Baby Will at 6 Weeks

Baby Will is 6 weeks! It’s been the longest shortest 6 weeks. Other parents will understand that sentiment. His birth feels like so long ago and some periods of time feel long (like the difficult nights we’ve had) but the time has gone fast at the same time. He's so much more alert than he was when I last wrote an update at 2 weeks! Here is how he is doing at 6 weeks!

Likes: being held my mom alllll the time. This has not changed a bit in the last 4 weeks. The baby carrier is my VIP baby product. He spends hours in it every day! He also likes to lay on the baby gym when he's in a good mood. 

Snug as a bug in a rug in the baby carrier as we head out for a walk!

Dislikes: diaper changes, baths, being held by Phil (eeks, hope he gets more on team dad soon), pooping and passing gas (he strains so much), and the hours of 5-9 each night. 

Firsts:  He has come along while sledding but is of course oblivious to what is going on since he is in the carrier under layers of warmth. I obviously do not sled with him! I am there to lend a hand to Phil and take videos. We live in a great area for sledding as there are hills just 2 blocks away! 

Feeding: Breastfeeding continues to go well. It is SO MUCH BETTER than pumping!! I have pumped a handful of times but will avoid doing it until I am closer to returning to work. I don’t know how much he weighs but it seems like he is growing well as he outgrew his newborn clothes around 3 weeks due to length! Paul was in that size for 2 months so this kid is so different from Paul!

Sleeping: is still not great. He will give me a 2.5-4 hour stretch at the beginning of the night and then sleeps for 1.5-2 hour stretches after that. Gas/pooping seems to wake him up. His digestive system is still maturing so he really strains to poop or pass gas. I thought maybe it was related to what I am eating but he seems to struggle with it no matter what I eat. I was a bit depressed to look back at my Paul posts and see he was sleeping for 6 hours at the beginning of the night at 6 weeks. Womp womp. That seems so far away for us! But I remind myself we had other challenges with Paul (weight gain). 

Dad:  Phil has been back at work since the week of Christmas. He’s still going on 2-3 days/week which works fine for us since he is honestly not much help during the day since I’m breastfeeding. But he does pretty much everything for Paul! And when he is around during the day he’s great at refilling my water, warming up meals, doing dishes, etc. He has also been cleaning our house as we put our cleaners on hold for the first 2 months of Will’s life to limit our exposure to others. 

Mama: I am feeling pretty much fully healed from my c section. I imagine there is more healing that is happening but I don’t have anymore pain. I have my 6 week check up today and expect to get cleared to exercise. I am taking it easy this month and just going for long walks when the weather allows. I plan to get a beachbody membership in Feb and will ease back into more vigorous workouts then. So overall I am doing well. I just feel really tired and have mastered napping with Will on me during the day. My RA is behaving now that I’m back on my injections so I am tapering off steroids. Getting off those is key as being on prednisone is NOT good if you get Covid! I am still in daily blood thinners injections. I was hoping to be done at 6 weeks but had my evisit with the hematologist on Wednesday and he said I need to stay on them for 6 more weeks. :( I had a blood clot during my last pregnancy and have a genetic mutation that makes me more prone to clots so he feels it’s best to stay on them for 12 weeks post partum. That means I will have been on them for 45 weeks total. I am so glad we are done having kids as I could not go through all of this again. My poor stomach is so bruised!!

Pablo: All in all, he continues to do well. He is very sweet around Will and will ask, ‘are you ok?’ when Will is crying. This week when I was giving Will his bath, he came in and said, ‘I’m here to help!’ I thought that was so cute. He gives Will a kiss on his head each night when he goes up to bed. But he definitely acts out at times. Who knows if that’s related to gaining a brother or just being a toddler! I continue to try to spend one-on-one time with him doing things like reading, playing a game or baking cookies. That seems to really help. The weather has been super mild this month so we get outside after his nap to sled. He has really enjoyed that and it’s an activity that feels one-on-one since you can’t see Will in the carrier. 

We love sledding!

Making monster cookies with mom!

Before Will was born, I told Phil that a baby seemed easy compared to Paul (toddlers can be HARD!) but I am totally eating my words now... It's also a bit more challenging to have a baby during a pandemic as aren't having visitors over so there's no one to hand the baby off to besides Phil. Who knows if that would even help since Will tends to scream for Phil. Ha. But I keep reminding myself that this phase is short in the grand scheme of things and each week should get a little bit easier. And I never take for granted how lucky we were to add a child to our family!!