Biophilliac Mommy: Zero Month Old Link

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Zero Month Old Link

It's hard for me to believe that my little Link is already one month old today. This month has been a whirlwind of adjustments, snuggles, love, and discovery. We are into our second week home without Robbie and are getting into a rythym. Though Meo is still reluctant at nap time, he has been eventually giving in and taking his afternoon nap again (for 3 hours!) which allows Link and I to nap as well. I also read my novel this time, but I have been allowing myself to relax and rest in bed for the duration of nap time rather than be tempted to get up and do housework so that I can recover as well. Eventually I will want to do housework during nap time so that I can use awake time to devote all my attention to playing with the boys, but for now I really need the rest too.

Link has been developing beautifully. He spends a lot of time sleeping. He nurses really well, then often will fall back asleep. He usually will only sleep if he is in contact with a warm body (usually mama). When he is a awake though, his big blue eyes open up really wide and he is very alert. In general he is a calm baby, but he does have a "witching hour" (or two, or three) in the evening where he is extremely grumpy and will cry and fuss almost no matter what I do. Surprisingly, nursing doesn't do the trick during this exhausting time, but we have found that if one of us wears him the baby carrier (the Ergo carrier with the newborn insert has become our new favorite) than he will almost instantly calm down and go to sleep. So we are now getting in the habit of one of us wearing Link while the other one baths Meo, reads him stories and puts him to bed. I happen to be wearing Link right now while Robbie is putting Meo to sleep, and Link is gently sleep breathing as I rest my head on his warm little head snuggled against me in the carrier. He smells so wonderfully delicious. At night, Link sleeps safely next to me. He nurses, then unlatches (his brother never wanted to unlatch) and will usually lay on his back content beside me. Lately he only wakes up really once in the night to nurse and have a diaper change; he's a great sleeper!

Link is very strong. I like to joke that I birthed a little Hercules. He already has decent head control; he can lift his head up both from a vertical and horizontal position and hold it with only a little wavering for several moments. He does excellent with his tummy time. Sometimes he will fuss, but a lot of the time he will be content for around 5 minutes laying on his belly and practicing lifting his head so he can look around. At one week old, Link almost rolled onto his back from his belly by swinging his legs and hips to the side over and over. Today, he scooted across the floor a little (like a worm crawl) by pushing his feet into the ground and pushing his legs out and scrabbling with his little hands. He really is quite strong!

He is already pretty good at tracking and will track my finger or pictures in books with his eyes and even move his head to follow them when the object is beyond his peripheral vision. He recognizes the sound of my voice and will sometimes be comforted just hearing me speak when he's fussing on someone else (or if he wasn't fussing he will begin to because he hears me and wants me to hold him). He seems really fond of Meo's voice too and will look for him when he hears him talking. Meo constantly is showering Link with kisses and has been nicknaming him Linky since he was naught a day old.

I have been reading to Link (well, usually I am reading to Meo and Link listens while in my lap) every day, and doing a little bit of baby yoga with him. He isn't yet into the routine of having a nightly bath because he doesn't get dirty, it's been terribly dry out, and I feel like resting during bath time. But when we do give him a bath, I always give him a nice, full body massage with coconut oil afterwards which he seems to enjoy. During his bath, Meo likes to help wash him. Meo also likes to wear washcloths all over his body now since he saw us put washcloths on Link to keep him warm.

We are not yet in the habit of going for a daily walk as it takes a long time for me to get all three of us dressed in our snow gear and out the door, and inevitably one or both boys starts crying. Nonetheless, this is what I am working towards, and we are looking forward to attempting our first snowshoe adventure, just the three of us, tomorrow after breakfast. Wish me happy thoughts and luck. Meo tried out his new snowshoes from Memere and Pepere this weekend and did a fantastic job so he's going to be snowshoeing all by himself tomorrow while I carry Link; a big step for Meo!

Today Link had his one month check-up and everything about him looks wonderful. She said he is developing perfectly. Here are his stats:

Weight: 10 pounds and 13 ounces (76%)
Height: 20 3/4 inches (23%)
Head Circumference: 14 3/4 inches (70%)

When he was born, he was in the 50th percentile for weight, so he is doing an excellent job eating if he's moved up to the 76th percentile! The doctor seemed a little surprised! This boy has been getting chubby on yummy mama milk. Link is much shorter than his brother was. Meo was 21.5 inches when he was born, and Link isn't even 21 inches now at one month old. That probably doesn't mean anything though, just an interesting observation.

Now for some pictures of the boys!

Pretending his chairs are a truck

teething Meo

Nap time

I was sleeping in between them

This was our first snowy walk of the season. I was worried Meo wouldn't last long and I'd need to carry him back, but we were out for 1.5 hours and he didn't want to stop! He loved it!

eating snow

Mema came over and played with the boys so I could clean. She also gave us some amazing presents! Including lots of books (two in French), a new pair of Toms shoes for me (mine had several holes in them), a board game for Robbie, a beautiful art easel and play tent for Meo, and a puppet and baby bjorn bib for Link. She even got Meo to take a nap for her! Thanks Mema!