Isaac, 1 Month

Dear Isaac,

You are a month old today! It's so hard to believe how quickly the time has gone by already. I thought I'd write you a little note to tell you a little bit about you and our life together so far.

First of all, I love you to pieces, and you bring me so much joy.

You are quite the strong little fellow. We've been trying tummy time lately, but you don't seem to like it too much yet although you can lift your head and turn it fairly well. You have pretty much outgrown your newborn outfits - those that we still have you wearing are a wee bit too tight so for the most part you have graduated to your 3 month outfits. At your latest trip to the pediatrician you weighed 9lbs 12 oz. You've been to the pediatrician on several occasions, once for your check up at a few days old, once for your 2 week check up where you received your first vaccine, once not too long after to see what was going on with your extreme fussiness at which point we figured you were probably intolerant to mommy eating dairy and egg products, and the last time was in regards to your fussiness as well at which point we were wondering if you had a little bit of acid reflux so we decided to try you on some medicine to see if it helps you for that. You've also seen a chiropractor twice in hopes that would help you would feel better too. Trust me, mommy and daddy have done everything we can to make you a happier baby.

You've been quite the challenge for mommy and daddy to figure out, but we continue to learn about you and your needs and what you're signaling to us. You spent more time than I'd like to say crying and fussing and not sleeping, which again we eventually attributed to tummy problems (so we put you on gas relief drops), dairy/ egg intolerance (so mommy cut those out of her diet), and possibly reflux (so we put you on some medicine like I mentioned and started putting you to sleep in a special inclined chair or in your swing which is also on an incline). Some days you would be awake for 7 hours straight and barely sleeping more than 30 minutes at a time. Those days made mommy very sleep deprived.

Thankfully we've been making progress together. You sleep an average of 12 hours a day (which is on the low end for how much most babies typically sleep) and you sleep anywhere from 1-3 hours at a time - leaving mommy still sleep deprived but not as much. It's possible that you just don't sleep a lot, but it's more likely that you have trouble calming yourself and soothing yourself to sleep. You tend to fall asleep nursing, and I continue to rock you for about 20 minutes until you're into your deep sleep before I put you down. You love being held, walked around in someone's arms, rocked in someone's arms, and rocked in the rocking chair. Sometimes when you're fussing you like to be put on my shoulder and just hang out there resting for a bit. Sometimes mommy would sing you lullabies or various worship songs. I sing you that mockingbird song and you are my sunshine a lot - so glad you can't critique my awful voice yet - I wonder how long until you tell me you can stand my singing! For a long time you were very upset any time you were awake and not in someone's arms, which made life a little difficult when mommy was by herself taking care of you. We also gave you a pacifier once it was clear you had taken to nursing well. Mommy was very nervous to give you a paci, but we did and that has helped you a lot too - you love to suck on it and it helps kick in your calming reflexes.

As far as bath time is concerned, you love it. We take family baths together in the big tub. One of us is with you in the bath and holds you while the other washes you.

Recently things have been going better (probably because Grandma Cetty came to help). You seem to be more on a schedule but not quite. You tend to sleep for about 1-3 hours, wake up for a changing, nurse (maybe have a burp or change mid-way through), and fall asleep nursing. During the day you tend to have one or two wide awake periods that can last a few hours (sometimes you stay awake too long and then get crabby because you're over tired). Recently you started liking your bouncing seat more and don't mind being put down to be played with instead of being in someone's arms.