Celebrating Rosie's One Month B-day

Today is Rosalie's one month birthday. Happy month birthday Rosie! Boy does time fly. 

Check out the weight gain! Go Rosalie.

Below are five things we're grateful for that have really helped us through the first month:

Nipple shield

1. The nipple shield...but only because it has helped Rosalie gain her birth weight and then some. I actually hate the shield because it gets slippery and is annoying, but it's needed. Rosalie was a little under weight when she arrived and we had to make sure she was getting enough to eat. In addition, her tongue tie (see earlier post) meant it was harder for her to latch on. The nipple shield has allowed for breastfeeding to progress. Now if I can just transition her off the dreaded (for me) shield. If anyone has tips, let me know. But take a look at her bigger tummy in the photo below - for that I am thankful for the slippery shield. 
   
2. Rosie is a champ of a sleeper..at least for now - Rosalie sleeps quite a bit. According to the books it's normal for a newborn to sleep 16-18 hours a day. I think Rosie is a little more on the 18 hours a day side. The strange/good/slightly unsettling thing is that she usually sleeps a 5 hour stretch followed by a 4 hour stretch at nights. The books say that most babies wake up every 2-3 hours for feeding - which means several night time wake-ups. Even though we're only waking up 1-2 times a night, we're still exhausted because the interrupted sleep in the middle of the night with the feeding and bouncing/rocking back to sleep does take time, but it's way better than multiple wake-ups. We have her one month doctor's check-up tomorrow and will ask if this is normal behavior. The video below shows our sleepy girl in sleepiness action. While she does sometimes wake on her own to eat, we're usually the ones waking her.
   
   
   
3. The blue exercise ball - at our labor and delivery class the teacher recommended that we get one of those exercise balls. Apparently they are also called labor balls. While the ball was not useful for my labor, it has been a life saver for getting Rosalie to stop crying and for general calming, especially in the wee hours of the night. The first picture of Adam with Rosalie on the ball is the normal position. The one with just Rosalie on it is not. Adam just thought it'd be funny to include a photo of Rosalie on her beloved ball. It's more like our beloved ball.
   
   
   
4. The 5-S guy - All new parents have likely heard of the 5-S's - Swaddle, Shhhh, Side or Stomach position, Swing and Suck. They teach it to you in the labor and delivery class and there's a video called, "The Happiest Baby on the Block" that goes over the 5 S's in detail. We checked it out from the library and have been implementing all but the suck (aka pacifier) one because Rosalie hasn't latched on to the real nipple yet. The S's really work, especially the swaddle.
   
5. Rosalie's library of books - my sisters and mom thew us an awesome baby shower where the theme was books. Everyone brought Rosalie a book and just like that she had a full library of some wonderful reads. When you're hanging out with a baby all day, it's nice to have some good books to read to her. We've certainly been loving our collection, which we still have yet to get through. It's fun reading her a new book every day. So thanks to everyone who got Rosalie a book!  

Adam reading Rosalie - Sophie's Squash

 Stay tuned for the next blog post where I'll describe Rosalie's name origin. :-)