Mogie is 1 Month Old!

She's two pounds heavier, almost two inches longer, and has officially lost her title as the easiest baby in the world. She's also been re-nicknamed to Dragon baby. Cute, I know. But this girl makes some of the most amazing snorts and growls, spits her own version of fire, and has the personality to fit. And I swear, it is a nickname of pure endearment in this house.

I wish this picture truly captured just how red she gets when she's mad. 

She has also continued the trend of being involved in medical mix ups. Yes, we're still in the process of finalizing her status as a girl. We also have had the pleasure of needing to re-do her newborn blood screenings, because not just one, but both tests they performed in her fist week of life came back with insufficient amounts of blood to test. Us three girls have had to spend more hours at the lab than we've ever cared to getting another round of tests done. Here's to hoping the most recent one actually works!

One Month Stats

:: Size ::

At her doctor's appointment she clocked in at 9 lbs, 8 oz, and 21.5 inches long. Oh, and her noggin has jumped a couple inches too. She is currently right in between newborn and 3 month clothing sizes, and technically still fits newborn diapers (thanks to a particularly small rear end).

:: Eating ::

Anywhere from 2-3.5 hours throughout the day. There has also been many a day where she has gone into serious cluster feeding mode. She also has continued to be a spitter, with the severity of it being dependent on how close her feedings are, how I burp her, how angry she is... I could go on. I feel like I'm starting to see trends in what causes worse spit ups, and do my darnedest to avoid them. Even still, we're still doing at least a load of laundry a day.

Mogie's first Easter. She obviously had a blast.

:: Sleeping ::

This area is where Mogie lost her angel baby status. She was sleeping almost all the time for the first two weeks, and so when she suddenly started staying awake for chunks of the day, I was shocked. Unfortunately too, she's also been spending most of her awake times crying. I don't think it's so bad that I can call it colic, but it has been a hard adjustment for us parents and Dellie to figure out how to either help her stop crying or suffer through it without turning on each other.

Thankfully, she does keep her crying fits confined to the day time. She mostly sleeps at night, with one or two feedings, although she did have a slightly terrifying phase where she would stay awake after her 2 a.m. feeding for at least an hour. Josh was wonderful enough to spend those few nights walking her back and forth until she fell asleep, and (hopefully) the phase seems to have passed and now she konks right out after her midnight snacks.

A rare moment of affection on both ends.

:: Dellie ::

The true adjustment phase has finally hit for her. She really struggles with the bouts of crying - to the point that she has broken down herself in tears because of it. Over the last couple of days, however, she has figured out she can help by sticking the pacifier in Mogie's mouth, which I think has really helped her feel like she be a part of the solution. Speaking of being helpful, Dellie is quite willing to grab a diaper or a change of clothes for me, and is always up for some friendly advice. A common phrase in the house is, "Mom, I think she's crying because she's hungry/tired/needs changed." I generally find it endearing, unless my sense of humor is out the window :)

Quote of the month: "Mom, once you're done feeding her, you should throw her in the trash because she spits up too much."

:: Cloth Diapers ::

Someone asked me if I was going to start up the cloth diapering posts again. I promise I won't drag you through those again ;) BUT I do want to write a little bit of what's going on with them, if nothing else for my own sake.

We did start using our cloth diapers with Mogie after the first couple weeks' adjustment, and are currently sort of using them during the day. Partly because I'm not ready to jump all in, and partly because there is a LOT of leaking going on (boo). Unfortunately, some of the elastic didn't survive storage for four years (go figure). So we're just making it work as much as I can handle during the day, with some regular diapers mixed in when I just need a bit of a break.

:: I Don't Want to Forget ::

As much as these last few weeks have been stretching in my emotions, my tiredness, my mothering, everything, it is amazing to me how natural it feels to take care of a newborn this time around, and how much easier it is to operate under severe sleep deprivation.

I don't want to forget how much I enjoy just sitting there while she sleeps with all her tiny weight in my arms; how she snorts, growls, and does her strange panicked cry/laugh whenever she knows her meal is almost here; that she prefers to sleep with her arms straight over her head and her legs stretched out as far as they can go; realizing that she has a heart shaped birthmark right on her forehead between her eyebrows.

I title this one, "Grouchy and the Hedgehog."

We love you, little Moge. You're a bit of a mystery and you keep us on our toes, but we can't imagine life without you around.  Happy surviving one month!

The First Two Weeks

And just like that, We've survived the first couple of weeks.

Honestly, this little girl is proving to be a really good sport. She eats really well, sleeps even better, and is pretty flexible with whatever we throw at her.

There's only been two hitches in our nearly perfect transition - one, this girl is a spitter. In the realm of problems, it's really quite minimal. When she was born she swallowed a decent amount of amniotic fluid, and so she spent the first week of her life spitting it all out. The pattern has continued to a lesser degree, possibly just because she's just a spitty baby, and partly because her mom won the oversupply of milk lottery.

The other hitch was courtesy of a mistake with the registration at the hospital. During our stay at the hospital, each and every person who came to look in on Imogene initially asked how our baby boy was doing.

Wait, boy?

Yes. Apparently she had been mislabelled by someone, which led to a few awkward conversations with the hearing test lady, the photographer, and the pediatrician, but we didn't think anything of it.

Until the next day. We called our health insurance to get her set up, where we found out that the mistake wasn't just confined to the hospital. Our insurance company had gotten the report that she was a boy, too. So we have been spending hours upon hours trying to get the problem fixed. But on the funny side, we've received tons of mail from our insurance mailed to "Baby Boy Meyer." (One for the baby book, I am sure.)

Here's some pictures of Imogene's first couple weeks of life!

One day old - doing her favorite thing. Sleep.

Still sleeping.

Did I mention she likes to sleep?

Meeting the cat. He also likes to sleep.