One month old

Miss Adelyn Grace is one month old today! I can't believe it; it seems like it's gone by so fast, but then again that might be because she spent the first two weeks of her life in the hospital. We didn't actually get to bring her home until she was two weeks old so it didn't really feel real until then. These past two weeks have flown by though... Stop going so fast, time!

Adelyn at one month old:

• She had her first check up on December 22nd. She was 8 lbs 6 oz and 22 inches long. Her height puts her in the 94th percentile. She's tall and skinny!
• She's still in newborn diapers and newborn onesies. Even a couple of her newborn outfits are a bit big.
• She's smiling like crazy. It's mostly random but I have gotten her to smile at me a couple times. If I can get her attention and be just the right distance from her face, I can get a smile out of her. 
• She's sleeping ok; she'll wake up usually twice at night to eat, then sleep for a 2-3 hour stretch. Sometimes it takes her a bit to go back to sleep but I'll usually get 6-8 hours of sleep a night in 2-3 hour stretches. It's ok for now but once I go back to work it might get rough. 
• She's generally a very happy baby. She doesn't cry unless she's hungry or needs her diaper changed. If you wait too long for either of those things though, she will shut. down. Like, screaming so hard she gets splotches on her face. 
• For the reason above, we call her our "drama queen." She'll get upset when you change her clothes, or move her when she's comfortable, or bathe her. She has this little tearless wail she'll let out that immediately stops once you've stopped doing what's irritating her. Ken says she takes after me, haha. 
• She'll giggle every so often, though I don't think she knows what she's doing. It's mainly when she's sleeping, she'll let out this little breathy giggle. It's adorable.
• She's eating every 2-3 hours, 3-4 oz a feeding. She's a little sow and sometimes will eat up to 5 oz in one feeding. We'll give her a 3 oz bottle, and she will scream after it's gone until we pop another one in her mouth. She's getting pumped breast milk with formula for supplementation. I just can't produce enough milk for her so she gets breast milk every other feeding. I felt bad about giving her formula at first, but she needs to eat and some breast milk is better than none. 
• We had a few successful times breastfeeding; she'll latch ok and nurse for like 15-20 minutes but I don't know if she's a lazy sucker or just gets frustrated easily, but she ends up screaming for more after every time I nurse her, so we have to give her a bottle then I still have to pump and I get just as much as I would had I not nursed her. So it's just easier to pump and give it to her in a bottle. The bottle nipples flow a bit faster too so I think that may have something to do with it. 
• She doesn't spit up much, thank goodness. She'll give us a good burp with each feeding but there's rarely spit up. And if she does, it's not much. She's a very messy eater though so she usually still ends up with milk all over her after a feeding. 
• She loves her binky. Anytime she's fussy if you pop that binky in her mouth, it calms her right down. It's helpful for when she wakes up in the middle of the night and needs her diaper changed before I can feed her. 
• She usually poops once a day, and boy does she poop. She's only pooped out of her diaper once, but more often than not, I'll go to change her and she's not done and she'll either poop all over her new diaper, her changing pad, or my hands. I've learned that when she's pooped, I have to wait a few minutes for her to finish otherwise I'll have a bigger mess to clean up than if I just waited. 
• Her umbilical cord just fell out a few days ago, so she's been getting sponge baths. She doesn't like them very much, I think because she gets cold. I'll probably continue to give her sponge baths until the stump heals completely. 
• She still has a ton of dirty blonde hair. It hasn't started to fall out yet and I hope it stays that way. It's wild though, I'll brush it down after a bath and within minutes it's sticking up all over the place. 
• I think her eyes are going to be brown. They're still a grayish color but I see hints of brown in them in the right light.
• She loves to cuddle. After a feeding I'll put her on my chest and she'll usually fall right to sleep. 
• She will not keep socks on. I don't know if that's just a baby thing or just an Adelyn thing but within minutes of putting socks on her, she's kicked them off. I try to put them on her at night so her feet stay warm and when I unswaddle her to change her diaper, the socks are just sitting in the blanket.
• She also doesn't like to be completely swaddled. She doesn't like having her arms confined in any way. I think it's from when she was in the hospital and she had the arterial line in her arm. She had it splinted so she couldn't move it and I think that stuck with her. I'll usually swaddle her right underneath her arms so she's warm but has control of her arms. The couple times I've tried swaddling her with her arms inside, she's broken free of it within minutes.
• We've tried tummy time a couple times. She'll tolerate it ok on my chest but when we tried with the Boppy she had a melt down. 
• She's starting to hold her head up. If I lay her on my chest, she'll push herself up with her elbows and look around. She'll hold her head up and look around too if I hold her up on my shoulder. You just have to have your hand behind her head cause she'll get over excited swiveling her head around and she's banged it on my shoulder or chin before and she'll get very upset, lol. 
• She loves looking at lights. If we have her in the kitchen, she will just stare at the track lighting on the ceiling. If I set her down on the bed, she'll turn her head towards the TV and "watch" it. 
• She loves her swing. We haven't tried the bouncer yet. I'm afraid she'll fall out of it, lol. 
• She's a very heavy sleeper. Once she's out, she's out. We'll have visitors over, and she'll get passed around and not wake up once. My brother in law set off the smoke alarm once when he was over and she didn't even flinch. 
• She's currently sleeping in her pack and play next to the bed. Until she sleeps through the night, this is the easiest option since she's so easy to get to. Once she outgrows the napper we're either going to just let her sleep in the playpen part or move her to her crib. Depends on how long she's sleeping at night. 

Here's some pictures of her first couple of weeks home!