5 weeks

Roman is five weeks now and things are finally getting a little more manageable for me. Until this week he was eating every 2 1/2 hours during the day, then at night he starts eating every hour until he finally conks out at 3am. Yes 3am! It's been very difficult for me to keep up with his late night schedule and very tiring in general just having a newborn. Sophie was truly a perfect baby and never fussed, never had gas, always slept and ate right on cue. But poor Roman is the total opposite. Almost daily he still suffers from bad gas pains, usually at night, that are only relieved with vigorous bouncing, hanging over the shoulder or more nursing. They are not as bad as they were before I cut out dairy and chocolate, but he still suffers quite a bit. I'm suffering too trying to eat foods that I hope won't upset him. It's so stressful especially at dinner time wondering if a certain sauce will upset his tummy!

But now he finally has a long 5-6 hours stretch at night where we can all get some much needed rest. It seems that just recently his bedtime has moved back a bit to 1-2AM. Still not ideal, but much better than 3AM! Next week he'll be 6 weeks and I expect the length of sleep to be even a bit longer then. Here's hoping! He still eats every 2 1/2 hours during the day, and then cluster feeds at night from about 6pm until 1am, but I don't mind knowing I have that long stretch of sleep waiting for me at the end of it all!

I've been very stressed out up until this week with the lack of sleep and uncertainty of how to soothe him when he gets fussy or has gas pains. Sometimes I just break down crying right along with Roman. Often I end up waking up David to help out so I can get a much needed break.

Thanksgiving was wonderful as we stayed in LI with David's family and they were such a huge help holding him throughout the day and letting me get some much needed nap time in. David was also able to spend lots of time with Sophie to make her Thanksgiving special. We watched the parade, they played football outside and then collected twigs to make a fire (which we never found the time to do). Still she had such a great time and some nice traditions were started for her that hopefully she will look forward to every year. Unfortunately we had dinner at 2:30 when she was napping so she missed the entire meal! Luckily she had leftovers later and doesn't really know what she missed!

I still have our nanny coming a few days a week to help out which makes things much more manageable for me. But I do plan to try a couple days here and there soon to see how I do! It makes me a little nervous as there is still a lot of time spent feeding Roman (takes about 20-30 minutes at a time) and taking care of him but I'm sure we'll fall into a routine sooner or later.

He had his one month appointment yesterday and weighs in at a whopping 13 lbs 9 oz at 21.5 inches long. I can't believe he's so big! He's already growing out of his 0-3 month clothes but luckily I have 3-6 month ready to go. I must admit it feels good knowing that he is feeding well and that nursing him has been successful this time around, as exhausting as it is.