Good job, baby Rose!

Rose had a one month weight check appointment yesterday. At her two week appointment she hadn't regained her birth weight and they wanted to check on her at a month.
We were all very happy to see she is now 10 lbs, 11 ozs (birth weight: 9 lbs, 13 ozs).

Rose is a fully formula fed baby. During my hospital stay I couldn't eat or drink anything for ten days, and pumping was obviously hard (in fact, one day I became clinically dehydrated when I tried to pump regularly). Anyways, after trying to breastfeed her when I came home it was obvious that I wasn't making enough milk and Rose wasn't very happy trying to nurse after the ease of a bottle. Weak mommy + hysterical baby = bad situation. We decided after a couple hard days that Similac Advanced was going to be her food. Hard for me emotionally, but I am grateful that I can feed my baby enough to satisfy her and keep her strong, even if the method isn't my choice.

So, even though it was sad for me, there have been benefits. We can always see how much she eats, we can plan how much to feed her before bed when we "cluster feed" or "tank up" with an extra bottle before sleep, and Bobby can do a lot of her evening feedings. Also, when I sick and recovering and couldn't do much besides stay in bed or sit on the couch, I knew Rose was being taken care of by her Grandma and Bobby. And yesterday, at the doctor...we learned of another benefit!

We told her pediatrician, Dr. Atyieh, that she is fully formula fed. He smiles and says, "You know, formula fed babies can go 6-8 hours at night between feedings." Bobby: "Rose, do you hear that?!" Haha. We were pretty excited and decided to see how it worked last night. So, feedings at 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00 PM. Then...we put her down. She made some noises at 3:15, so I rocked her for awhile and she fell back asleep. Then at 4:00 she woke up hungry but only ate 3 ozs, while typically she eats 4 ozs. THEN, she slept until 8:00 AM! WOO HOO! It's not one solid chunk of time yet, but five hours and then four?! I was one happy mommy. I am pretty sure that in the next few weeks that 3/4 AM feeding will drop out and she will wake up a little earlier than 8:00. I am very excited about this - sleep at this point is the best thing for my recovery, and a very good thing for rapidly growing Rosie!

So, today we say, good job, baby Rose! Let's keep it up!