Brothers

There's nothing quite like a brother...

...to give you a good poke on the face...

xox

Meet Jacob Skea Dunbar...

Jacob Skea Dunbar

Born Saturday morning, 21st January, at 3:36am

weighing 8.3pounds, 51.5 cm long

head circumference 36cm

17 hour labour

(Full birth story to come...eventually...hopefully before his first birthday)

Minutes after he was born

Few hours old

1 day old

First night home

1 Week old

 Just over a month old (5 weeks)...

Just chilling.

            

                                 

6 weeks old...

 7 weeks old...

Our lovely Jakey is eight weeks old now... 8!!! It makes me a little sad how fast these weeks have gone- considering how long he took to get here. He has changed so much already and he just keeps growing and chubby-ing up every day!

Let me tell you more about this baby boy that has us all wrapped around his chubby little closed fist...

Early days:

When he was brand new, he was feeding every two hours- morning, noon and night! This made for very exhausting evenings. Lucky for me though, he was easy to settle after every feed and would drift back to sleep nicely. As the days passed, we started to notice that we had a VERY sleepy baby...just not at night. He had it mixed up. Day was night and night was day. He would sleep so deep and soundly during the day no mater how loud the tv or Noah were, no matter the poke and squeeze the kids would give him and not even a cold, icy water bottle on his skin would wake him out of his coma!
At night, it was a whole different story. At one point, he was waking every hour and did not always want to  go back to sleep but rather be bright eyed and bushy tailed. I guess he just wanted one-on-one time with me...aaaww how lovely, just not at 3am.
Luckily, Joe was around for the first 2 weeks to help me out (when he wasn't wake boarding!). So we managed to get through school runs, breast engorgement, a small dose of mastitis, migrants, SES (sore eye syndrome), and complete exhuastion. But in saying that, I loved those first weeks. There really is nothing better than a newborn-their smell, their smooch, their softness, their freshness, even their cry...everything.

A little later:

 At around 5 weeks old, little Jakey began to give me gorgeous, melt my heart smiles (see above pics). I also took him to the doctors because I noticed a flat spot had developed on the back and left side of his head. Worried that he would have a flat head like tia Karla :), I asked the doctor if he needed a little helmet or headband to correct it. Doctor had a look and instantly told me there was no need to worry, as it was only minor and that I won't even notice it when his hair grows longer. The other doctor said exactly the same thing- I wanted a second opinion to make sure  he wouldn't hate me one day for not doing anything about it. I also took him in to ask about his snuffles-which he has had since birth. Jakey gets really congested and snotty. It's as if he has a cold but he doesn't, as it only happens at night- mainly around the middle of the night (his first wake up) and early morning (when he wakes more frequently). I honestly believe that if he didn't have these snuffles, he would be sleeping through a lot of the night. We got some saline drops for him, so we'll see how that goes. If it fails, the doctor said she will refer him to a paediatrician. Hopefully the drops will do the trick and both Jakey and I will sleep all night long tonight... wishful thinking???

Putting him in a betide routine has definitely helped. From around 5 weeks, i've tried to keep him awake for at least 1 hr before the time I want him to go down for the night- usually around 7pm, and then follow with a bath, feed, wrap, burp/cuddle and whisper in his ear "sleepy time" and it didn't take him very long at all to learn how to put himself to sleep. Sometimes, if he is still a little bright eyed, the dummy works a treat to make him dozey, which by then it has done its' job and he spits it out. Soon after he is sound asleep. He will do anything from a 4-6hr stretch at the start of the night, until his snuffles or a hungry tummy wake him. But after that, it can be anything between 2-3 hour stretches (due to the snuffles i'm sure), until I wake him up for the school drop-off.

Lately:

Jakey just recently had his 8 weeks shots and he cried like a baby...literally. It broke my heart seeing that needle go into his chunky little thigh followed by his cry that went on and on. I must say, going from his reaction, Jakey probably has the smallest pain threshold out of my 3.

He weighed in at 6.4 kgs at the appointment, so he's gaining weight nicely. This is no surprise considering I feed the little buddah on demand around every 1.5-2 hrs. I don't mind though, since he's so cute and only feeds for around 10-15 mins each side- so no biggie.
 He graduated from newborn nappies at 5 weeks old, and moved up to size 000 at this age too. I tried to hold out moving him up a size for as long as I could, but it just got too tricky pulling his rompers over his chubby belly and clipping them up. I felt so sad putting away his newborn clothes :(

Jacob is the sweetest baby. He's happy and content for most of the time. He only fusses when I don't get the chichita to him fast enough-but even then he's happy to wait with the dummy. Sometimes when he has a good burp in him he cries more passionately so we know he requires a good pat and then he's a happy baby again.
 Seriously, I can't get enough of him. Sometimes I go to kiss his chubby cheek just once and 10 mins and 50 kisses later, I find myself still not being able to stop. I just can't resist those soft chubby cheeks. Neither can the kids. Noah likes to press and poke them, and El likes to kiss and squeeze them- they just can't help themselves...

                   

El wants to hold Jacob ALL the time. She makes a great baby-sitter/holder when I need an extra pair of hands.

In fact, El reminds me of the little girl from the kids movie 'Dispicable Me,' where she hugs a soft toy that she wins at the fair and screams "HE'S SO FLUFFY!.." Just change the word "fluffy" to "chubby" and that's El. But can you blame her...

Those are some serious boobie shots. Almost feel like I should be getting him some sort of baby bra? :)

Anyway, life with three is good. Almost too good that I feel like this can't be it for us... I want more!!! But don't worry Joe, I know what these sweet and chubby little things grow into... we have two of them for proof!

But for now, we couldn't be happier with our little bunch...

Thank-you for choosing our family Jakey. We sure do love you... like a chubby baby loves his chichita (you).