Cash's first week

Yesterday was Cash's first week birthday and I'd thought I'd post an update on how things are going. Health-wise, he is doing fantastic. We've been to the pediatrician twice now, once for the regular well baby visit and then again on Friday for a weight check since he was down to about 5lbs, 13oz at the initial visit. Well on Friday, he was up to a hefty 6lbs, 2oz which surpasses his birth weight! I think a lot of it has to do with getting a better hold on feeding him. He has a severe case of tongue-tie where his frenulum is really short and tight. We are going to a pediatric ENT tomorrow to talk about getting it clipped it's that short. So for feeding I've had to resort to using nipple shields since his latch is not great and he can't pull anything into his mouth very far. I kind of look like a fembot in them, which is a plus, however it's not great to get dependent on them so I'm hoping that after he is clipped we can go au naturale again.

As for sleeping, after a few nights of Ross and I sleeping in shifts because it didn't seem like Cash wanted to sleep anywhere but our arms, we got a bit more serious about putting him in the crib and it has been a rousing success. We've been reading the Sleep Lady book and trying to follow her methods which for newborns aren't that stringent but do involve making sure that he knows where his sleeping place are and making it a conducive environment for ever growing stretches of sleep. So we've been starting his sleep ritual around 10pm by playing some Guns and Roses lullabye music, nursing him into a milk coma, swaddling him really tight and putting him down in the crib. For the past two nights he has slept stretches of between 2-4 hours at a time before waking up to nurse and being put right back down. I think the trick is that when I'm nursing, I don't engage him as much, according to the Sleep Lady. I make sure the room is extremely dim, I nurse without disturbing him and promptly swaddle and back down. We still need to work more on his daytime sleeping which still is primarily in our arms or in the Moby wrap. When we put him down in the crib in the daytime he tends to only stay in it for 45 minutes tops, however I can deal with that if the nights continue as they are.

Here are some pics from Cash's first week -
He slept on Daddy's chest a lot:


And met his friend, Secaucus:


Auntie Erica came by for a visit:


And he got a cute bear from his Papa and Mimi: