Ella 1 Month Update

I don't know how these get written by any moms out there. I've attempted 3 times so far and just got the headings written.  The post was mostly written when Ella turned 1 month on the 20th but finished writing it on the 21st. I had issues with my computer and had to wait to upload my pictures so that's why this is posting late.

Stats:

• Weight: 9 lb 4.5 oz (We zeroed out the scale with a diaper and onesie.)
• Height: 21.75"
• Head Circumference: 36.5 cm (14.4 inches)
• Diapers: Size N until January 16 and then size 1. She could have probably switched a day sooner since she had some blowouts. She was well into 8 lbs before the switch. She has about 10 dirty diapers a day. The first week or so she had a little more. (Well we change her diaper this month. We don't wake her up in the middle of her sleeps to change her diaper even if we can tell she just went.)
• Clothing: For most of the month she wore newborn size clothes. She also wore Gerber 0-3 month right away.  Around 3 weeks, she started wearing 0-3 month clothing. It's a little big in the shoulders. 

Sleep
The first 2 weeks she wanted to sleep longer than she should and I was waking her up to eat every 3 hours since that is what the doctors recommended.  Now at night she goes between 2 and 3 hours between feedings. But after she wakes up and I change her and she eats and then falls back to sleep she's up for an hour. So she's mostly sleeping about 2 hours at a time at night. During the day it ranges from 30 minutes to 3 hours now.   Ella's sleep has actually been the worst this week. There were a few times she only slept for an hour at night. Sleeping during the day has been the worst this week too. I almost referred to it as naps but I'm not even sure I want to call them that yet. I feel like she consistently sleeps longer in the late morning than in the middle of the night.  She's been eating a lot so sleeping less during the day.  During the days she also will stay up for a few hours at a time instead of sleeping, having her diaper changed, eating, and then sleeping again.  According to my app she sleeps between 6 and 12 times a day. Except some of the times with 6 might actually be more and I just didn't fill it out. She sleeps between 11 and 16 hours a day.

I've taken a lot of screen captures from our video camera but I'll do another post with those.

Ella was sick of pictures and the flash and would not cooperate.

Eating
She almost consistently has 3.5 hours of breastfeeding a day according to my app. Well that is for January.  I had 1 day that was insanely high that will throw off my averages.  The app says I had 210 minutes per day this month and last month that was 261 minutes per day.
At the hospital she latched great and the nurses even talked about how great she was. I think this really helped my milk come in and produce enough. I actually produced a lot and had a lot of issues at first.  From what I hear lots of babies eat from both sides at each feeding. She eats from both sides maybe 1 in 20 feedings.
She hasn't been given a bottle yet. I pumped a little for the first time late on the 20th so that we can introduce a bottle if necessary. Then I don't have to be glued to her and can potentially run to a store and leave her with Dave. That's difficult not because sometimes she's starving an hour after she started eating (aka 30-40 minutes after she finished eating and not enough time to do anything).

Sample Schedule:
I don't think I have anything for this now but in future months I'd like it.  There isn't that much that's consistent besides cranky time around dinner time. Also anytime I have food, she wants to eat so then my food gets cold.  Some days she starts wanting to eat every hour at 8 am and other days that waits until noon. Sometimes she sleeps a solid 3 hours starting around 8 PM and other times she's on the 1 hour kick.  In the mid afternoon is when she stays awake for longer. But we also seem to allow her. I'm always trying to get her back to sleep when it's night and when I'm still too tired (aka until about noon daily). There are plenty of times she's asleep but moving all around and making noises. This makes it difficult for me to sleep even though she is sleeping. She kicks all around.

She would be upright but by the time i backed up and looked in she camera she leaned

Special Moments:

I feel like all the special moments were just her doing things for the first time. We didn't go anywhere fun or interesting yet.

Development:
She started holding her head up early. I know I posted a video in my 2 week post with tummy time. If I had time I'd go back and check the date but I think it was even closer to 1.5 weeks and that wasn't even the first time she held her head that high. I had no idea this was early until people told me. She likes to sit and support her own head while we support her body. Sometimes now we are barely supporting her body.  I put her on my chest and sit at an angle and she holds her head up. But if I put my hands under her feet, she will try to climb her way up my chest. She has moved up me quite a few times now. Once I saw her push up on her arm and fall over.
It was interesting to see the progression of her eyesight. Now she recognizes our faces. She also likes to look at things around the room.
She smiled at me for the first time on January 19. She smiled at Dave before that at least a day or 2. On the 18th or 19th he showed me how she smiled at him. He said "hi" and smiled and she'd smile right back. She did this 3-4 times in a row, so I know it wasn't gas. I tried to do the same to her and she licked her chops and wanted food. She still only smiled at me once (Sunday morning). She has smiled at Dave a ton. I can't seem to capture it on camera but I got the tail end of one. I will get more smiles next month.
She started grabbing fingers if you held them out in front of her, but didn't grab other things.
She held her rattle for the first time today. She seemed to ponder holding the rattle the first time she did it, then she liked the hold it.

