A Hales Life: Brody 1 Month Update

Brody turned one month old last weekend. Time really flies. We had his appointment with Dr. H on Tuesday. Here is some info on our little "big" boy. :)

Weight: 12 pounds 6.9 ounces (93rd percentile...only :) )

Length: 23.5 inches (100th percentile)

Head Circumference: 39.5 cm (95th percentile)

Dr. H was very impress with his growth thus far, as am I. She joked that I must be making cream instead of milk since they expect about a pound of weight gain in 2 weeks and Brody gained almost double that. What is crazy to me is that he isn't chubby, he's just thick, and strong. She was also super impress with his motor abilities thus far. I've been a little worried about the baby acne. He has had it on his face since he was 2 weeks old and I don't remember it lasting much more than a couple weeks with Kayla. He also had some reddish bumps all over his chest and upper back and both arms. I was concerned it was some sort of rash, but Dr. H assured me it was all baby acne and it could come and go until about 2 months. So I guess my little guy has the worst case of baby acne ever (at least I think so.)

Kayla is doing pretty well with him. This morning she heard me talking to him about learning to roll during tummy time and it must have sunk in with her. Before we left the house today, Justin and I were on the hunt for a gift card and Brody was just content laying on the floor, in fact I think he was sleeping. All of the sudden I hear Justin say, "What are you doing, Kayla? Rolling him over and over again?" Apparently, Kayla was trying to teach him how to roll, by rolling him like a barrel along the living room floor. Sigh, one day she'll learn to be gentle with her brother.

Physical milestones: I remember Kayla being strong early on and having a feeling she was going to be an early walker. I'm thinking Brody is even stronger and may also be an early walker. He presses up onto his elbows and lifts his head easily during tummy time. Dr. H said this was about 3 month level. I can't remember all the milestones we learned in school but that seems pretty low level for a 3 month old, but maybe I'm just used to Kayla. I guess babycenter.com says that lifting head and shoulders during tummy time is an advanced skill for a 2 month old. Looks like I may have another early walker on my hands, but we'll see. Maybe he'll be content with sitting still, unlike Kayla.

He looks so excited to be able to see stuff. :)

Tummy time is serious business!

Eating: Being a big baby, Brody is a good eater. Some days he nurses from only one side, some days from both. I never have to feed him less than 3 hours apart, and he sometimes goes longer stretches than 3 hours without fussing at all. He is generally a much more content baby than I remember Kayla being. I'm glad I haven't felt super full too many days with breastfeeding and I'm not leaking much at all. Things are much smoother this time around...no spitting up blood yet. He also doesn't spit up much at all. There have been a few days he's been spitting up at Kayla levels (like today for instance) and I think this correlates with him eating too much. He's a fatty so he doesn't know when to stop himself when he's full. If it's there is going to eat it. Justin joked after I told him what Brody weighed this week that he is going to have to get a second job just to keep the fridge stocked with this little guy.

Sleeping: Brody has been sleeping pretty good for us since he was born. I'd say that most nights, he goes at least one four hour stretch and usually a little more (closer to 5 sometimes 6). And we generally only wake up twice to feed him/change him between 8 pm and 7 am (the third feeding sometime between 7 and 8 am.) There have been a couple nights that have been worse, but I don't think it's because he eats more on those nights. I think those are the nights he has a lot of gas and wasn't able to get it all out before going to bed.

For naps I've been trying really hard to put him in the pack 'n play. 1. So that he can avoid the noise that is Kayla, and 2. so he learns to sleep there instead of on me or in the bouncer/swing (which he doesn't seem to care for anyways.) He actually is a pretty scheduled baby. We follow an eat, play, sleep routine, so he eats every 3ish hours and stays up for about an hour from start of the feeding and then we go down for a nap. I have been able to swaddle him and rock him a little bit then put him in the pack n play sleepy but awake and for the most part, he is pretty good about putting himself to sleep. I hope this keeps up, I'm going to keep pushing it for now to make it a habit.

I know the sleep thing can change so drastically, as we experienced with Kayla. But Brody seems like such a different baby than Kayla was. He falls asleep just laying on the floor pretty often, which Kayla pretty much never did. He just seems more content staying in one place. He's had a few real smiles, but I can't wait until they come more frequently and easily.

Here are some 1 month photos. I don't have the stickers (yet) like I did with Kayla so I did something little in photoshop. I may still get stickers or maybe I'll just stick with this easy (cheaper) way.