1 month old!

As Ethan turns one month old today, I realize how much my life has changed in the last month.  I take a diaper bag everywhere I go now, and could spend hours just staring at a sleeping baby.  We love most of the changes Ethan has brought to our life (don't love the massive amount of diapers we change!).  We are so happy to have such a big healthy boy!

At one month old here is some important Ethan information!

Weight:  He was 11 lbs 9.4 ounces last Tuesday, He 12 lbs 6 oz at the dr today (8/30).  That is the 97th percentile, haha! 

Length:  He was 22 inches at birth, 21 inches at his first dr appt, and 22 1/4 inches at his one month appt (that is the 72nd percentile).

Head:  His head circumference was 38 cm at his first appt and 39.5 cm at today's appt (75th percentile).

Clothes:  He is in 0-3 month clothes, same as when he was born.  He never got to wear newborn clothes.  He has grown out of the 0-3 month Gerber onesies as they run small.  I will probably start trying some of the 3-6 month clothes soon since he is so long.  He is wearing size 1 diapers (1-2 since we are currently using the CostCo diapers), but I will probably move him up to size 2 Pampers once we finish the costco diapers.

Sleep:  When we first brought him home, day sleeping was great, night sleeping was not so great.  Eventually he started sleeping 5-6 hours at night.  Then we moved him to his cradle and he went back to not sleeping great at night (waking up a lot and taking forever to go back to sleep).  I then decided to start swaddling him again (I stopped because I thought he hated it).  Turns out I think he was just too hot before, as it has made a huge difference, last night he slept 7 hours before waking up to eat!  Now his daytime sleeping isn't so great, but oh well.  He will take some shorts naps throughout the day and will fall asleep anytime we put him in his carseat to go somewhere!

What we do every day: Since I am still home, he wakes up whenever he wants.  He is such a loud sleeper, so he tends to wake me up with his squawks before he is actually awake.  I try to eat breakfast during this time.  Then I go in and get him and he nurses.  We try to take a walk in the morning (which he loves) and go at least one other place during the day (usually Babies R Us of course!).  Jed gets home mid afternoon and gets to spend some time with him.  He usually takes a long nap in the evenings, Jed gives him a 4 oz bottle before he goes to bed, then Ethan sleeps some more, then I nurse him and put him to bed around 9 or so.  Lately he has been going to sleep great in the evenings!  You love to hang out in your rock 'n play during the day and tolerate tummy time for awhile.  You are starting to love looking at lights!  You also love hanging out in the front pack but will only go to sleep there if you are incredibly tired (like right at this moment). 

Eating:  You eat like a champ, which is probably why you are gaining so much weight.  During the day you nurse about every 2 hours and you usually wake up around 2:30-3:30 am to nurse in the middle of the night.  We nurse on demand during the day, so if you are napping, you go longer between eating sessions.  I have no idea how much you eat on a daily basis. You do great at burping after you eat and so far we have had very little spit up (hopefully that doesn't change!)

Looks:  You still have your blue eyes and your blonde hair.  Your hair is starting to grow but you still don't have much.  You have a ton of baby acne and your right eye always has crusties.

Milestones:  You are getting so good at tracking objects.  You love watching mom when someone else is holding you and you love staring at lights.  You tolerate the toys I give you and you are a pretty good book reader.  Your smiles are great.  I still don't think we have had actual reaction to something smiles, but we love watching you smile.  We also love hearing all the sounds you make.  We laugh at your sounds a lot of times!

Firsts:  Everything you did this month was a first since you were just born!  You got to meet family for the first time, you went to Kansas City for the first time last night, you had your first walk in the stroller with and without the car seat, you had your first trip to a restaurant, you watched your first Chiefs game (you were enthralled by all the lights coming from the huge screen!), and you had your first bath (in the baby tub of course). 

What we are looking forward to:  Your first trip to Western KS this upcoming weekend to have you baptized in the same church and by the same minister that baptized your Grandpa Bruce, married your Grandpa and Granny, and baptized your mom!  Ethan and I will stay in Western KS for the week following the baptism, so we are looking forward to showing you off!

What we are dreading:  Mom going back to work Sept 26 :(

Enjoy the pictures from the last few days.

 Sporting his new hat

 Ethan's first trip out of Topeka

Don't mind the fact that he is crying, isn't his outfit adorable!

Go Chiefs!

Adorable outfit, once again don't mind the crying, haha

Look at that neck strength

1 month photo shoot

Then I decided I should make a sign

Hanging out in the front pack!

Enjoy the video of Ethan waking up - we love watching him - feel free to skip the video unless you are family or are an "aunt", then you have to watch it!

4 week old Ethan

Hard to believe it has already been 4 weeks since our wonderful son came into the world.  This week he has started making a few noises other than crying and has started grabbing onto my fingers.  His neck strength is amazing!

This week has brought quite a bit more crying, and I am wondering if he is having some gas issues (I am sure he loves me talking about his gas on the internet!).  He has decided that he isn't going to nap as well during the day and most of the time will only nap during the day if he is being held in someone's arms.  I don't mind snuggling with him, but I do get hungry and have to go to the bathroom, haha! 

