Soren update: 1 month

It's only been a month since Soren was born, but it feels like it's been a lot longer than that.  I think that's because I've been awake for more hours of this past month than any other month since Oliver was a newborn.  It's been an exhausting month, yes, but I expected that.  But it's also been a joy as I've discovered that it feels as natural to be a mom to these two little boys as it was to be a mom to just one. 

After just one month, I'm already exclaiming how big Soren has gotten.  It's easy to forget how quickly babies really do grow.  He regained his birth weight in eight days and by the next week had nearly doubled the pediatrician's prediction for weight gain.  Even without the scale, I knew he was getting heavier, because I could feel it when I lifted him in his car seat. His one-month appointment isn't actually until next week, but I'm interested in what his "stats" will be. 

Regardless of how much he weighs, he's starting to look more like a baby and less like a newborn.  His ruddy, pale complexion is quickly turning into a darker, more even skin tone (and relieving my worries that he inherited my fair skin, because he looked so pale when he was born) and his face has filled out and his body grown plumper.  I've also noticed that his neck strenghth has improved and he's beginning to put weight on his feet if you hold him up and let his feet touch the ground.

Just like when Oliver was born, it was difficult to tell who Soren looked like.  I did think he looked nothing like Oliver, but otherwise, he just looked like a generic Caucasian newborn.  Everyone always said Oliver looked exactly like Chris, which I've never completely agreed with, (I always thought he looked like a mix of the two of us) but a month later, I do think Soren now looks exactly like his dad, with the exception that he's got my earlobes and nose.  It's the feet we have no idea who they come from.  I didn't get a close look at Soren right after he was born, and when we got back to my hospital room, one of the first things Chris said about Soren is that he has really long toes.  Yup, skinny feet and really long big toes.

Soren was born with a respectable amount of dark hair, but when I gave him a bath about a month later, I swear a good bit of hair on the top of his head was washed away with the bath water.  It's been thinning out since then (especially on top) and I predict he'll probably lose most of it (not uncommon for newborns) and won't grow it all back until after 18 months, just like the case for most Partenheimer and Chesla babies.

When I was asked for the umpteenth time if my mere weeks-old baby was sleeping through the night, it warranted the Facebook status update of, "Do I look like he's sleeping through the night?" So no, Soren is not sleeping through the night, and while I wish he were, I know that his sleep patterns, as tiring as they are for me, are typical of a newborn.  He started out sleeping in about 2.5-hour chunks, but within his second week was going in spurts of waking every hour.  The saving grace is that he eats quickly and is quite easy to put back to sleep after a night feeding.  With Oliver I was up a minimum of an hour and when it got really bad, as long as three hours.  Soren started out being awake for 45 minutes, but now is awake for as little as 20-30 minutes. 

Where we are experiencing problems is during the late afternoon and evening.  Among parents, this is referred to as the witching hour, and if you're unfortunate enough to have a colicky baby, you may deal with inconsolable crying for hours in the evening.  It hasn't gotten that bad for us, but starting around three weeks, the witching hour time period has gotten particularly trying.  Gentle movement is the only thing we've found to soothe him.  I have to put him in the Ergo, while Chris walks around with him cradled in his arms.  If we're lucky, once he konks out, we can cease the gentle bouncing and pacing and lay him down and he might stay asleep.  I started to reread a sleep training book I got when Oliver was a baby and the author, a pediatrician and expert on sleep, said the irritability is normal and there really isn't anything you can do about it, and recommended soothing your baby however you can and left us readers with parting words that this behavior supposedly peaks around six weeks and then will start to improve. 

Soren is a good nurser.  Women can encounter so many problems with breastfeeding, as I was reminded of when I went back to the new parent group I had attended with Oliver and discovered I was one of the very few who wasn't experiencing even a minor problem.  So I'm thankful the experience is going well. 

Parents of more than one child always comment on how different the personalities of their children are, but despite growing up with a brother whose personality/temperament was much different than mine, it was difficult to imagine anything but a carbon copy of Oliver in both looks and personality.  But within just hours of Soren's birth, I already noticed differences, mainly that he seemed pretty chill.  My in-laws say that Oliver reminds them exactly of Chris as a child - stubborn and demanding - but when my mother-in-law first held Soren, she said, "Looks like we have an Andy here." Andy is Chris's younger, more easy-going younger brother.  (Andy is often late to family functions, so when family learned that Andrew is Soren's middle name, they felt it was fitting for a baby born eight days late.)  While Soren likes to be held and cuddled, he's also mostly content to lie on his back and look at the lights or the people around him.  He doesn't cry during diaper changes or even during baths, except when we take him out and he gets cold. 

Just like how we've been getting to know Oliver these past two years, I look forward to seeing what kind of person Soren grows up to be.