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!