The last four months were the craziest I’ve ever experienced. I’ve felt each emotion deeper than I ever have and it has been absolutely incredible.
Lily’s first two months were by far the toughest of the two as we challenged to balance the sweetness of the newborn with the intense sleep deprivation and postpartum recovery. I was in shock how little I was prepared for postpartum life (I shared an honest postpartum update here).
If you are reading this and struggling through the newborn phase, don’t worry ! There were many days I sat down with Jake and said “I love my newborn but I don’t love newborn sleep schedules and that’s ok. it’s a small part of her life.” I was hoping this would be true for us and it was! She sleeps in the Snoo bassinet and I’ll do my full review on that another time (I want to wait until we are completely done).
I went back to work at twelve weeks and felt like it was the perfect time. I started with a month in the ICU and it was definitely not easy, I missed her so much but I was extremely busy and so I didn’t have much time to think about it. Working my once a week 24hour shifts have proven to be the hardest parts of going back to work. Every single day I come home and cherish each second with this beautiful baby.
Jake, Lily, and I are big on schedules. We have found it’s much easier for everyone to have the same bedtime and routine each night. Jake and Lily have their own bedtime routine that I sometimes help with but since I am gone for work some nights we wanted them to bond for this and they do. We pay close attention to her sleepy cues and wake windows and try and put her down at optimal times during the day too. Currently my sister and mom have been helping us during the day watching her when I'm at work.
She did have a four month sleep regression where she went from sleeping 8-10 hours in a row to waking up multiple times a night (sometimes every hour!). The Snoo helped us with this and we only had to wake up once (usually) and sometimes twice to help soothe her. She seems to be finishing up that regression and has been sleeping long stretches again. She has always been placed in her bassinet awake (early on she went in sleepy) and falls asleep on her own - lately she starts singing the moment we put her down and then falls asleep. It’s fun to hear her singing in the middle of the night wakings too when that happens.
The more I get to know Lily the more in love I fall. Her little brain growing is amazing to me. She always was an alert baby and the only “sleepy newborn” phase I ever had was the first day of her life after her journey to the outside world. Otherwise she always has been one to look around frequently, stare at books and people, and keep her eyes wide open. So much so we secretly nicknamed her “beady” (beady eyes) when she as a newborn. Turning pages, laughing at toys, smiling hugely whenever her daddy starts talking, reaching her arms out so I’ll pick her up, singing herself to sleep with her made up songs (or singing to the radio!) all are incredible to witness. Everyone says they have the happiest baby and ours is too - very rarely does she cry. Even in the middle of the night when she’s bored and awake she will “yell” at us loudly when she wants us but hardly ever cries. When she looks at me and just smiles that gummy smile and kicks her legs, my heart melts .
Developmentally holding her head up was a game changer for us! Other parents can relate but it made it so much easier to transfer her from person to person or place to place. She has a new interest in food , and eyes our food while we eat while also reaching out for it now. We haven’t decided our exact method of introducing food but it’ll be here soon.
If anyone is interested in the items we used the most during these first four months here they are:
Newborn Lounger : we used this for many supervised naps as a newborn. It has an incline so she was more comfortable sleeping. I am 100% safe sleeping so all the naps had to be supervised on this. We found a nice linen natural cover on Etsy and it was more aesthetically pleasing than the baby patterns.
Swaddles : My pediatrician told us a story of a baby who had the velcro style swaddle ride up and the baby suffocated so he suggested the halo sleep sack swaddle it has armholes and you then velcro around that. We used this every single night and continue to use it as we transition out of the swaddle (since we have a Snoo bassinet we can transition a little later but baby should transition out once they can roll over for safe sleep) . In addition my coresident lent us an impossible-to-find "Ollie swaddle" and we used this all the time for naps! The “sleep experts” say even if baby cries to continue to swaddle and they become accustomed to it to calm them down - this was the case with Lily. In a week or two she became instantly calm when swaddled.
Pacifiers : We used wubbanub from day one in the hospital - however - lactation experts say this is not recommended until you are established with breastfeeding. We didn’t have any problems but around 10 weeks she stopped taking any pacifiers. Now she prefers to suck her wrist for comfort.
Activity Gym: She’s OBSESSED with “play gym!” . This gym has many options to customize and adapt to baby’s changing development. I love how we can change it every wake time even so it has new things for her to explore. She has always loved it and so do I! She often is seen eyeing it while she “should be” eating!
Learning cube: This is an extremely cool toy and has a lot of things for baby to look at and feel. Each day she’s exploring something new. Sometimes we make up stories about the different sides too. We’ve used it from day one and she still finds fun ways to play in new ways.
Rattle: I really love this rattle and so does Lily (otherwise I wouldn’t be even mentioning a rattle!). It has many places to grab and it’s perfect for practicing holding objects and transferring them. The rattle noise is pleasant and the handles are small enough and easy for her to chew.
Baby Bjorne bouncer: I had high hopes that she could take a little supervised nap in here but Lily was so alert as a baby she had to be totally nonstimulated in order to rest. That meant she never was able to sleep in baby swing or bouncer. We love this because it’s portable and we can take it upstairs, set up in the kitchen, use while I shower in the bathroom, and take it outside really easily. It’s a nice spot for her to chill and play with toys while we get other things done.
Baby carrier : We bought this version of the baby Bjorn carrier because it accommodates a larger weight and can carry front and back (when the baby is older). We hope to have siblings for Lily someday so we know this will be useful. Currently it’s our favorite way to take her to the grocery store!
Bottles: We introduced Dr Brown’s bottles at 3.5weeks so that I could get some sleep. We did “paced feeding” so she wouldn’t be mad at breastfeeding. It worked well then it got to be too slow for her so we switched to comotomo and really like those bottles.
Clothes: The first three months she wore a lot of Loulou and Company to bed and for daytime cuddles. The tie gowns were our favorite! Jamie Kay and Zara have been my favorite place to find cute clothing for her. My favorite sleep outfits are Hanna Andersson pajamas but she sleeps in a variety of onesies.
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