We can't believe Evan has been with us for one month already! Having been born 2.5 weeks early, we never expected to have a one month old just before Thanksgiving!
Evan is doing wonderfully! He is a super chill baby that just goes with the flow...exactly how he needs to be to fit in with our crazy family! He rarely cries unless he is hungry, and even then, his cry is more of a fuss than a full-out wail. He is still in the very sleepy newborn phase, and basically sleeps for the entire day. He loves to sleep in people's arms, but has no problem conking out in the bouncy chair or rock n play. Evan usually needs to be woken to nurse, and falls asleep a lot while eating. But, he is growing well, so he must be getting enough milk! At his 6 day appointment he was 2oz away from his birth weight. And at 2 weeks old, he weighed 7lb, 10oz, an entire pound more than he did at birth!
We intended to keep Evan in our room over night in a pack n play, but his noises were interrupting both Eric and my sleep, so moved Evan to his room on his second night home. He is sleeping well all swaddled in his crib! The first several nights at home were pretty tough, because he was waking every 2 hours (sometimes more frequently!) to nurse in the middle of the night. Our pediatrician thought he may be cluster-feeding in the middle of the night. So we started more frequent feeds in the daytime (every 2 hours), and his nighttime sleep improved! For the first week, he was waking two or more times at night, but sometime during week 2, he dropped those earlier late-night feedings and has been only waking once...sometime between 3 and 5am. It's been wonderful and everyone seems to be as well-rested as we could be with a newborn!
Evan is a very alert little baby for being born so early. He is already staring at the hanging toys on his bouncy seat and attempting to lift his hand to hit them with the back of his hand.
We've been so fortunate, once again, to have so much help from our families. We had exactly one month of uninterrupted help from Mimi Irene, Papa Bob, Mimi JoJo, Papa JayJay, Mimi Connie, Grandpa Pipal and Atie Michele. And over the next two weeks, we will have more days with help than without as it's Thanksgiving break (Uncle Craig and Liz will be here!), and then Mimi Connie and Grandpa Pipal come back for a few days on their way home from Virginia. Our big kids are loving having so much attention, Eric and I are loving the extra hands, and the grandparents and aunts and uncles are loving the kid playtime and snuggle time with Evan. Our transition to a family of 6 has been quite seemless and much of it is due to the help of our village!
The big kids are doing surprisingly well! Every morning, they all want to know where Evan is and when they see him for the first time each day, they get super excited and just want to hug and kiss him! Lucas has really stepped up in his role as the biggest brother. He is genuinely excited to have "Baby Evan" around and is just smitten with him. He LOVES to hold him, and before he even asks to hold him, he either washes his hands or grabs the hand sanitizer, and then the boppy pillow.
Claire and David seems to like him and want to be involved in diaper changes or nursing sessions. The biggest concern with them is that they don't really understand how fragile Evan is and how careful and gentle they really should be around him. Sometimes, they border on smothering him when they just want to love on him! All in all, all the kids have done a great job welcoming Evan to the family!
Four kids under 4 years old has been a challenge, but if we survived 3 under 2 with a set of twins, we can survive anything! Evan is such a perfect addition to our family! We love you, Baby Evan!
