One month

I cannot believe Brianna is already a month old. Where has the time gone?! It seems like just yesterday that I was still pregnant and waiting impatiently for her to arrive. And yet at the same time it feels like Brianna has always been in my life. I cannot imagine our life without her.

Brianna has already changed so much in just a month. She's starting to follow a regular pattern. She eats every 3 to 4 hours. After every feed she either goes right to sleep or has a period of alertness. When she's alert she loves to be on her back and kick her legs, looking up at the world, especially the face of one of her parents! She's not such a big fan of tummy time, but when she is on her stomach she has started pushing herself up on her arms and can turn her head from side to side. After her alert period she'll eventually fall asleep and then it will start all over again once she wakes up hungry. Overnight we might get 5 hours between feeds, but it is often still feeding at 3 hour intervals. The only hard part is when she gets alert overnight and wants to play when we want to sleep.

Overall she's generally a very good tempered baby, only crying when she's hungry, needs a diaper change or if she's gotten overly tired but won't let herself sleep. This is when she needs to be walked and sung to until she falls asleep in her mommy or daddy's arms. Her favorite place to sleep is definitely on a parents chest. She'll only sleep for 20 to 30 minutes in her bassinet or co-sleeper, but on mommy's chest she'll sleep for 2 to 3 hours. Or even 4 when we're really lucky! Thankfully I can sleep with her on my chest perfectly well. She'll also sleep on our bed as long as she is touching mommy. Although not as soundly or for as long as when she's on my chest. Now let's hope I haven't jinxed her good tempered nature by writing about it!! :)

The very good news this week is that for the last 4.5 days she has been exclusively on breast milk. We had to introduce formula back on her 4th day when she had lost 12% of her birth weight. Ever since we've been working to get her back to exclusive breastfeeding. She is still having one or two bottles of expressed breast milk every day, but I've been able to pump enough to keep her satisfied without resorting to formula. She's been taking to the breast so much better recently, only taking a bottle the time or two when she drains both breasts and still wants more. She's still too much of a diva (read lazy) to suck on a near empty breast without freaking out. And usually at her last feed before bed she wants more than my breasts can easily provide, so she takes a bottle. But that's when we get her longest periods of sleep, so I can't really complain! The only real problem is that she's still using a nipple shield which means I need to pump 4+ times a day to maintain my milk supply. I've tried to get her on the breast without the shield, but while these days she'll take the bare breast into her mouth without freaking out, she won't suck. She just sits with it in her mouth. Not very productive!!

All in all this has been an amazing month, with the last couple of weeks since my hand got better being by far easier than the first two. Brianna is a joy and I love every moment we spend together. Although there are times I wish she would sleep a little better by herself. But I've been assured that will happen with time.

Happy month-aversary baby girl. I can't wait to see what the next month will bring!!