Other Tidbits:
Likes
She loves it when she's swaddled. She can't sleep without it.
She likes to get her arms out of the swaddle just for fun.
She likes it when Dave sings to her.
She likes holding her head up. She liked tummy time the first couple weeks but now she always wants to sit up and hold her head up.
She likes to eat.
She likes to sit sideways on my lap, lean against my body, and have me pat her back. I did this burping her and learned she likes it so I do it often.
She likes to have her back patted.
She likes to be held chest to chest.
She likes to go outside naked.

Dislikes
She hates the act of swaddling her.
She refuses a pacifier.
She doesn't like her swing, monkey, or activity mat yet. She tolerated the swing one day when I manually pushed it instead of turning it on. When it's on, it moves so much and so fast for her little body.
She hates when I change her clothes. She only sort of dislikes when Dave does it.
For a few weeks she hated having her diaper changed but she's much better now.
She doesn't like when I touch her feet. I only did because I was going to massage them since I saw that a foot massage can calm a baby.

I'm torn between thinking her legs are long or normal. I'm also torn between thinking they are chubby. I need other babies to compare to.

I'm not sure if she's vocalizing in other ways besides crying.  I feel like she has made some other sounds at times but not sure if it counts .

My recovery
At the hospital nurses kept commenting how I was acting like I didn't just have major surgery. I was up and moving around and would be neatening up the hospital room.  But then when I got home, it wasn't as fun because getting out of my bed was a lot worse than getting out of the hospital bed. I'd have to get out of my bed a few times a day so that sucked.  I felt like my insides were tearing out for a good 2 weeks each time I was in or out of bed.  I had 2 medicines to take a home. I could take them every 6 hours. I took them less often but at least tried to take them to be covered when I was getting in or out of bed but sometimes I failed and then it was awful.  I forget when exactly I stopped taking medicine but it was around two weeks if not earlier. Once I quit taking it, I read the bottles again and the one medicine said I could take 1 or 2 pills every 4 to 6 hours. I was taking 1 pill every 6+ hours.

I lost weight consistently the first 3 weeks. Then 4th week I was basically the same as at the end of the third week.  I'm walking slightly more often than every other day. I really want to walk daily or twice a day. My doctor recommended 3 walks a day but I don't know who has time for that.

I don't shower on even close to a regular basis anymore. I showered Sunday, Thursday, and then Monday most recently. Before that I have no idea. I also only remember the days because Sunday I got company and Thursday was Dave's first day back at work.  Now that I don't ever sleep long enough to feel like I slept the night, I don't seem to brush my teeth as much. I don't do the normal get up and go to the bathroom either. I go after a feeding and before I go back to sleep. It all kinds of messes up any sort of getting ready routine.  I don't really care about the not showering or not brushing my hair except it makes for some awful pictures and then I have less to post on here.

I didn't have any signs of postpartum depression. I'm so happy to be a mom and even when she's crying or not sleeping, I'm not hating it.   Sometimes I get a little fed up with not being able to eat. I tell Ella she's starving me because she doesn't give me time to prep any food.  This past weekend I dealt with Dave being sick too. That wasn't any fun. He wasn't getting up to get me things as I needed them. He wanted me to get him things.  This weekend he was supposed to go to the grocery store but he did not go since he was so miserable.  I moved clothes from the washer to the dryer while Ella was in her Moby Wrap.

My belly still feels weird. Above my incision and below my belly button it feels weird. I finally figured it out that it kind of feels similar to when a body part falls asleep and you touch it. My belly only feels this way when I touch it.

I want to say more about me with numbers but no time.

I'm probably forgetting something. It's just so hard to write such a long post. 

The pictures are all from January 20.  It was dark out so a flash was required. She hates a flash so none of these are good. I told Dave I would take another batch the next day and he gave me a hard time that it was a day late. But then on the 21st she slept really well during the daylight so I didn't take any more. I saved the 1 month sticker because I was going to take more. I took the pictures in the pink onesie first waiting for Dave to be done with his video game but since she was miserable after we changed her clothes, I used a bunch of the initial ones. I made a public album with some more pictures from the 20th.