4 Weeks Old

4 weeks have passed since I had this little guy, and he is finally back up to his birth weight. Yippee! He was 8 pounds, 6.2 ounces, when we weighed him Friday. The breastfeeding issues are getting much better, too. He will wake himself up for most feedings now (WOW!!!!), and he is squirming and talking a lot more when I'm feeding him instead of just snoozing. We are getting there! We were letting him eat as much as he wanted to from me and then giving him an ounce of supplement at each feeding. The lactation consultant said I can give him an ounce at one feeding, then a 1/2 ounce at the next feeding and see if his weight is still ok with that. Then hopefully we can wean him off the supplement completely. It is funny, he will wake himself up at the exact minute that he is supposed to eat, so I guess he is starting to feel those hunger cues. And the feedings that he does wake himself up for go a LOT better than the ones where I have to wake him up. Meaning Mama is MUCH less frustrated and we can actually enjoy the time together. It definitely helps to have some cuddle time in between frustrating feedings. But I think Bradley has turned the corner, and things should get better and better. Soon we will be pros! :-)

So we're starting to get into a bit of a routine, and things are going well. I let one of my friends watch him for an hour this weekend so we could do some work on the house. She was so good with him, and I didn't worry about him once when he was gone. (Ok, so it was only an hour, but hey!) :-) Today I went on my first walk with Casey and Bradley. Casey didn't pull the leash at all, and Bradley just chilled in the Baby Bjorn, so it went well. The only fiasco was that I dropped my keys at one point. When I got back home, I realized my house and car keys were no longer on the chain. I walked back to where I had dropped them, but they weren't there. Then I saw that those 3 keys had gotten stuck in Casey's leash, so all was well.

Bradley loves his bouncy seat, so we use that a good bit. And he loves the outside, sucking on your finger, and me singing to him. I think he must recognize the sound of his name, too, because he perks up when we say it. He has such a personality already, and I just love him to pieces!!!!