Newborn Summary – Week 5

This is a newborn summary for Sven ages 4-5 weeks old.

NURSING
Nursing has been going fairly well for me with Sven. Mary, the nurse at Fairview Southdale showed me a trick early on to keep Sven “at the table” and not snacking. It was to push this area near his collarbone/shoulder that would make him eat. I’ve asked everyone I know after if they’ve ever heard of this. No one has. But it worked like a charm and I never had to fight with him sleeping during feeds after we learned that! Getting Anika to eat was a nightmarish struggle so this made things SO much easier. I have a good milk supply this time and generally find myself pumping once a day in the morning. Usually by the morning, I’m so full that Sven will only feed from one side. Well, this starts us down a bad path of him only eating from each side every 6 hours, which would really slow down my supply. So I pump everything off after his early morning feed and then I’m good to go for the day. I think this also has helped us sail through some growth spurts. I am always ahead of the game, so if he needs more, there’s more to be had.

SLEEPING
No breakthroughs here. Sven is still eating about every 3 hours (from start to start). I’m “letting him sleep” at night but generally he still gets up twice at night although there have been two 6 hr sleep stretches at night. I’m chalking this up to his having been up for the 4+ hrs before that crying. I think he has reflux and is maybe just a hard baby to calm. So he was tough to get down. Also, it seems my only sleep success happens in the swing. I’ve given up my strict ideas that I had with Anika that he must take every nap in his crib at this point. My thought is that in the newborn stage, sleep is better than overtired. I’d guess about half his sleep happens in the swing. Is this safe? I’m not sure. I hope so. I hope I’m not doing long-term sleep damage. I’m hoping he’ll start growing out of the fussiness, reflux, newborn baby stuff and begin to be able to sleep in his crib more. Also, I’m a firm believer in swaddling, but he hates it! He cries when I start to swaddle him and seems so uncomfortable. I can’t wait until 3 months when I don’t have to do it anymore.

BOTTLES
So we started introducing a bottle last week. Anika rejected bottles because we waited too long to introduce them. It seems to be going ok. We need to be more diligent about trying it once a day. He has been close to rejecting it already a couple times.

BURPING
I only mention this here because I’ve finally been able to get more predictable burps out of Sven. After a feeding, I sit him up, give him gas drops and then sit there for about a minute. Then I usually weigh him, and what’s important here is that I’m laying him down for a few seconds. Then I pick him up under his arms, letting his body hang below him and then prop him up on my shoulder. I bounce, pat his back and usually get a burp. This sometimes results in hiccups…but at least I’m getting some air out! I had hoped this would help me get him to sleep and stay asleep but it doesn’t seem so yet.

WAKETIME
I’ve found that in the afternoons Sven can handle being awake a little longer. Usually I’m trying to wind him down pretty soon after his diaper change/feeding (30-40 minutes after waking) but now that he is showing us his smiles (yay!), it seems like he wants to be a little more social. So I am watchful for his sleepy signs…he usually yawns and then get him right to bed (which means I’m usually spending the next hour trying to get him to sleep).

EMOTIONS
I’m still struggling on this front a little. The weepiness, hormonal stuff feels mostly gone, but I have been really negative. I really am not a fan of the “newborn” phase of a babies life. They’re unpredictable and don’t allow me much sleep. I need these two things in my life. Sleep and predictability. So I’m working on the negative vibes. My husband has been a lifesaver here. He’s been patient and does his best to talk me through it. This too shall pass.

So that’s it. I’m actually manning the monitor now. He woke up after 20-30 minutes of laying him down for bed at 10:15pm. (I knew this would happen which is how I had time to write all this) I actually waited to make sure he was really crying before going in to get him. I didn’t want to wake him up if he was sleep-crying. I held him for a few minutes, tried to quiet him which didn’t work and thought, ‘well, I’ll try the swing.’ This time though it doesn’t seem to be working. Its been 15 minutes, he still has his eyes open and is whining. So its now 11:21pm. I may have to go in and intervene. This could be another long night. I can’t wait until things get easier!