Violet is 1 month!

It's cliche and I say it every time, but it seriously goes by so fast! What is even more of a let down is that in my opinion it goes by faster every time. I am OBSESSED with my newborns. I just love them to death. I've had some great new babies though and have never been too sleep deprived.

What can I say about Violet's first month? It was mainly full of visitors. They came about a day after I returned from the hospital and they left 3 days before Violet turned a month. That makes having a newborn easier too :) I love our families for it!!

So far with all of my babies I have been lucky enough to have family at our house for almost 30 days afterwards. This time was no different. My family came for about two weeks then David's family came for about two more weeks. By the time everyone left Violet was only a couple of days away from being a month old.

What can I say about Violet? She was my smallest baby and even though she had a good suckle when I would try to feed her she wasn't a good eater. I think it was because of her slightly early arrival (four days) and being so small. It took her forever to want to latch (she loved to bob around a lot) and then by the time she did she would basically fall asleep within a minute. It was kind of like oh you're warm and soft and smell good.... Zzzzz. And while she was utterly adorable, teeny tiny and like all new mom's I loved that sleep, she definitely made me nervous!

pretty sleeping baby

Violet really only ate once at the hospital. Davie wasn't a whole lot bigger but he was much better at letting me know when he needed to be fed (pretty much every 3-4 hours). With Violet I had to set an alarm, un-swaddle her, undress her, changer her and she still wouldn't necessarily be awake. I remember one night in particular it took me a good 45 minutes to get her to wake up and the it took her over an hour to eat because she kept falling asleep. That was probably the toughest part. She started at 6lbs and lost a whole pound before she started gaining! That definitely made this mama super nervous!! I was (and still am) much more diligent about making sure she doesn't go very long between feedings.

The plus side was that she was so tiny and snuggly and just beautiful. The more babies I have the more I fall in love with them. I LOVE newborns. Like Love, love looooveeee!!! I've been very blessed and I'm thankful for how sweet and easy going all three of mine were their first couple of months. I do a lot of nursing, sitting and cuddling while watching tv after my babies. It's the best. Also on a completely unrelated topic any Netflix or Hulu suggestions would be great right now ;)

At her one month appointment she was 7'11. To put that in perspective that's what I weighed at birth! Haha I was quite a bit bigger. As of her 1st month birthday she was still in newborn clothes and diapers. I'm thankful that Violet was my 3rd time around in the nursing department because I already knew what I was doing and she did not. It was completely different than Macy, who was practically a pro from day one. Had she been my first I probably would've struggled a lot more and maybe even given her formula or a bottle.

 Violet was born on a Wednesday we came home on Saturday and by Sunday she was literally giving me anxiety. She had several wet diaper but just the tiniest bit wet and no bowel movements since the hospital. Sunday (after she was blessed) night before bed David changed her and she let it all out!

He had to message her tummy a little and push her knees up and down to help her out. It was still meconium so I think between her not totally catching on to eating yet and it being thick it was more energy than she had in her tiny 5 pound self to get it out. However after that it was a complete 180 in her diapers and eating habits and I was finally able to relax! I aways wanted to have little babies, but when they struggle with eating AND they are little it makes a mommy anxious REALLY fast! If she hadn't started eating better that night I had planned on giving her a bottle. It was a tense situation for sure with a happy ending.

Violet likes to be held. Sometimes she will fuss and stop immediately after you pick her up. She doesn't really take a binky. She is still a champion sleeper and gives me a solid 4-5 hour stretch almost every night. Violet also likes to be fresh. I've never had baby that liked getting their diaper changed, but she does. If she starts to cry and I pick her up to change her she stops. Even if she is hungry she will patiently wait for me to change her. While I'm changing her I can tell she's like "ah, that feels better". There were many times that first month after I brought her home that I would lean over to pick her up and she would look right at me. She wouldn't smile, but she would give me this happy knowing look. It was so loving and adorable.

That is a pretty small baby doll Violet is sitting next to.
It was her way of telling me she was happy to see me. Made my heart melt. None of my newborns have ever acknowledged me like that before so it was pretty special. The first night we brought her home Davie wanted to hold her and she started fussing so I took her back and she immediately stopped crying. Made this mom feel pretty good. Violet is such a sweet little baby.