Month One

One of the interesting things about both pregnancy and babies is that people count both in months and weeks, and the two don't synch up perfectly. Kaia turned one month old on Friday, three days after she turned 4 weeks old, and four days before she will be 5 weeks old. My mother jokingly asked if we would have ice cream and cake. We actually just had dinner delivered from Main Course, which did include dessert of brownies and cookies.

The month has gone faster AND slower than I expected. There have been several relatively sleepless nights (including last night, when Kaia decided that she didn't want to go back to sleep after her 2:30 am feeding), a couple of inexplicable crying jags (although not very many) and lots of naps on laps, in arms, and in the Moses basket. For the first week that Kaia was home we slept in the family room on the futon, reasoning that at least there was a TV, video games and computer there for entertainment when we weren't able to sleep, and that when she did fall asleep during the day I could easily lie down and take a nap right next to her without setting up baby monitors, etc. Worked well for a little while, although because of the heat we closed the door and turned on the AC most of the time, and as a result I felt after a while that I was locked into that room. After a bit I decided I needed to reinhabit the rest of the house and moved us back upstairs to sleep.

Kaia seemed to make the transition to the co-sleeper pretty well, and most nights (last night being a notable exception) it's been pretty easy to feed her and get her back to sleep, so that Mommy can get back to sleep as well. Having her in the room with us has advantages and disadvantages - the big negative is that I hear every peep she makes, which tends to keep me awake. The advantage, of course, is that I don't have to get up and walk to the other room to check on her.

She continues to be wide eyed and very alert when she's awake, and seems to be getting more interested in voices and faces as time goes by. For the first time this morning I noticed that she stopped making little bird noises when I talked, and then would start again when I stopped. She's not yet grabbing at toys but kicks and waves her legs and arms around all the time, and is stronger than you'd expect for such a wee thing.

I continue to wonder/worry about whether I am making enough milk for her. Her first weigh in will be tomorrow so we'll see if she's been gaining enough weight or not. Half of me thinks that it would be easier to supplement with formula, but of course half the books on breastfeeding make formula feel like one step away from child abuse. We'll just wait and see!

Happy one month birthday, little one! We love you!