Sleeping:
Grace slept really well for this first month. I was surprised how much waketime she was capable of, even when still at the hospital. She was alert and looking around but went to sleep really well. There were naps that didn't go well but she would always make up for it on the next nap. She will take a paci but tends to yawn and it falls out of her mouth. The bouncy seat has helped during some naps and the swing as well. Bedtime started to get rough about week 3 where that hour after her last feed was filled with a lot of crying and going in with the paci. We are still in the throws of that right now. After an hour of off and on sleep we let her CIO and it took 7 minutes for her to fall asleep. Nighttime sleep has been great, for a newborn :) We've yet to have a bad night other than one where she apparently didn't get enough waketime that day and daddy just kept her up for about 30 minutes around 1am and she slept until I woke her for her next feeding. She goes right back to sleep after MOTN feedings.
Eating:
Grace was 6lbs 8oz when we left the hospital on Monday. I fed her every 2 1/2 hours during the day and 3 hours at night giving her 9 feedings in a 24 hour period. I had to wake her for every feeding. At her first check-up that Friday she was back to her birth weight at 7lbs 1oz. I was pretty happy. A week later she had only gone up 3oz and the doctor was a little concerned. She wasn't my regular pediatrician and didn't really give me much to go on other than come back in a few days. Luckily I saw my regular ped the following Tuesday and she was 7lbs 10oz, he was happy and so was I. He said I could let her go longer at night so I started letting her sleep and I set my alarm for 5 hours between feedings. There were several times when I had to wake her for that feeding! This past Tuesday she weighed in at 8lbs 8oz so I switched her to a 3 hour schedule during the day with 2 cluster feeds in the evening and she is still only waking once at night and sometimes it is me waking her at the 5 hour mark!
I have been feeding her the same way I did with Faith, 5 minutes in the football hold, 5 minutes across on each side, and then 5 minutes football hold again. If she goes longer in each position, fine, but 5 minutes is my goal.
I downloaded Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow, a 41 hour audio book, onto my ipod and have been listening to that during my MOTN feeds and any others where I don't have the bigger girls around and it has made the feeding time go by faster and I feel like I am getting even more done, not that keeping Grace alive is a waste of time but it is nice to be entertained while doing it!
Her first bottle was on Wednesday morning and she only took 2oz. I pumped out 5oz so I was pretty discouraged. She did fine that day though so it didn't seem to affect her too much. We practiced with a half ounce after several feedings the next day and then re-attacked with a nighttime bottle from which she took 2oz and has been doing that for this week.
Skills:
She really enjoys tummy time and is something of a cheater in that she just stretches out and falls asleep there. She is lifting her head up and at the end of the month has started gripping fingers and clothing.
Our Schedule:
0700 - Wake, eat
0815 - Nap
1000 - Eat
1100 - Nap
1300 - Eat
1400 - Nap
1600 - Eat
1700 - Nap
1800 - Eat, Watch us have dinner, Bath, Bible story,
2000 - Bottle, Bed
2230 - Dreamfeed
0330 - I wake her for MOTN feed if she hasn't already woken up
