Evelina - One Month

 Evelina Grace - One Month Old

It's been one month since Evelina entered our lives and what a whirlwind of incredible emotions and amazing feelings! From happy tears to frustrated tears, there's no way to describe how a disrupted sleep schedule and the demands of a newborn are "worth it" but they just are. The first two weeks were the hardest, as I think any new parent will tell you, and passed by in a blur of feedings and diaper changes and deciphering cries and sweet kisses and snuggles all while dealing with my own personal recovery. But it does get easier with each flip of the calendar. And yes, there were a few day stretches of no shower, pj's all day, just cuddled up feeding and staring at my baby like it's my job to watch her grow. And I wouldn't trade it for the world. But we were also able to get out and about with her early on, something I was eager to do, one, to see how she would handle it and two, to get in a healthy habit of not sitting at home. There is no way to describe everything a new parent feels during this time - excitement, fear, joy, terror, frustration, magic, and I was happy to find that some things just come naturally. Maybe it's a mother's instinct (or just from spending so much time with her) but her habits and needs have been fairly easy to discern, even from a few days old. I love knowing how to comfort her, most of the time, and it may not remain that easy so I'm grateful for the time it has been.

But back to E. She had a big first month of life! Aside from being perfectly precious here are a few highlights.

Stats:

• Weight: approximately 8 1/2 pounds
• Eyes: Dark gray/blue
• Hair: Brown (sometimes I think I can see a touch of auburn in it though)
• Size: Newborn clothes and diapers
• Looks: Like her Dad! At the beginning she was his little twin. I think her face is changing some though, but she still looks mostly like him.
• Personality: Mine! From always wiggling to always loosing one sock...
• Nicknames: Currently Little E, Sweet Juice, my Squish (but anything goes, really)
• Feeding/Sleeping: The first few weeks were exhausting and consisted of the typical round the clock feeding schedule, but things spaced out a little by week five and we can get four hour sleep stretches (yay!) We're breastfeeding and supplementing (more on that later) and this girl has quite the appetite.
• Highlights: Christmas!, two road trips to North Carolina, uncountable visits to Cracker Barrel

Likes:

• Being swaddled, but only with her arms out. (From day one.)
• Laying on her side and sitting upright
• Outfit changes (She is mine after all...)
• Baby massages from her grandad, Big Poppa G
• Pooping in a freshly changed diaper
• Making noise to hear herself "talk" 
• Baths. I call it her spa time, she gets so still and zen with the calmest look on her face.
• Family and friends - so far she's been pretty great with being passed around and held and oogled over without getting too fussy or overstimulated
• Snuggling! This girl will let you spoon the bejesus out of her, I love it!
• Selfies. Ok, maybe that one's more me. But she is really good at them!

Dislikes: 

• Having the hiccups for too long. (Who doesn't??) Which she gets every.single.day. 
• Having a dirty diaper (Who wouldn't?)
• This Rock 'n Play sleeper. Hates it. Not a big fan of bouncy/baby seats in general.
• Getting into her car seat. But once we get going she conks out.

Other:

• She's a wiggler. Remember how much she moved inside my belly? Nothing's changed on the outside. From the little foot movements when she's content to leg pumping and arm flailing when she's alert and active, this girls' in constant motion.
• She loves to stretch, especially arching her back and letting out large grunts. (Now I can totally picture how it must have looked on the inside.) And there's always some funny arm thing happening.
• Speaking of grunting, she's very talkative (aka noisy!) Everything she does is in a big way - eating comes with slurping and lots of "aahs", waketime is full of coo's, and don't even get me started on the gas situation (from both ends). Her yawns are often, long, and often accompanied with a yell. She even makes these crazy gasping noises from time to time that really freaked us out at first.
• She's strong! From the day she was born she was able to hold her head up for seconds at a time and turned to her side on the exam table at just a few hours old. And I swear this girl could stand up if she had any balance, her little legs have some insane strength already.
• Her sweet smiles just melt me, obviously.
• I'm a mom you guys! It's not that I thought I'd never become one, but after unintentionally putting it off for so long I kind of forgot about it a little, until all of a sudden I was pregnant and all of sudden had a baby and then boom! add "Mama" to my resume. Crazy, right?!
• On her actual one month birthday (January 2nd) I cried like a baby basically all day. It's amazing watching her grow but it's also bittersweet. I was super clingy to her and would wail things from, "Someday her little head's not going to smell like a baby anymore." to "One day she'll be a teenager!". I could not get a grip! So yeah, I'm going to be that mom that cries over every minute milestone... 

I never meant to take this much time away from the blog but I was/am just enjoying my time with her so much (also known as meeting her demands) that it's been hard to pull myself away for screen time. I'm still very eager to write about her birth story and obviously have loads of pictures of her to share so stay tuned!