He is doing great at night.  He usually gives me a 5-6 hour stretch, then we get up and he eats and then he usually gives me a few more hours.  Now that I say this he is probably going to sleep horribly tonight, but oh well! 

I have discovered that although he doesn't like to be swaddled, it has been the life saver at night.  He was only doing 2-3 hours at a time until we started putting him in a swaddle blanket at night.  He will also nap a little longer during the day if we swaddle.  I have discovered the magic of the 5 S's (swaddle, side/stomach, swinging, shhhh, and sucking).  This has helped a lot with the crying fits we have been having.  I have decided that the first few nights at home he didn't like the swaddle because I he was too hot - I did have him in a sleeper and a swaddle blanket then.  I now just do a onesie and the swaddle blanket and he does great.  He still fights the swaddle and still manages to get his arms right up by his face, but it has helped a ton!  

We went to the breastfeeding clinic on Tuesday and he was up 9.4 ounces to 11 lbs 9.4 ounces.  He ate 5 1/2 ounces while we were at the clinic, but I don't think he does that every time as we increased his nightly bottle to 5 ounces one night and he only ate the normal 4 ounces.  I am so glad he is gaining weight well.  We go back to the pediatrician on Tuesday, so we will see what she thinks. 

 Aww....this is the life!!

We love watching Ethan wake up from a nap (only after several hours of sleep of course!).  

He stretches and makes the greatest faces.

He loves hanging out on dad!

His nightly bottle - it sort of looked like he was trying to grab on to the bottle!

Enjoy the video of him showing off his tummy time skills, he loves to scoot across the blanket and gets mad when you don't have your hands behind his feet for him to push on.  He also acts mad while scooting, but I think he is just trying so hard and wants to do it on his own, so he cries a little!

3 weeks!

This time is going so fast!  We are loving our time with Ethan, he is absolutely adorable and we think he is the best baby in the world (sorry to all of you who have babies, ours is cuter, haha!).

This week brought a visit from Ethan's Aunt Maleia, Uncle Doug, and cousin Grace.  Ethan was a champ while they were here and loved snuggling with his aunt and uncle!

This week also brought a little bit of time back to work for me to get the school year started.  Ethan and I ventured up to school on Monday so I could meet with my sub and he did great.  I loved showing him off!  Yesterday (Wednesday) I went to school for the first day of school and left Ethan at home with his Momma Morai  (Jed's mom).  He did great for her and took a bottle just fine.  I think I had more problems with leaving him then he did, haha!  I did come home during my lunch so I could get my Ethan fix!

I took Ethan to the breastfeeding clinic on Tuesday to have him weighed and at 19 days old he was an even 11 pounds, he gained 13.1 ounces in 1 week - crazy growing boy!!  He is already growing out of a few of his 0-3 month onesies that run a little smaller! 

Ethan has decided that he is going to wake up more in the night again (those 10:00-5:30 nights were nice while they lasted, haha).  Luckily he is only waking up 1 or 2 times, but unfortunately he takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get back to sleep....he also hasn't been napping as well during the day, but as I say that he has been out for the last 2 1/2 hours this morning, so hopefully we are going back to easy napping!  He is doing great at sleeping in his cradle.  I usually find him sleeping with his arms outstretched above his head when I check on him!


He loves to hold his head up while he is propped up on our shoulder.  He also loves to push against our hands and scoot around on the blanket during tummy time.  He also loves to knock the burp cloth off our shoulder when we are burping him! 


Ethan lost his umbilical cord this week, so we tried his first real bath.  He wasn't a huge fun, hopefully the next bath goes better! 

Pictures from the week!

Ethan also had his first modeling job this week.  A studio in the mall was offering $30 off and no sitting fee for babies under 3 weeks old.  Ethan did great during the photo shoot and was absolutely adorable!

Happy 2 week birthday!!

Ethan is already 2 weeks old, time is flying by so fast.  We are definitely enjoying this time with him and not looking forward to Jed going back to work on Monday.

We went in to the breastfeeding clinic on Tuesday and he weighed 10 lbs 2.9 oz!  He had gained 5 oz in 3 days and was almost 5 oz past his birth weight!!  Grow baby grow!!

The last 3 nights have been fantastic, for two nights he slept from 11-5:30 and last night was 10:30-4:30, I am definitely enjoying some uninterrupted sleep!!  He had his first bottle with my milk two nights ago as we need to make sure he will take a bottle when I go to work next Wednesday for the first day of school.  He did great with it and is eating a ton.  He is napping well in the morning and early afternoon, but then is awake for a lot of the evening.  He is really starting to fight sleep sometimes, so we are working with that. It usually takes us a good hour or so to get him down for the night, but last night he did better, so hopefully we are making progress there.

Jed and I enjoyed an hour out of the house last night while Ethan stayed home with Jed's mom.  While it was nice to get out of the house, I sure missed our baby boy! 

Ethan is a champ at tummy time.  He has such a strong neck already and is holding it up for a few seconds and turning it quite easily.  This is great as we have already found him on his side twice in the bassinet in the morning!

We decided that tonight will be the first night for him to sleep in the cradle.  He is just getting too big for the bassinet.  While he may not look like it in that picture, since he likes to move his arms and legs a lot during the night he hits the sides all the time!

Enjoy the pictures!

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