Anna Grace - 1 Month

I want to start by taking my hat off to all those moms who blog on a regular basis once baby makes their appearance. It's a struggle for me to remember to brush my teeth twice a day, no less sit down and blog. I'm going to try to be better about writing down all these experiences because I don't want to forget them. 

Anyway, I can't believe our little Anna Grace is a whole month old. I swear I just started doing my weekly bump updates. I wasn't sure how to go about these new updates so I borrowing this style from Mrs. Southern Mama. The major takeaway is we are completely in love with the baby and time is going by way too fast. 

Weight: 8 lbs. 3 oz.

Height: Not 100% sure but probably between 21 and 22 inches. At her 2 week appointment she was 20.5 inches and she is definitely longer now.

Hair: Anna Grace was born with a ton of dark brown hair. Her hair is one of the first things people comment on and they are shocked to hear that she looks just like me when I was born, dark hair and all. Unfortunately it has already started to fall out. (Fingers crossed that it grows back soon.)

Eyes: Her eyes started as grey, but have slowly been changing to blue.

Clothes: She is still wearing all her newborn clothes, but I think will be graduating to 0-3 months clothes very soon.

Diapers: We are buying newborn size diapers as fast as we can. She isn’t much for making dirty diapers, but she loves to pee one or two times between each feeding. Everyone warned us, but good grief we go through a lot of diapers and wipes.

Sleeping: We have been putting her in both her crib and her Rock ‘n Play and she likes them both. Baby’s sleeping routine changes quite a bit still. She has started doing 4 hour stretches at night, which is wonderful. After her 9-10pm feeding I head to bed and Andy puts her down. He gives her a bottle of breast milk around 2-3am and then I take the morning shift which ends around 6:30-7am. During the day her sleep schedule is all over the place, which makes planning things a little hard. 

Eating: Anna Grace has always been a champion eater, even with a couple hurdles. After two trips to the lactation consultant we figured out she was tongue tied, which was making nursing difficult for baby and painful for me. So we elected to have a very simple procedure done and it has helped so much. She eats every three to four hours. Baby has taken a bottle of breast milk with no trouble at all, which has allowed Andy to feed her in the middle of the night. (This gives me the chance to sleep longer than two hours, if I was lucky, which was a killer the first two weeks.)

Baby’s favorite things: Being swaddled with her arms out, eating, car rides, laying on her changing table and looking at her diaper wreath, sleeping with her arms above her head, being walked around or rocked to sleep, Soothie or Nuk pacifiers, Dr. Brown’s bottles, Rock ‘n Play, and she doesn't hate bath time.  

 

Baby’s Dislikes: Being wet, gas bubbles, being held facing my shoulder unless she is being burped or asleep

Baby nicknames: Baby girl, pup (unfortunate crossover from Camden), we mostly just call her Anna Grace

Baby Milestones: Everything is new and different. We slowly watched Anna Grace become comfortable with everyday things. We feel like she literally grows in front of our face. She is not a fan of new experiences initially and can be fussy until she determines if it’s a good thing of not. Unfortunately baby suffers from serious discomfort from gas. As she grew her generally fussiness and pain from gas grew as well, to the point where she was either sleeping, eating, or crying pretty much all day and night. We tried everything we could think of: gas drops, massage, tummy time, laying her on an incline. Finally we took a trip to the doctor and we are being treated for silent reflux, which helps control her discomfort. We hate giving her something at such a young age, but if it means she isn’t in pain, then that’s what we’ll do. 

On a fun note, Anna Grace moves constantly. Her hands and legs are always on the go, even when she sleeps. She has been able to lift her head since the second she enter this world and she "bobble-heads" away from our shoulder all the time. She has a love/hate relationship with tummy time. Sometimes she likes it, sometimes not so much. 

Our Bernese Mountain Dog, Camden, has been amazing with Anna Grace. We gave him a swaddle blanket so he could get used to her smell before we brought her him from the hospital. As soon as the pup entered the house he was in love. He sleeps in her nursery when she is in her crib and leads people to her when they come to visit. Camden is a little confuse why he isn't getting all the attention but he is doing great.

Anything else new: Baby girl has everyone wrapped around their finger. Nana, my mom, comes over for a short visit everyday, which frees Andy and I up to run errands, shower, or nap. Lolly, Andy’s mom has visited from the coast a couple times and loves Facetiming. We have also Facetimed with my brother, who is working in DC this summer. My sorority sisters came to visit and it was so fun to catch up, and introduce Anna Grace to one of their little boys.

However, no one is as in love with her as Andy and I. There are no words to describe all the feelings we have experiences this first month of parenthood. There have been many tears, lots of laughter, sleepless nights, and overwhelming pride in getting to know and show off our daughter.