Wilcox Writings: 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: