Happy One Month, Grace!

{The week by week updates are officially over and we are now entering the month by month phase!}

I can't believe it's been a month! Grace is such a joy and I truly look forward to every day with her.

This past week saw some significant change in Grace, mainly because we had to hit the giant RESET button on what we were doing with her. By about 3.5 weeks in we noticed we were doing everything we said we weren't going to do.

I was letting her fall asleep at the end of nursing, Ian was pacing with her for hours on end, her schedule was Eat-Sleep-Wake instead of Eat-Wake-Sleep, and we did everything possible not to let her cry. Nothing was an end of the world thing, but it was making her fussy, inconsolable, and was wearing us out.

So, Tuesday, when Ian came home from school, we hit the RESET button. We pow wowed, talked about what we wanted to do, what our goals were, and put them into action.

We saw IMMEDIATE results.

I don't mean to be dramatic, but wow, the change in her disposition, the quality and quantity of her sleep, and her ability to self sooth instantly made life better for us.

I'm so excited to see what this more rested little baby is going to learn in the weeks to come!

Clothes: Grace is still wearing newborn sized clothes and diapers. Most of her newborn outfits fit her better now, but I think she'll still be in newborn gear for another 2 weeks, at least.

Food: We're on a steady 3 hour feeding schedule, which is awesome. The only exception is at night, when she gets her last feeding at midnight and then sleeps until 5 am, feeds, and then sleeps until 8 or 9 am. Amazing. We also gave Grace her first bottle of breast milk last night and she did great with the bottle. We won't be using it very often, but it's nice to have the option when I am in need of a longer stretch of sleep or when she seems especially hungry.

Sleep: Like I said above, her night sleep is settling into a pattern of midnight to 5am and {about} 5:45am to 9 am. Her day sleep is much more sporadic and her late evening is when she is most likely to stay awake and fuss instead of nap, from about 7 pm until midnight.
Activity: Grace's mobile already ran out of batteries, but while it worked it was amazing! She mainly liked the light on it, and since it was sound activated, anytime Grace's wails reached a certain decibel level, it would turn on and distract her. Like I said, we're going to get more batteries.

Grace doesn't seem interested in objects hanging above her (in her bouncy seat or her play mat,) so I'm interested to see when that begins.

Now, since we are on the Eat-Wake-Sleep schedule, we spend the first 30 minutes feeding, then anywhere from 15-45 minutes burping, cuddling, changing her diaper, doing tummy time, giving her a bath, or in her bouncy seat. Occasionally we read to her but I find it's hard to hold a newborn and hold a book at the same time, ha!

Personality: I'm loving that we are recognizing her different cries. Most of the time when she cries in the middle of sleep it's because she's broken out of her swaddle and woken herself up- it's a very distinct cry. She loves bath times, nursing, car rides, and loves being held by her dad.

Miscellaneous:
*Grace had her first projectile vomiting incident today and it was not pretty. No one said motherhood was totally glamorous, right? I think last week I said she had one, but I didn't know what I was talking about. That was just spit up, this was a true one, going 2-3 feet away from her in a constant stream. Gross.
*Grace also had her first day of school (at one month old!) She sat through my classical Arabic class with me, and though she fussed some, it went well overall. We're hoping she'll speak better Arabic than us!
*She is getting better at keeping her pacifier in her mouth and it soothes her so much when she's in between feedings.

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Happy One Month, Grace!