The Journey of Parenthood…

Week Four Summary

Oops! I forgot in the Week Three Summary post to provide a link to look back at Kye’s third week! Here it is and for sure look at it because there is a picture of me on there that looks SO much like Brittlynn! Brittlynn’s fourth week of life was from December 27th through January 2nd. Here’s a rundown of what was going on during that week 🙂

Sleep: Her awake times started to spread out a little and she started being SO alert. FINALLY!!! We thought at the time that her tired cue was being fussy (spoiler alert…we have since figured out that she was fussy b/c of GAS and not because she was tired…). We took the sleep wedge out of the crib because it wasn’t really helping and it only caused her to slide down from it so a lot of times she’d be out of view of the video monitor. IF we allowed her to be, I think she’d be a tummy sleeper. She would cry pretty constantly during naps but when we pressed her against us she’d fall right to sleep. She also would use my breasts as a pacifier if I let her! Often times when we’d get her ready for sleep she would try to suck on us but wasn’t hungry. She isn’t a big fan of the paci though! We used it sometimes but she would suck so hard on it that it’d leave a mark around her mouth and she’d spit it out constantly. Plus since she sleeps with her head to the side it falls out instantly. Def not worth the hassle it causes. It’s good that she WILL take it though and I plan to keep using it occasionally so she will take it if we need her to like at weddings and stuff!

Nursing: Still going well. My breasts seem to have adjusted to nursing so much better this time around and I never even use any nipple cream or anything! I have even had to get up and walk while nursing a couple of times and, while it’s awkward, I can mange it! At this point I realized there is NO point in rushing her because she takes her precious time eating. Still averaging an hour each feeding and I stopped keeping track of the time. Prior to this week I kept a note book and wrote down how long she ate on each breast, etc. At this point I could tell when she was done with the first breast and the entire feeding! On 12/31 I went out with Kye for a couple of hours and gave Zach a bottle to feed her while we were gone. It was a nice break for us both and she ate 4 ounces with him.

Schedule: During this week I pulled out my Baby Whisperer book (I highly recommend buying it in addition to Babywise…they work very well together! The legit title is: The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems by Tracy Hogg). Zach and I used bits and pieces of it with Kye (especially her shh-pat method for naps) and, after reading it over, I decided to change Britt’s schedule to match up with Hogg’s E.A.S.Y one. Here is what Brittlynn’s schedule became at 4 weeks old (I started it on 12/29):

7:00: start of the day, eat
8:00-8:30: awake time then down for nap
10:00: eat
11:00-11:30: awake time then down for nap
1:00: eat
2:00-2:30: awake time then down for nap
4:00: eat
5:00-5:30: awake time then down for nap
6:00: eat (this is what Hogg calls a cluster feed, I would feed her close together in the evenings to help her load up on food and stay full for the night time. The evenings are also THE fussiest time of the day at this age so it makes sense to feed her and keep her happy!)
7:00-7:30: awake time then down for nap
8:00: do bedtime ritual (massage or bath) then eat. Put her straight to bed after this feeding
10:30: wake her up for her “dream feed” (this is one extra feeding before we go to bed to, again, help her stock up and hopefully sleep through the night).

After the 10:30 feeding we would go to bed and cross our fingers! The first full day on the schedule (12/30) I was home alone with her that night as Zach was out of town and Kye stayed at Mrs. Charlotte’s. I put her straight to bed at 11:30 (after she finished eating at 10:30) and she slept until 5 am! That’s 5 1/2 solid hours which was AWESOME for me to get!!!

Here are other things going on with Brittlynn during week four:

  • I really felt like I was starting to learn her more and understand her better
  • Kelly sent us a miracle blanket and it’s awesome! (I’ll be talking about it in a future weekly post)
  • Britt’s skin completely stopped shedding
  • During a feeding she sounded super congested. I researched it and it’s VERY common for winter babies to be congested because of the heat/dry air. The best thing for them is to run a cool mist humidifier and also to take them out in to the cold air outside. I started taking her out for a couple minutes and it did help! We now run the humidifier during all her naps and it makes a huge improvement. I also did some of that spray saline stuff but it didn’t have a long term lasting effect and she hated it!
  • We followed the Baby Whisperer schedule and also advice on helping her sleep. We’d set the stage before each nap (which we did with Kye too…you swaddle them and then hold them upright until they get limp, but not asleep, then put them down) and we’d also do shhh-pat during the nap when she would cry. We ended up doing shh-pat ALL the TIME and quickly went back to the Babywise recommendations for how to handle naps (let her fuss in the beginning then go in and comfort her in the middle if needed)
  • Her precious cheeks started to have the nasty baby acne
  • I noticed that she has hair on her ears and back just like Kye did, although hers is blonde instead of black like his was
  • Her hair is getting lighter and you can really see a difference in the sunlight, but she hasn’t lost any of it yet!
  • On 1/2 the rest of her cord officially fell off!
  • I was hoping she wouldn’t be a puker like Kye had been as a baby…but she is! The spitting up started getting more frequent during this week. I’m constantly covered in puke. Sexxxy
  • Another thing we learned from the Baby Whisperer was about burping. It’s the BEST trick! When burping, go upwards only on the left side of the baby’s back. It works so well and for some reason the left side gets the air out? I don’t care why, I’m just glad it helps!

