The First Month

We've been busy. Busy taking care of the baby, but mostly busy having fun. She's growing so fast, I feel like I can't miss a minute. I almost feel guilty about how perfectly everything has gone. From getting pregnant, to being pregnant, to giving birth, to taking care of this perfect little baby - everything has been like a dream. If you know me, you know I normally walk around waiting for someone to pull the rug out from under me. With Olivia here, I don't feel that way at all. I'm just happy.
The first two weeks were hard. The hormones and emotions added to sleep deprivation ... well, it wasn't pretty. I mostly sat in bed, breastfed, and cried. I knew logically that everything was going very well for life with a new baby, but that didn't make it any easier.

Thank God for Chris.

That sentence deserves it's own paragraph. He was Daddy Extraordinaire. He took care of her and (most importantly, haha) he took care of me. I cannot imagine having to go through those 2 weeks without him.

Olivia was kind enough to have her days and nights reversed in the beginning. That's fun times, I tell ya. Especially since we didn't take to heart about sleeping when she does. So we were awake. A lot.

By the second and third week, things started to flow much smoother. Breastfeeding, which I was so nervous about, is going well. She had to use a nipple shield the first week while she developed her suckling skills, but she weaned off that easily. So far, feeding has been pain free for me, which I know is a miracle in and of itself. Chris went back to work after 3 weeks, and even that went well. She's sleeping at night (up to 4 hours at a time!), and playing during the day. I was most nervous about my recovery, and as expected, it was the hardest part. Almost 2 full weeks of discomfort and the occasional bout of pain. However, looking back, it wasn't that bad either. I was walking around, resuming normal activities very early. Heck, we were out shopping at 2 weeks!

I cannot believe a month has gone by. I feel like I've known her forever, but at the same time saying that she's over 5 weeks old sounds like a very long time. Yesterday, for some reason, I had a big case of the, "Ohmygod, she's the most beautiful baby ever"s and had to have everyone over to come see :-)

Now that I have every Mom who reads this hating me for how easy this has been ... I leave you with pictures of my beautiful baby!