Lydia at one month

Weight: 9 lbs 3 oz at birth. Our biggest baby by almost a pound. Thankfully, she had the extra weight to help her during the first few weeks of life. She went down to 8 lbs 10 oz at discharge, up to 8 lbs 12 oz at four days old. Then she starting losing. At 2 weeks, she was 8 lbs 6 oz. A few days later with the lactation consultant, she was 8 lbs even. As you'll see in the "Eating" category, we started bottle feeding her at this point. She was up to 9 lbs at 3 weeks. At one month, she was up to 10.5 lbs. This is crazy as she weighs about the same as Gemma did at a month but Lydia started with an extra pound. I am guessing Lydia will catch up soon.

Height: 21.5 inches at birth so our tallest baby at birth. So while her weight was high, so was her height. She actually didn't seem chubby or big at all at birth. At one month, she is 22.5 inches. Still our tallest at a month.

Clothing Size: We moved her to 0-3 month clothes last week. They're a little big but newborn doesn't fit at all. I am still a little sad that I could pack up our newborn clothes and never use them again.

Daily Schedule: Her schedule is all over the place. Life with three older siblings rarely lets you nap for long. She does take a long afternoon nap, which I remember Tanner and Gemma doing as well. She goes to bed around 8:30/9:30 and sleeps "through the night" until about 3/4ish. She takes a little bit of milk and then goes back to sleep until the morning. Sometimes, she'll take a pacifier at night and not need milk at all.

Special Outings: Everywhere! We went to church, the library, lots of doctors, etc.

Firsts: A bath. Only one though. Wouldn't want her to be too clean.

Eating: Life can be ironic at times. With my older three kids, I secretly (but not so secretly) prayed one of them wouldn't nurse well from birth. I nurse out of obligation not out of enjoyment. I do not find breastfeeding to be a bonding experience for me. I often feel I bond with my kids a whole lot more once I wean them at 12 months. But my body can do it so I have nursed the older three. I anticipated nursing again for Lydia. She nursed well in the hospital and seemed content. Even the first few days at home went fine. After about a week, I noticed Lydia was a little more of a uptight baby, personality wise. She either was nursing or sleeping. No alert periods or anything. And to get her to sleep, she seemed finicky. Had to be swaddled, lots of rocking/nursing/shushing, etc. She didn't seem to have that newborn phase of sleep whenever and wherever. And at night, she ended up sleeping with me in the chair because she wouldn't go down anywhere else.

At her two week appointment, we noticed she was still losing weight. The pediatrician recommended a lactation consultant. I almost didn't feel it was necessary. Lydia was latching and nursing just fine, or so it seemed. Thankfully, I decided to have a consultant make a house visit the next Monday. Our insurance covered it, which is a blessing as I don't think I would have paid out of pocket for it.

Monday came and we did a weighted feeding. We found out that after 30 minutes of nursing, Lydia only "transferred" 1/2 ounce of milk. I pumped and we realized my supply had plummeted as Lydia wasn't actually getting milk for the past week or more. We gave Lydia the milk I had via bottle and she was instantly a very different baby. She was alert and awake. Essentially, she had been starving for so long.

We switched to pumping and bottle feeding to get her weight up and my supply back up. A week later, the consultant came back and we were hoping she would latch and transfer milk this time. Once again, she didn't get any milk. After seeing some specialists, Lydia does seem to have a lip and tongue tie but after a lot of prayer, we decided to leave it be. I am okay pumping and bottle feeding. It really is a "dream come true" for me to not be able to directly nurse a child. My supply is increasing with pumping so we anticipate that I can keep it going for at least a few more months. I'd like to make it to a year but we'll see how it goes. I am just relieved Lydia is doing better and thriving now. It was scary for the consultant and pediatrician to say, "she needs to gain weight very quickly or she will get sick." I never had that experience with my other kids. They all plumped up very quickly.

Bottle feeding and seeing Lydia actually eat has changed her demeanor greatly! She sleeps in her rock n play like a champ, falls asleep on us whenever she feels like it, is definitely more of the typical newborn. It was such a relief to see that as I was worried I finally got my "colicky" baby. I'm hopeful her lip/tongue tie do not get in the way in her future but if they do, we can take care of them at a later point. We got so many opinions/referrals/ideas that it was overwhelming. But the answer that kept coming to me was, "leave her be." So we are. And she is happy about that.

