1 Month Old

This month was by far the hardest month.  The newness began to wear off and the sleep deprivation set in.  Your daddy went back to work and I didn’t want him to be tired so I got up with you almost every night.  Me and God had a lot of talks in the middle of the night.  I prayed every night for you to sleep good and if you didn’t for the strength to get through the night. 

Sleeping:  You did not sleep good from 4-8 weeks. Around week 4 and 5 you were waking up every 2 hours and sometimes every hour. At times you would cry and cry for no reason. Daddy and I would try everything to try and make you happy. GRIPE water was a savior! If you don’t know what Gripe Water is, it is basically an all natural sugar water. Whenever you would get worked up we could give you a few drops of this and it would get you calmed down enough to get you to eat or take a breather. You LOVED your changing table. Anytime we would put you on it you would stop crying and smile. When you were a baby in the hospital they would swaddle you but you would always get your arms out. We thought that you liked sleeping with your arms out. So when we swaddled you we would swaddle you from your arm pits down and leave your arms out. One night after several long nights of no sleeping, Daddy decided to swaddle you with your arms in. And guess what, you little booger sleep 6 hours straight! From that night on we swaddled you and you slept so much better!! At 5 weeks we moved you from your bassinet in our room to your crib. You were getting to long for your bassinet and Daddy slept better with you in another room since you were such a loud grunter.  Being swaddled you still wiggled a ton but it wouldn’t wake you up since you were swaddled. We would put you in your crib at one end and by the end of the night you would be at the other end!

Eating:  You started eating 2-3oz every 2-3 hours.  You were such a slow eater and got gassy really easy and you would fuss when you needed to burp!

Clothes: You started wearing 1 month clothes and newborns were definitely too small.  You had a big growth spurt and got really long!

Diaper:  You were wearing a size 1 pampers swaddler.

Luke had a work Christmas Party December 16^th.  This was the first night we left Lakelyn with anyone.  Luke’s mom and dad came over and watched her.  She slept most of the time on grandma’s tummy while her and grandpa watched TV.

Daddy and I took you to see Santa a few weeks before Christmas.  I think you were to young to even realize who Santa was, you weren’t scared but not thrilled about him holding you.  After we had your picture taken we had lunch at the mall. 

Lakelyn’s second road trip was back down to see my family again for Christmas. Grandma bought Lakelyn new Christmas pajamas and an activity mat. Although Lakelyn was still a little young for the activity mat but she still loved looking up and seeing herself in the mirror and looking at the toys dangling over her. Grandma and I squished her into her Christmas stocking, it was a tight fit but we made it work! I loved being able to see my family for Christmas and start Lakelyn in the holiday traditions.

Surprisingly Lakelyn sleep most of the night New Years Eve {bless her} but when I woke up I didn’t feel good {and it wasn’t from the drinking}.  Luke convinced me to go see the doctor.  I went to the doctor and told her I felt like I had the flu, cold shakes, hot sweats and high fever {104}.  She sent me home and told me to get over it.  Well after doing some research online and beginning to notice my boob hurt I found out that I had Mastitis {an infection in my boob from a clogged duct}.  I called the on call doctor who called me in a prescription and told me I would feel better in 24hrs.  I went and got the prescription and the doctor was right, in 24 hrs I was feeling better!

"Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn't know you had, and dealing with fears you didn't know existed." Linda Wooten

Birth to 1 Month

My sweet baby Lakelyn-

Bringing you home was the best birthday gift I could have ever asked for.  My birthday was the day after we came home.  I loved being at home with you and daddy, it was a very relaxed day and you were the best birthday gift ever!  Bringing you home was both very exciting and nervous for your daddy and I.  We didn’t know what we were going to do when we got you home.  Who was going to be there to tell us everything right and wrong, or when you cried who was going to help make you stop!  Fortunately it all came very natural for us both.  Plus you were such an easy baby that really the only time you cried is when you were hungry.  You were so tiny, daddy would carry you around with one arm.

Eating:  Breast feeding was not as easy as I thought it would be. I had imagined that I would just pop you on the boob and you would start eating. You would do really good one feeding and then not the next. You were getting frustrated and so was I.   You were hungry and I felt like I was starving my baby. So I finally decided until my milk came in I was going to feed you formula, this was really hard because I wanted to breast feed and I was afraid after you had the formula you wouldn’t want to go back to the boob. However the lactation consultant at the hospital assured me you would prefer my boob over the formula. After being home for a few days and pumping, my milk came in, we went back to the lactation consultant who helped me with breast feeding again, she decided I should try a nipple shield and this helped some but still was very difficult for you to get as much milk as you wanted. I continued to work with you at home with the nipple shield but after a week or so I decided I would pump and feed you with a bottle. I came to this conclusion because 1) I would never be a person who breast feed in public 2) You would take 20-30 min on each boob to eat and still not be satisfied 3) I was paranoid you weren’t getting enough to eat. So after a few weeks I began pumping exclusively and giving you my milk in a bottle. You ate 2-3 oz every 2 hours. We went to the breast feeding clinic every 3 days for 3weeks until you were back up to your birth weight and to make sure your jaundice levels were normal.

Sleeping:  We woke you up every 2 hours during the day and 3 hours at night until you were back to your birth weight. After that we were lucky to get a 4 hour stretch at night without you waking up. The first few weeks of life you seemed to have your nights and days mixed up. You would wake up at 3am sometimes with Daddy and stay up for several hours, just wanting to look around. Daddy went back to work after a week of being home so I stayed up with you most nights. There was no reason to have Daddy being tired at work when I could sleep during the day when you slept. Daddy did a great job of getting up though when he knew I was really tired. Getting 4-5 hours of straight through sleep made me feel like a refreshed person. The first few weeks everything was so new and getting up in the middle of the night several times didn’t really bother me. At this time you slept in the bassinet in the pack in play in our room. You were such a noisy sleeper, I didn’t mind but Daddy had a hard time sleeping though your grunts.

Clothes:  You wore a newborn size but 1 month was just a tab to big. 

Diaper:  You wore a new born pampers swaddler diaper.

You love bath time!  I was very surprised but even your first bath you didn’t really cry.  You loved having your hair washed!  The first few times we washed you in our bathroom sink but then after your umbilical cord fell off we put in the baby bath tub.  I loved giving you baths because you enjoyed them so much!

Lakelyn’s first road trip was November 23^rd, only 5 days old! I wanted to have Lakelyn early so that we could go back to my hometown for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I wanted to be sure I could be with my family for the holiday. Holidays just aren’t the same when you can’t spend it with your family. Lakelyn did so good. She slept the whole car ride down, slept her normal at night, so she got up every 3 hours, and then slept most of Thanksgiving while she got passed around and then slept the whole car ride back. She was such a good baby!

Catching Up the last 6 Months

I wish I would have started this blog when I was pregnant. I know there are so many memories I wish I would have written down to remember for the next time I am pregnant or to compare to the next baby. I look forward to looking back and remembering all the little memories that are not always remembered, they may not be significant now but will be fun to read later in life. I want Lakelyn to read this when she is older to see how important she was to me and her daddy. Lakelyn just turned 6 months on May 18th. I feel like my memory hasn’t completely gone yet so I am going to try and play catch up over the next few posts.