The Things We've Learned In The Past Month

HAPPY ONE MONTH BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE PEANUT!!

I can't believe you are finally here and you have been a part of our lives for a whole month already. I wasn't sure we were going to make it through the end of our pregnancy together, but we did, and I like you SO much more on the outside than I did on the inside. :)

Here are some of the things we have learned together over the past month:

You like to eat and to grow. When you were born you were 7 lbs, 12 oz and 18 inches long. When we left the hospital you were down to 6 lbs, 12 oz. And as of your appointment today, you are 9 lbs, 10 oz and 21 inches long. You are in the 50th percentile in both height and weight. Your head was 36 3/4 centimeters which is in the 25th percentile. After my experience with your brother and growth charts, it makes me more happy than you know to see you doing so well. Keep eating girl!!

You have really "woken up" in the past month. When we got home from the hospital, if you weren't eating on the boob, this is pretty much what you were doing...

Now you are staying awake for longer periods of time. This last week you are even starting to track things with your eyes and I went out and bought you a mobile for your crib (even though you aren't sleeping in there yet). I swear in the last day or so you have given me a real smile. You look right up at me and make eye contact and then give a little grin. I don't care if it isn't real yet, it still melts my heart. We have also learned that you are indeed my daughter and will most likely end up a crazy little girl. In fact, we have already started practicing taking pictures for your mug shot. So far, we think this one is best...
You have learned that your big brother LOVES you with such a ferocity that it is a little overwhelming sometimes. You love to watch him, although when he insists on giving you 50 kisses, IN A ROW, while you are trying to eat...well sometimes you wish he would lighten up on the love a little bit. You are mesmerized by his actions and are learning to watch him and sometimes wonder what exactly he is doing...
You love you some boobie. Mommy wasn't so sure how the breast feeding thing was going to go, but as luck would have it, you have taken to it quite easily. You learned to latch on pretty well while in the hospital and we have both gotten better at it as time goes on. Mostly we still do the "football hold" at every meal. However recently we have learned to do the "cross cradle," although we have really only mastered that at the right boob. On the left boob you think you should only latch onto the tip of my nipple and therefore get pulled off every time. We will keep trying though. We have also very recently discovered the whole "Mommy laying on her side on the bed and shoving the boob into your mouth" hold. We do this right before our afternoon naps together. I lay down and give you one of the boobs and you suck it until you fall asleep. Then I shut my eyes and we sleep together for at least an hour. If I don't give you the boob you lay there and fuss and refuse to sleep with me until my nap time is up and I end up not having slept at all. I am very proud of this new technique and plan to utilize it during our middle of the night feedings sometimes soon.

Speaking of those, we do pretty well in the middle of the night, although at this point you still refuse to sleep more than 2 1/2 or 3 hours at a time. This usually results in a feeding somewhere around 11:00pm, somewhere around 2:00am and somewhere around 5:00am. Then your big brother gets up around 6:00am. So that isn't much uninterrupted sleep for Mommy. However, on most nights you can get up and eat and be back in your bassinet in the period of time it takes for me to watch one DVR'ed episode of Sex and the City. So overall it isn't too bad.

It still blows my mind that I am providing you with all the nourishment that you need right now. The closeness that we share while I am feeding you feeds my heart as much as it feeds your tummy. And that contented "milk coma" you slip into after eating is enough to make all nine months of stress worth it.
Baby girl, I know in the future when you read my old blog posts you will see that I was a bit tentative about your arrival and about the fact that you are a little girl. Let me assure you that you are exactly who you are supposed to be. You are my precious little peanut and you and I were meant to be together. Your big brother and the two of us are the family that I have always dreamt of. We are finally complete. The three of us will ALWAYS be together and loved. And you have enriched my life in ways that I didn't even know were possible. Thank you my daughter. Thank you for the past month and thank you for all the future months we have to come. I love you more than life itself. You and your brother make my life worth living. Here's to many more months of love and happiness!!