We have been taking everything day by day and just cherishing every moment. I love every little face, random movements, and all of her many noises that she makes. There is no better feeling than cuddling with her and having her snuggle up to me. I love looking at every little detail of her face and seeing bits of Jake and me there. We can tell the difference in her hungry cries, her "I just want someone to hold me" cries, and her "I really hate my carseat!!" cries.
RYLEIGH'S 1 MONTH STATS:
Weight: 8lbs 8oz
Height: 21 3/4 inches
Head: ** I can't remember but I think they said 14.1 inches?
EATING
Our little piglet is a great eater, and she's now up to eating about 3oz of breastmilk every 2.5-3 hours. There are almost some rolls on her little chicken legs! If you follow me on instagram, then you know that I am exclusively pumping. I tried for about a week and a half to breastfeed and we were having big problems with getting her to latch properly. We were having to supplement with formula, and I could see that she would get so frustrated when she was really hungry and it took her so much more effort to breastfeed than eat from the formula bottle. I was in so much pain, so one day I finally just decided I would try pumping. It went well and I would get enough for anywhere between 2 and 4 bottles each pumping session. At first, I was pumping around every 6-8hours since I would get plenty for her to eat from each session. However, I remembered being told that when you pump, you need to pump every time that the baby would eat so that you keep up your supply. Even though I was getting enough, I was really worried that my body would think that was all I needed and once she got older I would not be able to produce enough milk for her. So, now I'm pumping every 3.5-4 hours, and trying to be very disciplined with that schedule. The worst is at night, when I can feed and change Ryleigh so quickly and she's back to sleep within about 20 minutes, but I have to keep myself up and pump. Between pumping and washing all the pump parts, I end up staying awake an extra 45 minutes. No fun. But, I really want to breastfeed her as long as I can, and it's my goal to at least do it the entire time I'm on maternity leave [8wks]. Once I'm back to work, I don't know if these night time pumping sessions are going to work. Right now I can barely make it through the day if I don't get in at least one 45 minute nap. So, for now I'm trying to freeze and bag as much breastmilk as I can. I have at least one pumping session a day where I can freeze the milk because I already have enough in the refrigerator.
SLEEPING
Sleeping is also going very well right now. We thank our lucky stars that she's a good sleeper, especially at night. She will sleep for about 3-4 hours straight before waking up hungry. During the day, she's on about a 3 hour schedule for sleeping, waking up to eat and change diaper, and then back to sleep. She stays awake an extra 20-30 minutes once or twice a day, so we play in her bouncy seat or work on tummy time and building those neck muscles! We've been doing tummy time with her on my chest instead of on the floor because her umbilical cord took 3 weeks to fall off, and I didn't want her to be uncomfortable on the floor.
DIAPERING
From our diaper shower, we've got a stock pile of all different sizes and brands of diapers! We have figured out that Pampers Swaddlers in newborn size are the best fitting diapers for her right now. She can also wear Luvs Extra Absorbent, but the legs are a little loose. The swaddle design works the best for her skinny little legs. She was having major blow-outs when we had her wearing Huggies, and the Honest Company newborn size diapers are just really big. They seem like they might be good once she grows into them, though.
CLOTHES
She's just starting to grow out of some of her newborn clothes. She can still wear newborn size onesies although they are starting to get snug around her buddha belly. Newborn pants still fit. She's too long to wear the newborn footed sleepers. Most of her 0-3month sleepers fit but a couple brands are a little big. 0-3 month onesies are still big, and she can wear the pants but they're a little long.
FAVORITES
--Ryleigh loves country music. That's all I listened to while pregnant, and of course Jake is a big fan. It's really funny to watch how she can be fussy and if we play some music she will instantly get quite and calm.
--She also loves the instrumental/classical songs on her sound machine, which I turn on while feeding her in the middle of the night. Her favorite song is Rock-a-by Baby, and whenever it comes on she will pause and just listen to it before going back to eating her bottle.
--She's just starting to take a paci [Tommee Tippee 0-3 month size] sometimes, but is also just as content to suck on her thumb or fingers.
--She hates almost everything about bath time, but she really loves getting her head rubbed when we wash her hair. She also loves getting out of the bathtub and being wrapped up in her hooded towels.
That's all for now! These posts are going to be long, but are mostly for me to document all of this information for myself to look back on later. Sorry if they bore you! haha
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