Benjamin's One Month Update

One Month with you…

This post is going to be a tiny bit late with my early return to work, but I'm hoping to keep up with these every month!

Mr. baby Benjamin Clark is one. month. old! I could cry thinking about how quickly (and slowly) this last month has come and gone. Ben has changed so much in the last 4 weeks, and so not how I was expecting as a first time mom. He went from looking like a shriveled up grape (or baked potato as my husband likes to say!) to the beginnings of a tiny little person with a BIG personality, and he’s grown more than I expected!

In the first week he was born, he needed to get two more bilirubin tests done for his jondis and rhogam. I have negative blood type and Ben has positive blood type, and the doctors wanted to be extra sure that he wasn’t making antibodies (that I gave him) that would attack his body, hence why he had a bad case of jondis. Luckily, his levels barely rose at all so he was all set to go!

Furbabies Meet Ben

Before we had Ben, we had three furbabies in our home. A four year old Havanese named Pixel, a black cat named Sprite and a tuxedo cat named Sharkbait. The three of them have their hierarchy, and we were extremely nervous about disrupting the harmony by bringing home a small infant. Pixel has been around small children before, so I had my hopes that the two kitties wouldn't have a problem with Ben. Pixel was naturally very curious and wanted to sniff and snuggle Ben. Sprite was indifferent, but would come near Ben only when he was sleeping. Sharkbait, however, was terrified of Ben. With every scream and whimper, he would go running into a different room and hide. Luckily now, one month later, he has no troubles being in close proximity to Ben. None of them have had any aggression towards us, Ben, or each other, so I am extremely grateful that we had the same luck as we did when all the furbabies moved in together.

Feeding

Overall he’s eating wonderfully. He takes both breast and bottle, as well as milk and formula, which has been helpful. I've had a few nights where it was extremely hard on my body to feed him, and I can’t tell you how many nights I spent crying over it. I will say that I felt some form of relief knowing that I didn’t have to be his only source of food. I do plan on writing an entire post on my breastfeeding journey and will go over more of my experience there. Because it’s a lot, and it’s extremely emotional, as one postpartum momma would be about it.

Sleep

This has been the hardest for us. Ben from the start had his days and nights mixed up, so sleep for us is basically nonexistent. He refused to sleep in his bassinet, and only would sleep if he was near me (or the food source/my boobs) and I can say for sure that those 3 weeks were the worst quality of sleep I've ever had. We’ve been working on having him take all his naps in his bassinet and he’s slowly starting to get comfortable sleeping more that an inch away from my boobs. I know tons of people mom shame for bed-sharing so early (and SIDS), but when it’s the options of ‘let your baby scream and cry for 3 hours’ or ‘snuggle him on your chest so you both can sleep’, I’m choosing sleep!

*I was also hoping we’d have a super snuggly baby and boy did we get a snuggler!!!

Milestones

Ben has an incredible amount of head control for a baby his age! Since birth he’s been lifting his head well more than 45° and holding it there for a few seconds. When we hold him he tries to sit up on his own and use his head for a few seconds. He’s getting stronger every day! He's also started rolling over during tummy time! It was quite a surprise to us when we set him down on his stomach for tummy time and he noped out of that situation by rolling onto his back. He very much enjoys bath time, and we’re trying to incorporate it into his nighttime routine as it seems to relax him.

Benjamin fills me with so much love I didn’t know I could give someone. I love being near him and wearing him (he seems to love it too!) and when I’m away from him, I miss him horribly. I went on my first overnight and out of town business trip right after he turned a month old and it was so hard to be away from him for 48 hours. But it made coming home to cheeky fart smiles and rooting for boobie SO worth it.

Happy one month of life Baby Ben!