One Month Old

This was taken last Sunday...Lydia's first trip to church (I held her through the whole service). She is wearing the very first dress her Daddy bought her when I found out I was pregnant. He bought it and a blue outfit in case it was a boy...that seems like a million years ago!

How in the world is this possible?? "Baby Sister" aka "Sweetness" was born 4 weeks ago today. We seriously need to start calling her Lydia or she is going to think her real name is baby sister. Anderson calls her that, so we do too. Right about this time a month ago we were getting settled in our room and getting to know our sweet little girl. I know from Anderson that time flies at this stage, but I am still astounded that this precious little miracle is a month old!

I am going to record a few things here that probably aren't all that interesting to anyone but us...but nonetheless I don't want to forget these little tidbits.

Her schedule is starting to develop into a routine. She generally nurses about every 3 hours, except at night when she seems to be quite the little piglet. Jeff usually tops her off with a 3 oz. bottle right before we go to bed at 11:00 ish. She then wakes up about 2:30 and then for some reason has a very hard time getting back to sleep. She grunts and rolls around pulling her legs to her chest. I thought it might be gas pains, but after trying both mylicon and gripe water I have ruled that out. I think she is just restless. This is BRUTAL!! I'll nurse for 20 to 30 minutes and try to go back to sleep around 3:00 and she will grunt, etc keeping us up until 4:30 or later some nights. Then my head finally hits the pillow and I swear even though it is usually 2 1/2 hours later it seems like I closed my eyes for two seconds! Unfortunately our two year old doesn't understand the term "sleep deprivation" and is up by 6:30 or 7:00 ready for a full energetic and often long day!

Her weight issues are all but gone. She is up to nine pounds now. She gained a whopping 11 oz in 4 days...the average is supposed to be an ounce a day. Wowsa! She definitely made up for lost time! I am still breastfeeding almost exclusively except for the occasional night time bottle. I am really proud of myself for sticking with it. I promised myself I would do it for six weeks before making any major choices about quitting, and I am already feeling confident enough to want to continue it as long as possible. With Anderson I only nursed for about a month and then pumped for a few weeks before just giving up. Lydia has been much easier to nurse, and I am sure it helps that I knew more of what to expect this time around and am a little more laid back about it.

Anderson is adjusting very well. I have to be honest in saying that the prospect of having them both here all day by myself scared me to death. However, it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. The biggest challenges are very first thing in the morning (trying to be upbeat and somewhat awake) when trying to get him fed and occupied. The other hard time is late afternoon about an hour or so before Jeff gets home. Poor little guy just kind of loses patience for dear old mom and inevitably baby sister want to nurse around this same time. Anderson never shows aggression, but does push his boundaries when I am feeding her. He knows I can't really get up to correct him right then, so he tries to push it by doing things he knows he shouldn't. I am very glad the we implemented the 1-2-3 Magic discipline technique a few months ago. Most of the time by the number "two" in the count down to time out, I have his full attention and he is back on track. However, it is a little difficult to nurse her while yelling loud enough for him to hear me in the other room without upsetting the baby. There were also a few days where her schedule got a bit out of whack and she wanted to nurse when it was his lunch and nap time. Trying to figure that out and get everyone happy and on the schedule they are used to was difficult, but after 2 days it sort of corrected itself.

Watching Anderson and Lydia's little interactions is truly one of the greatest joys I've ever experienced. I love how much he loves her. He asks to see her every morning first thing and demands to kiss her "nite-nite" at the end of every day. He already wants to show and teach her things. For example, the other day he saw our football schedule on the fridge and asked to see it. I gave it to him and he pointed to it and said "That's Alabama mommy...roll tide..that's what the elephant says" I laughed and told him that he was right. He then took the magnet and ran over to the bassinet and put it in next to a sleeping Lydia and said "I want to show baby sister" What a sweetie! We have also started walking around the neighborhood on most nights with our double stroller, and it just feels good to spend that time as just our little family. We know Lydia is our last baby, so watching them together has been great because I know it is just the start of wonderful memories with our little complete family. Speaking of our complete little family...we had Lydia's newborn pictures taken today and were able to get some of the four of us as part of the shoot. The proofs will be ready Monday and I will post the link.

And I leave you with this...in case anyone wonders if she has her mother's hair. Obviously the answer is yes. Her hair gets curlier everytime we wash it. And for those of you that don't know me well...I have ridiculously thick curly hair that I choose to straighten most of the time. :-)