. Sometimes, I can get him to go back to sleep for another 15 or so minutes, but other times, he's just awake. Day time naps are something were still trying to figure out over here. He doesn't just fall asleep.. He needs to be put to sleep. Rocking, bouncing, swaddling... I've tried laying him in his bassinet half sleeping, to soothe himself to sleep. I've tried co-sleeping. He's getting a bit more used to his soother, so I find that's starting to help him go to & stay sleeping. He just woke up from a 20 minute nap, & I put his soother in his mouth, and he fell back asleep. Were trying all the things!

Eating/Feeding:
He only breastfeeds. We haven't given him a bottle since his 2 week check up. He eats when he wakes up & sometimes he needs to nurse before he falls asleep. I've also noticed that he's a really efficient eater. It only takes him about 10 minutes to nurse before he's done and ready to burp. I usually try to offer the other breast as well, just in case... but he's hardly ever interested.

Sizes:
We officially packed up all his newborn clothing at 4 weeks. My baby is getting so big! He's now in 0-3 month clothing. He's still in size 1 diapers, but after this package is finished, he'll be moving up into size 2's.

Milestones:
He smiles and makes so many cute baby noises. His most talkative time of day is definitely when he wakes up in the morning.
He also makes the cutest faces.
He follows you or objects if they're moving in front of his face.
He sucked his thumb for the first time yesterday! It was the cutest thing.
He is at the point now, where he's shoving his hands, my hands, blankets, anything he can, in his mouth & chewing/sucking. He's such a drooly monster.

Newborn - 3 Week Postpartum Update!

So I decided I'm going to do postpartum updates..Why not right? It only makes sense! I'll do a quick blurb about me [except todays might be a little longer since its my first update for the first 3 weeks...] and how I'm doing postpartum, and then I'll comment on the 6 topics below on how Hunter is doing! 

Today's post is going to be a mash of my 1, 2 and 3 weeks postpartum status, because come on... I'm never going to remember what happened and when... My brain is complete mush! I was shocked to hear the date the other day... I was like, a week behind in my world! haha! Anyway... and then it'll probably be weekly updates after that!

So I recovered from birth pretty well I must say! I did get some stitches, so that was pretty tender in the beginning, and I feel as though it gets worse before it gets better... Needless to say, lots of Advil and Tylenol were had. 

My milk came in full force on day 4 or 5 I believe. I know 3 days is the average, but I think it took a little longer for me because we were under so much stress at the hospital. We ended up staying for a few more days longer then we originally hoped... & it wasn't a pleasant stay. But, my milk finally came in, & that was so nice because I could tell that my baby was much more satisfied after feedings. We ended up having to "top up" with formula while we were in the hospital, and a couple days of being at home [we just quit giving it to him one day]. He originally wasn't getting enough from just the colostrum, and after a nurse fed him some formula one night, I could tell it was something that he needed until my milk came in. He had a couple bad days before we started giving him formula, and once we started topping him up, he was like a whole new baby! I felt so bad right off the bat because I felt like I was starving him! Then I was thankful, because he stopped screaming and slept.

I wish I had a scale. I have no idea what my weight is at. I'm quite curious! I won't be seeing anyone until 6 weeks postpartum, so 3 more weeks to go. I'm glad my nurse practitioner can see me for that. I quite missed her... and we all know how I feel about my OB. 

Since I am breastfeeding, I have that to thank for my belly shrinking as fast as it did. I'm still quite jiggly and shmushy... but I could tell my uterus shrunk rather quick....I noticed visibly and quite physically. I got a lot of contractions/cramping while nursing for the first week. It was an all too familiar feeling haha! Felt just like period cramps. 

Belly definitely has a slew of stretch marks. I definitely couldn't see them when I was pregnant, but theres a bunch of small ones on my lower belly. No big deal... but they're definitely noticeable now!

I've been going for walks almost everyday with Hunter. He likes walking, and I like to see him not crying! He's been quite fussy during the day the last few days, and it breaks my heart to see him cry like that sometimes. I think he just fights sleep for so long, then he get like, overtired.. and that's when shit hits the fan. So it's nice to break up one of those crying cycles with a walk! I can fit back into a pair of pre pregnancy jeans, so it must be helping momma too! 

41 weeks & 2 weeks postpartum

Height/Weight: Hunter was 53 cm tall and 9 lbs 6 oz when he was born. He then lost 8% of his body weight while we were in the hospital. 8 days after he was born, he was weighed again at our Mommy & Baby lactation appointment. He weighed 9 lbs 7 oz! The following Monday at his 2 week check up, 6 days later, he was weighed 10 lbs, 5 oz and grew 3 cm, putting him at 56 cm total! My nurse practitioner said "obviously breastfeeding is going really well for you two!".... So nice to hear! We have the option of going for a 1 month appointment, which would be next week, but I'm not sure if were going to make it or not. Otherwise his next check up is at 2 months I believe. 

Routine:

Nothing has really stuck so far.. Just as I start to get used to one routine, he starts another. 

While we were in the hospital, he was doing a good routine of every 3 hours - eat, burp, diaper, sleep, repeat. That was alright.. Plus he slept like 3-5 hour stretches at night, and still does.

Things have changed a few times since then... now were doing kind of a wake up around 9am, eat, burp, diaper, eat, burp, play, eat sleep. Repeat. He's been eating so much lately, and he's been extra fussy. Around the 2 week mark, he was rally fussy in the evening for a few hours. The last couple days he's been fussy all day, from about 1pm-9pm ish. So, lots of cluster feeding.

Sleeping: 

He started off sleeping in 3 hour intervals... except at night where he would stretch it out to about 4-5 hours straight. 

Since then, times have changed. He's been hitting all sorts of growth spurts and now his sleep is all over the place. He used to wake up around 9am and stay awake for a few hours, then take a couple more naps in the afternoon, then go to "bed" at about 9pm and wake every few hours to eat, burp, change diaper, and then right back to sleep. He's always been really good at night time. 

Now were at wake up around 7 or 8am... go back to sleep. Wake around 11, back to sleep. Then from about 1pm and on, it's his fussy time. He sleeps very short periods of time until 9pm or so. Takes multiple little naps that are nowhere near long enough, and put him in a rotten mood. He wakes up every couple hours in the night now, but is still pretty good with going back to sleep right away...... except for last night. He woke up at 2am.. and stayed awake until 5:30am.. then woke up somewhere between 6 and 630am. That was the first night that I didn't get a good nights sleep. 

Eating/Feeding:

I'm exclusively breastfeeding now. In the hospital, we were topping him up with an oz of formula, but I stopped that a couple days after getting home.

Again, he was nursing about every 3 hours in his first week. 

Now he nurses probably way more often then that because he tends to cluster feed. I do think he's pretty efficient though, when he's not cluster feeding. He'll drain a boob in like 10 minutes! 

Sizes:

He's started growing out of his newborn sleepers and onesies! I went to put him in the one he wore home from the hospital, and it was so small! I now have a stack of clothes he doesn't fit started already :( 

They grow too fast.

Speaking of newborn sizes... he definitely grew out of the NB diapers in a matter of maybe 2 days. They did fit him, but the size 1's just looked more comfortable. He's still in size 1's for now, but I wouldn't be surprised if we changed to size 2's soon. 

Milestones:

His umbilical cord fell off on day 10 I believe. 

Smiling. He loves when I give him kisses or make noises in his mouth.. it's so cute!

His neck and legs are really strong. He likes to stand or pulling himself up into a sitting position when he's laying down.