Kelly is One Month!

Can you believe how fast that flew by?  I can't.

Here's Bubba's one month photo, for comparison.

His Ugly Doll is the same size as hers, so you can see they're pretty much the same size.  She is about a pound and a half more than he was here.  He gained about two pounds his first month beyond his birth weight, while she's only gained about 9 ounces.  So, even though she weighs over eleven (!!!) pounds at one month old, the pediatrician wants her to put on more weight.

Kelly doesn't seem concerned.

Her eyes are definitely lighter than Bubba's were.  His were pretty much dark brown from the day he was born, while hers are this dark gray color that changes according to the light and what is around her.

She just started to smile in the past couple of days.  I got her to smile at me three times in a row, but she hasn't repeated the performance.  Lame.  She's also starting to follow objects with her eyes.  She had her first bath and didn't cry at all until the very end, which surprised me.  She does great during "tummy time" and will lay there for a pretty long time.  She actually falls asleep most of the time.

She's going through that one month awkward phase where she's losing her newborn hair.  She also has baby acne and her skin is peeling pretty bad.  The pediatrician says it's a combination of mild eczema and cradle cap.  Poor kid!  She's looking kinda rough these days.  Behold:

This is a better view of the hair situation.  My husband said she looked like a radish!!!  I posted the photo on FB and my eighth grade homeroom teacher (yes, I'm a nerd and FB friends with two of my eighth grade teachers, and my seventh grade teacher as well) remarked that my hair looked like that in junior high.  Perhaps, but the sticking up part was more toward the front AND it was 1989.  TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

This baby is so sweet.  I was feeling like things were definitely easier this time around, but after going back the other day and reading the blog posts from Bubba's first month here...  HOLY HELL.  Things are SO MUCH better this time around!  I think it's a combination of not feeling completely clueless about what is going on and having a more laid back child.  Bubba was pretty laid back overall, but the first couple of months he cried a whole freaking lot.  Combine a crying for no reason with someone who feels lost and clueless... well, it makes things hard.  Maybe she's picking up that I'm not as stressed and that's helping her to be calm, where the opposite would have been true for Bubba?  Who knows.

Of course, this child also likes to be held quite often.  It's not uncommon for her to take naps in my arms, or as you can see above, on my chest.  With Bubba, I didn't want to fall into the "trap" of having him be used to me holding him so he could sleep.  He napped in his crib - period.  Occasionally he'd sleep on the Boppy, or on a blanket on the floor.  Very rarely would he get to sleep while being held.

My thinking has shifted a bit this time around.  First of all, this child has no problem sleeping in her crib either, as long as it's night time and dark.  I'm not worried that holding her for naps is going to affect her nighttime sleep at this point.  During the day, things are different.  I'm okay with that.  Sure, I don't have as much time to do things now but the thought I keep coming back to is, "What would I have given to hold the child I lost in my arms, even just once?"

All of a sudden, it's not such a burden to hold that little girl in my arms for just a bit longer.  Funny how that works, huh?

She doesn't have complete head control yet, obviously.  She can hold her head up for a pretty long time though.  She is steady enough for me to put in the sling now though!  I pulled it out today and was very pleased that she seemed to like it.  She went right to sleep in there.  We ran some errands today and I put her in the sling twice more.  Both times she went right to sleep.  I am so happy about this!  Hooray for baby wearing!