Everyday holds the possibility of a miracle...: One Month Old!

Dear Amelia,

One month!

Today, you are one month old! How on earth did that happen? I said to Daddy today that it hardly seems possible that you’ve already been here a month, and yet it hardly seems possible that you have only been here a month! It feels like we have known you forever! You are the perfect addition to our little family, and your Mommy, Daddy, and big brother couldn’t possibly be any more in love with you! I remember when I wrote to your brother that his first month was the best of our lives - and now I write the same to you! This past month has been the best month of my life, little girl! Being mommy to both you and Nathaniel is one of the biggest blessings in my life (along with being married to Daddy!).

Family hangout time

Little girl, you have managed to just work your way right into our family’s routine with no problems. When you were a few days old, you joined us on our regular evening stroll around the neighborhood. At eight days old, you were helping us with our weekly grocery shopping. You’ve been on a picnic at Duke Farms, to the pool to watch big brother splash, to the zoo to see the animals, and now on your one month birthday, you are in Cape May, enjoying the sights and sounds of one of Mommy and Daddy’s favorite places to go! What a busy little girl you are!

About to go on our first walk

First time at the beach

Some people think you look a lot like your brother, and sometimes I tend to agree… you look very similar! But, you definitely have your own, unique personality. You enjoy swinging in your swing and also just hanging on Mommy and Daddy’s laps. During your first two weeks, you loved to be awake on Daddy’s lap, but as soon as Mommy had you, you’d snuggle in and go to sleep! Overall, you are a very happy girl. You like to sneak smiles to Mommy and Daddy. They are not often long enough to steal a picture, but it’s almost like you do that on purpose; that your smile is just meant to be a little secret between us!

Hanging with Daddy

Snoozing on Mommy

You are an awesome sleeper! (Don’t prove me wrong tonight!) You have been “sleeping through the night” for the past several nights, giving Mommy and Daddy the opportunity to get about 7 or so consecutive hours of sleep. The first time you did this, you freaked Mommy out, just like your big brother did when he started sleeping for long stretches, but now Mommy is just thrilled that we’re all getting good sleep!

Car seat snoozing

Daddy's shoulder is comfy to sleep on

In the carrier with Mommy

You are a very calm baby for the most part, with some very minor and very predicable fussy time every evening that is generally solved with Daddy’s magical technique of burping you, and some type of movement - you don’t enjoy sitting still when you are fussy. You aren’t the biggest fan of your car seat, but you did pretty well with your long ride down to Cape May today. Mommy and Daddy don’t often give you a binky, but we’ve found that sometimes, in the car, you just need it!

Sweet girl

You seem to enjoy your baths for the most part, even with your big brother “helping out”, which almost inevitably ends up with you getting water in your face. Hopefully the way you enjoy bath time is an indicator of how much you will like the water when you get a little older. Your brother and Daddy both really love to swim (Mommy likes to relax and float), so hopefully you will too!

First tub bath

What's up, bee?

You make very cute little grunting noises when you are just waking from sleep. Often, that is enough to catch Mommy’s attention when you first wake up in the morning, so I am able to go ahead and feed you before you really wake up and get upset. You are just starting to “coo” and it is adorable; I can’t wait to hear what your voice will sound like! When you do coo, it is almost like an accident and you don’t realize that the sound was coming from you!

In your pretty dress

Tummy time with Daddy and Nate

You are a wonderful eater, and nurse about 10-12 times a day. You have an excellent latch and that has made our nursing relationship get off to a great start. Mommy didn’t realize until it was too late last time with your brother, that a good latch is essential to Mommy having little or no pain while you eat. We made sure that yours was great early on so that you and I wouldn’t have to overcome any of the pain issues that your brother and I dealt with. Mommy is also a lot more confident with nursing in public than she was when she first started out with your brother, so you eat everywhere - in parks, at the zoo, in restaurants, wherever!

Both of us asleep. We spend a lot of time together in this chair!

Nursing at your first restaurant

We had your one month check-up at the pediatrician yesterday, and you checked out perfectly! The slight jaundice that you had at birth has cleared up. Even though you failed the hearing test in one ear at the hospital, you passed your retest with flying colors! You are up to 9 lbs, 9 oz and 21.75 inches! You grew a lot this month! Mommy and Daddy are very grateful that you are a healthy and growing little girl!

"Sunbathing" to get rid of jaundice

Mommy and Daddy and Nate have about a million nicknames for you. Nate tries to say Amelia, but it mostly comes out “Mia”. Usually though, he just calls you “Baby Sister”. Mommy and Daddy alternate between calling you Amelia and calling you Millie. Millie has seemed to morph into several other nicknames like Milky Millie (when you are nursing), Millie Moo Moo Bear (no idea where that came from!), and Silly Millie. Sometimes, those all get strung together into something like Silly Milky Millie Moo Moo Bear. Daddy insists that that is far too long for a nickname, but he goes along with it anyway!

Pretty girl

Amelia, what a wonderful and loved little girl you are! I can’t wait to see you grow and learn. You have a big, bright, beautiful future ahead of you little one, and Mommy and Daddy are looking forward to guiding you through it!