Julia's 1 Month Recap!

I can hardly wrap my head around this. I've been a mamma for over a month now! Julia is the sweetest thing and I can't even imagine life without her anymore.

She brought such joy and responsibility with her arrival. It surprised me how much I've changed since then. But I'll touch base on that on another post. For now, let's focus on this little lady.

JULIA AT 1 MONTH

Weight: Her birth weight was 7 pounds 4 ounces. (on the 20 percentile) At her 1 month appointment she was over 8 pounds. (Putting her closer to the 37 percentile now) She is slowly packing on those pounds, but still is tiny for her height. We're working on getting these baby rolls going ;)

Eating: We are still breastfeeding (either on the breast or feeding her pumped breast milk) and supplementing with formula. She drinks about 2-3.5 ounces of formula at every feeding after about 10 minutes on each breast. At night she is better about just being breastfed, but sometimes she will drink about 2 ounces too.

Sleep: She’s turning out to be a great sleeper at night! She fights to be put in bed, but after a nap around 7, she goes down at between 10 - 11pm for the night. In the first few weeks she would get up at the 3 hour mark to be fed. As the weeks passed she started to extend that sleep time, with one 5 hour stretch once.

We got her started on the bassinest as soon as we got back from the hospital, but she would not have it. She hated being flat on her back. We then switched her over to a rocker and she slept beautifully in it for the first 3 weeks of her life. She then decided that she wanted to lie flat, so back to the bassinest we went. She now loves it.

We did buy this insert to put inside it. It makes her feel more protected and we are happy she doesn't startle herself awake anymore. Plus, as a bonus, once she outgrows her bassinest and moves to her own crib in her room we can move the insert there.

No thoughts yet about when we will move her to her room (we live in a townhouse and her room is on a different level). We are probably going to wait until she can sleep throughout the night, or at least until I'm back at work in October to change anything on this routine.

Milestones: Little lady is a chirper, but I don't think it counts as a milestone.. In all seriousness, I will count her taking my breast as a big milestone. After a rocky start, she did great going back to my breast at least a little. It certainly helped her mamma out psychologically to deal with it. She also cracked open her first smile and she is already pretty good about holding her own head up (we have to be extra careful when trying to hold her upright).

Best moments: Understanding her opened up my heart to experience motherhood better. Seeing her with her dad and her vovó (grandma) fills up my heart. She knows them and responds to our voices and touch. Her toothy grin and baby noises make my day.

Challenging moments: She is a clingy one! She refuses to settle either on her rocker, glider, or bassinest without being pretty much asleep on someone's arms beforehand. It's been challenging - specially because I'm going back to work on a few short weeks - and we don't know how her daycare provider will be able to handle it.

Also, her refusing to breastfeeding broke my heart and made the beginning of motherhood feel stressful and made me feel like a failure. She and I came a long ways since then and are setting into what works for us; leaving us with more time to bond and less time to worry about what we can't change.

She is also really gassy. It breaks my heart to see her struggle. I'm thinking it could have something to do with her bottle, so I'm going to use another one for a period of time and see if it might work better for her. I'll keep you guys updated.

That pretty much sums up our first month with her. She truly is wonderful and I lost count of how many times a day I stop and stare at her in awe. Happy 1st month, Julinha. Mamãe te ama.

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