How is my little bear cub one month old already?
Time is flying far too fast!
My little sweetpea is four weeks old going on five and I have no idea how it’s come round this fast! The past month feels like it has flown by even though it’s been a tough one. He’s still a newborn so there isn’t an awful lot to say about where he’s at in terms of development but there have obviously been quite a few changes over the weeks. This post is also going to be photo heavy, as I’ve taken so many cute snaps of him if you haven’t already seen on Twitter & Instagram…
Bump to Baby:
It was my little sisters idea to do this and I thought it was a really cute concept so I took the picture in one of my maternity outfits knowing that it would still fit after the birth. I think it’s made a really cute memory and it’s going to look fab in my scrapbook!
First Snaps:
The first picture is the very first photo I posted of him and the second was took when he was 4 days old. So small and squishy! When he was born, the hospital hats were too small for his head (see above) but the ones I had were too big! He was an 8lb 8oz baby but he looks so tiny here compared to him now. I want him to be this small again but at the same time, it’s so exciting seeing him grow and seeing all the changes as he develops. Also how cute is this bear onesie? I’m obsessed.
Getting Re-admitted to Hospital:
A week after I gave birth, I started showing symptoms of having a womb infection, my temperature was sky high and I was losing blood clots that smelt really weird. I ended up in hospital for 6 days and it was absolute hell. Yeah I got put into a side room so I wasn’t on a ward or anything but I actually had to have a drip put in each arm, the doctor couldn’t find my veins on my hands (even though they managed when I gave birth?) and put a cannula into my arm instead. I had to have two so I basically lost all use of both arms and couldn’t even pick Reuben up. Not being able to pick up your one week old baby or feed him or anything was pretty tough so when they finally came out it was such a huge relief. However that was like 2 or 3 days later… Once I started on the antibiotics and started to recover, they came to give Reuben a check over and realised he had a temperature. They ended up calling in the paediatrician and they thought he might have caught my infection which I think turned out to be Strep A, so to be on the safe side, they put him on antibiotics whilst they did some tests. It was so horrible seeing him with a cannula in his tiny arm, I cried when I first saw him with it in! Anyway fast forward to day 6, his test results came back clear, I was on oral antibiotics by this point and we both got discharged and finally got to go home. It really isn’t what you need when you’ve just had a baby and want to enjoy your newborn but it’s all in the past now thankfully, I’m just so glad he ended up having nothing wrong with him!
Development:
In terms of development and things, over the past week or so, he’s started to be a lot more aware of things around him. He has his eyes open a lot more than he did in the first couple of weeks and he’s absolutely obsessed with bright lights. He stares at any ceiling lights when he’s being cradled and he loves staring at my fairy lights, it’s really cute. He has been quite crabby over the past couple of weeks also and I’ve been getting about 3 hours sleep a night which isn’t ideal but I think he’s either got colic or reflux. He’s on infacol and I’ve been using anti colic bottles so I’m doing everything I can to make it easier on him. Yesterday he threw up all of his feeds so I’m not sure what that was about but he seems fine today so hopefully he hasn’t come down with anything. I am formula feeding now as I just wasn’t getting on with breastfeeding and after being in hospital and getting ill it was all just going a bit wrong and I didn’t need the addition of how painful breastfeeding was becoming.
He doesn’t like being put down and only settles when being held, he’s definitely a little attention seeker. I don’t mind it during the day to be honest, he can have as many cuddles as he wants but I wish he would sleep at night, I’m so exhausted! He’s obsessed with his dummy, he always wants it but constantly spits it out and you literally have to sit there and put it back in again for him every 10 seconds, it’s like a little game he likes to play. I love him to bits though, he’s so sweet. He tends to make these little squeaking noises in his sleep which are so so cute, I really need to catch them on film! Over the past week he’s also started to babble loads like he’s trying to talk, it is genuinely the cutest thing ever, I keep filming him doing it. I can’t wait for all the baby talk!
Growth:
Last time he got weighed he was 10lb 5oz so he’s definitely putting it on the little chunk, he never stops being hungry though. He was on 5oz every 3 hours but he started getting hungry every 2, so I’ve put his feeds up to 6oz every 3 hours now and hopefully that will keep him going for longer. I’m hoping it might keep him satisfied longer during the night so when he finally sleeps, he isn’t constantly waking up for feeds. He did go 7 hours the other night without wanting a feed but he didn’t settle for 3 hours of that so I only got 4 hours sleep out of it unfortunately! The HV told me that they usually drop a night feed at 6 weeks though so we’ll see how it goes.
So that’s all that’s happened in the past month really, I’ll be doing monthly updates as I didn’t want to/have the time to do weekly ones and I don’t think enough happens at this age to do them weekly anyway. If you want to see lots of pictures of him, follow me on Twitter & Insta as I upload plenty 🙂
