Life {R+S}: September 2015

3 days old vs. 31 days old

31 days.

Where these past four weeks have flown to is beyond me. I feel like we literally just got home from the hospital with our little nugget and it baffles me that we've been parents for a whole month now! Looking back through all the pictures we've taken during our first month, I cannot believe how much she has changed and grown. She is still wearing her newborn diapers and clothes, but the 0-3 month outfits hanging in her closet are just about ready to be washed and thrown into the rotation.

Peyton at ONE month

Weight: 8 lbs. 0.9 oz.

Birth: 6 lbs. 10 oz.

Height: 21 inches

Birth: 19 inches

Head: 14.75 inches

Birth: 13.25 inches

Peyton had her one month check-up with the pediatrician yesterday morning. We didn't walk in with a ton of questions or concerns but we did ask about her baby acne on her cute little face and a little instance of diaper rash that popped up earlier in the week for the first time. Both questions were answered and we left with a clean bill of health from our pediatrician!

Some things we learned about our baby girl during her first month of life:

1. She is an absolute pro at peeing/pooping in diapers as SOON as we change her. For the first two weeks we pretty much went through two diapers every time we changed her until we started wising up to her little act. Now, any time she poops, we wait about 10 minutes to make sure she is actually done before changing her.

2. She HATES being swaddled with her arms down. Unless she is in a full blown milk coma, there is ZERO chance we are able to swaddle her well enough to keep her arms in for more than 10 minutes. During the day, if we swaddle her we usually just keep her arms out, but after her big feeding around 10-11, we do our best to swaddle her arms down and put her in her pack n' play so she has less of a chance of startling herself awake. Usually when she wakes up, those arms have found their way out of the swaddle and back up by her face again though.

3. The muscles in her neck are pretty strong. From day 1 she has always tried to lift her head up off our chests when she is resting on us. Now, she can hold her head up for a long time, but still dive bombs into our chests or shoulders after a while.

4. She has 239538753957 facial expressions, both when she is awake an in her sleep. She smiles and laughs in her sleep only though, and it's the cutest thing. We can't wait to see her smiles and coos when she is awake!

Practicing her Zoolander smolder!

5. She sleeps like a boss in her car seat. We've taken her out many times in the past few weeks and she always sleeps the majority of the time which has been great for us. I'm not looking forward to her first public meltdown.

First walk around the neighborhood!

Grocery shopping alone with a newborn is no joke!

6. She has found her fingers and thumbs already. Although she has found and sucked her thumb multiple times over the past month, she can't find them regularly and will often attempt to put her thumb in her mouth with no luck, resulting in frustration. When she can't find her thumb though, she will take a paci as a back up.

7. Peyton loves bath time. She wasn't a huge fan of the sponge baths before her umbilical cord fell off (which happened smack dab in the middle of her newborn pictures at 2 weeks old). She cried during the entire sponge bath until she got her hair washed. Homegirl is just like her mama- we both love a good head scratch! Around 2 weeks old, she got her first bath in the baby tub and she loved it! She was very content the whole time until we pulled her out of the tub!

Happy 1 month birthday Peyton. I love being your Mom and watching your personality develop more and more every day. You're such a sweet and curious baby and I can't wait to see how you grow and change over the next 30 days!

Some highlights from P's first month of life (Bear with me- it was very hard to not include EVERY picture we took. They're all so special!):

Snuggling in the boppy!

First attempt at tummy time. P was not a fan!

Meeting her cousin Leah for the first time!

Some of our favorite newborn pictures again:

Watching the US Open with daddy!

Around 3 weeks old, P started to spend a little more time awake and alert! We still try to limit awake time to no longer than an hour in between sleeps. If she is awake for longer, she gets grumpy!

And just so it doesn't appear like it's all snuggles and naps, P does have quite the voice on her. She can scream with the best of them when she really gets going. One of the hardest moments Ryan and I have faced as parents is letting her cry it out every once in a while. There have been times when she has eaten all she can eat, gotten a clean diaper, and been cuddled but she still just wants to cry. Usually after a couple of grueling minutes, she will put herself to sleep thankfully.

When Peyton was 2 weeks old, we had a professional photographer come out to the house to snap some pictures. P slept like a champ through the majority of the photo session even though she was being dressed and undressed over and over and moved from prop to prop.

I can't say enough good things about the photographer we chose. She did an amazing job with baby girl and the pictures turned out awesome!

She brought her own props for us to choose from, including a huge box of headbands and bows, which of course would be a highlight for me. This mama loves a good headband!