C's first month

This little girl . . .

 

is growing so fast! (And it's already been about four weeks since she turned a month old, but I have had to put off finishing this post because she got sick.) 

At one week old she was slightly above her birth weight and had grown 3/4 inch.

Her one-month day:

She definitely looks bigger next to the bear than she did at first -- see, here it is again:

Here are photos of each of our girls the day they turned one month old. I think they look pretty similar. I don't know which older sister C resembles more, but the hair sure is different!

She has been just as happy and easy as the other two (Shboogoo was probably the hardest just because we had never been parents before). C quietly fusses but hardly ever cries, and when she does cry someone gives her attention and she quickly calms down. During her first three or four weeks I would change her diaper, which would wake her up so I could nurse her, and then she would go back to sleep. We joked that she had been sleeping for her whole life. After the first . . . few? . . . days she could go at least four hours between night feedings, so I have almost never had my sleep interrupted more than twice in a night.

I love her soft little legs and feet (and all of her other little parts), her smell, the way she stares at me, and her random leg movements during diaper changes. I love her grunts, squeaks, and half-smiles. She smiled at me when she was awake and less than a week old. I think she likes how much her sisters adore her (L has been more clingy, though, and has told me several times, "Don't feed the baby"). Also, I believe she recognizes Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and I Am a Child of God from us singing them to her when she was in the womb.

These are just a few of my other favorite photos of her during her first month.

I cropped the above photo that my friend took. You can see more HERE.

My husband took this photo, and it reminded me of another one we have:

        

newborn photo shoot

Some photographers say that they will take photos of a newborn who is no older than ten days old. By the time I chose the clothing and a photographer (a friend I have known since seventh grade) and we did the photo shoot, C was three and a half weeks old. But since she still spent a lot of her time sleeping, it was fine. My family hasn't had much extra money the last few months as my husband has focused on finishing his degree. I was really grateful that my friend said she would take our photos for free. She is so nice! 


First we did some photos outside. Then we went to my friend's house where we had lunch and she took some photos in her living room. I didn't even think about having her take some of C in just a diaper or her birthday suit, but that's okay.

I love how the photos turned out, although the five-year-old complained about the cold and sometimes had a weird look on her face, and the two-and-a-half-year-old didn't want to take her thumb out of her mouth. :o) Here are my favorites.

 

2011 Christmas season, part 2

{part 1 is HERE}

I spent most of Christmas Eve at the hospital, where it was very quiet -- different from the way that day often is. I love that our new baby was with me every minute, night and day. I walked around several times, slowly but with little pain thanks to the Percocet and Ibuprofen I was taking after the surgery. Some people dislike hospital food, but I enjoyed every meal, plus the fact that someone delivered them to me! Lunch was a tuna sandwich, soup, carrot and pickle, and a cookie. Yes, I wanted to take a picture of it.

My husband and I went with baby C to have her hearing tested, which was one of the things we had to do before we could be discharged from the hospital. (Hmm, it could have been interesting to have a photo of that. Oh well.) He left to get the girls from Nana's and do some errands. Meanwhile I took care of the baby, rested, read from the booklet about caring for my newborn and myself, took a few photos, and used our laptop while listening to peaceful Christmas songs.

Here's a funny and upsetting story. While I was sitting on the bed nursing C and my husband was taking all of our stuff to the car so we could go home, two-and-a-half-year-old L said something about the potty. I certainly couldn't get off the bed quickly enough or I would hurt myself. She stood there and peed instead of going into the bathroom like I was telling her to do (not that she can get on the toilet by herself anyway). Before my husband returned I took off L's wet clothes and did my best to clean her off. Any extra undies and pants we had with us were now in the van! My husband was not happy that she had done that. We just wanted to leave. We put a baby blanket around her like a skirt and tied it with the sash from my robe that I was wearing over my clothes.

I think Shboogoo liked these flowers that were on a desk even better than the girly Christmas tree that you see in the background.

So we left after 5 PM. I was glad it wasn't super cold outside. I told my husband that I had a prescription for more Percocet. We hadn't though about me needing to take more soon (every four hours). He turned around and went back to the hospital. Of course it was Christmas Eve, but I was surprised that their pharmacy was already closed. They were nice enough to give him information for the two Walgreens stores in our area that were open 24/7 over the holiday weekend, so we were able to get my meds.

After taking me and C home, he and the older girls joined everyone (it was just five other people) at my mom's house for a nice dinner and gifts. I didn't feel like going over because I needed rest. Here are two pictures I got from my sister's camera.

Then at about 8:30 they all came over to see me and C. My brother and brother-in-law had not met her yet. That's my brother in the photo below. I opened presents from my mom and got to see the girls open a few more things from her. She loved the big Book of Mormon-related book my sister and I gave her because it was the one she specifically wanted us to get her for Christmas. :o) We exchanged our sibling gifts. The best part about that was that my sister and I had bought each other $20 gift cards to the same clothing store!

Christmas morning was fun but we were pretty tired. We had been too tired Christmas Eve to get anything set up under the tree. I don't think Shboogoo and L woke up any earlier than usual, thank goodness. We made them stay in their room while we wrapped their presents (not very many, mostly books), brought out the big one (a cardboard house that they could color and play in), and stuffed their stockings. We also had breakfast before going over to the tree. My husband made waffles, which we don't have very often. We gave the girls new Christmas cups to drink from.

 

I made the headband and poinsettia hair clip she wore.

 

 

 

 

 

Around 10 AM my husband and the big girls went to Papa's house, my Dad's house, and my husband's mom's house. What a busy day for my husband! When they came back home after 9 PM the first thing Shboogoo said was, "Where's [C]?" :o)

I loved being home alone all day with my newborn, watching some shows on Netflix that were Sunday-ish, including a documentary about Mother Theresa. My dad and youngest brother came over after their church meetings, and my dad held C while I had my first shower since her birth. After that, Angie and Todd came to meet her before going to my Dad's. We enjoyed visiting for quite a while. She is pregnant with their first baby and they are really excited about it.