1 month old

Allie, or as I like to call her, Allie-gator, is almost a month old and we have started to figure her out. The biggest source of frustration for me, and probably her, was nursing. Every time she went to eat she would cry and this was hurting my feelings and making me cry. The biggest problem was that I had too much milk and she was choking on it and having a hard time staying latched, So I went to kellymom.com (the best site on breastfeeding advice, I highly recommend it) and it said instead of switching sides for each feeding try nursing on the same side for 2 - 3 feedings in a row. So I tried it, and it worked. Pretty quickly too it only took a day or so and my supply mostly regulated itself. I am not engorged as much, and Allie isn't choking on my milk as often, and because my supply is better I was able to easily stop using the nipple shield.

She is a very efficient eater. She only nurses for about 5 min at a time. She does eat fairly often. About every 2 hrs during the day and every 3 hrs at night, but because she eats so quickly it is easy to manage. It has been much different than nursing Selena as a newborn. Selena would nurse for 45 min to an hour and a half, every 2 - 3 hours. I remember once she nursed for 3 hours straight. I am very thankful Allie is quick because the last week or so Selena has decided that being a big sister has its drawbacks, and has started to get jealous. Her new mantra is "I need my mommy" and she most often whines and cries this while I am feeding Allie. But Allie is a growing girl and weighs 9lbs 4oz. I'm not sure how tall she is, but she is on the verge of growing out of all the 0-3 month clothes.

I also figured out that Allie really doesn't like to have a dirty or wet diaper. I was offering to feed her every time she fussed, partly because I wanted relief from my engorgement, but also because that was what always seemed to work with Selena. But this was just making her mad because she wasn't hungry, and really she just wanted her diaper changed. She loves being naked so we also let her hang out naked for the few times during the day that she is awake.

She sleeps a lot. I'm pretty sure she sleeps way more than Selena did as a baby. Which I hope bodes well for the future since Selena is really a challenge in the sleep department. Allie pretty much slept for the first two weeks of her life and only woke up to eat. Now she is awake a little bit more, but not for very long stretches. She does prefer to sleep while being held, preferably in a baby carrier while you are walking around. But she sometimes will stay asleep if you set her down. I can usually get one good nap a day out of without holding her. Fortunately I have a wide variety of baby carriers so holding her isn't too much of an inconvenience and I love having a snugly baby next to me.

She isn't a fan of the swing and has been resistant of the binky. Dad and Nana have been able to manage to give her a binky, but I haven't. She has enjoyed the couple of baths she's taken at home. She doesn't really like car rides, but seems to do okay if you load her up while she is deep in sleep. She's starting to give us real smiles and her head control is getting better. I'm excited to see her personality start to develop.