Sprout is One Month Old!

Today Sprout is one month old!

Goodness!  Where did that month go!  While a fair amount of time has been spent soaking up all the newborn goodness, we've also been busy celebrating holidays, visiting family and friends, playing Duplo, reading new books, singing songs, etc... enjoying things immensely, no doubt, but WOW how very much more we have going on these days than we did when The Bean was this age.  (Though I know it didn't feel like it at the time.)  

-While we certainly aren't on a schedule, Sprout has a little bit of a routine.  Generally speaking, she nurses every 2-3 hours, usually for somewhere around  10-15 minutes, though it can vary from five minutes to half an hour.  Between nursing, she usually sleeps, with about two periods a day where she stays awake --one in the morning, one in the afternoon.  In the evening she cluster feeds with "bedtime" being around 11pm.  Until the past few days we had been on a a little stretch where wake-ups were happening at 2am, 5am and then around 8am for the day.  Things seem to be changing again now.

-Overall breastfeeding is going well. I need to watch when Sprout latches, because sometimes her mouth isn't open quite far enough and then it hurts.  Or milk leaks everywhere and we both get soaked.  She often gets hiccups after nursing, which I feel badly about, but don't really seem to bother her.  The past week or so she's been getting a good bit of spit up when she burps, but nothing like how it was with her brother.  (A few days after we got home when I was exhausted and sore and overwhelmed, we had a doula who specializes in breastfeeding come to the house and help us out a bit.  SO worthwhile.)

-Her growth since birth is noticeable   She still has skinny limbs, but they have rolls.  Her tummy is round and she has these great kissable cheeks.  Her newborn clothes are starting to look rather snug on her, and I will have to get out some of the 3 month stuff very soon.  At her three-week midwife appointment she weighed in at a whopping 10lbs 4oz (up from 8lbs, 15oz at birth and about a 9% drop by the time we were leaving the hospital).

-At birth she had a good bit of dark hair, that hair is now falling out and she has some fluffy lighter hair coming in.  She won't be blonde like The Bean, but I'm guessing she'll have light brown hair.  Eye colour has yet to be determined, but I'm sticking with a guess of blue.  She has pretty, long eyelashes.

-She also had quite a few "stork bites" at birth.  The one on her forehead above her nose is less noticeable now than it was before, but the one on her left eyelid is still prominent as are the ones on the back of her neck and head.  There's also a little one on her lip, but it sort of blends in.

-Her likes and dislikes at this point are pretty basic.  She likes nursing and being held in general.  She dislikes being cold and sharp noises.  Fortunately loud noises don't seem to phase her too much.  She also dislikes having to burp, pass gas and poop.

-Her expressions are fairly limited.  She sometimes does that sweet newborn half-smile in her sleep and I can't wait until she starts with the real smiles.  Her vision must be improving, because she will stare, particularly at faces and at this beautiful black and white painting we have up on our wall.

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As for me, I'm slowly recovering.  I haven't taken and of my "strong" pain medication since between the second and third week postpartum.  I still take extra strength Tylenol at least once or twice a day.  I'm usually pretty sore by the evening.  Hopefully it doesn't get too much worse now that I'm home on my own with Sprout during the days and will be taking on more of the housework.

I'm trying to stay mindful of the fact that staring at my newborn is a valuable way to spend my time and beyond making sure she is fed and clean, really the main thing that I should be doing right now.  I'm also trying to get used to narrating things as I'm doing them.  It feels a little bit funny to me to talk to someone who doesn't really respond, but I know it's good for her language development and whatnot.  

I've been incredibly hungry with the breastfeeding and can't believe the amount of food I consume on a daily basis, though it seems to be slowing down.  Despite the non-stop eating, I've lost about 28 of the 40lbs I gained during pregnancy.  My shape is not the same, but still, I'm glad that it seems that I will eventually get back (more or less) to where I was.

The disappointment with the way things went during labour and birth is fading, though I'm sure it will never go away completely.  I'm very grateful that breastfeeding has gone well so far as it seems sort of like a consolation for the labour and birth.


I guess that brings things up to date.  I'm so glad our little girl is here and that our family is complete!