One Month Old

It has been 4 weeks since we met our baby boy, a whole month since we became a family of five and it has been a busy one.  The first 19 days were spent in the special care baby unit after it was discovered Finn was born with a virus and the next 9 days at home were busy with nursery runs, hospital appointments and adapting to life with three under four.

At 4 weeks old, Finn is still so tiny.  He is much smaller than either of the other two were at birth, and at his last weigh in was only 6lb 15oz.  He is 51 cm long and hasn't started to fill out much yet.  He is starting to fit into newborn sized clothes, but he is still so curled up that he thinks the leg holes are optional.  He doesn't really straighten his legs much (unless he is angry) so he seems even smaller than he really is.

Finn is a baby who knows what he wants, and that is me.  He is happiest on my chest, and pretty unhappy everywhere else.  He is in a sling most of the day when we are at home as it leaves my hands free for the other two, and he wants to sleep curled up on my chest at night.  He loves being warm and swaddled and he seems to need more layers than I remember his brothers needing at the same age.  Nights seem to go one of two ways, either with feeds every 2/3 hours or he does a 6 hour stretch, has a feed and goes back down for another 4 hours.  He tends to settle at some point between 8 and 10 and wakes up in the morning any time between 6 and 9.

Breastfeeding is now going well despite a rocky start.  I fed Finn for 48 hours before we had to stop so that the doctors could rule out a metabolic disorder and we started again once he was 10 days old.  He was cup and tube fed for 8 days and I was pumping day and night and when we got the all clear it took a while to get him latching properly, but all the hard work was worth it as I think we have it sorted now.

Finn is wide awake for lots of the day, but so long as he is being held, he is very content to just cuddle and observe.  If we are at home, he has only short naps but if we are out he will have a proper snooze.  All my plans for taking lovely photos were thwarted when I discovered I had one shot before his brow furrowed and the screams started as he realised he wasn't in my arms, but there are definitely worse things than baby cuddles.

He is on quite a bit of medication which we syringe into his mouth, and they must taste nicer than they smell as he seems to love them all - the eye drops not so much! We have had two hospital appointments in the last week and he is doing really well but he will be monitored for quite some time still.

Finn is mostly adored by his brothers, and Archie follows me if I leave the room without him asking 'Where's baby?' repeatedly until I go back and pick him up.  They both stroke his head and sing to him when he cries and proudly show him off to everyone we meet.  Dylan and Archie call him either Baby or 'the green baby' (not quite sure why) at the moment rather than using his name and they are both very fascinated when he has milk - I have had to answer plenty of questions from Dylan about that one!

4 weeks in, and we are still getting used to things with three.  Getting everyone dressed and fed takes that bit longer as do most things! Everyday it gets a bit easier, and we become more used to the new dynamic though and hopefully by the time Finn is 2 months old, we are making it to nursery on time in the mornings!