One Month Old

 
If my scale and the NICU scale are in agreement, then Oliver has gained an average of 21 grams a day the past 5 days. On Sunday the doctor said they'd like him to gain 30 grams a day. This morning he weighed 4lb 5.5oz on our scale. I don't think he lost weight over the past 3 days. The weight at the Pediatrician's office included a wet/poopy diaper (today's was with a dry diaper) as well as the belt and plastic sensors for the monitor (just the little sticky sensors today). Hopefully he'll keep gaining at a good pace so the Pediatrician will be pleased 2 weeks from today. In honor of Oliver turning one month, the Post Office delivered his birth certificate to our house. I feel badly that I haven't taken many pictures that past month. I took many today! He's wearing preemie size clothes and Pampers' preemie (size S) diapers. At the first hospital they used size XS, and those fit him better, but he was wearing size S at the second hospital (they don't use the size XS at all) so I bought a case of that size from Amazon. Here's a link to Ian and Nadia's one month old posts.

Oliver is doing well with nursing, and he usually drinks all 20ml by bottle when I offer him that. He seems to be a pretty easy going baby thus far. At home (where he doesn't experience things like having his blood drawn) he doesn't cry very much - just a couple of times a day when he's letting me know he's hungry. He pulls his cannula out of his nose umpteen times a day. He spends from about 6 or 7am until about 10 or 11pm in the family room, and the other hours he spends in his bedroom. Today I got out the gym I bought for him in May. I need to start working on tummy time with him although he does sleep on his belly some (something that will have to stop when he goes off the oxygen and monitor). Nadia and Ian love him very much. They both stop and talk to him throughout the day, and they both ask me to hold him many times a day. He does pretty well with sleeping as long as he's swaddled (with his arms free) although there's always one stretch in the night where he wants to be fed every time I put him in his bed.

He always gives me at least one three hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep a night, and sometimes he gives me two of those. I am handling the sleep deprivation better this time. I think that is partially due to the fact my sleep was interrupted almost every night this summer (by nurses taking my vitals and such). Even though Ian is doing an amazing job with his naps this week (he slept in his bed for 2 hours today!), I have been using that time to get work done rather than take a nap myself, which prove I am handling getting less sleep much better than I did when Nadia and Ian were newborns. Today I took everything out of Oliver's bedroom closet (and it was filled to the gills) and reorganized it (moved some things to other locations). When Paul came home at 7pm, I promptly went outside and mowed most of the lawn. I would have finished the project, but I had to stop when I could no longer see what I was doing. It felt great to be outside. I have spent almost NO time outside over the past 3 months. I can't wait to start going to the park once the Weego arrives in the mail. I have a bit of cabin fever although I vastly prefer being at home with my three blessings to being in the hospital!!!