One Month Checkup

Well, I'm happy to report that Ronan completely aced his one month checkup today!!! He weighed in at 9lbs. 11 oz. and the doctor was THRILLED with his weight gain. We went in for a weight check last week and she told us that when she looked at the report showing he was only 8 lbs. 5 oz., she was pretty concerned at the slow gain and the fact that he wasn't yet back up to birth weight at 3 weeks. Well, no more...he put on a whopping 12 ounces in 9 days!! It appears this little guy just took a bit to catch up. We weighed him this morning before we went in, so I knew what to expect at the appt. and I told Rob, "If she's not happy with this, then we are finding a new pediatrician!". I was beginning to become concerned  and completely stressed out that our doctor was almost pro formula feeding, and that she didn't care about my desire to only feed him breast milk. But now I realize her only concern was for our son and whether or not he was thriving. Today she said she doesn't care how we do it (breast milk or formula), she just wants to see him gaining.....and that we are doing great now! This is an incredible weight off my shoulders; the last two weeks have been the hardest, most emotional and most stressful weeks of my life. Being a parent and making sure your child is healthy is by far harder than any job I have ever had. The last few days have come with many tears and self doubt as to whether or not I can really keep this up. The positive results now just add fuel my motivation. The road isn't going to get any easier just yet, in fact it will be a bit harder - but I hope to have a little less stress in my life now. Happy mom, happy baby.

We were excited to be nearing the 6 week mark so we can finally start getting out of the house with the baby. There is a reason confinement is considered torture - I am definitely getting a little stir crazy! I wanted to confirm with Dr. Hubbard that we were in the the clear to go out and about in a week and a half or so....and much to our disappointment, she stated that if she had a baby, she wouldn't be going anywhere, even after 6 weeks has passed. Do we want him to get RSV, she asked. Well....absolutely not. She told us to think about this time of year and how everywhere you go - people are coughing, sneezing and sick. Unfortunately, we had a baby at the absolute wrong time of the year. The flu is coming, she said - and having a sick baby on top of being new parents is not something we want. It's probably for the best anyway....with my challenge of feeding him, I  don't have time to go anywhere - seriously! She wants me to cut back on pumping for now and go back to nursing....breast feeding is a supply and demand phenomenon, and the baby does a much better job of telling your body to make more milk than any pump will and she's worried if we don't get him back to more nursing, that my supply will take a nose dive down the road. So for now, it's nurse for 20-30 minutes, then pump the remaining milk, then feed that to baby. With this kind of schedule, I will literally be feeding and working around the clock. It's such a challenge. But, thank goodness that when you see results, you get that motivation to keep going. Breast feeding a baby is very similar to weight loss in that sense!

Ronan's other stats include: Height - 23" and in the 90th percentile! He has grown an inch and a half since birth.  His head circumference is 15" and in the 55th percentile. His weight at 9 pounds 11 ounces is in the 50th percentile. He's our long and lean little boy!! R's cord finally fell off last Wednesday and is healing nicely....we now have permission to give him a real bath. No more sponge baths, yay!!! I'm so excited to see if he loves it or hates it. He doesn't mind sponge baths until you take him out and his little bum hits the cold air, so I anticipate he will love the bath. He is so laid back and easy going and is such a happy baby, I couldn't imagine that he wouldn't like it. Pictures to come!

I felt like I had next to no pictures of me actually with my baby boy so I made Rob take a few the other night. So, here are a couple shots of Mommy and Ronan - I love this time with him, he's my sweetie and I'm so in love. And I'm SO proud of his progress. And we're preeeetttty sure he's becoming a bit of a favorite at the doctor's office - the nurses and doctor just love him, and why wouldn't they?? :) Hooray for our healthy and adorable boy, we couldn't ask for more!