Heart Update: After having Gemma, we were very cautious about Lydia's heart. At one ultrasound in December, the tech noticed some irregularities in the heartbeat. After discussing it with our cardiologist, we knew the irregularities could either go away at birth or still be there. If they were still there, we'd have to explore her heart more. Thankfully, Lydia's heart has checked out just fine on every visit to the pediatrician. She is heart-healthy!

Sibling love: The kids love Lydia. Gemma is especially fond of her. No jealousy or hard feelings from Gemma. She calls her "Baby Idia" and it is very cute. Tanner really enjoys feeding her when I let him. Then, Gemma tries to help and that's rough. Lydia doesn't appreciate all the "help" at times. Ashton enjoys Lydia but is also gone a lot at school so has the least amount of time with her right now. Ashton is great at helping Lydia get the pacifier back in her mouth or sitting by her if she starts to cry.


Monthly Pictures:

Sharing her Valentine with Lydia

First bath helpers

This was right after she took a bottle and was so happy to be full for once.

What a sad face.

Gemma makes it known that she is still a baby in the house.

Coming home from the hospital

Her first full day of life.

 

Life with 4

I don't take many pictures these days. Poor Lydia will wonder if her newborn days even existed based on the lack of pictures. Poor kid.

Joseph is in another turnaround. I think for the last three kids, he has either just ended a stressful turnaround or started one right when we have a baby. So he is working 3am to 3pm and then picking up Ashton from school. That way, I don't have to worry about feeding Lydia at just the right time in order to get Ashton. Plus it entails loading, unloading, loading again, and unloading again 3 kids to go get her. I could do the car line but it takes FOREVER.

Tanner and Gemma have done well at staying home most days and playing around the house. We try to get out to at least the grocery store, library, playgroup, etc. most days. But we've definitely slowed life WAY down. Tanner really loves to build his robot space machines as seen in the picture above. So he's happy we have more time for that. Ashton is the one who needs to get out of the house every day. Gemma and Tanner are much more content to stay home and play.

Joseph's mom arrives Wednesday night and it will be nice to have some extra help. Since Lydia is strictly bottle fed now, it really frees me up to do whatever is necessary. Plus I scheduled a bajillion doctor appointments while she is here. Lydia will have her one month appointment, Gemma has her heart check up, I have my 6 week check up, a work meeting, and maybe another meeting in there. But I am sure the kids will wear her out every day. They wear me out most days too.

So far, four weeks into having four kids, the biggest difference I see is this. Before, almost always, one kid needed something. One of the three kids needed me or needed help with something. Now, it seems like two of them always do. One of them is almost always Lydia but that's alright. This time around, there are more sibling disputes to settle, more snacks/drinks to get, more clothes to find, etc. I do appreciate Ashton and Tanner's help. They do a lot for us and it definitely is noticeable. But I feel like there are always two kids requesting my presence whereas before, it just felt like one. Maybe when Lydia gets older and more independent, it will go back to one kid the majority of the time.

First Tooth Fairy Visit

Ashton finally lost her first tooth at school this week. It had been loose for about four weeks. The adult tooth is already about halfway in so she doesn't even have a toothless smile really. Even better for family pictures coming up.

She wasn't big on wiggling it or pulling it out, which surprised me. I thought the second it was loose, she would be desperate to pull it out. While at school, a friend encouraged her to take a bite of pretzel with her loose tooth so Ashton did. Well, she didn't realize it came out as she chewed the pretzel and she ended up swallowing the tooth.

She came home and was so excited to tell us. Her teacher encouraged her to write a note to the tooth fairy about why the tooth was missing. Ashton's note was adorable.

Translation: Dear tooth fairy, at school, I lost my tooth. But I accidentally swallowed my tooth. You got two options. You can please choose to give me my money or go into my tummy and get the tooth. Any option you want.

The tooth fairy came that night and gave her a special $2 bill. Ashton was thrilled and took it to school to show her teacher. Thankfully, she didn't lose it!