[one month]

Ryan was one month old on Thursday! It's kind of hard to believe... it really doesn't feel like he has been around that long. Time flies when you are having fun! He is still such a peanut... well, a long peanut. He only weighs 4oz more than when he was born [so he weighs 8lbs, 6oz now]. We will DEFINITELY be retiring the newborn clothes soon for length reasons as opposed to weight reasons! He looks scrawny in his legs and arms because he is growing longer but not really much 'bigger' yet. His belly is cute and round, though. 

A home health nurse has come twice in the last two weeks to check his weight and comes once more this week. He had an appointment with the pediatrician on Monday and she was very happy with how he looked... very little yellow color, more alert, etc. We don't have to go back until his 2 month appointment unless we are concerned about the jaundice. His face does seem yellow still, but that's the last place for it to leave... it starts in the head, works its way down the body and then back up. So it would be more concerning if his torso and legs were yellow, which they aren't.

I stopped giving him formula on Thursday. I just didn't want to do it anymore. I understood the reason for it in the hospital; so he would have extra fluids to prevent dehydration and so he could flush out the jaundice. But supplementing with it just so he gains weight [what the pediatrician wanted me to do] did not make sense to me. Don't babies gain weight at different rates than each other [rhetorical question]? I did a lot of reading, on Kellymom.com and other places and it just re-affirmed in my heart, in my gut, about what I was thinking and feeling about formula. Formula definitely has its place and is sometimes necessary; it's not "evil," by any means. But in my heart of hearts, I just felt like it wasn't necessary now, unlike it had been before. I'm home with him all the time, and am able to feed on demand. So I stopped. 

I met with a lactation consultant on Saturday. She doesn't think the problem with BFing at all is my supply, but rather that he isn't a good sucker. He does so much pacify sucking and not the "suck, suck, swallow" that he should be. He has a strong suck but isn't very efficient. She was fine with me not supplementing with formula, but still wanted me to pump after every feeding [minus the night time ones, unless I wanted to] and bottle feed him that ounce or so or whatever I get. So that's what we do now. I was willing to do just about anything to keep breastfeeding, so I'm pretty happy with where we are at right now.

Other than all that stuff, it's going really well. He is such a good baby. Obviously, he is a baby... which as we all knows = pooping, crying, etc. But his personality is so mild and he is really calm and content most of the time. I'm not trying to put him on a routine by any means [my frustration with people putting babies on routines so young is another post for another day], but I can already tell that he has kind of a pattern with his day, and it's nice. For the most part, he just isn't a fussy baby... and boy, does he like his sleep at night. He usually wakes on his own at night time, but I sometimes get him up. I don't go longer than four hours, even though I probably 'could...' just to get those extra calories in him. After he nurses, he gets his diaper changed, is swaddled, rocked for about ten minutes and then he stays asleep  inthe pack n play until the next feeding.

I'm not going to lie: after all I've been through this last year, with Africa and the hard pregnancy... then the rough times in the hospitals and with breastfeeding problems... it's kind of nice to have things calm down significantly. Jake has been an absolute blessing... he is such a servant and is taking such good care of us. And he loves his little boy so much... I love to see him talk to Ryan, give him kisses... it's so sweet.

We have another home health visit on Thursday; I'll be able to update more about him then [weight, length, etc]. But for now, here are a few pictures of my sweet little boy.