It's the Little Things

It's the little things in life that make you excited once you have a baby. And also the weird things. Like the fact that I now get excited over the fact that Monica pooped. I mean, really, poop? Lol. Or the fact that I tell her she's such a good girl whenever she burps after eating. Obviously these things are important in the life of a new baby, but when you really think about them, it does sound a little funny to get excited about them. :P

Since having a baby, I have realized that I have to take each day and appreciate the little bits of progress that we make. Things like sleep - it's amazing how much of a difference sleeping for 4 hour chunks vs. 3 hour chunks makes. The fact that Monica has finally learned to sleep on her own rather than on top of me (well, not entirely, but more often than not) makes it easier for me to sleep at night.

This morning was the first morning that when she woke up around 9:30am to eat, I actually stayed awake and didn't try to get her to go back to sleep right away, even though I wanted to very much! We're working on trying to help her learn to wake up, eat, stay awake for a little while, and THEN go back to sleep. At least during the daylight hours. At night, yes please go back to sleep right after eating! But during the day, I don't want her to think that in order to fall asleep she needs to eat. If she thinks that, then no one else will be able to help her fall asleep and that would make things a lot harder.

But over the past 2 weeks, her schedule of feedings has varied, although there is normally a feeding that will start around 7, 8 or 9ish in the morning. Usually I feed her and then try to push for one more cycle of "night sleep" AKA fall asleep right after eating so we can still pretend it's night time and I can sleep just one more chunk of time before starting the day. But today was different. Today I stayed up with her when she got up at 9:30. I made myself tea, got a muffin, and we hung out together after she ate. ;) I also was able to read my daily bible verse on my phone. (The Bible App is great for this!).

As much as I wanted to sleep more, it was nice to feel like I was making progress with getting into more normal hours of waking up in the morning. Granted, it took a month to get this far, but that's why I have learned to appreciate the small things more because it's not easy when you're a first time mom to accomplish these things. Honestly, there have been lots of days when I wonder how my mom and other moms I know have done it. Usually I wonder how they do it with other small children running around! But I guess that's all part of the graces God gives us when we become parents. Still....it's definitely not easy!

Also, the fact that I am writing this right now is encouraging to me. Maybe I will actually be able to stay more consistent with my writing! :) (We can hope at least....) I tried to lay Monica down a little while ago but she didn't seem to want to sleep on her own for now so I put her in the baby carrier I have, which makes doing random tasks a little easier.

Not my best picture...but you know ;)

That's all I have for now :)

One Month

One month. My sweet little baby girl, Monica Joan, is one month old - I can't believe how fast time flew! It's currently 11:30pm right now and one month ago at this exact time, I came out of the bedroom and told Joel-Michael that my contractions weren't going away this time and "hey, maybe we should start timing these - they're starting to get more intense!"

She was so so tiny when she was born. Even though I have 5 younger brothers and JM has 11 siblings, we still felt like we weren't entirely sure what we were doing when we brought her home. I was nervous about making sure I held her head correctly; I was worried about not tearing my stitches; and I definitely wasn't sure how breastfeeding would go!

Monica Joan Recznik - 8lb, 3oz; 20inches

First Family Picture!

Week 1 was definitely the hardest. We were exhausted; I had been through a lot physically; and my pregnancy/just-had-a-baby hormones were in full-swing. Our families were gone on our annual joint family vacation so I spent most of that first week calling my mom at least once a day and feeling happy by the end but also emotional. Breastfeeding was hard; I had to supplement off and on that first week and the physical exhaustion made it SO much harder to want to keep doing it, but I am definitely glad we persevered because it's going much better now! Monica slept 1-2 hours at a time, which made me feel like quite a zombie!

Week 1

Week 2 was hard, but definitely better. We finally had family we could rely on to come and help us. I started driving a little. Nursing improved and there was less supplementing going on. The sleeping times increased to 2 hours more consistently; occasionally 3 hours at a time if we were lucky. There were slightly less pregnancy hormones affecting me (or at least, I was emotional/crying a little less often). And I finally started to feel a little more normal physically.

Week 2

Week 3 brought even better sleeping habits for little Monica. She slept 2-3 hours at a time at night. Her daylight sleeping was a little more like the 1-2 hours of sleep, but overall she was pretty happy and definitely nursed much better. We didn't have to supplement at all during this week :)

Week 3

Week 4 was the BEST week so far - and I feel very sure that I will keep saying that about each week as they come along. This week she slept 2 1/2-3 hours at night, sometimes 3 1/2. Nursing was fantastic - we worked a lot on trying to feed her during the day and then have her stay awake for a little while before sleeping again so she doesn't associate sleeping with eating and thus never fall asleep without nursing. It has had mixed results. This was the first week where I realized that I felt tired, but not overwhelmed. It was a nice realization.

Week 4

But today, one month later, was great. Last night she slept for a 4 1/2 hour chunk of time and then 3 hours, then 2 1/2, and she slept multiple times during the day for longer chunks than she has ever done before! It was a nice one-month present ;)

One Month

I know this post is a little scattered and not incredibly interesting content-wise, but I figured you would enjoy the pictures and this is the first time I have actually had time to sit down and actually write a blog post! I am hoping to continue to write more - I still need to actually write about her birth :) But until I find more time to do so, I hope you enjoy this post :)

Family Photo Session!