Teddy's Weekly Photos: Five Weeks

Happy hump day everyone. I hope your week is going well. I would say I hope it is going quickly but as I am approaching the half way point to my maternity leave I do not wish any weeks to fly by.

Anyway onto Teddy's fifth weekly photo:

This week we have hit another growth spurt and he is eating like crazy. Also he is staying awake and alert  a lot more throughout the day. The biggest development this week is that we are officially in the crib. I even removed his cradle from our room so as to stop the temptation to put him in it instead of the crib. I have to say I was hesitant about the crib so soon but it has been nice to feel like we have our bedroom back. We are now able to start having more of a routine with him at bedtime too and that is what I am hoping will get us more than three to four hours sleep at a time.

Hope everyone is having a great week! If you have any tips for getting a baby to sleep at night we are all ears.

Dear Boobs, Why Must You Give Me Such Grief?

Hi All. So if you couldn't tell from the title this post is going to be about breasts. More specifically breastfeeding. I will not fault you if you choose to stop reading now. Just come back tomorrow for your weekly installment of Teddy cuteness.

So I lied and here is some Teddy cuteness today!

Anyway on to the topic at hand, breastfeeding. Let me just start this by saying that I know this is a subject for which many have a very strong stance. I had one of those up until about five weeks ago. I was prepared for this breastfeeding thing or so I thought. I read books, blogs, and asked family and friends about their breastfeeding journey. Then Teddy arrived and all that was thrown out the window. Don't get me wrong the first two weeks were OK. I mean I had sore nipples and exhaustion because our little guy just wanted to nurse all the time. For the sore nipples I sought out help by going to a local La Leche League meeting. According to them his latch was perfect and the soreness should go away soonish. That's the bad thing about breastfeeding. Every body is different so what I experience might not be what someone else experiences and there are no hard and fast norms.

Anyway my dreams of having a healthy breastfed boy first came into question at his two week check up when he was not back up to birth weight. In fact he had only gained about four ounces in a week and a half. The pediatrician gave us one more week to let him catch up before suggesting supplementation. Let me tell you at that appointment I had prayed so hard that our little man was gaining weight and I was crushed to find out he had only gained an ounce in a whole week. To top that off the doctor commented that when he cried for food he seemed as if a baby who was being starved. Now here's the point where I broke down. I couldn't take the thought that my baby might think or feel as if we were trying to starve him. So we started supplementing. I told myself this is just temporary and I sought out the help of a lactation consultant. She was awesome and gave me some great tips to help my supply and wean him from the formula we were using to supplement. I left her office with a renewed since that I could and would breastfeed my son.

Now as I sit here writing this I have just given Teddy his third bottle for the day. You see the weaning was not happening according to him. If we tried to nurse longer and withhold the formula he would nurse and then scream for a bottle. Now at five weeks old we have decided to switch him to formula and before you judge me know that this has been the subject of many tears since his birth five weeks ago. This is not a decision that was made lightly and if you did not know mom guilt is real. I wanted nothing more than to say I breastfed our son for a full year but I also want nothing more than to say I enjoyed my son for that year. As of right now Teddy and I are finally getting to enjoy each other. I do not cringe at the thought of him waking from a nap and wanting to feed again. Every time he cries to be fed I do not cry with him and that is a huge relief.

I know that some will judge me harshly for this decision. Five weeks ago I would have done the same. It is amazing how becoming a parent changes you in so many ways. I now know that I just want to do what is best for Teddy, myself, and our family. This has been a huge relief too for Jose because now instead of having to watch me cry time and time again he gets to help with feeding Teddy.

Did you breastfeed or formula feed? Or a combination of both? I would love to hear your story.

Teddy's Weekly Photo Project: Weeks 3 and 4

Hi All! So our Teddy is one month old today. I cannot believe it has already been a month. It feels like we just left the hospital yesterday. In honor of his one month birthday I thought I would give you guys a few updates on how he is doing.

Teddy now weighs 9 lbs and 6 ounces (according to our doctors visit last Thursday) and we are so thankful he is gaining weight. We had some issue in his first three weeks of him not gaining enough weight with just being breast fed so we had to start supplementing with formula. Let me just tell you this broke my heart. I think the best advice I received while pregnant was to have a plan but to be okay with that plan not working out and boy has that been true. From our birth (I will write a post about that later) to breastfeeding it seems as if nothing has gone according to plan. I guess that is just part of parenthood. I will say that breastfeeding has to be one of the hardest things I have ever done. I feel like it should be inherent but its not. It is definitely something Teddy and I work on an learn more about daily. I am hoping to have him off of the supplemental formula soon but as Jose says "he is a Gonzalez baby and we just need more". So I guess we will see how that goes.

Another development is that we are trying to get Teddy on a schedule and get him used to sleeping in his room. We are aiming for him to sleep in his crib but right now we just move his cradle into his room for daily naps. This has been hard for me because I like having him near me so I can peak at him every so often. Or more honestly so I can creepily stare at him while he sleeps and constantly make sure he is still breathing. Anyway with the scheduling we just started this weekend and I am hoping to stay around the house for the next week or so in order to get him used to it. We are supposed to be letting him cry it out if need be so that he learns to self soothe.  Lets just say that Jose is doing better at that one than I am.

So now that I have rambled on about our child I will just show you guys his adorable three and four week pictures. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and Monday is kind to you!

"Super Teddy" 

This is Teddy air bench pressing. He's already my strong little man.