We officially have a one month old on our hands. I am amazed at how much Olivia has grown and developed since we brought her home from the hospital. We really love being able to parent her and grow as a family. One thing I have learned about being a parent (I have a whole month under my belt, so obviously I know everything) is that we are constantly progressing. One night I was having a hard time feeding Olivia and was convinced she was trying to kill me via my boobs. I had the thought, "Crap, this is how EVERY feeding is going to go for the rest of my life. This is horrible! Where is a bottle, screw breast feeding! Michael, you feed her!" etc, etc. This all lasted about 2 minutes, and of course the next feeding went a whole lot easier and we are pros now at it.
The same thing happened when Olivia got a cold at 2 weeks. Poor little girl, she couldn't breathe for the life of her. I literally held her for 3 days straight. The fact that I had a cold too didn't help. We were two little helpless sickies. All I could think of is how sad I was for her and how I would do ANYTHING to take the pain away from her. It made me think about how our Heavenly Father must feel about us as we work through different struggles and stages in our lives. Thank goodness we have the atonement and His watchful eye to help us during those times if we turn and choose to have faith in Him. It was a great lesson for me to learn.
Here is a list of what our little cutie is up to:
- She smiles, a lot. She loves talking with Michael and I and it is so fun to have her interact with us!
- She is an excellent bird necker.
- She sleeps about 4 hour stretches at night which is WONDERFUL and very much appreciated. We all usually go to bed around 11 and then wake up at 3 or 4 to for a feeding, which Olivia sleeps through and goes right back to bed until 7 or so. We let her sleep in our bed, but will stop at 4 months.
- She slowly is taking a bottle, but she prefers to breastfeed which may or may not make me really happy. It is nice to feel needed.
- She eats.... A LOT.
- She is a big tooter.... her farts sound like an old man's farts who can get away with them because he is a cute old man. (TMI?)
- Her coos are some of the cutest noises we have ever heard.
- She loves her binky, but not the "cute" ones I want her to use. We are stuck with the semi ghetto ones that have the cutesie wootsie patterns on them.
- I swear she has a new bagel on her legs or arms everyday.
- She is happy! Seriously, the only time she cries is when she is hungry or tired, and even then they aren't that bad.
- As she as gotten older, we have had to start actually putting her to sleep rather than her falling asleep on her own. I love the extra cuddles. The way we can tell if it is safe to put her down is if we can pick up her arm and she just lets it plops down. If there is ANY resistance, we have to still bounce her.
- She can stand up if we hold her up. She uses her legs to prop herself up.
- She recognizes people and noises.
- She can track things we move in front of her.
In short, she is the perfect baby and we are so in love.
