Well Miss.
Lainey, this is the first letter I’ve
ever written to you with you in the world!
Hard to believe I’m already sitting down to write your 1 month
post. Your first four weeks have been
faster than any I’ve ever known.
Lainey Rose, you are precious. Daddy and I look at you and see everything
that we love the most in this world—there is so much of your big brother in
that sweet face, and yet there are so many details that are simply yours alone. You have the sweetest dimple on your left
cheek that lights up your face when you smile. I melt every time I see it. Your eyes are a murky blue that seem to
search us out wherever we are. Your
perfect fingers and toes are long and lean—piano
fingers—and grasp onto mine with a gentle intensity that reminds me just
how connected we are. You and me. Your skin is the color of honey, and so smooth. Your pouty lips pucker when you’re asleep in
my arms, and that sweet little nose is so perfectly shaped to fit onto your
little round face. You are just
perfect. Loving knit together by the Creator of the Universe. Every details
literally takes my breath away. We are
in awe of you, Lainey Rose. I cannot stop staring at my beautiful baby
girl, and each day the intensity of my love for you grows.
Here’s what
you’ve been up to this month:
· Your big brother loves you! The first thing
he asks for when he gets up in the morning is his “La-ne? La-ne?” He loves to go into your room and peek at you
in your crib. He’s a big helper when I
change your diaper, he retrieves your binky and (shoves) it in your mouth
(..and then takes it back out and puts it in HIS mouth) and he LOVES to pat
your back and say “shhh” when you’re angry about something. He also loves holding you. The first time he held you, his eyes got so big and he was so very gentle with
you in his arms. As soon as I picked you
up, his little eyebrows furrowed and he furiously patted his legs, exclaiming
“SIT DOWN! SIT DOWN!” I think that was
his way of saying he wasn’t done cuddling you yet ;) The relationship I already
see you two development is absolutely precious to this mama, and I hope that
you always share that special bond that can only exist between a brother and a
sister.
· You are a great sleeper! Since your very first day in the world,
you’ve slept 4-5 hour stretches at night.
As of right now, your longest stretch is 6 hours and we wake you up to eat! In your
second month of life, we’ll start letting you sleep as long as you want. Big brother slept through the night at 6
weeks…we’ll see what you’re planning!
· You are a very content little
girl. In the early weeks of your life,
you would show your unhappiness with a fussy little newborn cry that was so
sorrowful that it broke mama’s heart.
But that didn’t last long, and these days we really don’t hear you cry
much at all! After I feed you, you love to be awake and looking around at
everything around you. I can set you on
your play mat and you’ll lie there for 20 minutes or so—just kicking your
little feet and waving your arms. Blake
usually gets down on the floor with you and talks to you. It’s precious. I need to go over to grandma and grandpa’s
house to get a few more of our itty bitty baby toys out of their attic for you
to play with. I think you’re almost ready!
You ALSO love to watch our ceiling fan in the living room go around and
around.
· Today, you smiled for the very first
time! You had been sick with your very
first cold, and after a long night daddy and I had you out in the living room
for your morning nursing session. I had just finished feeding you and daddy was
holding you—just talking to you and snuggling, and you were cooing back at him
contentedly…when all of a sudden, you locked eyes with him, and gave him the
SWEETEST grin complete with that precious little dimple. Daddy was so excited!! I caught the whole thing from across the room
and rushed over to see if you had a smile in there for mama too…but no such
luck J
Already a daddy’s girl!
· Along with your first smile, your
first month also brought about the beginning of those sweet little baby
coos. You started cooing on your play mat
a few days ago, and I caught a sweet video of it that I just love. I was on the phone with daddy when you
started, which was so special, because I was able to hold the phone down and
let daddy hear you talk! He loved it,
and so did I!
· In terms of your stats, you weigh 9
lbs 13 ounces, or just shy of 10
pounds, and were 21 inches long at your 2 week check up. I’m not sure if you’ve grown more since
then. You’re wearing size 1 diapers
(although we are using cloth diapers on that adorable little baby booty!) and 3
month clothes. I only had a chance to put you in newborn clothes for about a
week! Then we moved on to 0-3 month, but
most of those have since been put away as well.
I’ve rotated in all your 3 month and some of your 3-6 month
clothes. You’re growing well, but it
still amazes me that you are a full half pound less than your brother weighed
at BIRTH. I call you my peanut, but
everyone is quick to remind me that you’re not
a peanut…only when compared to your big brother J
· You’ve met some very important people
in your life this month, including all your grandparents, aunt and uncles, and
sweet friends that are like family. Everyone adores you.
· Little lady, you’ve been to the
doctor a lot this month! We had to take you in several times in the
first few weeks of your life to get your reflux under control. Baby girl, your fountains of spit up were no joke.
I was just sure you couldn’t possibly be growing with everything that
came back up after we were done nursing.
We started you on medication early, and just yesterday took you in to
have your meds changed to hopefully see more of an improvement. You’ve now had two doses of your new reflux
meds, and we’ve been a HUGE improvement!!
We’re hopeful this will do the trick for you! Even with the reflux issues, you’ve gained 8
ounces in 10 days, which keeps you solidly on your growth curve. I’m just excited to see those fat rolls grow
now that we’ve hopefully figured out how to keep more of that milk in your
tummy!
· You also had to go to the doctor this
month for your very first cold. This
scared your mama more than I can say, to have my itty bitty 4 week old snotty
and congested and struggling to breathe.
Just heartbreaking L Daddy and I
had been holding our breath for weeks, because daddy got sick the week you came
home from the hospital and then Blake came down with a cold last week. I even got a stuffy nose, which meant that 3
out of 4 of us had succumbed to the virus!
It was only a matter of time for you.
Luckily, you were the last to
get sick, which gave you extra time to get that immune system working! This is day two of your cold, and after
giving us quite a few scares yesterday, today you are much happier and seem to be on the upswing! Yahoo!
· You take some great naps during the
day. You’ll generally cat nap in the car
between 7-8 as we take daddy to work, and then you go down for your first real
nap of the day between 10 and 10:15. You’ll
sleep for about two hours. Then, after
lunch you AND Blake will nap from about 1-3.
We pick up daddy from work at 4, and sometimes you’ll snooze in the car,
and then it’s dinner and you go down for the night at 7. Right now, we’re getting you up at 8:15 for a
bath and then a final feeding before your bedtime at 8:30. We’re thinking of switching that up a bit and
moving your bath time up to around 7:30 so we can have you in bed by 8. We’ll see!
So far, you seem to be very agreeable and very flexible as we tweak
things in your schedule.
Baby girl, I
could go on and on about life with
you, but really all you need to know is that you are loved every moment of every day. You have been prayed for since long before
you ever entered my womb, and we have loved the promise of you since God put that desire in our hearts many years ago. Becoming your mama has been a journey I’ve
been on my whole life, and it will take my whole life to complete it. I pray every day that God will continue to
mold me into the woman He intended me to be to raise you up into the woman He intended you to be. You’re our bright
light, Lainey girl, and more than that….you’re HIS bright light. It’s the literal translation of your name,
and it’s our most heartfelt prayer for your life. Shine,
sweet girl. May nothing in this world ever put out the blazing light you were
born with—the light that comes from being a daughter of the KING.
We love you,
Lainey Rose. Our lives have been
immeasurably blessed by the gift of you. Here’s to your second month in the world!
Love always
and forever,
Your Mama
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