Lady Liberty at One Month

We've got it! Lady Liberty (just Lady for short) will be Miss Avery's official blog name! Thanks to the Loj for suggesting the "Lady" nickname. I love it!

This was officially my favorite picture of her at this age! She just has the cutest little smirk on her face.

Some notes about the first month:

(minus the hospital stay, which will be a totally separate blogpost!)

- Height 21.5 inches, Weight 9 lbs 6 oz, Head..well, off the charts..Her conehead is still going down today...

- She is like a little ticking alarm clock that likes to eat every three hours on the dot. It's pretty amazing to watch her fast asleep and then when the clock hits three hours on the dot, she wakes up and cries. There were 2-3 times where she slept 5 hour stretches at night...and Pearls felt like a new person. :) She did tend to fall asleep while feeding. I had to get ice cubes and water...and undress her to wake her up. She lost over 10% of her weight in the hospital, so everyone made me panic about feeding her and getting her back to her birth weight. Not to mention that my milk didn't come in for around 2 weeks.

- At 3 weeks to the day, she fussed all day long and just never seemed to get full. I called the doctor (like any other clueless, ocd, first time mom would do) who said that she was probably going through a little growth spur that would like 24-48 hours..and that I could demand feed if I wanted. Sure enough...24 hours later, she was back to her schedule.

- She was always VERY alert and loves to be awake..and center of attention. It's soo hard to get her to sleep. I rock and rock and rock and she still just wants to stay awake and play. When people come over, she is in her element. I can't blame her though. She might look like Chops, but she's definitely got some Pearls in her! She has the biggest eyes and started focusing on things very early. Lights, fans, people..movement in general.

- She was also VERY active (and still is!)...When she gets going ...her arms and legs just go non-stop. They flail contantly. I have to hold her really tight to calm her down.

- One of my favorite things about her is that as she falls asleep...she gets this big smile and has the biggest belly laugh. It makes me laugh every time. It's so cute! I HAVE to get it on video!

- She HAS to have her hands by her face. That's how she was in the womb and that's how she likes to sleep. Swaddling has been challenging. I know it calms her down and makes her feel secure, but when I trap her arms...she tries so hard to get them out...she grunts and her face turns bright red...it makes me so nervous. 9 times out of 10..she would eventually get her arms out...so I eventually let her have her hands.

- We had to sleep with the "billy blanket" for the first week when we came home. So she slept in her crib in the nursery. It's a pretty big machine with a REALLY bright light. She was our little glow worm. After the jaundice was under control, we brought her into our room in a cradle that my grandfather made for me and my brother. It's beautiful! It was such a special pass down. Well....My little chunky monkey was a liiiiittle too big for the cradle. Arms got stuck in the bars....it was not fun to wake up and see Miss Thing all tangled up. That lasted for two nights...and then we put her in a little vibrating lamb chair and that was much better.

- We did have to suplement a little forumla at the hospital, but when my milk finally came in, she was purely breastfed. We DID introduce a bottle within the first two weeks. I was in a ton of pain and was pumping after every feeding to help the milk come in...Chops gave her a few bottles during that time. I wasn't going to waste that precious pumped liquid gold. She did great and never had "nipple confusion". I still haven't given her a bottle myself. My mom (Mimi) and James are the only two that gave it to her. She's always been a great "sucker". They say that bigger babies tend to suck harder...yay for me! jk.....ouch for me. Is that TMI? We had our good "latches" and our not so good "latches" that I paid for later! Which reminds me, I need to buy stock in lanolin.

- She has the longest nails and they are so hard to cut or file! Because she flails her arm so much, she ALWAYS scraches her face. I feel SOO bad! The scratches usually go away within a day, but it makes me feel so bad. The little mittens or socks do not stay on her hands. I love the day gowns that have the hand things on them, but she can't be in those all day long! I feel like every time I try to file them, I make them worse!

- She LOVES bathtime, but her first bath also is a good story in and of itself! :)

- And finally....as she is about to start screaming...so I'll need to sign off. Our first outing was at 2 weeks old...we went to Sonic Happy Hour..OBVIOUSLY...which is approx 3 blocks from my house...don't worry that I SWEAR I heard her choke after driving a block..so what did I do? Pull the car over rather dramatically...and run around to check on her. She was absolutely fine! haha. So...after our trip to sonic was a big success...we decided to drive to New Orleans and stay at a hotel on Bourbon Street at 3.5 weeks. Yup! More to come!

PS. I can't BELIEVE I just typed all that...I put so many details...it's more for my memory too when I look back! :)