4 weeks // 1 month

Oh my gosh, how can one month have come and gone so quickly?! I guess what people say is true, "When you have kids, time speeds up." I know it's been a while since I last blogged, but I've been cuddling with this adorable baby you see...

There have been many times I have wanted to blog about specific things (breastfeeding, car seat safety, etc), and I will, stay tuned! But for now, I want to recap the last month... which is the first month of Veda's life.

Since we've come home from the hospital a few weeks ago, we've settled into a somewhat 'normal' routine that I'm absolutely positive will get jumbled back into chaos as soon as I go back to work, but I don't even want to think about that. I am really wishing we lived in one of those marvelous countries where mommies get one whole year of paid maternity leave and a few weeks each year after to bond with the baby. Come on America... Get it together already! What on earth can possibly be better than a mother spending some quality time with her baby?

I haven't completely decided the format for these monthly updates besides flooding my blog with incredibly cute photos, so bear with me please! If you want to see a million photos of baby girl, check out my Facebook page or Instagram (chaynarae).

Routine/Schedule: I swear I've done so much research regarding all things baby including what kind of schedule, if there should be a schedule, to try. PS What did other generations do without the Internet?! So, I found this website through Pinterest and we are attempting to utilize this pattern in order to get Veda sleeping through the night in a few short weeks (Wish us luck!).  Basically it keeps the child on a 3 hour schedule for the first 4-8 weeks of life; changing diaper, feeding, awake time, nap time, repeat. So far we've done pretty well with it. Not everyone agrees with this schedule that we're doing, but luckily, we are the parents, so we decide :) Veda was such a little runt when we brought her home and she probably would have slept through the night immediately, but as her mother, I knew I had to beef her up a bit. I had no choice but to wake her every three hours to eat. Now she pretty much has a little alarm clock in her body and when my alarm goes off every few hours at night, she's already stirring, knowing it's time to eat!  I've joked to Brett that she's going to become like Pavlov's dogs and start salivating every time she hears my cell phone alarm ;)

Feeding: Let me first just say, breastfeeding is not an easy task! Since Veda was born three and a half weeks early, her suck reflex wasn't completely developed. We had a really hard time in the hospital, even an emotional break down... but we're making progress! The first nearly three weeks, I pumped and bottled exclusively (Every three hours!). It was incredibly time consuming to feed her and then wash/sterilize all the bottles and pumping equipment.  I was getting really tired not having any sleep and was really worried that she would get 'nipple confusion' and never take the breast.  Our pediatrician was confident she would return to the breast by her due date and to continue pumping/bottling to (A) be aware of how much she was eating & (B) make sure she was getting enough nutrition to put on some weight.  I'm so happy to say, he was right, I'm now breastfeeding all day long, pumping twice, once before bed and once after her first feeding in the morning. My night owl husband takes the midnight and 0300 feeding while I sleep through the night, it's glorious! Thank you B!

Sleeping: Veda sleeps quite well at night... so far! Again, utilizing the schedule we've decided on, we try not to stimulate her much at night. We wake her up, change her diaper (in dimmed light), feed her with no distractions, swaddle her and put her right back to bed. She typically falls right back to sleep after the first feeding; after the second she'll lay down with her eyes open but doesn't really fuss and eventually falls asleep. During the day, that's a different story! The first two weeks she slept and slept and hardly opened her beautiful blue eyes... that's not the case any more! She is definitely her father's child, she is not napping well at this point. She may be up for an entire three hours at a time, fighting sleep as long as she possibly can, fussing to the point of scoring an additional feeding and then finally passing out... usually on me until I can put her down. Sometimes after I put her down, her eyes open right back up. It's a work in progress!

Stats: At birth, Veda was 5lb 12 oz, 18.5 inches long and her head circumference was 12 inches. When we left the hospital, she was down to 5lb 4.5 oz. At her three week check up, we found out she had gained more than an ounce a day (The pumping and feeding was successful!); she weighed in at 6 lb 11oz, 19.25 inches long and her head circumference was 13.75 inches (thank you for coming early little one!). She is noticeably filling out, no more baggy thigh skin!

Struggles: We have had our ups and downs with feeding/breast feeding, but as I said earlier, I'm working on a blog about that topic. Recently she's starting having some serious belly aches related to gas :( She's been pretty fussy this week, crying and turning red and then farting and returning to her normal self. We've been bouncing her, rubbing her little belly, holding her on her side, doing the 'bicycle' and everything else we can think of. Over the weekend we saw her have real tears for the first time and decided it was time for something more ... We went out and bought Little Remedies for Tummys gas drops and have used them once a day for the last three days, which really isn't bad. I'm still not convinced they work, but we'll see.  I've also eliminated all spicy food from my diet, because I really like spice and I think that may have something to do with it. If I don't see any improvement, I'm sure I'll have to modify my diet and eliminate dairy and acidic foods (I really hope not, I'm not good at adhering to any type of diet, but I'd do it for her). I'm also avoiding the foods that Brett is sensitive to, because in case you didn't know, I'm married to Bubble Boy - he's allergic to so.many.things.

Milestones: There really aren't too many milestones to list at this age, but her neck and back are getting stronger and she can lift her head and turn it from side to side when on her stomach. She's also smiled a few times, not purposefully, but it sure is cute :)

Adventures:  Veda has been on multiple walks, usually to the grocery store, on a Target run, out to dinner and to the Getty Center in her four short weeks of life. She is becoming so cultured ;) However, now that the flu has officially hit California, we've been laying low. We are incredibly careful with this little peanut, but we can't just sit in the house all day!  We've also had a few visitors, but most importantly, Grandma Rhonda came to help and bond with baby girl for a couple of weeks! We sure miss her!

Realizations: We really need to patent a new 'swing/mamaroo' called "Daddy's hands," because Brett has a special hold he can use to put her in a straight up trance even if she's screaming! Seriously, I need to work on this during my maternity leave! Also, seven years of nursing has really taught me a thing or two about time management, organization and being flexible! Or maybe it's maternal instinct (?), but either way, I'm grateful!

How we (the parents) are doing:  Brett & I have both wanted kids for as long as we can remember, so we were most definitely up to the task. I think we're both adjusting to much less sleep than we were previously getting. Right now he takes nights and I take days but we're not really seeing much of each other, so we're trying to tweak it a bit. I know I really appreciated having my mom here for a couple of weeks, she kept up with all of my wifely duties (laundry, cooking, cleaning) and even helped to feed Veda when I was bottling.  Brett and I even got to go on a date... to sushi of course, and a movie. The good-bye really sucked though, not gonna lie. Both Brett & I are getting showers (almost) every day, which I think is a good sign ;) Brett has been doing a lot of comedy shows at night, I only have ten pounds to lose before I'm back to pre-pregnancy weight... things are progressing!

Looking forward to: Now its Brett's family's turn to come visit. We pick up his mom Wednesday for a week, the day after she leaves his sister & brother are coming through the weekend and then his dad will come towards the end of the month. Everyone is very excited to meet our little peanut and I can't wait to take her back to the Midwest and show her off.  She really is such a little bundle of joy and I'm so proud to call her mine!

I was trying to think of a cute way to capture her growth over the next year, so what I've decided is this: I bought a dress that's size 12 Months and I plan to put her in it every month until it fits. So here's the first month!