Rowan - One Month

Length: 22.5 inches (95%)

Weight: 9 lbs 1 ounce (45%)

Sleep: She is a champion sleeper. She really started doing a 5-6 hour stretch at night from the first night in the hospital. After two all nighters, I really needed a slight stretch of sleep at home that first night. When she did 6 hours again - I was shocked and so thankful. 6 hours = 6 hours between feedings. So if I feed her at 9, put her down at 10, she wakes at 3. So it's only 5 hours of sleep. And she has had quite a few nights where she wakes every 3 hours. (so 2 hours of sleep). And she has had a few nights of just not going down. BUT more nights than not include a 5 hour between feeds stretch and usually falling asleep pretty quickly. 

During the day, if we swaddle her and walk around or rock her for 10 minutes, she will usually fall asleep. If something wakes her up - walking or rocking will usually get her back to sleep. This is crazy to us!! Haha. The other girls would not sleep. We would walk or rock for hours and struggle to get them to nap. People would be like "have you tried a paci?" or "what about a noise maker?" And we would say YES - WE TRIED IT ALL. Now we get it. If they had a Rowan as a baby, they were probably thinking "what is wrong with these people - that they can't get them to nap. Swaddle. Noise maker. Rock. It works." 

I also noticed that a ton of my anxiety post-baby with each of the 3 was likely sleep deprivation related. I am feeling so much better than I ever did one month postpartum - mentally. And I think it all has to do with sleep. I am also trying to do less caffeine, so that I can fall asleep during the day and get a little nap in when R naps. I am realizing that sleep really is key. 

Eating: She's a great eater. Not much to say here. She eats about 7 times a day. Every 2-3 hours during the day. Eats at 830pm, up anytime between 1-3am, up again at 6am. 

Milestones: She has given us quite a few smiles. It is our favorite. We have to work hard for them - but we all love seeing her smile. 

Clothes / Diapers: She's in 0-3 clothes and size 1 diapers. She was in newborn diapers and came home in a newborn outfit - but outgrew those pretty quickly. I think we have a little while in our current clothes and diapers. 

Best Moment of the Month: When the girls met her for the first time. My favorite! We have a video on Instagram and Facebook. Emma yelling "she has red hair!" and Sloans shy smile as she's so proud of her baby sister. I could just melt. They love her so much.

Parent of the Month: Me. I wanted to make sure we were getting some vitamin D and she had her days and nights correct - so I would sit in the shade with her. Poor girl got a mild face sunburn. I thought she was hot, but then we compared her face to her arm and she was much pinker. Oops! She's so fair she even got burned in shade. So now we limit our shade time to make sure it doesn't happen again. 

Favorites: not a whole lot needed the first month. We use the boppy to hold her and while breastfeeding. We put her down in the leachco podster. She has an owlet breathing monitor every night bc I would worry too much without it. She's been in her crib since the first week. We do put her in the dockatot for the second chunk of night sleep since it's harder to get her back to sleep then. But we will likely take that away so she doesn't get too reliant.  Swaddle blankets and she sleeps in the swaddle up where her arms are by her face. Other than that, we haven't used much of anything else!