Happy 1 month to my sweet baby girl!

I can't believe a whole month has already passed! Time is flying by way too quickly. Here are a few pictures of my sweet girl at one month.

She has moved on from her newborn diapers to size 1. The size ones seem a little big right now, but the newborn were leaving little red marks on her, so we figured it was time to move on up! She is still able to wear some of her newborn clothes, but for the most part she is wearing 0-3 months. She is still eating 3 ounces every 3 hours. Occasionally, if she is napping, she will go 4 hours. I am really dreading going back to work in 2 weeks, mainly because I don't want to leave her, but also because I am still having to sleep late to get 7 or 8 hours of sleep. Right now she is going to sleep for the night about 10:30-11:00 and will sleep until about 10:30 in the morning other than waking up to eat every 3 hours. Usually I sleep until about 10:30 with her because even though she only eats every 3 hours in the night, I only get about 1 hr 45 min - 2 hour stretches of sleep in the night. By the time she eats and I change her and get her back down, it's been about 30-40 minutes. Then, I have to go pump, which takes about 15 minutes. So by the time I get back in bed it's been about an hour and of course it takes another 15 minutes or so to fall asleep, only to get up and do it again in about 2 hours or less. Right now it totally doesn't bother me because I can sleep until 10:30 am, but when I go back to work I will have to get up about 6:00, so I can't imagine being able to function on that amount of sleep. Hopefully she will start sleeping 5 or 6 hour stretches soon. Even though it can be exhausting getting up every 3 hours, I still treasure every minute of it. She is so sweet in the middle of the night and I have to say that I do enjoy those feedings most of the time. I know that when she is older I am going to miss holding her and rocking her in the middle of the night. On nights when I can barely keep my eyes open and just want to go to sleep I try to remind myself how quickly time passes and that I will miss this all too soon. On those nights I make sure I hold her a little tighter, rock her a little longer and give her just a few more kisses. I just wish I didn't have to go back to work.

I have figured out a few things that make my life easier in the middle of the night though. She sleeps in the bassinet part of her pack-n-play and we keep it right beside the bed.

Breastmilk keeps for 4-6 hours at room temperature and so I have it sitting on the nightstand. So when she wakes up, I pick her up and feed her half of her bottle and burp her. Then I go ahead and change her, swaddle her again, and give her the rest of her bottle. By the time she finishes her bottle she is usually back to sleep. If I were to change her at the end of the feeding she would be up and I would have to rock her for 15-20 minutes to get her back to sleep, but if I change her in the middle of the feeding she usually goes right back down. Just thought I would share this for soon-to-be mommies. This has cut about 15-20 minutes off of nighttime feedings for me.

Here are a few more pictures of my sweet girl...

Anderson's likes at one month:

- She still will only sleep on your chest or swaddled. If she is swaddled you can pretty much put her down anywhere. If not, don't count on her staying asleep when you put her down.

- She loves a bath.

- She still loves to sleep on your chest.

- She is starting to really like her swing.

- She is becoming more aware of things and can actually be entertained by just staring at things like her play mat. 

- She still loves to be rocked and sang to.

Anderson's dislikes at one month:

- She hates sleep and fights is really bad most of the time. It usually takes a little work to get her to go to sleep.

- She HATES for me to use the suction thing on her nose.

- She doesn't want anyone but mommy when she is fighting sleep.

Also, I'll do a quick update on breastfeeding so no one makes the same mistake I did. In the hospital Anderson nursed for the 2 days we were there until my colostrum ran out and my milk hadn't come in yet. However, it didn't come easy for her. We had to really work to get her to nurse. The doctors and nurses assured me that it takes 2-5 days for your milk to come in and not to worry because it would, but in the meantime, in order to avoid nipple confusion, we would supplement with formula and cup feed. If you don't know what that is, look it up. You have to feed the baby out of this little cup and they pretty much suck the milk down out of the cup. I absolutely hated it and after doing it for a couple of days I said whatever and started giving her formula in a bottle. Well, like the next day my milk came in and I never could get her to latch back on well. She would latch on for a minute and then start crying. I even tried a nipple shield and it still didn't work. After a few weeks I just decided it wasn't worth the stress and that I was okay with just pumping and giving her milk in a bottle. In a couple of weeks, when I go back to work, that's what I am going to have to do anyway. Although it would make the nights easier if she would latch on and eat from me, I just decided that I can't get stressed out about it. As long and she was getting breastmilk that is all that matters. I sometimes worry that I'm missing out on a bond we would have if she would latch on, but I think that is just insecurities getting the best of me. We definitely have a great bond. I am the only one that can calm her when she's crying so I just have to let all of the "what ifs" go and know that I am doing the best I can. In the end it won't matter how she got the breastmilk, but just that she got it. Of the 8 or so feedings a day, she is getting breastmilk at 7 of them. I give her a formula bottle at one feeding in the middle of the night so I can get a little extra sleep, but that is it. All in all breastfeeding did not come easy for this little girl. The lactation consultant I was working with in the hospital said that she was a lazy baby and didn't want to work for her milk. That has definitely stayed true since we've come home. She just gets mad when I try to nurse her. So for the next 6 months or more I will be pumping 7 times a day, unfortunately. It is all worth it though so my baby girl can get the best!