One month with Eva June.

Well our newest arrival is one month old! Actually, she turned one month old on Dec. 21st (so I’m a few days late) — but truthfully I was waiting for her one month doctor visit to find out her “stats”.

Being a premie, we actually spent a good amount of time at the doctor’s office this last month. She was born on a Thursday, sent home on a Sunday, visited the doctor on the following Tuesday, then Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), then again the following week! Once she was two weeks old, they let us skip a week since they were happy with her weight gain and then we went again at 4 weeks old. She was born at 5.14, left the hospital at 5.11 and now she’s 8 pounds 9 ounces! And she grew a full inch in length so she’s 21 inches long. She seems HUGE! But really, she’s the size of a typical baby now.

When she was born, she was swimming in her premie clothing. Maybe around 10 days ago, she upgraded to newborn clothes which fit her really well. We still loathe clothing with snaps and she has no patience for midnight changes and blurry-visioned parents who are trying to line up the snaps just right. So we like to stick to zippers whenever possible. She hates having her diaper changed or changing clothes in general. So anything to expedite the process is welcomed.

She’s continuously FAMISHED. Like, she’s starving 24/7. I don’t remember that being the case with our other little ones. But Eva eats every 2-3 hours. If she goes longer because she’s asleep, she wakes up miserable and angry. She has a strong cry for such a little body. And tears. Oh my goodness, her tears are real and it’s heartbreaking. She’s having a mixture of breastmilk and formula. She prefers breastmilk, but she’ll side eye whoever feeds her a bottle of formula as if to say “I’ll take it, but it’s not what I want!”. She typically has 4 ounces in a feed.

She sleeps most of the day. In the beginning I was nervous because it seemed as if she was sleeping 24 hours a day. She had barely any awake time. She was so sleepy and we’d have to wake her to feed her and even then she slept through most of the feeds. Now she has more awake time during the day. She tracks us around the room and watches Javi and Lola. She squints towards the TV, hates when lights are on and hasn’t shown any interest in the many toys Javi and Lola shove in her face. She definitely grasps with her hands (and is always pulling my hair), sometimes flashes a smile though I don’t think it’s real, and STARES into your eyes when she eats.

She does okay sleeping at night. Of course, she prefers to be held. We got rid of our rock n play when it got recalled and honestly I regret it. I bought her a new bassinet and she can’t stand it. So most nights she ends up in our bed. She seems to get really cold (maybe it’s a premie thing), but it breaks my heart so we snuggle up close. If she’s on my chest or with Sean she’s happy as can be. Of course, that means, we’re not getting that much good sleep. 🙂

We’ve been hesitant to bring her out and about so she hasn’t experienced that many things. Though she did have her first Thanksgiving, dinners at my parents house and we frequent the Walmart Grocery pick-up parking lot. One day, I brought her to Home Goods and Kohls so I could do a little Christmas shopping and another day I brought her to Party City to grab some things for Lola’s birthday party. But other than, she’s pretty much homebound and very happy about it. She does okay in the car and the carseat though. In the beginning I HATED putting her in the carseat because she was SO tiny. But now that she’s a bit bigger, I have more confidence that she’s all good.

Since she was 4 weeks early, she’s on an adjusted growth chart. I guess this means that her first 4 weeks of life sort of didn’t count in terms of milestones and expectations. She’ll be about 1 month behind until about 2 years old and then she’ll balance out with other children her age. But right now, at 1 month she’s only expected to do things that newborns are doing — at 2 months, she’ll be expected to do things that a 1 month old would do, etc.

I think the phrase “the days are long but the years are short” has never sounded more true. I can’t believe she’s already a month and yet, I can believe that I haven’t slept well in a month! 🙂