One Month Old!

So many mixed emotions about my baby girl turning one month old today. Sad that these first four weeks have literally flown by. Happy that I can see her changing in eating/sleeping habits already. We are just patiently waiting for her to crack us a smile in a few weeks. 

Caroline is such a sweet girl. At one month old, she has spectacular head control. She does not like to burp on our shoulder or lay on our chest because she has to look around at all times. It is quite entertaining. The first couple of weeks I breastfed her every 2.5-3 hours. Now we are feeding on demand, but not letting it get past 3.5 hours if she doesn't wake up. I am doing this without much worry because at our recent doctor visit, C weighed 9 pounds and 2 ounces. I never knew that I could get so excited about my baby girl's weight. She weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce on March 3rd. Now that I know we are doing something right, I can feed her without worry. Caroline is still very petite although she is gaining weight. Our newborn clothes are still a tad roomy so we will probably be in them for a few more weeks. She is staying awake lots longer now that she is a month old. I would say that she stays awake 3-4 hours during the day, most of which Kyle and I are talking to her because she loves to follow our voices and look for us. It is the sweetest! <3

As I previously blogged about, I was suspicious of acid reflux problems last week when she turned 3 weeks old. I had noticed that about thirty minutes after I fed her and she had gotten to sleep, she would wake up crying/screaming/squirming. At first I was suspicious of gas (which could very well be part of it), but then I started paying close attention and noticed that she would act like she was choking, then gulp/swallow loudly, and wake up crying. I decided that even though most all newborns have some degree of reflux due to the LES (lower esophageal sphincter) muscle not being fully developed, my sweet girl needed some help. So we went to the peds office and saw Dr. Jones and thankfully he started us on Zantac. The day we went to the peds office was quite a day. Kyle was at work that day so it was just C and I. She cried and cried from around 8am to 1pm in between her feedings. As a nurse, I hate to freak out and make doctor's appointments for everything. But I knew this had to be addressed because it just wasn't right to watch her be bothered for that long. So I called and made her an appointment and we were headed that way for a 2:20 appointment. Somehow during the crying I managed to sit her in her bouncy seat on the bed and throw myself together so I didn't look completely sleep deprived. We saw Dr. Jones, got a prescription for infant Zantac drops, and headed to town to get it filled. We sat in the pharmacy drive thru for 15 minutes while C cried and cried. I had the car in park, turned around holding a paci in her mouth and talking to her. When you're sleep deprived, you cry a little too so of course I had tears brimming my eyes because I was alone and Kyle was at work and I felt helpless. The sweet pharmacist told me that Blue Cross had C's birthday wrong and we would have to get it fixed before they covered meds. I quickly replied that I would pay whatever it cost and basically thrust her my debit card. When we got our medicine, the pharmacist said the sweetest thing. She told me that she had been there many times and knew exactly what I was going through and that indeed it would get better. It was such a small gesture but meant the world to me. So here we are now at one month, on Zantac for a full 48 hours and I would like to say that I have seen a significant improvement (longer naps, less pain crying) but I hate to jinx it. So we will just have to see. 

Here are some of our favorite memories from this past month! (Some pics are from my camera, some are from iPhone. iPhone is so much handier…its hard to grab a camera all the time!)

We have the best neighborhood for strolling! Libby got in on the action with her big sister this day.

We visited Daddy at work and did a mile around the track while watching the track team practice. 

Then we went to Black's Old and New with Nana.

One night while feeling completely exhausted I was reminded by this burp cloth who is really in control here!

All ready for our stroll at Bridgestreet! Daddy, Caroline and I had the best trip. Round trip was four hours and this little sweet thing slept the whole entire time.

Got her all dolled up to stay covered up the whole time anyway! ;)

What we do most days. Selfies are totally okay as long as you capture sweet moments with your little sweetness!

This onesie is totally not true! Do not relax because nurse mommy isn't a nurse when it comes to her own baby! 

And of course here are some of our favorite newborn pictures… how am I supposed to choose how many to share out of one hundred pics?

Such a great first month with Caroline. I am learning more and more every day about being a mother and hoping that I can be the best mother to her that I can be. Thinking about how God gave his only son up for this cruel world has a whole new meaning to me now because I don't ever see how I could give up my child for someone who didn't even care that I was doing it for them. So thank you Lord for this perfect gift from above!