Amy Antoinette

Motherhood & Authentic Living

Filed Under: Baby + Toddler, Uncategorized

Everly Rose – 1 Month Old

Life seems to go into super speed when you have a newborn. The last 7 weeks have absolutely flown by and it’s difficult to remember a time when Everly wasn’t with us. I’d been very apprehensive about the newborn stage with our baby girl, as we had such a horrendous time with Henry due to his undiagnosed gastroesophageal reflux disease and cows milk allergy. Thankfully, Everly has been so much easier than her big brother was, so I’m able to enjoy the newborn stage for the first time.

With Matt taking 3 weeks off for paternity leave, which was soon followed by the Christmas break, it’s really the first time I’ve been alone with both children for an extended period of time. It’s still early days of learning to juggle a toddler and newborn whilst also taking care of myself, so I consider any day I manage to get us all dressed, fed and teeth brushed to be a success! I haven’t yet braved taking them both out alone, but it is currently -5’C here so I think we’re better off snuggling down inside!

Weight & Height:
At her 4 week checkup, Everly weighed in at 9lbs 4oz and measured at 22 inches, putting her at the 50th centile for weight and 91st centile for height. She’s tall like her mama! This has meant she barely fit into newborn clothes (luckily we hadn’t bought many in this size) and moved onto 0-3 pretty quickly. I know it won’t be long until I’ll have to switch her into 3-6 months, which seems ridiculous as she’s still looks very much like a newborn, but this little girl’s legs are long and they need room to stretch!
Health:
We had a scare after Everly’s newborn screening results indicated she may have Cystic Fibrosis, and we needed to take her to have a sweat test. I mentioned in my first trimester post that my blood tests had shown me to be a carrier for CF, but Matt had tested negative much to our relief. For a baby to have CF, both parents need to be carriers, and although Matt had tested negative, they only test for the most common mutations, so there was still a possibility that Everly could have the disease if Matt had a rare mutation. We took our brand new baby girl to the hospital where they strapped electrodes to her tiny arms and ran a mild electric current through to stimulate her sweat glands, before placing gauze on her to collect the sweat over a 30 minute period. Strangely enough, the worst part wasn’t the electrodes (Everly was actually fine with them) it was the doctor pulling off the tape that had been used to secure the gauze. Our sweet little girl cried like we’d never seen her cry before, which just broke my heart, but thankfully she soon calmed down and dozed off. Luckily we didn’t have to wait too long to get the results, and later that day we were told the good news that Everly didn’t have Cystic Fibrosis, which was a huge relief.
Around the 4 week mark, Everly developed severe baby acne, which completely covered her lovely little face and reached her neck and chest. What once had been soft and smooth baby skin was now painful looking red, inflamed bumps. Due to the severity of it, our pediatrician prescribed an anti-fungal cream, which cleared it up in just a few days.

After a few weeks, we also noticed that Everly was displaying the same symptoms of reflux that Henry had had as a newborn, albeit not as bad (constant crying instead of constant screaming). She wasn’t feeding well, she wasn’t sleeping well, and if awake, she was crying. She’s now on the same medication that Henry had which has worked well, and we have our calm and happy baby girl back again.

Sleep:
After the sleepy newborn haze had lifted, it soon became apparent that Everly suffered from reflux, and was unable sleep lying flat on her back. After all my hours of research into co-sleepers and organic mattresses, out of desperation we ended up placing her in the Rock n’ Play to sleep, which elevated her and allowed her (and us!) to get some sleep. Once her medication was working, she started sleeping in her BabyBay crib again, and we’ve been treated to quite a few 4 hour blocks here and there. In the day, naps are taken on her mama using the Solly Baby Wrap. It’s a miracle worker and sends her off to sleep within minutes, leaving me with my hands free to get things done around the house and play with Henry.



Social:
Everly is such a smiley little baby. She gave us her first smile on Christmas Eve when she was 5 weeks old, and she’s been giving them freely ever since. It is the best feeling when I go to her and she responds with a big smile, lots of cooing and an excited kicking of her legs. She sometimes treats us with a giggle, too! I love seeing her little dimple and hearing her sweet voice. She likes to be included in the family, so we make she can see us all when she’s in her bouncer, and she happily looks about at us all as we chat together.

Breastfeeding:
Nursing started well initially, but then we started facing the same problems I had with Henry – choking, gasping, wriggling, pulling off and occasionally crying. Instead of the calm and peaceful breastfeeding sessions I’d been enjoying, it had turned into a wrestling match where we were both left tearful and frustrated. I knew it was due to her reflux, and once her medication had kicked in, the problems disappeared. I still have a forceful letdown which she can struggle with, but otherwise it’s all settled down and she’s feeding every 3-4 hours in the day and usually 4-5 at night. I have a Medela breast pump which I’ll be using soon, so we can start giving her a bottle of expressed milk each day and I can have some time off once in a while!

Likes:
Everly loves being chatted to (Henry is always telling me “talk to Evvy, mummy,” and being amongst the family. She sleeps best on mama and dada’s chest, she enjoys watching Henry play and she is very calm and peaceful at bath time. She loves when I kiss her tiny toes and lets out a big laugh!

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I just adore our darling Everly Rose. I’m completely captivated by her beautiful almond shaped eyes, her sweet little upturned nose and fluffy chick hair that sticks straight up in the air! She is such a blessing to our family and each day I love discovering more of her personality. It’s a joy to see the interaction between her and Henry, it is just the sweetest thing when he gives her cuddles and kisses, or says “it’s ok Evvy, it’s ok” and strokes her head when she cries. They are my world.

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Comments

  2. Sarah McDonald says

    She is just the cutest thing! It's good to hear you are enjoying the newborn stage this time around and that she is healthy. I'm expecting my first born in April. I'm so excited, but also terrified at the same time..although I assume it's normal to be slightly terrified.

    Sarah's Abode -xx

  5. Alex Gladwin says

    Aww this is lovely. It brings back memories to me of when Logan was first born. Gosh, it goes so quickly. I'm so pleased for you to hear that the scare with CF turned out to be fine. My Ethan is the same with Logan, his little brother, when it comes to head stroking – it's so sweet isn't it?! 🙂 xx

  8. Rachna Lakhanpal says

    Oh my god, Amy! She's so beautiful. At 20, it's very hard for me to imagine how someone can create an entire human being from scratch..she's just so beautiful and brand new, I wish you all the very best and congratulations on making such an incredible human being 🙂

    La Belle Dame

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