Happy 1 Month Birthday Nicolette!

Nicolette 1 month

What a complete and total blur this month has been!  My days are all mixed up and I swear it feels like it hasn't been more than a week since we were in the hospital with our brand new baby.  But alas, Miss Nicolette is 1 month old today!  Words cannot express how much I love her.  Even though we've been struggling (mightily) with our breastfeeding I wouldn't trade a single minute that I have had with her for anything in the world!

We love Nicolette's little faces - daddy loves her Popeye face and mommy loves her sweet smiles and Blue Steel face :)  (for those not familiar with Zoolander, please refer to the following video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D519hT7-ytY).  Now here's Nicolette's version:

Nicolette's "Blue Steel" face - Supermodel in training

We have several nicknames for our baby - mommy calls her "Baby" all the time...I'm afraid that she's going to grow up thinking that her name actually IS baby instead of Nicolette!  Some other favorite nicknames are Stinkerbell, Sweet Pea, Peanut, Punkin & Nugget.

Daddy loves cuddle time with Baby Nicolette but still gets a little confused about what to do when she gets a little fussy.  This morning he took her outside in the Baby Bjorn and they had some nice daddy daughter time that way.

Mommy was brave enough to take Nicolette to Trader Joe's with her this morning and had a clueless First Time Mommy (FTM) moment...I took the carseat in and put it inside the shopping cart (because I've read horror stories about people who have placed the carseat on the top of the shopping cart) and then realized that when the carseat is in the shopping cart, there is literally NO room for groceries!  Poor Nicolette had Cucumbers and Zucchini tucked on either side of her seat and I just loaded up the bottom because I didn't know what else to do.  Note for next time - I will baby wear either with the Bjorn or a wrap carrier so that my hands and shopping cart are free!  It was actually nice to get out of the house - I'm one of the weird people who actually enjoy grocery shopping so I felt a little more like "me" simply by running this small errand.

Nicolette is an EXCELLENT sleeper - she can sleep through Chance the dog-child barking, mommy vacuuming, mommy trying to breastfeed (= FRUSTRATING) pretty much anything.  I'm sure this won't last forever so I'm trying to appreciate it instead of getting so irritated and worried about not being able to wake her up for a feeding schedule.

I mean how rotten do I feel trying to interrupt this beauty sleep?

or this one..

or this one...

or this one...

or this one?

 by bit we're making progress on the breastfeeding - I've decided that the 3 hour feeding intervals are for the birds.  As of today, I'm letting her decide when she's hungry and that has made ALL the difference.  For the past week I've been trying to force the child to eat every 2-3 hours (per Doctor and Lactation Consultant advice) but today I started waiting for her to cue me - sometimes it's 4 hours, sometimes it's 1 1/2 - 2 hours and so far she hasn't been fussy at all, has stayed awake through most of her feedings and has actually eaten more that way!

Milk Drunk
"Thank you mommy for letting me eat when I want to instead of shoving a boob in my face while I'm trying to sleep..."

I'm still using the Supplemental Nutrition System when I feed her and pumping every 2 hours or so to help build my supply so sleep for me is a distant memory but it will be all worth it once we finally get this straightened out!  Hoping and praying that within a week or two that we'll be off the SNS as that takes a lot of extra time and creates all sorts of other headaches (but at least I'm not dealing with nipple confusion from introducing a bottle and this is actually good practice for both her and I).

We have a weigh in at the doctor's office tomorrow and mommy is praying for some nice gains - ready to see some chubby little rolls on this sweet pea!

I've been up since our 3am feeding but surprising feel A-ok...a little drowsy, but I took the time between feedings to shower and actually blow dry my hair...it's amazing how much I appreciate the little things now!