you are one month old {dear beautiful little lady}

dear beautiful little lady,

You've clicked into our family like a piece of the puzzle that we didn't know was even missing. I say it all the time that you are so loved... I'm quite frankly obsessed with you; cuddling you and breathing. In your intoxicating baby smell is just about my favourite way to spend time. Your daddy is so so protective of you and I just know that you are going to have him wrapped around your little finger like no one else. And your older brother and sister simply adore you; they have embraced you into the gang right from the start and they love to be near you, to hold you, and to lie either side of you on the bed whenever we change you. Changing time always descends into them giggling like total nutters and you looking from one to the other like they are the best, funniest and most insane things you've ever seen. We all feel so lucky to think that in the not too distant future there will be three gorgeous crazy little giggles at changing time, and I know they cannot wait to have you interacting with them more. 

We have already had very first smiles from you, just before the four week marker, and we are so looking forward to those becoming a regular thing. At the moment I get the most (thank-you for that) for simply chatting to you or for stroking your little cheeks, and Daddy has had a couple too. You have such a lovely big, bright, beautiful smile and hopefully over the next few weeks we'll see more and more of them. You stare at your big brother and sister with absolute fascination and while they may not have earned the first smiles, something tells me the first giggles will be for them. 

You are, quite honestly, the most content baby I've ever known. This has no doubt made our transition from four to five an easier one and we will forever be grateful for that. You are just so chilled out. You are happy to held by anybody, you don't seem to be bothered by being dragged all over the place for school and clubs, and you put up with all sorts of pokes and prods from your siblings without so much as a wobbly lip. You're also so alert, and have been right from the very start; taking it all in and looking at the world around you. Even when we were still in hospital on the day you were born the midwives were all commenting on how alert and chilled you were, and how lucky we were. We didn't dare to hope at the time that you'd stay that way, but after a month it seems like that may just be your way, your personality. 

I say so often that you are a dream baby, and you really really are. As well as being so content, you also really like your sleep and seem to have been born knowing how night and day work and that night time is for sleeping. Right from when you were first born you would take a long 6ish hour sleep in your crib when we put you to bed at night. In the entire time you've been here, you've been in the habit of only one night time wake up, at the very worst two and you've only done that on a couple of occasions. We won't allow ourselves to even think you might stay this way, because we know how quickly baby's sleep can change, but for now we're definitely enjoying getting lots of sleep. Our early evenings often include a lot cluster feeding, but you tend to be in bed by 8 to 8.30, 9ish at the latest. Amazingly you'll often self settle at bedtime too; when you start to look sleepy we swaddle you, put on your white noise machine and fairy lights, and you will look at the fairy lights sleepily until you doze off. And then you'll do one wake up about 4-4.30 and then sleep again until 8 in the morning. A lot of the time I actually have to wake you up in the mornings so that we can go out on the school run. And while your day time feeding and sleeping is still a little less predictable, you do a great job of just fitting in with whatever we're doing; napping well at home or out and about in the car, and feeding every two to three hours.

You are an absolute champ when it comes to feeding. You didn't lose any weight when you were first born as they would expect, and instead went straight to gaining weight. The midwives and health visitors were so impressed with you and I, and how well the feeding was going. In the first couple of weeks you didn't always open your mouth very wide to feed and we had to take some time to perfect you latching on, but by the fortnight marker we basically had it all sussed out, and now at a month it all just feels pretty easy. I honestly feel so blessed that I get to feed you, it might sound a little weird, but I just love that it's special time that we can share, and something which only I can do for you. I even love that middle of the night feed, where we'll snuggle up in the dim light. It makes me so proud to see you growing so well on mummy milk, even if it does mean that at one month old we're already retiring the 'up to 1 month' babygros, having already long since put away the 'newborn' ones.

You spend your whole existence in babygros at the moment, and I can't see that changing any time soon. No teeny, tiny outfits for you; you simply have white babygros for sleeping and coloured ones for daytime. I just feel like it's such a short period of your life where you can live in a onesie, and they are so warm and comfy and cosy. You love bein swaddled and are putting the collection d swaddle blankets I bought you to good use; you just love being wrapped up all snug and warm. I love that you are a little swaddled baby, you look so cute and teeny wrapped up like a little burrito. Plus I'm determined to keep a firm hold on these baby days and babygros and swaddling are such a big part of that.

You're definitely a lady who likes to be warm and cosy, and we discovered pretty early on that you hate having cold feet. It was always the exact moment when your feet hit the cold air that you would start to cry when we changed your nappy. And while you no longer cry whenever your feet are naked anymore, it's still clear that you are happiest with toasty toes. Like most babies, you aren't the biggest fan of the cold air when you come out of the bath, and getting your feet wrapped up fast is the best way to chill you out after that particular trauma. You love bath time though; either having some floating time or propped up in your bath prop so you can watch your splashy older siblings.

At the moment you have big navy grey eyes like your big sister did. They are so beautiful. We have a sneaking suspicion they will be brown in no time, given that your big bro has big brown eyes, and that your big sis does too. And to look at you, it's definitely clear to see that you are "part of the set". While you don't look exactly like either of them, you look a lot like both of time from one minute to the next. When you were very first born you looked the image of your brother, but by the time you came home you looked just like your sister. Now you mostly just look like you, with some facial expressions that make you look just like them at times.

You were born with a good head of dark hair and as yet you still have that good head of hair (unlike the older two who had lost the hair on tops of their heads by this age.) You have a proper little kiss curl right at the front of your head, inherited from Daddy who has the same little walnut whip at the front of his hair. We think its super cute, and very appropriate for a baby who must be kissed on the head a million times a day, but we know that teenage you is going to hate it and the fact that your hair at the front will be doomed to never lie straight. As your hair is growing, its growing through blonde at the roots rather than dark, so it looks like you'll be a blondey... for the time being at least. It's always kind of intriguing when you have a newborn, to see what they'll look like and how quickly their looks change.

It's pretty crazy to think your first month in the world has been and gone already. It's one of those things that all parents of newborns say, but it's so strange that while you still feel so precious and new, we already can't imagine our lives without you.  It seems like a silly thing to say, but you honestly are just the absolute perfect fit in our family and we feel so incredibly lucky to have you. Having a third baby felt a little scary at times while I was still pregnant, but you've made it all so easy for us so far. When people ask how we're finding it juggling three they always seem surprised when I say that it's been pretty easy, but that is down to you... our little dream baby. 

We all love you so very much. Thank-you for being ours.

mummy xxx


A first month in photos...