A fast month!

2/28/16

Hunter's first month has flown by!!! He's eating and sleeping lots. He's finally gaining some weight, and he poops like it's his job!!!

The first week or so, we were preoccupied with his eating. He wasn't latching on very well and sometimes refused to eat. One day he barely got the amount of wet diapers he was supposed to have and was really fussy so we were worried he was getting dehydrated. Finally, at about 1am one morning after an hour of screaming and not eating, Laura called the nurse hotline number. They told us to just give him a bottle of milk and see what he did with that. Well, because he wasn't eating good, we had a good supply of milk already on hand since Laura began pumping within a couple days of being home. The little guy took the bottle likes champ and polished off a couple of ounces in no time. Of course, that led to a little bit of an upset stomach, but by the time he fell asleep we were more at ease and felt better about his eating. 

It took a couple of weeks, but he finally made it back to his birth weight. We know babies drop weight after they are born and they put it back on after mommy's milk comes in, but bigger babies lose more weight (weight loss is measured by %). He took a little longer than expected, but as of a few days ago at his last appointment, he weighed 10lbs 5oz! He's now almost a pound heavier than he was at birth. To top it all off, our baby boy has already outgrown a pair of PJs!!!

He sleeps a ton! Unlike Erica, Hunter snoozes often during the day! She never slept! Hunter seems to be like a lion who has no problem taking a couple of long naps during the day. Some days it seems like he's barely awake, and other days he's perfectly content snuggling on a lap or in Laura's arms for hours at a time. 

Erica is loving her little brother. She talked to him and quotes things we say. When he cries she talks to him and tries to comfort him. When I give him a bath, she's right there wanting to help. When we change a diaper, she wants to unsnap his clothes and she'll hand us a wet wipe! We are really lucky she loves him and wants to be with him! I think we were both nervous about how she would react but it's going great! It'll probably change at some point, but for now, we are definitely not complaining!

Everyone one is figuring out how they work best together. Hunter and mommy have their night time feelings down pretty good and Laura is back in bed within 30 minutes of getting up with him. He snuggles on her chest during the day and looks for her when he hears her voice. I've gotten down my "daddy sway" as Laura calls it. After swaddling him tightly, I sway at the hips and pat his butt while he's in my arms and within 5 minutes, he's out cold!!!

Lastly, he is making faces at us and smiling. Laura will sit with him and make faces for long periods of time and he mimics her with his tongue, raising eyebrows, opening the mouth and so on. It's getting more interactive with him and he's been smiling at us the last few days so we've had some fun!

It's been a fast month and we can't believe it's gone by already! Hunter's been a lot of fun getting to know and as Erica says every day, "baby Hunter is so cute!" Thanks for checking in on us, and thanks for reading my Daddy Diary!!!

PS...Lexi hates us far less at this point than she did when we brought Erica home! She's even given him a few licks as we hold him or if he's lying on the floor! I guess the boy already has his best friend!!!

Ninja sleep

His favorite activity...snuggling with mommy

Daddy with his favorite little people!

Watching a Wild game today on the couch