Here are some pictures from this week:

She loves her playmat!

Kye loves playing with her (and yes, the turtle did end up falling on her face when Kye was sweetly dangling it above her head so she could see it…I think he’s gonna help her be a tough one!)

Here’s a video!

And another video of her enjoying her mat

Enjoying her bouncer

Part of the shh-pat method is when the baby cries you turn them on their side and say “shhhh” really loudly while patting firmly on their backs until they stop crying and fall asleep. The problem with Brittlynn is that the SECOND you roll her back over to her back she busts out crying. SO annoying. I know it’s still sleep training because you aren’t rocking her or anything, but it felt like a lot of work and we would have to basically do shh-pat until she was hardcore asleep enough to wear when we turned her to her back, she wouldn’t wake up. I used the sleep wedge to prop her on her side. She’d often fall right to sleep when on her side without even doing the shh-pat stuff! I’m pretty confident as soon as she’s able to roll over that she’ll be a tummy sleeper like her mama (although we’ll be putting her on her back to sleep every time  we lay her down!). It was frustrating feeling like she’d never sleep for naps. Nights were still great, but it was KILLING me to be in there alllll day with her shhing and patting. It didn’t last long because I literally can’t be doing that all day, it’s not fair to Kye. I ended up letting her cry some at the start of naps then when she’d wake up (like 20 min into the nap then every 10 min from then on…) I’d go in, pick her up, comfort her (often with shhing and patting but while holding her rather than her in the crib) then put her back down. It was quicker than sitting in there until she fell asleep and it was just as effective because either way she was never napping in increments longer than 10-20 min solid 🙁

This face reminds me of the ones Kye would make as a baby

You can see the little blister looking thing in the center of her upper lip

Her little nose is so pudged that I joke with her about being able to see her brains…I can seriously see snot she has like way up there!

Robyn got her these adorable onesies! Doesn’t she look so pretty in them?

my new favorite picture!

I didn’t write a blog entry for Kye’s fourth week, I combined it with his one month summary so you can read that here.

Postpartum Update: It seemed like this week things started to get a little better for me. I stopped taking the ibprofin from the hospital as well as the stool softener. I took them both longer after this pregnancy because I figured, why not? I noticed my night sweats got less and I was able to sleep on my stomach. My bleeding slowed down and I was finally able to use a lighter pad. I tried on my bridesmaid dress for Casey’s wedding…I had to buy it when I was MEGA pregnant and wasn’t able to try it on then…and it fit except for the boob area was WAY too small so I exchanged it for the next size up. I kinda forgot how HUGE my boobs get while nursing. I really like the way the look though and especially how perky 😉 I totally want implants someday! I did start to get some intense headaches this week though and I thought maybe it was from lack of iron? The hospital had prescribed me iron supplements but they forgot to give me the prescription when I was discharged so I never got them. I called Southern OB to see if I could get them now and they wanted me to come in for blood work and junk before giving them to me…no thanks. I can handle the headaches 🙂

Also this week I noticed my left breast was red and tender. Right away I knew that meant the early signs of mastitis. I went through so many breast feeding issues with Kye that I am pretty much an expert haha! I didn’t have a fever (at least not yet) but I called Southern OB hoping to get meds to kick it’s butt before it started. They told me they couldn’t prescribe anything until I actually had mastitis so I spent a good 24 hours babying that breast, hoping to unclog the duct on my own. I had her nurse on that side longer then I pumped after each feeding. I also applied a heating pad, ran a hot shower over it while massaging it, and used cold booby tubes (they are AWESOME for breast issues…def good to have!) in between feedings and when sleeping so I could be comfortable. I’m super proud of myself because I unclogged the duct on my own and never did get mastitis!!! It is such a blessing that I went through the tough stuff my first time around as I know how to handle things this time 🙂

Emily Parker
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1 Comment

  1. ks201183
    January 24, 2012 / 4:31 pm

    ooh- clogged ducts are NO FUN!! I remember those days so well… Cabbage leaves (for whatever reason) work, as well, at getting them unclogged. Implants- totally. When I was nursing, I would stare at my breasts in the mirror and just admire them. No joke. They are a MUST-HAVE. :)Carter (my 2nd) had infant acne at birth, and Braydon got it around 4 weeks, as well. I put Aquaphor on his cheeks & it cleared right up. I don't know why it worked, but it did almost instantly!!Brittlyn totally looks like your baby picture!! You have such a precious family & I'm so glad I actually know you now so I can openly stalk your blog!! ;)You're doing an amazing job, Mama. It's not easy, I know. Especially when they're all yucky & congested. Naptimes/Bedtimes seem nearly impossible… Braydon had to sleep IN HIS CARSEAT for several weeks just to be able to breath!!

    Reply

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