[Baby] Edith's 1 Month Update

I know I keep saying it but how can my baby be a month old already. It's crazy and this last 4 weeks has been amazing. I have loved every minute of being a mum, it's something I've always wanted and it's lived up to what I expected. We've started to settle into a bit of a routine in the day, as much as we can with breastfeeding, it all revolves around getting her dressed, feeding, changing her, feeding her again and then getting ready to go out. There have been a couple of times where leaving at the time we planned hasn't happened but we are getting pretty good at getting out of the house. I thought I'd update every month as it will be lovely to look back on when Edith is older and you guys might be interested in what's going on.

Sleep

Oh the big question you get asked. Is she good? I never really know how to reply. Of course she's good in the sense of her behavior, she's a baby, she's hardly going to be beating other kids up is she. But I've come to realise that this question means how does she sleep. In all honesty she is pretty good. Breastfed babies don't go very long and you shouldn't really be leaving them longer than 3 hours in the first few weeks/month. The best nights have been where we've got two lots of two hours sleep (10:30 - 12:30 and (3:30 - 5:30) and then yesterday she went for almost 3 hours (3:15 - 6:00) . It doesn't sound that great but when we first brought her home she would only go 45 minutes to an hour. Nighttime feeds can be a bit lonely and it's so hard to not fall asleep with her in my arms, we have fallen asleep together a couple of times but I've never moved position so she's nice and safe. The big improvement in her sleep came when we purchased a co-sleeper, Edith really does not like a moses basket and although the co-sleeper was quite expensive it's worth every penny for more sleep. I'm going to go into more detail about the co-sleeper in another post as I bloody love it!

Feeding

I'm still breastfeeding and so far I've had no major problems. Edith is a dream and loves to feed. She latches on really well (which is still a little painful to begin with, that girl sure has a grip!) and doesn't mess around too much. I did have a bit of an issue which I noticed a couple of weeks in. My milk let down flows too quickly which makes Edith choke a little as too much milk comes out. I rang my local breastfeeding team, who are really supportive and they recommended a few tips to try out. We've been feeding in a more slouched position with Edith on top on me. It's been helping and hopefully my milk will sort itself out soon as it can take up to 6 weeks for your milk to establish properly. Edith is very windy and burping her after a feed is a must, if you lay her down too quickly after a feed she will be sick and most of my clothes, and hers,  have been covered in it, mama life hey?!. But overall I can't really complain we've been getting on really well and I feel totally comfortable feeding her in public. We've had no nasty comments yet (other than people reporting me sharing Edith's birth story and a photo of me feeding her, how sad can you get huh?) and I don't feel the need to cover up, it's perfectly natural and if people have a problem they can leave or just not look! 

Size

Edith weighed 8lb 7oz when she was born, which is a great weight! When the midwife came out to weigh her 5 days after she had gone down to 7lb 15oz which is well within the amount they are allowed to lose but it did worry me a little as I began to wonder if I was feeding her properly. The midwife wasn't concerned and they left it to the health visitor to weigh her at 15 days old. When the health visitor weighed her she asked me to guess how much I thought she would weigh and I expected her to be back up to her birth weight. Breastfed babies don't tend to put weight on as quickly as bottle fed so I wasn't expecting her to have gained loads. Much to my surprise she had gone to 9lb 3oz in just 10 days. The health visitor said I should feel really proud that my milk did that and I have to say when she left I picked Edith up and did a happy dance around the room. I couldn't believe she had put that much weight on. She's doing so well!

Clothes wise it was hard although she wasn't small weight wise she was petite to fit into clothes. To begin with newborn was too big and we went to first size, she then started to fit into the newborn bits and up to one month. It was tricky as we didn't have a lot of smaller clothes as we expected her to weigh a lot more and be a lot bigger than she was. Last Sunday she began to fit into 0-3 months, which is great as we have a lot more clothes for her but sad as she's growing up and we are having to put a few bits away already.

Milestones

Edith is very alert and has quite a few periods throughout the day where she's really wide awake.

She recognises certain voices. We've seen her look around for us when we speak. 

The past few days her smiles have become "real" rather than wind. I'm still trying to capture a "real" one.

Edith is already trying to hold her head up and loves to put her face right next to ours.

Things Edith Loves

Milk and feeding!

Moving, whether it's in her pram or in the car.

Her Nanny's shoulder, the perfect place to fall asleep.

Cuddles, She doesn't enjoy being put down and when you cuddle her she'll put her arm round you, Edith hugs back.

Having her hair washed. Not as keen on the bath but she loves having her hair done.

Happy 1 Month Edith!