One Month!

I can't believe that my sweet Natalie is already a month old!  Where has the time gone??

Of course, I want to take pictures of her each month in the chair in her room. That way, we can keep track of how fast she is growing!! Our first photo shoot was interesting.....

"Mom, I'm still trying to figure out this 'holding my head up' thing..."

"Now I'm getting the hang of it!"

"WHOA!  I'm a month old?!?"

"I don't like sitting here by myself...HOLD ME!"

"This is better....I like looking out the window."

The little ladybug is growing like a weed!  She is 9 pounds, 3 ounces and 21 3/4 inches long.  50th percentile on weight, and 75th percentile on height.  I think she will be tall and skinny like her daddy!  I can definitely tell that she is growing.  Her newborn sized clothes are getting small, but the 0-3 month sized clothes are still a little bit big.  She'll be wearing them in no time, though!  I'm excited, because we have some very cute outfits in some bigger sizes. 

She continues to be a pretty easy going baby, but in the last week or so, she has had a lot more "fussy time" than the first three weeks of her life.  The doctor said she is just "waking up" to the world now, and will be a little more high maintenance in the next few weeks.  Every day, she'll have an hour or two when she is just unhappy....not necessarily crying, but grunts, and scrunches up her face and wants only to be held.  We can deal with it!  She does great at night -- usually 3 or 4 hours between feedings, and always goes right back to sleep after eating.

Daddy has started giving Natalie a bottle of pumped breast milk once a day.  The first time we tried it was a nightmare!  She took the bottle just fine (we used a Dr. Brown's bottle...) but afterwards threw it all up and was NOT a happy baby for the next two hours!  It gave her a bad tummy ache...  The next time we used a Playtex bottle and it went much better, and didn't upset her tummy at all.  Just like everything else -- we are just learning as we go.

She has developed some "baby acne" on her little face, but the doctor assures me that it's normal and will clear up on its own very soon.  Also, her cord stump has not fallen off yet -- I am anxious to give her a real bath!  Dr. Martin tied some suture thread around it today to help it along....so hopefully we'll have a bath by the weekend!

We've been enjoying our baby so much, and am glad that Spring has arrived so we can go for walks and spend some time outside. 

She looks so tiny in her car seat!

Although I don't feel we are in a very good routine yet, I am getting more used to taking care of a baby all day long.  The lack of sleep is hard (I LOVE my sleep!), but I'm adjusting.  Some days we get lots done, and other days Mark gets home and I'm not out of pajamas yet.  We are just taking it one day at a time!