2 Weeks

Okay I know I said I would stick to monthly updates, but things are going so well that I had to do a post just to show how much has changed in 1 week. It's literally like a lightbulb went on and things are clicking now.

First there are Jacob's sleeping habits. Jacob now sleeps in his crib thanks to a space heater that we placed at the foot of it. He loves the warm air blowing on him and is able to stay asleep when we lay him down. He typically sleeps 2-3 hours at a time and only wakes/fusses when he needs to eat/be changed. He also started sleeping for about 5 hours from 10:00PM-3:00AM. This has allowed me to get at least 6-7 hours of sleep in between his night feedings- yay! Unfortunately I'm still catching up on sleep from Week 1, but I know it will get better. Right now he has about 2 alert times during the day where we can hold him and let him look around. The only bad part is that he tends to have a hard time falling asleep after he has been awake. We are still getting used to soothing him and letting him cry a bit until he realizes he is just tired. Josh is much better at this than I am, so he gets some good Daddy snuggles when getting Jacob to sleep. During Jacob's alert periods, he is getting really good at holding his head up when we prop him up on our chests! I am excited for him to start to be more alert, so we can interact with him more.

Jacob is also feeding really well. At his 2 week check-up today he was up to 7 lbs 10 oz, which is almost a pound over his birth weight. The doctor was really impressed and said he's doing great! He usually feeds for about 30-40 minutes, which is kind of long but needed due to the length of his naps. I don't have him "on a schedule" for feeding, but he probably goes about 3 hours on average from the start of one feeding to the start of the next. He will also usually have 1-2 feedings that are only an hour or two apart before his long stretch of sleep at night, but the doctor said he's probably just storing up for all that sleep ahead of him. I have also started pumping once a day either at night or during one of his longer naps, and Josh will feed him with a bottle if I get tired and fall asleep before a night feeding. This will also allow me to give Jacob bottles if we're away from him or in a public place. I know that I can feed him in public if I really want to, but I just don't feel that comfortable feeding in a store or restaurant. This will also keep us from using formula unless it's an emergency. Jacob has done really well taking the few bottles we've given him, which is also good.


So that's the update on our little man for this week. As I said, I really wanted to give another update, since he has been doing so well. Here's hoping he will continue to thrive and adjust to life outside the womb over these next few weeks!