Finn | 1 Month Update

Weight:
8 lbs, 9 oz

Height:

20.5 inches

Health:

Only one month old and Finn already had to battle his first cold. I blame the damn preschool germs that Fox brings home. The pediatrician was very concerned and almost sent us to the ER, luckily he didn’t develop a fever. It’s been a week and he is still super stuffed up, but I hope that he will get over this sooner than later. 

Other than that, he has passed all of his newborn screenings and has been doing well!

Nicknames:

Katie came up with the nickname “Mellow Mushroom” for him, because he was so mellow for the first two weeks of his life. Nowadays, I call him grumpy face, because he’s either sleeping or grumpy (not always of course). I also call him Finny, Finnegan and “Big Honey”, which is what we called Fox and speaking of which, sometimes I call him Fox by accident…oops!

Eating:

Feeding Finn has been so much easier so far compared to feeding Fox four years ago. He latched right on and we have been exclusively breastfeeding ever since. He nurses every 2.5-3hrs and had to be woken up to eat for the first two weeks. After two weeks we got the clearance from the pediatrician to let him sleep during the night, but would still wake him up during the day to eat. 

I had to cut out all dairy from my diet, since he has shown negative effects when I had it. It’s been a very hard transition for me, but since Fox is highly allergic to dairy, I want to make sure to protect Finn as much as I can. 

Sleeping:

This kid loves to sleep! For the first two weeks, he would sleep almost all day and night, and just wake up to eat and be changed. He started to wake up more during his third week of life. Katie and I took a sleep seminar that was highly recommended to us from several friends and I implemented a lot of the techniques we learned there. Fox never wanted to nap in his crib until he was much older, but Finn has been napping there like a champ. When he was three weeks old, he even slept seven hours straight, but mostly we would get a 4-5 hour stretch during the night, followed by another 3 hour stretch.

Diapers:

He still wears newborn diapers and loves to poop…especially right after we put a new diaper on him. I told Katie she has to get a second job, just to pay for the amount of diapers we are using!

Clothing:

He wears newborn clothes and even after a month, they still fit perfectly. We don’t have many newborn outfits, so we have been rotating what we have and although I don’t want him to grow, I’m excited when we can transition to the next size up to have some more options.

Social:

Finn just started to socially smile at us, but not very often. He is not as alert as Fox was at that age, but we always have to remember that Fox was born three weeks after Finn and also that kids have different personalities. He will hold eye contact with us and can track us with his eyes. 

Likes:

Bath time (he loves it!), being held, being carried in the baby wrap, being swaddled to sleep, nursing, sleeping, pooping, being held over my shoulder, his sound machine

Dislikes:

Diaper Changes, not getting his milk fast enough, car rides (sometimes)

Mama:

The C-Section Recovery has been much easier than I remember. I was up and walking the day of the surgery and while I was in pain for a few weeks, it hasn’t effected me much and I could still do everything I needed to do. 

Breastfeeding was hurtful for the first few weeks, but now it’s great.

The hardest part for me was coming home from the hospital though, I was an emotional wreck for weeks and very depressed. I knew I needed to get some help and I’m in a much better place now. 

I really, really love the newborn stage and having him made me want to have seven more. I know I will have a very hard time with him growing up, knowing that he is my last baby, but I’m enjoying every single minute I have with him (maybe not so much at 3am…ha!). 

Fox:

Fox has been such an amazing big brother and I was truly surprised by it. I thought he wouldn’t care about the baby, but he always asks to touch him and says how much he loves Finn and that he is so cute. I can’t wait to see their bond form during the next few months and years! 

He still goes to school every day from 9am to 3pm, which he loves, so when he is home, I try to focus on him, but he has also been very understanding when he has to wait a few minutes. 

Fun things we did:

Having a newborn has not slowed us down like it did with Fox. We have been feeling way more comfortable leaving the house with him and have been to all kind of places with the boys. While Finn has met most of his family members this month, the most special visitor has been “Oma Karin” (my mom) who came to visit from Germany!

What we’re looking forward to:

I’m looking forward to starting swim class with Finn and I’m also loving having maternity leave, so I’m looking forward to another two months of just enjoying my baby without having much work responsibility.