On November 5, Harrison turned 2 months old! He continues to be a truly pleasant baby and I’m loving him more every day as we continue to bond. Being home with him is so nice and I’m trying my best to enjoy this special time as much as I can. As you can see from these photos, he has grown and changed a lot!
This onesie is from Cherish and Chris and was the first baby item we got. 🙂 Valerie gave me the gift bag and couldn’t resist letting me know before I opened it that “it’s a onesie. It’s for your baby!” That girl, she kills me. 😉
One thing you can easily see is that he is now SMILING! He started this at around 6 weeks and the best time to catch the grins is the morning when he’s at his most relaxed and happiest.
He is focusing on us and things around him much more. He especially loves lights and ceiling fans (for the contrast between the dark blades and white ceiling).
Far, far earlier than expected, Harrison is sleeping in his crib in his nursery. It is NOT what we planned – I expected to be nursing and we were anticipating co-sleeping. He did not end up latching (after a month and half of trying, he would never stay on for more than 5 minutes and all told probably took less than 5 ounces of milk over 6+ weeks from nursing) and I’m still pumping so Sean and I work in shifts at night and the nursery has made the most sense for us.
Side note: I was devastated to not be able to nurse him. I had long dreamed of nursing my baby. I talked with and/or saw lactation specialists, our pediatrician, my doula, midwife, family doctor, even my chiropractor. He was checked for tongue ties and high palate. I pumped 8 times a day around the clock – even while my baby was sleeping – so I would have supply for him at the breast. I had nursing shirts, bras, pillows, nipple shield, creams, pads…I wanted it so, so badly. And he would start but continuously pop off, despite the nipple shield being full of milk and then after a few minutes he would usually start screaming. By week 6 the only time he would even let try to get him to nurse was at midday. Morning, afternoon and evening sessions were outright refusals or immediate sleeping at the breast.
I definitely made mistakes in the beginning and received a ton of conflicting information at the hospital from different nurses and two on-site lactation consultants. It was insane. So we are where we are. I reduced my pumping to 6 times a day – 9am, noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm and 3am – and saw my supply drop by about 10% to 25-27 ounces a day from 28-30 ounces.. I’m getting ready to reduce to five because the schedule is still absolutely insane – pumping sucks but I am trying to make it to 3 months. Now I’ll pump at 9am, 1pm, 5pm, 9pm and once overnight – after his early morning feed rather than a set time which was really interrupting my sleep needs and leaving me super fatigued. I anticipate my supply will decrease again by 10% and so we will begin supplementing with formula daily (we don’t do daily now – just as needed which tends to be every few days). I am now completely ok with this. He is still getting breast milk, and he continues to be a good eater from the bottle.
We have been building up a routine. After my first few days at home alone with him were filled with fussiness and short naps pretty much anywhere in the house, I knew I had to find a better way. He’s not on a schedule but I am following more of a “eat-wake-sleep” routine now with his naps being up in his nursery with lights out, sound machine on, etc. and following the same process that we do at night as far as swaddling.
Some of the early newborn signatures are fading – his “startle” reflex that we found so, so hilarious is going away, and he’s not as “loose” in his limbs – definitely firming up. He holds his head up pretty well and loves his frog chair (see pic below).
He’s pretty happy most of the time to hang out in one of his chairs and watch me cook in the kitchen or lay on his activity mat and kick his arms and legs or do tummy time. When he starts fussing, it usually means he’s ready for his next nap although I will offer the bottle if I’m getting any hunger cues from him.
Harrison weighs about 12 pounds. He’s still wearing 0-3 months but has outgrown ones that have been on the smaller side and I think I’ll need to add in some 3-6 month sizes in the next 2-3 weeks. He still has room in them as far as weight, but they are getting tough to button at the bottom for his length. He was 65th percentile for height at his one month check-up.
He truly is a beautiful baby. <3
He had his first Halloween over the second month!
