One Month!

Happy Birthday, Elise!
Yay!

Today, Elise is one month old!
Holy cow. Time sure does go by fast. She's like basically already leaving me.

She's got her school uniform on, in this picture, with her sweet school girl pose.

Elise now weighs 9lbs 3 oz. She gains weight like a champ! She has got to be longer than 21" by now since her newborn clothes do not fit her. She's right in-between newborn and size 1 diapers, which means no matter which size she's in it's a blowout through all layers of clothing.

Elise was born with a full head of blonde hair, like her mom was. Here you can see the bulk of it. We particularly enjoy her cowlick after naps: it sticks out in all directions.

Since I do not have a whole lot of experience with babies, I'm not familiar with typical feet size at birth, but several comments have been made about the length of her feet being long. Here's my attempt at an artsy photo with a non-artsy camera.

Some of Elise's favorite things include:

• getting the hiccups. She does it after almost every feeding
• reading fairy tales with Dad. She favors Rumpelstiltskin
• car rides
• Country Music. Her current favorite song is "Momma Tried" Merle Haggard
• orbiting
  
• chillin' in the bouncer
• sleeping after a bath, though the bath part is the worst part of her life. Today, she could hear the water running and got fussy. When I took off her diaper she began screaming in anticipation of her most hated activity.
• holding hostage someone's nose (usually Dad's; I think they've got a competition going)

She's just begun to coo a bit, too. So cute.

Elise smiles frequently and I finally caught some of them on camera!

These two are basically inseparable. Elise is a good sleeper. She sleeps for several hours at a time during the night, which I recognize makes all of the difference. It has really enabled me to be able to focus on the enjoyable aspects of motherhood. And to not be utterly exhausted. Thank you, Elise.
Our little family

We have, however, had big issues with milk supply. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until it was too late, apparently, for me. We've tried for several weeks now nursing, bottle feeding and pumping 8+ times a day, which has been exhausting. I've tried pretty much every single tactic but with no luck. It's difficult for me to face the reality that formula is her future. It isn't that formula is bad, it's just not as good for her or for me as nursing and it is quite sad and hard for me to let go of it.

I felt, for a while, that I must be a lame woman who was failing at her most important calling in life. I still feel like that at times. I have learned just how common this problem is, which makes me feel better. Fortunately for most, they are able to fix the issue.