How time flies!

Chloe is now 1 month old. Our (not so) little family feels so complete that I now often wonder why we had not tried for a third child earlier, and why I thought I was ‘done with kids’.

Things ARE pretty mental with 3 kids in the house, but I stare at her and I am in love. And my boys are old enough to be nurturing towards her and patient with having way less of my attention.. I’m really proud of them too.

 

She’s now 3.9KG and feeling so much more solid than her first week. I’m still really delighted as I was granted my prayer of having a small little petite girl, and she really is! At least she is for now.

Such a novel change from my whopper-sized boys when they were born.

 

Hunter and Carter are still being lovely with her.. and will happily carry her or pat her if she is fussing. I reckon that any jealousy will really only kick in when she’s older and grabbing their toys and talking and commanding a lot more attention! Right now she just sleeps and is quiet, so they see her as a living doll.

 

Chloe really likes tummy time. Unusually so – she spends most of the day on her tummy, either awake or asleep.

Because of the epic amount of tummy time she ends up doing, she started flipping front-to-back just after she turned 3 weeks old. Might also partly be due to her heavy head 😉

This video was taken at 3 weeks old. But she’s super pissed off in it, as I made her do it 4 times….. gotta make sure it’s not a fluke, right?!

She’s also started to track faces/objects.. like she suddenly realised I exist and is all Oh hello there Mummy!

Apart from that, no social smiling yet.. I can’t remember when that milestone occurs but I thought it was around this time. She smiles in her sleep or randomly (gas?) but only stares at me.

 

Chris has 6 weeks paternity leave, and he took 4 weeks after she was born. He’s now back at work as of this week..  and Chloe and I are at home trying to figure out day time life with just the two of us.

She’s been spoiled, as Chris lets her lie on his chest (with maximum cuddles and bum pats) the whooooole day, so she luxuriates on him and snoozes there. So I’m now kept on my toes reversing all this! I put her down drowsy but awake… and….. she SCREAMS the roof off 😉 Erm.. this is a work in progress! Sometimes I luck out (generally if she’s completely tanked from a nursing session) and sometimes it takes almost 2 hours before she KO’s from exhaustion.

She loves nothing more than her warm bath before bedtime though. We bathe her in our bathroom sink. It’s the perfect size for her and so much easier than a bath tub!

 

Sleeping habits are.. ermm… constant?

She is basically perpetually asleep, and only awake perhaps 3 times a day for 1.5-2hrs each time.

Nights are getting heaps better. I wake her to nurse at around 1AM and again at 4-5AM. The latter feed is tenuous, as half the time she becomes wide awake and will stay awake and fuss for attention for an hour, before falling asleep. Argh!!! Chris has been handling her when she does this (she loves cuddling on his chest, remember?) so the poor guy is pretty tired as he as works the next day :X

 

Look at this pic! It really captures how much she’s grown in just three weeks. This is Week 1 VS Week 4.

HUGE difference, right?

Specifically the difference is 2.8KG VS 3.9KG.

Amusingly, she’s still smaller than Hunter at his birth!

But her weight gain is pretty epic, and I’m so delighted. And relieved. I exclusively directly breastfeed… so I have no idea of the volume of milk she’s actually consuming. Which means her weight gain is the only real indicator I have that my boob milk is working.

I wouldn’t consider myself perfect at this whole motherhood thing (not patient, stressed easily, etc).. but if there’s ONE thing I know I’m good at, it’s breast feeding. Haha! All 3 kids inflated in size very quickly, and were exclusively breast fed for over a year.

Chloe nurses every 2.5hrs during the day, and lasts about 3.5hrs between feeds at night.. less than her brothers did, but she is way tinier than they were at the same age, so her stomach holds less.

 

My little chickadee. I am mesmerized with her big round eyes and her delicious smell. Must remember that when she is screaming her head off at me 😉

My parents threw a one month party in her honour.. photos in another post later!