Joshua at 1 Month

Time is seems to go faster with each kid.  It's hard to believe Joshua is already a month old (well even older now that I'm getting this written).

Joshua has been a slow grower.  At his 4 week appointment, he only weighed 9 pounds 14 ounces (just 3 ounces over his birth weight).  He lost a lot after birth (11%) which had the doctor worried, but it didn't really worry me because Eliza and Caleb also lost a lot of weight initially but they were back at the top of the charts by one month.  I figured Joshua would be the same.  He has been exclusively breastfed, just like the other kids, and seems to eat just fine, but has just been slow to gain weight.

I have gone into the community breastfeeding clinic several times to check Joshua's weight and have him weighed before and after feedings.  He seems to be getting plenty of milk.  They even tested the fat content of my milk and it was right at what it should be.  So he's got plenty of good stuff going in and plenty of  (not-so-good) stuff coming out.  It just isn't really sticking and I'm not sure why.  We've never had this problem before.

So far he has a pretty good temperament.  He definitely prefers to be held, so I do a lot of that.  Thankfully we have two big helpers around here who also love to hold this little guy and are very sweet with him.

Joshua's first bath at home was an exciting production.  Everyone wanted to participate so we hosted it in the living room.  Joshua participated with his lungs.  He wasn't a big fan of his first few baths before he could be submersed.

Joshua's belly button seemed to be oozing and taking forever to heal.  He had a granuloma (lumpy thing where cord stump was) that apparently was pretty big.  The doctor put silver nitrate on it at his one month visit.  Hopefully that took care of it.

We were so blessed to have our moms come to help out.  They did so much for us!  For a while they were both here at the same time just waiting for Joshua to make his appearance.  Thank you Grammy and Grandma Melinda!

Joshua is our first kiddo to take a pacifier.  We tried with the others, but it just wasn't their thing.  The pacifier is a nice way to calm him down, especially since the other kids can give it to him.

A low-light of the first month was thrush (see the white tongue below).  He's our first kid to get this, so it took us a few days to diagnose it.  At first we just thought he had a milky tongue, but then his inner cheeks and lips also got white blotches.  Then nursing became super painful for me.  We took him to the doctor and got nystatin for him.  I also went to the doctor and could only get in with a resident who ended up telling me to go to the breastfeeding clinic.  This is why I initially went to the breastfeeding clinic and just had them weigh Joshua while I was there which is how I found out that he wasn't gaining weight.  We had the thrush thing going on and off for the majority of this first month.  Fortunately it doesn't seem to bother Joshua much.  It's just me that has to suffer from it.

I'm sure you've noticed Joshua's abundance of hair.  We get comments on it all the time.  The best is when it is freshly washed.  When it is wet it has a little curl to it and then it dries fluffy.

And here's Joshua all suited up to leave the hospital.  He's about 30 hours old here.

We're sure loving having Joshua in our family!