Ford at 1 month old

Ford at 1 month old...

-weighed 8 lbs 13 oz

-was fitting into his 0-3 month old clothes.  He wore newborn clothes for the first 3 weeks just like Eleanor but then it was fun to expand his wardrobe a bit.

-was sleeping 4-5 hour long stretches.  He started lengthening out all on his own, which was heavenly.  The first two weeks I tried to feed him every 3 hours at night and then after that I started letting him go to 4 hours and then 5 by one month old.  I'd pop a pacifier in his mouth in the beginning to try and stretch him out too if he woke up before that 4 hour stretch.  This was all very different from Eleanor as she would wake up all the time regardless of what we did.  Having been through those sleepless nights before, we absolutely realize what a blessing it is to have a baby that seems like a natural sleeper (so far at least!).

-was still sleeping in his bassinet next to my side of the bed.  I told myself that I'd put him in his crib earlier than I did with Eleanor but it was right at a month old that Ford got RSV (post on that soon) so I wanted to keep him close.  He ended up moving to his crib in his nursery at about 6 weeks old.

-would wake up peacefully and only fuss just enough to let us know that he was awake.

-is a little sweetheart.  I told Aaron that I just sense that Ford will be a really sweet person as a he grows.  I know that sounds silly to say of a baby (aren't all babies sweet?) but I just feel it in my bones that he is destined to be a sweet kid.   (I remember feeling like Eleanor would be a very kind person as a baby and so far that as proven true :))

-struggled to latch for the first month.  Ohhhh the joys of nursing ;) Breastfeeding was rough with Eleanor in the beginning so I prepared myself for the worst with Ford.  It's been interesting though because his nursing struggles have been as difficult, if not more difficult, than Eleanor's but they have been entirely different.  When they put him on my chest that first time in the hospital, he showed no rooting signs.  It was very difficult to get him to even want to suck for those first 24 hours in the hospital.  We eventually got him sucking and latching but it always felt like a pretty long, tiring process.  I powered through though and thankfully he had no weight gain issues that first month.

-didn't love diaper changes at first (he'd cry through them just like his sister did as a baby) but got over that pretty quickly.  His changing pad is now his favorite spot and he even waits til we set him on it to poop.  I quickly learned to lay him on the changing pad and wait for a minute before starting to change him.  Sure enough, he'd poop after a minute, nearly every time that first month :)

-received plenty of love and affection from his big sister.  Eleanor adores Ford and is the reason we started calling him "baby Fordy."  She wants to be the official assistant at every diaper change and asks to hold him constantly.  Sometimes I struggle knowing I can't really give Ford or Eleanor my full attention like I want to but it warms my heart that they'll have each other and can be friends for life.  We worked very hard to keep Eleanor from touching Ford when she got sick but it was a full time job because she just wanted to be with her baby.  Finally we conceded to letting her touch his toes and kiss the very back of his head and that satisfied her enough for the time being :)

^^Eleanor kept trying to hop into every picture I took of Ford.  I cut all of those ones out for this post, but I thought this one was especially sweet.  You can be certain that if Ford is somewhere, Eleanor is never far away...

Ford came down with RSV just as Ford was turning one month old.  I was just about to take his one month pictures too but I just couldn't bring myself to do it while he was looking so lethargic and sickly.  So these pictures were taken when he was one month and one week old and starting to be on the mend a little more.  We love him dearly.  I know the saying sounds so overused but I really don't know how to describe it other than to say that my heart bursts when I look at him.  He adds a wonderful dynamic to our family and it feels very much like he's always belonged to us.  We love you baby Fordy.

P.S. Just for fun, here's Eleanor's 1 month old post.  It was such a feat for me to take her monthly photos and do her updates that by the time she reached 12 months old I swore I wouldn't do it ever again.  I treasure all those pictures and words though now and ultimately decided that I would attempt it again with Ford.  It's pretty doable for now but let's just hope I am still so motivated when he's up and crawling around ;)