Everett - One Month

Everett, you turned one month old on August 19th.  Everyone told me how quickly time would go, but I had no idea it would fly by like this.  Even though these first few weeks have had their challenges,  I feel like I blinked and a month had gone by!  Here are some things I want to remember about your first month with us:

• ·         At your one month checkup, you weighed 10lbs, 14oz.  You were 8lbs, 14oz when you were born and you weighed 8lbs, 3oz when we brought you home, so you've gained almost three pounds in the past month!  Wow!  You are 22 inches, 2 inches longer than you were at birth.

• ·         You love to be talked to.  You will stare into the eyes of whoever is talking to you, and many people have said that they feel as though you are listening and understanding every word they are saying. 

• ·         You also love to be held - all the time!  It can be hard to get things done around the house with a baby in my arms, but I'll take it.  I know there will come a time when you won't want to be held anymore (sniff), so I'll enjoy this time while I can.

• ·         You love your hands.  They are always at your face and they are so expressive.  Sometimes it's hard to feed you because you'll want your fingers AND a bottle in your mouth!  In fact, the moment after you were born you already had two fingers in your mouth.  Before you were born I would get my ultrasounds each month, and the technician would always say that your hands were by your face.  It's amazing to think that you already had this little habit inside my belly!  In the past week you've been keeping your hands folded across your chest.  It looks like you're praying and it's just the cutest thing ever :-)

• ·         If I had to choose one word to describe you right now it would be inquisitive.  Your big brown eyes are always taking in everything around you, and your eyebrows are always raised, as though you're already thinking big thoughts.  You love to move around and check out your surroundings.  I have a picture of the two of us the moment that we met, and even just moments after being born, you were already peering at me intensely with those beautiful eyes of yours.  I love to look at that picture - it takes me right back to the moment you were born, and it's a moment that I wish I could relive over and over again.

• ·         You've been developing good sleeping habits this month.  We brought you home on a Sunday, and by the following Thursday you were sleeping until about 4 in the morning, waking up to eat, and then sleeping again until morning.  This pattern has continued throughout the month, with a few minor changes.  Earlier this month we were putting you to bed around 11 or 11:30.  You would get up once around 3 or 4 and then sleep again until about 8.  Over the past week, we've been putting you to bed a little earlier - around 9:30 or 10.  You'll sleep until about 4 and then wake up to eat, but your morning wakeup time changes from day to day.  On a good day you'll sleep until about 8:30 or 9 - yay!!  On a bad day you'll wake up around 6:30 or 7 - grrrr!  On those early days I'll give you another bottle and try to put you back down for another hour or two, which usually works.  You slept in our room for the first few weeks, but you've been sleeping in your room for about two weeks now - such a big boy!  You're still in your newborn sleeper (the taco) and you don't sleep well unless you're swaddled nice and tight.  We'll keep you in the "taco" until you're ready for your crib.

• ·         You LOVE to eat.  Your food intake has steadily increased over this first month.  For the first week you had about two ounces of breast milk every two hours.  This didn't satisfy you so we started adding an ounce of formula to the mix.  This worked for about another week or two, but then you still seemed hungry after you finished your bottle, so we added another half an ounce of formula.  Now you're having two ounces of breast milk and two ounces of formula every two hours.  You gulp down every bottle like it's the last one you'll ever get, so we stop you several times throughout a feeding.  Sometimes you spit up after you eat, sometimes not.  At bedtime and in the middle of the night you only have formula, which I think helps you (and mommy and daddy) sleep better.

• ·         Your eyesight is improving more and more each day!  It is so much fun to watch you in your pack and play while you look at the owls above you, or in your bouncy seat where you stare at the birds above your head. 

• ·         When you were first born, you hated having your diaper changed.  You would scream at the top of your lungs!  Now, you seem to enjoy it. 

Everett, you are such a joy.  We waited for you for a very long time, and I would often wonder why I wasn't being blessed with a baby.  Now I know that God had a plan for us.  You were meant to be our baby, and I couldn't have asked for a sweeter little boy.  I love you.