Hezekiah James: 1 Month

Hezekiah James is one month old today! How is that possible? I have no idea! And what a month it has been!

You can read his birth story here and the meaning behind his name here. You can also read about some of the issues we have had and the story behind him being diagnosed failure to thrive.

I would also like to take a moment to mention that I do plan to do these updates once a month, just like I did with Tera. I also did them with Little Miss, but I didn’t publish them on the blog. I know that they will be boring for anyone who doesn’t know my children, but I love being able to look back on Tera’s updates and I know that there are lots of family members and friends who like to follow along with my children.

Weight/Length: At one month old, Kiah is 7 pounds! Teeny, tiny. I have no idea how long he is! We have spent so much time focusing on his weight that I haven’t even paid attention to any of the other stats!

Eating: Kiah is a decent enough eater, but the hard part is getting him to consume enough. We are feeding him every two hours like clockwork, and tracking exactly how many ounces he is consuming. He is right on track and we are just hoping that he continues to consume MORE ounces and gain that weight so that eventually we can feed more on demand instead of on such a rigid schedule.

Sleeping: I call Kiah my “sleepy soul”. He just drifts off to sleep three seconds after being wide awake. So far, he can sleep absolutely anywhere and even in the midst of Tera screeching and stomping and making all kinds of toddler noise. He is doing fairly well at night, too. He gives us a 4-5 hour stretch, which Theo and I both need so badly. I think that once he begins to gain some weight, he will start sleeping through the night pretty early on…or maybe that is just my wishful thinking 😉

Clothing/Diapers: Kiah is still in his newborn clothes and newborn diapers (no surprise there). A friend (thanks, Alex!) sent me an entire stash of newborn/size 1 diapers and they are the most darling things!!

Personality: This little man is such a content and sleepy soul. For the first three weeks, he was so sleepy he was almost lethargic. Then he started perking up and being alert and awake, but still just content and totally chill. He does cry sometimes, but it’s always for a good reason. I’m actually glad to hear him cry after the initial scare we had with him being so lethargic. He is also super smiley already. I am aware that his smiles seem to coincide with his burps and farts, but I guess I will just have to get used to that as a boy Mom 🙂

Notable Firsts This Month:

• Met DeValve Grandparents and Hines Grandma, Uncle Dan and Aunt Kelly, Uncle Ethan and Aunt Kindrea, Dave and Debbie & co
• Made first trip to Michigan
• Went on first hike & picnic at Clifton Gorge
• Had first trip to the hospital with a barium x-ray and blood draw included

Loves:

• Sleeping
• Being held and talked to
• Bath time
• Outside!

Dislikes:

• Having his arms swaddled
• Having his butt wiped with wet wipes

Milestones Reached:

• SMILES!

What we are loving at this stage:

• We are loving all the sweet snuggles, the newborn fuzzy hair and the tiny little outfits. Kiah is my third newborn and I feel like I finally like having a newborn (my first two did not give me that feeling at all- ever).

What we struggle with at this stage:

• We have struggled mostly with worrying over whether or not something is seriously wrong with our Kiah. Of course, there is also the crying and the lack of sleep, which always makes the newborn stage a little bit more difficult.

Daddy, Mommy and Tera: 

Wow, what a transition this little man’s first month has been for our family! I wasn’t expecting it to be this difficult, and that has completely rocked me. Thankfully, since Theo is a city employee, he has six whole weeks off for paternity leave! It’s wonderful! The plan was for me to have help from my parents and my MIL, and Theo would work all day on renovating our basement. So for the first three weeks, that is exactly what has happened. Theo is enjoying learning all about how to do all the renovations and is getting a ton of hard work done. He is the hardest worker I know and I’m so proud of him! Of course when we started to get really concerned about Kiah, he took almost a whole week off of working outside and was completely hands-on, helping me with the kids.

Meanwhile, inside I have been adjusting to life with two kids again. I feel like recovery this time has been much easier, but all the circumstances surrounding this first month have been incredibly difficult for me. I haven’t even been able to think much further than my baby and my toddler. I have struggled with a lot of anxiety over Kiah and I have been doing a lot of physical labor keeping him fed, too. I know it doesn’t seem like it…but I am the one and only milk manufacturer for my boy…and getting it into him has been quite the journey!

Tera has done fabulous adjusting to having a little brother. She shares her toys, she loves him and she doesn’t seem to be too overly jealous. Until we started with the almost daily appointments and my constant crying, she was doing great. Once I started being constantly upset and worried, she started to get bent out of shape. She has also done awesome having her Grandparents around for almost four weeks straight. She LOVES “helping” them and following them everywhere. I think we are going to have some work to do when they all leave getting her back to Mom and Dad’s expectations. Haha. Tera is talking up a storm (constantly) and is just the best little helper. Her two year old defiance is a little bit of an issue and she has already started the (constant) questions…my favorite is the fact that she says “WHO is that?” 95 thousand times a day when she really means “What is that?”. She asks it of every object she lays eyes on, even if she knows perfectly well what that is. I also love how she says entire sentences, but sometimes just doesn’t know words. She calls slippers “flops” and says “bamanas” instead of “bananas”. This is such a fun age! We tried potty training and that didn’t happen, so she is back in diapers, but I think when she is fully ready it will be easy peasy. She is also back in her crib after she learned how to open her door and appears silently in my bed at an ungodly hour of the morning. When I’m up all night with a newborn, I need my toddler to be contained until I’m ready to get her! Lol.