Paige Marie is one month old. Sweet baby. Beautiful, wonderful, high maintenance baby. She went down to 6 lb 9 oz at 1 week and then went back up to 7 lb 5 oz by week two. I am guessing by now she is about 8 1/2 lb. She was 21 inches by week 2 so I'm guessing she is around 22 1/2 inches now. She is a great eater, gaining weight and growing like a weed. But even still, she is tiny and little and barely fits into her clothes. Most every thing newborn swallows her. But oddly enough, she has these massive rolls on her thighs. Enough that I wasn't getting far enough into them and they were collecting dirt.
We didn't realize it until about week 3, but Paige is almost an identical twin to Harper as a newborn. As she has gained more weight over the last two weeks, she looks even more like her every day. Cody held her up to a framed picture on the wall of Harper at 2 weeks and it was the same baby almost. They have the same eyes and cute pug nose. Similar mouths but Paige's mouth is tiny compared to most babies. Her hair is a little lighter, but still brown and still a ton of it. Her eyes are going to be blue but they are still dark and a little more grey. Her skin is some lighter, but I honestly don't know where it came from. It's darker and a bit oranger than anyone in our family. I'm guessing this little girl will easily tan and will be darker than normal.
She is getting bigger. Her neck is getting strong fast. She can hold her head up for a good couple of seconds before dropping it. She is a head bobber and we laugh when she bobs for minutes at a time. It's funny though because sometimes she just falls over and I forget that she is really just tiny and little. She still hasn't figured out her hands. They stay balled up, unless they are grabbing my hair and then I have to pry them apart to pull it out. Harper likes to pry her fingers apart too because she loves to hold her hand. It's her favorite thing and she loves to sit by Paige's side and hold her hand.
Paige is beautiful. She is cute and funny and she has a big, beautiful smile. By the end of the month, she started smiling a lot, mostly during her big awake times. She is very awake midmorning and in the evening after bath. She goes to sleep around 9pm and usually sleeps until 9am. She gets up 3 times during the night, each at 3 hours and drinks a bottle. She usually goes right back to sleep for one of the times, it takes about 30 minutes for one of the times, and then it takes about an hour or more to get her back to sleep on one of the bottles. It took me awhile to get ok with the middle of the night stuff. For most of this month I have done a poor job of handling middle of the night feedings. I chose to stay in our room and just get her in and out of the pack 'n' play. It allowed Paige and me to stay sleepy so it wouldn't take as long to go back to sleep. But I think it also didn't let me wake up enough to feed her with any intelligence. I actually woke up one night confused that there was a random baby crying in my room. It took me a good couple of minutes to remember. I go to the living room now and it seems easier to handle.
She doesn't cry much except for a few times. She cries in misery when you change her diaper. Like, crazy, silly crying for a simple diaper change. She cries when she is tired, of course, and doesn't really like her paci so it makes it kind of hard. She will take the paci but she also spits it out after about a minute. She also has a witching hour at about 7pm. She cries from about 7-9pm and there isn't much you can do about it. We usually hold her and try to rock her to sleep, and she will sleep and then cry and then sleep and then cry. It's sad for her and hard on us. We tried the colic calm because it worked wonders for Harper but it doesn't seem to help her. During the day, she will sometimes sleep in her pack 'n' play but she really doesn't like her crib. Around 3 weeks, we stopped swaddling and started putting her on her stomach and she seems to sleep better. Paige absolutely hated the swaddle. She also likes to sleep on our bed or on the couch. On nights when she doesn't sleep well, I tried to let her sleep with us, but it just didn't work. Sometimes I can hold her if I sit up in the chair or the couch, but I don't sleep well and neither does she. So sometimes we are great, and some nights she is just a crazy baby. I am totally sure that we spoil her rotten because we hold her so much, but for now that's just what we are going to do. She doesn't like the bouncy seat, the swing, the baby carrier, or any other contraption that means she isn't being held. She sits in them for about 3 minutes before screaming again. She will play on her playmat, but usually only if Harper is playing on it with her.
I ended up stopping breast feeding about 3 or 4 weeks. I got off dairy for a week or so and it definitely helped with her fussiness. So we put her on a lactose free formula and she seems better. I also feel better since I really didn't like breastfeeding anyways. It's such a guilt trip but I disliked it. I felt trapped and put on a constant 3 hour rotation. Life has definitely turned for the better since the last couple of weeks. A few moms have mentioned to cherish these days and enjoy holding her as long as possible, because they grow so fast. I do enjoy holding her. I cherish how cute and little she is. I know she will grow faster than I can imagine. But I won't miss 3 night time feedings. I won't miss the incessant crying that you can't talk her out of or help her calm down from. I love every bit of her, but this stage is definitely hard. Especially with a preschooler to take care of too. Thankfully Harper is a great kid and has helped me so much. She doesn't complain or act jealous. She only acts up every now and then, and usually it's normal 3 year old stuff, not big sister stuff. I am extremely grateful for her and her sweet nature to love her little sister immensely.
Happy one month Paige! We love you, even though you cry a lot, as Harper says.
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