The first four weeks {Matilda’s Diary}

March 12, 2017

I’m a little late posting this, since Matilda is now five weeks old, and I’ll probably say this every month, but I really can’t believe how fast the time is going. Having a newborn again has been a pure delight, but already we’re seeing changes that show she’s growing and developing.

Sleeping

Matilda has been happy to settle in her carrycot from the get-go and sleeps for around three hours at night before waking for a feed. It takes a little while to feed, wind, change and settle her (we had a few sick incidents so have to keep her upright for a while after feeds), but after an hour or so we put her down for another three hours.

Feeding

I nursed Matilda for around a week, then we combination bottle fed expressed milk and formula before moving completely to formula at around two weeks (a story for another post I think). We feed on demand and she has around 600ml of milk per day spread over seven or eight feeds.

Weight

At birth Matilda weighed 3.895kg. When she was weighed at four days old she had only lost 6%, which I was proud of since I was exclusively breastfeeding at that point. At our ten day discharge appointment she weighed 3.705kg – still not back to birth weight, but the midwives weren’t concerned as she seemed to be thriving.

Developments

Over the course of the first four weeks Matilda has become more alert and enjoys studying faces and cooing. She smiles and laughs in her sleep which is just the cutest thing ever! Her head control is getting better and we’ve been giving her tummy-time which she seems to enjoy for a short amount of time.