Life of Hattie: October 2013

I'm back again...

My baby is one month old today. I have been snuggling my baby for a month, changing diapers, nursing and not getting sleep for a whole month.

So many people say that times go so fast when you have a baby. I can't decide if I agree with that or not. There have been days, and many nights that have felt a week long. Even the whole weeks have felt like an eternity. But, when I pause a moment and realize that one month of my daughters life is over I realize this time really is going fast. She only has 11 months left of truly being a baby. There are only weeks or days left of this newborn stage. They are slipping away. There are a limited number of newborn squeaks and shrill newborn wails. So, it is important to remember that every day is a gift and I will never get them back.

After all that being said, I can't wait for her to grow. I can't wait to see her first real smile, the first time she crawls and her first wobbly steps. I can't wait to hear her first belly laugh and her first few words. I can't wait for swim meets or dance recitals or piano performances. I can't wait for her to grow up and be my best friend. I can't wait to hear about her thoughts and what makes her happy or sad. I can't wait to color with her, help her learn to read, teach her about trees and flowers and bugs.

So, my goal is to enjoy every day as well as look forward to all the happy days ahead. For now I have a beautiful, snuggly 1 month old baby.

So... here is her 2 month update:

Eating: Well, she certainly loves eating. After the first couple of weeks she really upped the frequency and duration of her eating. I am not a huge fan of these current eating habits. I would be very happy if she stuck to her original eating schedule. During the day she often wants to eat every hour. She is definitely hungry after 2 hours. At night she can go a little longer. Especially at the end of the day she wants to eat so much. I don't think my milk supply is quite large enough to really make her happy at the end of the day when she acts like she is just starving. So, she usually gets a bottle of formula at some point, either right before bed or during the night at some point. It is especially nice for me because Matt can give her the bottle and let me sleep at night. I am working on getting my supply up a bit more and hopefully that will fix things a little for those late night feedings.

Sleeping: She has good nights and bad nights. I am totally spoiled though. Matt helps SOOOOOOOOO much at night. Because of his school work he is usually up all night 1 or 2 nights a week. On those nights he takes total care of her. So, about once a week I get to sleep 8 or 9 hours. It is awesome and so refreshing. It is just what I need to recover from the other nights I get more like 4 hours of sleep. She usually falls asleep between 10-11ish and then wakes up around maybe 2:00 or 3:00ish. She is usually awake for a couple of hours then. We go back to sleep and then she wakes up again around 7:00. We then go to the living room and I watch a bit of the news while she eats and then we fall asleep in the chair and get another few hours of sleep. Until maybe 10:00ish. Some nights are NOTHING like this however. So, it is still pretty random. She is in her crib now though. That is a little nicer for us. During the day she takes a few naps. Some days there are many half hour naps. Those days suck. Some days there are 1-2 hour naps. Those are so much nicer. She sleeps for much longer if someone is holding her though. So, she takes some naps on my chest.

Pooping: Yep, she has some explosive poops. Also she has lots of gas. Her toots are SOOOOOO loud. haha, it makes us both laugh. She had some major poop/gas issues during church this last week. It was hilarious because she was making her poop face and grunting. I was laughing so hard in the back.

Growing: Matt and I weighed her with a fish weigh scale. She weighed 8 pounds, 10 ounces. This might be off a couple ounces, but it should be pretty close. I tried to measure her tonight. Maybe around 22 inches? haha, that one is pretty tricky. She fits into all her newborn clothes well now. It took a couple of weeks before they stopped looking huge on her. She even has worn a few 0-3 month clothes. They still look big though. She is long so some of her newborn clothes are getting a tad short. I bought her a few 0-3 month pants for her and they fit much better, though they are a bit loose on the butt. Also still wearing newborn size diapers. I think we still have a few weeks left of wearing those. She is such a dainty little thing. But, up almost 1.5 pounds in the last 2 weeks. So, I think we are doing good.

Nicknames this month: Floppy head and sweetie pie (grandma calls her turtle dove)

Charlotte's favorite things her first month:

1. being held under the armpits and bounced around

2. mama's boobs

3. real baths

4. listening to Beyonce with daddy

5. sleeping on mama and daddy

6. Driving in the car (almost always)

Mama's favorite things during Charlotte's first month:

1. Holding her little hands while she nurses

2. her ruffle butt pants

3. hearing her little sighs and squeaks when she eats