One Month Reflection

Elodie turned one month old last Sunday. The first month really flew by in a flurry of feedings, diaper changes, short naps, and fun with visitors.

My new normal is so different, but feels almost natural by now. I haven't had more than 3-4 hours of sleep at any one time in the past six weks, but I think I'm used to that now! My life revolves around Elodie's "schedule" (or lack thereof), and time moves so quickly when I need to nurse every few hours during the day and keep her happy.

Elodie is growing SO fast. She was born at 6 lb and 15 oz, and lost weight the first few days (as all babies do). We had a one month pediatrician visit last Tuesday, and she weighed in at 10 pounds!!! I googled it (of course), and it seems that it is normal for babies to gain 1.5 - 2 pounds during their first month, so Elodie is way ahead of the curve in packing on those pounds, which (I think) is a good thing. At least I know she is getting enough milk to eat! Because she's gaining so much weight, she really looks different every week. I sometimes call her my chunky monkey, with her double chins and silly faces/expressions :).

A few things we have learned about Elodie so far:

• When she cries hard, 99% of the time we can calm her down by feeding her (even if she just finished eating 20 minutes ago), or by holding her and bouncing up and down on the yoga ball. 
• She seems to be pretty strong. She doesn't mind tummy time, and can lift her head from one side to the other by herself. She started doing that occasionally at around two or three weeks old. 
• She started crying real tears at around two weeks old. Most babies don't have real tears (developed tear glands) for several months!

Elodie is pretty well behaved, and we've been able to take her out to a lot of places already... SF and East Bay multiple times to visit friends, various restaurants and the mall and other outings, wine country (by far the longest/furthest outing), and she even went to her first bar yesterday! Well, Eric calls it a bar... I call it a restaurant haha. She met all our PwC co-workers at a happy hour yesterday, and also at a Partner's house on Saturday. She has been so good through all these outings, and I'm so proud of her. I feel so blessed to have such a perfect (in my eyes) baby, and I really treasure this time with her. Time really goes by so fast... everyday, I can't believe when the clock hits 6pm how the day flew by. 

Here's a collage of the many faces of Elodie during her first month of life (in chronological order). I don't know if you can tell, but she already changed so much in just the first month!