One Month

Nolin has been a part of this world for over a month now. Her one month photo pretty much sums up this first month...seriously! During her first month, Nolin slept, ate, pooped, peed, & cried (a lot!).

May 26, 2011 - One Month Old

It seems as though Paul & I have a very sensitive little one.  Nolin can go from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds - all for no reason!  She has a set of lungs on her!  We knew this from her first cry in the delivery room.  If something isn't exactly right, Nolin doesn't just let us know, she lets us know with a fit!  As the picture shows above - she turns bright red, sweats like pig, & holds her breath between screams!  I really hated this at first & most of the time I would cry with her, but we have realized there is nothing we can do to stop her when she gets that upset.  So, we try to keep her from getting to that point now, but she can get there pretty fast!

Nolin absolutely loves to be held.  So, she spends most of her day in a sling/wrap on Paul or me.  If we put her down, she is awake & crying in less than five minutes.  When we first brought her home, she was taking naps & sleeping by herself, but after a couple of weeks we could not put her down!  She is content in a bouncy seat or swing for twenty minutes if we are lucky.  But, if we really want her to sleep, someone has to be holding her!  I love holding her some, but there are things to be done.  So, luckily we have several slings/wraps that Nolin loves!  Babywearing is a lifesaver!  It is also supposed to help make Nolin more independent & secure when she is older, so we happily wear her!

I am breastfeeding Nolin & she is definitely eating well, because she is gaining weight like crazy.  I had a really hard time at first.  In the hospital, Nolin latched right on & I thought that was great.  But it turns out that an overly excited baby who mouths a lot toward your boob, is not necessarily a good thing!  She makes it pretty hard on me, trying to suck (or should I say slurp) my nipple up into her mouth!  To make that worse, she won't stay latched on for long, so even if we get the perfect latch, she doesn't keep it!  We are doing better now, but if Paul were not supporting me, I didn't have a lactation consultant, & if I didn't know it was the best thing for Nolin, I would probably not be breastfeeding right now!  There were several times during Nolin's first month that I really wanted to give it up.  But, I am glad that I ave stuck with it so far.

Since I am breastfeeding, we didn't introduce Nolin to a pacifier for almost four weeks.  We wanted to be sure that she took to breastfeeding well.  So, this means that we offered Nolin a finger to suck on when she just wanted to suck.  Daddy offered his finger most often & Nolin would just suck away.  Sometimes this is the only thing that would soothe her.  But, eventually Daddy's finger was pretty sore!  So we tried to introduce a pacifier - unsuccessfully!  We decided to try a different type of pacifier & finally found one that Nolin will take!  

We started cloth diapering Nolin after she was a couple of weeks old.  The diapers are big on her right now, so it is difficult to get all of her clothes to fit.  But I love the cloth diapers!  Nolin will grow into them & be able to wear them until she is potty trained.  They are so soft on her bottom & really not that hard to keep up.  We have to wash the diapers every other day right now, but as she gets older we will be able to go every couple of days because she will dirty fewer diapers in a day. 

Kai & Nolin have not become big buddies just yet.  I think Kai is a little afraid of Nolin right now, since she cries.  But, he does check on her when she cries.  Nolin doesn't pay much attention to Kai's bark, which is great.  I guess she heard it in the womb so much, that it doesn't even phase her now.  I can't wait for Nolin to get older so she can interact with Kai.

We haven't gone out of the house too much during this first month.  But we have started taking walks as a family.  Nolin loves to be outside.  If she is upset & nothing else is soothing her, we can just walk outside & she will calm down.

Paul & I are learning a lot.  I think we are finally figuring out a little bit about what to do with an infant.  We are so excited to see Nolin learn & grow.  A two month update to come soon...