Noah is a month old!

         

So it's been a whole month since I gave birth to little Noah pants. It really has gone so quickly, and I can suddenly feel my maternity leave slowly slipping away. This first month has been a complete emotional blur of sleepless nights, sick stained tops & most things being my other halves fault. But it's also been the best month of my life, because we have our beautiful little boy. I thought I'd give a little update on how things have been in our first month, especially as everything changes so quickly week by week.

Feeding

Noah has always been a good feeder since he was born, being a big boy at 9lb 13, I knew he would take a lot. He took 4oz for the first week, then 5oz in his second and 6oz in his third, so now we're on 7oz of Cow & Gates hungrier baby formula and he is very content on that. He's usually fed every 4 hours, however sometimes he can go 5 hours and he usually does that in the night, which is quite nice. We often 'dream-feed' Noah, so after his 10 o'clock bottle, we tend to try and give him another (he usually only takes half) at around midnight when we're heading to bed, that way, he often sleeps till around 6am.

Routine

I think the first two weeks are the hardest because you have no real routine. But around his third week we've started to get into one, which has made things a lot easier on ourselves. Now Johns paternity leave is up, he's at work so it's just me and Noah. We often wake around 9 or 10 after his 6am feed, I get Noah dressed into a daytime outfit & we head downstairs, he has his feed and then we usually play ; either on his playmat or me just talking to him, as I get ready around him. After his early afternoon feed, I then take him out, usually to the shops or to run errands and if I have nothing to do, we simply go for a walk. It usually sends him fast asleep so when we're home I'll then tidy up / make bottles etc and if I can take a little nap. When daddy comes home, he does Noah's evening feed and then before his late night feed (around 10) we bath Noah and put his sleepsuit on, just so he knows it's time for bed. I've also stopped putting Noah in his Moses Basket in the daytime, if he sleeps it's in his slumber swing, that way he understands his basket is for night time.

Milestones

Since about three weeks old, we've wondered if Noah has been smiling, not wanting to make something out of nothing we put it down to wind. However we are now one hundred percent sure he smiles, he loves his musical playmat and often smiles away on that in the mornings as I get dressed. He really loves musical & light up toys and turns his head to look toward the direction they're in. Noah is now fully in his 0-3 month clothes, he weighed 11lb 5 at his last weigh in when he was three weeks old, so he's still a little hunky chunky. He's certainly getting to understand how his feeds are, because as soon as we pop the muslin down on his chest he goes all quiet and starts rooting for his bottle, the clever little pudding.

As for myself I feel so much better now we're getting into a little routine, we do still have our days however where it all goes out of the window, but we're getting there. I think the biggest contribution to making me feel more human is getting out of the house. It does take up a bit of time, the whole getting him ready & fed before I leave, then in the car etc. But then it makes the day much quicker and he's always much better for us if he's been out in the day. I think fresh air does us all good. Nothing can prepare you for motherhood at all, you just learn what works for you and each day Noah will do something new and make us fall further in love with him, which makes the exhaustion completely worth while.