Anna is 1 Month Old!

      I can't believe I'm a mother to a one month old.  I can't believe I'm a parent!  It's impossible for me to not look back on the last four years and think about how much we longed for a child and suffered with infertility and a miscarriage only to end up having to learn patience and come to this point.  It makes me reminiscent of this post from almost two years ago.  Look where we are now.  We have a daughter.  A little person.  We are no longer simply a marriage.  We're a three person household. With the addage of our daughter, the house has certainly increased in activity.  I'm either feeding, pumping, calming, or holding Anna.  If I'm able to find even 30 minutes where I'm not taken over by baby duties, I make attempts at cleaning and cooking.  Thankfully, I still have freezer meals that have been keeping me sane.  I honestly don't know how I'd even get to a point where I could put together a full meal. What am I going to do when they are all gone?  I suppose we'll have to survive on PB&J.  Ty won't mind.  :)  Speaking of whom, Ty has been amazing and I'm so thankful he works from home and is willing to help me during the day.  It's been a great blessing.  When I need to "make milk" for baby, he's able to watch her, unless he has a meeting.  He's such a great daddy.  Seeing him with Anna melts my heart into a puddle of goo.  It's incredibly precious.

      At her one week appointment she had lost 13 oz. since her birth, where she weighed 8lbs. 15oz.  This worried me a bit considering how much that was in such a short period of time, but because it was just outside of the range of concern Ginger said it was fine.  Now that we have a better understanding of how much she was getting from breastfeeding and have made the switch to supplementing with formula, she's made up for her lost weight.  At her three week appointment she weighed 8 lbs. 9.5 oz.  Since Ginger is out of town this week, but still wanting to see how much she's gained, I decided to weigh her with me on  my .1 lb. increment scale.  The difference was 9.5 lbs.!  That's some pretty amazing progress.  It's absolutely evident by her increasing chubbiness and ever-growing appetite.  It makes me very happy and proud.

      Some things we are loving about Anna right now:

- She can sleep up to 6 to 7 hours at night.  This is quite nice, but I'm still up during the night because I try to pump at least once or twice.  Then, just making sure she's okay keeps me awake.

- Her cuteness is constant.  I can't get over her and her little movements.

- When she stretches, she does this "Superman" move where she straightens one hand forward like she's about to take off.  Adorable.

- The cooing.  Oh the cooing.  I die every time.

- Her fake smiles.  I know they aren't legitimate yet, but they give me the happies regardless and I can't stop smiling after she rewards me with one.

- I'm convinced that she is a Physical Touch love language.  She is calmed and falls asleep easily when she is touching skin.  It's very sweet and I hope this means that she will be a great cuddle buddy.

      Some things we don't love so much:

- I, especially, HATE baby acne.  It just makes me sad.  Particularly because there really isn't anything you can do about it.  I can't wait for it to go away.

- Open air leaks.  Ty has had these encounters most often, however, I've definitely experienced my fair share.  Many outfits had to be changed due to them getting peed on.  Along with this, blowout diapers....not awesome.

- Baby cries are cute.  Baby screams are horrible.  It never fails that if she sends herself into a screaming fit, my eyes well up with tears and we are both unhappy.  We don't experience this very often now that we know how much she's eating, but from time to time when she's decided she's still hungry past what she has already eaten, it happens.

      This month went by so fast (and at times not fast enough), and I can't wait for her to be blessed soon.  It will be so great for so many of our family members to meet her and swoon over her adoring cuteness.  We do on a daily basis, so it's only right that we let others share in our exceeding happiness.