Our Adventure: Theodore Jack: One Month Old.

Teddy Jack is one month old and I'm in complete shock. I knew how fast time would fly since we've experienced that now with Charlie, but I swear it went by EXTRA fast. I have been trying to soak in this newborn stage as much as I can and just snuggle snuggle snuggle!! I try not to put him down unless I absolutely HAVE to. He is just the sweetest, cuddliest little guy and we love him SO much!

-Teddy and Charlie are already the best of friends. If Teddy is fussy, he usually calms down for a bit when he sees his brother. Charlie will sing to him and even tuck him in with his special blanket which is so sweet that he shares it. I really can't wait to watch these two together as Teddy grows and gets more interactive.

-Teddy is such a handsome boy and we love that he's been more awake lately so we can see his pretty eyes. He really loves to stare at Charlie and ceiling fans for some reason haha.

-He has met most of his family now and everyone just loves him. We've kept him away from his younger cousins because we are so paranoid about germs, but he's met most of his aunts, uncles, and some older cousins.

-We had a stressful first few weeks with Teddy because he wasn't gaining weight. He was 6lbs 10oz when we left the hospital and then 6lbs 13oz at his two week appointment. He just preferred sleep to food, so it was really hard to get him to stay awake and nurse. I ended up pumping and feeding him a bottle after nursing him a few times a day. Then we used our food scale at home to make sure he was gaining weight and now he's 8lbs 2 oz! So he's still tiny, but definitely gaining weight, thank goodness!

First doctor's appointment

Second doctor's appointment. Charlie wanted to name him Simba, so this picture is very fitting :)

-He's also been a pretty fussy baby which completely breaks my heart. I'm hoping he doesn't have a food intolerance because I can't imagine going off dairy or gluten. But of course I would do it if it would help him feel better. If he's awake and not being held, he will just scream. Luckily he LOVES to be "worn" in the baby wrap, so I just wear him most of the day which is perfectly fine with me because then I can snuggle him as I'm making lunch/cleaning/taking care of Charlie. I really don't like to put him down and he doesn't like to be put down either so it's a win-win! But the past few days he's actually had some moments of being content while awake laying on a blanket or in his bouncer--so fingers crossed he's starting to feel better or just figure out how to hang out without someone holding him? He really is just happiest when he's being snuggled. :)

-We also had some not-so-great news about Teddy's skull. The pediatrician at the hospital noticed a bumpy "ridge" going down the back of his head and told us it could be two things: 1. The plates of his skull are overlapping and will eventually separate or 2. His skull plates have fused prematurely. Since we didn't know for sure, I tried not to freak out. At his appointment with his pediatrician a few days later, Dr. Zarbock said based on his skull shape and ridge he was pretty sure he had craniosynostosis and that is when I completely lost it. The back of his head goes more to a skinny point when it should be round. At that point we called Primary Children's and sent pictures of his head to a surgeon. Based on the pictures, they wanted us to come in ASAP so we have an appointment in 2 days. I have tried to hold it together, but it's been really hard. He's just so tiny and so perfect and the thought of him having surgery is just too much to really process. We'll know more in a few days but it's possible he would have the surgery as soon as 2-3 months old (so in a month or so). If he does end up having craniosynostosis, I'll share more info but I did want to include some info in his monthly update. :)

-Teddy has the funniest little cry. You know when he's about to start screaming because he will start to do this really fast, heavy breathing. He will also make a cough-like sound when he's crying so we joke that he has the black lung. ;) He has started cooing a little bit the past few days and it's just adorable! He also makes a lot of squeaky sounds that are just so funny.

-Teddy is not the best sleeper, which has been soooo hard for me. I love sleep and really don't function well without good sleep. He wakes up about 3 hours after his last feeding (which means I get 2-2.5 hour segments of sleep max) but then the problem is that he doesn't always go back to sleep after he eats, so sometimes I'm only sleeping for an hour or so at a time. I'll feed him and try to lay him back down, and he will sleep for about 5-10 min and then start crying again. It's been rough... but he's actually had 3 nights where he's slept about 5 hours between feedings so hopefully that becomes more of a consistent thing. Last night we were awake from about 3am-5am so that was fun.

-It was so fun celebrating Teddy's first Christmas. Obviously he didn't care at all, but he did like the lights on the Christmas tree. On Christmas morning Charlie noticed that Santa had brought Teddy a stocking and a toy and he said, "oh that was so nice of Santa to bring a toy for Teddy too!" It just about melted me. All of the Christmas festivities were a little overwhelming for Teddy--we played a lot of games, had a piñata, and of course my family is huge and loud so the poor guy was a little fussy and actually slept really well that night from the exhaustion of it all!

-Teddy looooves bath time. He actually hated his first bath at home, but has loved every other bath since then. He just loves to be cozy! It's Landon's job to bathe, which is good because for some reason bathing newborns scares me.

-We had some decent weather in mid-December so we were able to take Teddy to the park and go for some walks. He doesn't love being in his carseat, but does okay if the stroller is moving. It was nice for everyone to get out of the house!

-All of my boys hate taking pictures, including Teddy. I took his newborn pictures when he was 5 days old, which meant he was sooo tiny and basically slept all day. But when I took his pictures, he decided to be WIDE awake. I had seriously never seen him be so alert and so awake for so long... little stinker! Charlie did the same thing for his newborn pictures too.

stop taking pictures and dressing me in a ridiculous outfit Mom....

He only did this one eye thing for a few days, but Landon called him "Theod-aaaaaar" like a pirate :)

-I've been soooo nervous to have a winter baby because of flu/RSV/etc... so we've really tried to limit our outings. But, it's been really hard with family in town for Christmas. So far Teddy has been to Gecko's restaurant, Rodizio Grill and met Santa, sushi, and went to a bowling alley. At all of these places I just kept him in his carseat and covered but it was still really scary having him out. I did take him out of his carseat to meet Santa though... he was really brave. :)