Sunday Best

One of the funnest things about having a baby girl is dressing her up for church on Sunday! She always looks so beautiful and grown up...

This dress was made by Grandma Martin-very cute!

Brooklyn's Poor Little Tummy...

We have had quite the past couple of weeks with our little peanut. She has been a fairly "fussy" baby since she was a week or two old but both of us didn't think much of it and just figured it was something we were just going to have to deal with. Then the last couple of weeks she progressed from a "fussy" baby to a baby that is either sleeping, eating, or SCREAMING her head off. Again, we thought she must just be getting colicky and did our best to keep sane. As I mentioned in previous posts, she has never been a good nurser and it was such a struggle to get her to have a good feeding from nursing. I usually ended up having to pump or give her formula. I didn't want to quit till I got through the painful stage to see if it would get better. Well I waited till that was over and thought it would just get better with time. She did pretty good for a little while and then she flipped a switch and absolutely refused to nurse. She would cry, turn away, and even push against me. After a day or two of this I decided that we were done. I kept pumping so I could build up a supply of breastmilk so that she could have it for another month or two. But the crying all day long continued. She usually fell asleep if I put her in the car and ran errands so I tried to do that as much as possible but it's hard to get ready and out the door with her screaming. I talked to a few people about it and it seemed like everything was fine and that some babies just cry! However, it got to the point that I really thought that I was going to go crazy. Last Friday was my breaking point. I had earplugs in all day and did my best to console her but nothing was really working. All I wanted in that moment was my husband so I called him and asked him to please come home from work early. He didn't hesitate and came home right away which I was so grateful for. In the meantime, I decided it was time to call the pediatrician in order to see if there was something wrong to be causing all this crying. They were able to get me in within hours which I was so happy about! After listening to all of her symptoms he assured us that this was not "colic." He said that colic occurs usually at night around the same time and not at 9 a.m. and not all day long. He was convinced that she either had a milk allergy or acid reflex. He was more convinced of the milk allergy though. So he gave us a sample of a formula that doesn't have any milk or soy in it to see if the symptoms would improve. I kid you not, after just two feedings on this formula she was a completely new baby and finally seemed happy and content. I have no doubt that this has been the issue the whole time. In order to keep pumping I would have had to completely cut out all dairy. I'm going to be honest and say that that just wasn't going to happen. I was already trying to wean because pumping all day had become too time consuming and overwhelming for me. I wanted to spend more time with her and less time attached to a pump. I also can't use any of the breastmilk that I had pumped because it has dairy protein in it. The formula we are using does have some downsides to it. It is the most expensive on the market and smells TERRIBLE!! Seriously, so nasty. We are going to try the soy kind in a day or two to see if she can tolerate it. The only reason we aren't now is because 20-30% of babies who are allergic to milk are also allergic to soy so the Dr. wanted to cut both out first to see if this was the actual issue. Babies usually outgrow the allergy by one year so we are hoping that this is the case for her. I have been pretty hard on myself about not taking her in sooner. I feel terrible that she was so uncomfortable for so long. But I guess that's just part of parenting, you live and learn. I've shed many tears over not being able to breastfeed and this whole ordeal but I've also learned that you just have to roll with the punches and move on. We are all a lot happier and trying to look at all of the positive aspects of the situation. It's not the end of the world and all that really matters is that we have a happy and healthy baby. Oh, and a SUPER cute one!! :)....

Tahoe

I was getting a little stir-crazy the weeks leading up to Brooklyn's arrival so the weekend before she was born we drove up to Lake Tahoe. It was nice to get out of town for the day and to see the snow again. It was even nicer to be able to just leave the snow up in the mountains! :) 

It's weird to see pictures of when I was pregnant now, it seems like it was all one big dream! 

1 Month

(I love her face in this picture-it's like she's saying "ok mom, enough with the pictures already!" :)

Brooklyn is already 1 month old today! The past month has been one of the craziest and most humbling experiences of my life. Motherhood can be hard!-who knew? ;) But even though it has been challenging, I wouldn't change anything and have learned so many new lessons. I have been amazed at how little sleep your body can function on! I don't know if anything can prepare you for being a new mom. Between the trauma your body goes through, all the shifting hormones, lack of sleep, and the constant concern you have for your new babe who you love more than anything, it can make you pretty emotional and overwhelmed-at least for me anyways! I love my little girl more than words can say and love watching her grow everyday. I feel like she is already so big! The most recent stats I have on her were at her 2 week appointment for a weight check and she weighed 9 lbs. 10 oz., so I'm curious where she is at right now. I think the hardest thing so far for us has been breastfeeding. We are still struggling. I had cracked before we left the hospital and so that made the first couple weeks pretty miserable during feedings. Then when all of that healed I developed a yeast infection of the breasts which is also painful and am still trying to get it cleared up. Brooklyn hasn't been the best nurser either and will sometimes fight it-good thing she takes a bottle great! But she has actually gotten a lot better-I just wish I didn't dread every feeding but it's hard not to when you know it's going to be painful. It's starting to get better but I have come close to quitting almost everyday because it has been so stressful. However, I am plagued with feelings of guilt and failure when I think about quitting even though sometimes I feel like it might be better for both of us. Breastfeeding is just something I have always wanted to do so it's been pretty frustrating that it hasn't worked out how I would like so far. I'm going to wait till this infection goes away before I make any decisions. My expensive breast pump has definitely been my life saver the last month! Anyways, here are some fun facts about Brooklyn at 1 month...
-She eats about every 3 hours during the day and is starting to stretch out her feedings at night to every 4-5 hours (which we love and hope it continues)
-She seems to always have a bowel movement while she is eating and will refuse to eat until she is done-can you blame her? :)
-She has lots of blow-outs and is starting to spit up a lot more
-She loves her changing table! Every time she is there she is so content and loves just looking around.
-She is a pretty good sleeper! She still likes to be rocked to sleep but is getting better at falling asleep on her own.
-She has become much more alert during the day and is always looking around.
-She loves to look at our mirror, sconces, clock, and picture frames.
-She hates to be burped and will get fussy unless she is sleepy.
-She is getting strong and can support her head pretty well. She has recently started to kick off our laps to try and stand.
-She always has her hands by her face and won't let me swaddle them.
-She hates to be put in her car seat but once the car starts moving she will quiet down and usually falls asleep.
-She has started grabbing onto my hair, especially while she's nursing.
-Lots of people are thrown through a loop when they see her dark hair and us as her parents. However, I was born with the same dark hair and it all fell out around 5 months and came back blonde. Hers is already starting to lighten up a little bit so we are curious to see what will happen with it! We love how much hair she has though!
-Her eyes are getting more blue every day
-She is super long! The hospital first measured her at 19 3/4 inches but then a couple days later at her dr appointment they got a better measurement at 21 3/4 inches which made a lot more sense to us!
-Her hands and feet are long too.
-Her eyelashes and eyebrows are coming in which are giving her more defining characteristics.
-She is constantly making noises with lots of grunting! She is a pretty noisy sleeper!
-She just gets cuter and cuter everyday!
We sure love her!