Judah: Week 4

Once again, I am behind on my posting.  That's life, I guess.  Judah is now 4 weeks old.  He had his first blowout diaper during his third week, and had some good nights and some bad.  In his fourth week, he began to have trouble falling asleep on his own with all the noise.  The noise hadn't bothered him at all the first few weeks, but he had trouble getting good and asleep this last week.  I tried a little sound machine in his bassinet downstairs.  I tried adding this blanket...

 Once he was in a deep sleep, there was no waking him.  I ended up starting putting him awake in his Moses basket upstairs, doing his little bedtime routine and all, for most naps.  He did great with only a couple minutes of crying, if any at all, most of the time.  It is possible that him being downstairs made it too easy for us to interfere with his falling asleep at the first sign of discontent.  Whereas by the time we got to him upstairs he was usually peaceful and nearly asleep.  There have been times when he doesn't fall asleep for 30 minutes or so, but during these times he is mostly just laying there looking around with the occasional grunting or fussing.  

His version of fussing sounds a bit dramatic, so that has taken some getting used to.  He goes from happy to screaming to happy again in a minute's time.  It turns on and off like you wouldn't believe.  First time Brian noticed it, when Judah suddenly stopped from his hysterical scream without me going over to him, Brian asked me if he was alive.  :)  I told him, "Yes, that's just how he is.  Screams, then stops and is fine."

Nursing is going great.  The fast and furious gulping has begun.  This has happened with some of my babes, but I can't recall who specifically.  My milk comes so fast that it takes them a while to figure out how to let some of the milk run out of their mouth.  Judah seems to be trying so hard to just keep up with the milk flow come hell or high water.  This results in gulps and gasps for air.  He sounds like he is drowning when he nurses.  The last few days he has started to let some milk run out of his mouth, but he is still gulping and gasping a lot.  I love the red face covered in milk when he finishes nursing! 

He is sleeping on his side in the Woombie for naps, and the Miracle Blanket for night time.  His arms are still up.  He uses the pacifier during the day, but rarely needs it at night.  I have been giving him gripe water or Mylacon for gas on occasion.  He doesn't seem to be a great car seat sleeper, but he isn't upset in the car seat most of the time.  I hope that won't be a problem.

Nights are not getting any longer for me.  He is going only 3 to 4 hour stretches.  His ideal daily schedule is as follows.

6:30am wake and nurse

7:30am nap

9am wake and nurse

10am nap

12pm wake and nurse

1pm nap

3pm wake an nurse

4pm nap

5:30/6pm wake and nurse

8:30pm wake and nurse

hopefully goes right back to sleep here

11pm dreamfeed

(usually wakes around 3pm to nurse)

Today, however, was totally off and he woke up early (hysterical) to nurse almost every nap.  I am trying to squeeze in an extra nursing before bed tonight in hopes of avoiding a bad night.

I almost forgot to add, that I have been lucky enough to catch some awake smiles in the last two weeks, but not on camera yet.