Happy one month to our Nora Joy! ❤ You guys. This girl is a dreeeeaaam! How obsessed is too obsessed because I am TOTALLY OBSESSED with my daughter! She is the sweetest little thing. So calm, so easy going, so so adorable. She has us all totally in love.
As I write this she’s really closer to being a month and a half, but man is it hard to stay on top of with things when you throw another kid in the mix…even if that kid sleeps half the day. There always seems to be a ton of stuff to do. I feel like I’m just now catching up on all the cleaning and regular house stuff I kind of ignored in our first few weeks home.
Oh well. Anyway. This is a Nora update so let me get started on all the wonderful things about this sweet girly…
Weight & Length: She didn’t have a one month checkup so the most recent stats come from her two week appointment. She was 20 inches tall (45th percentile) and 8 pounds even (51st percentile), which is 10 oz more than her starting weight. 🙂 Her head circumference is the only thing well above average, placing her in the 67th percentile (she can thank her father for that big ol’ noggin. More room for extra brains though, right?!).
Clothing: She’s in 0-3 month stuff for the most part, although some of her newborn things still fit. She’s pretty skinny everywhere except her little belly, which is adorably round. It makes it kind of tricky to find onesies that aren’t too tight around her middle and still fit her teeny arms and legs. Although to be honest I keep her in pj’s 95% of the time.
Hair & Eyes: She was born with lots of dark brown hair and those typical newborn gray eyes. Now sometimes I can see tints of red in her hair when she’s in the sunlight but I have a feeling it will stay fairly dark for awhile. Maybe a deep auburn someday? That would be gorgeous. It curls here and there too but not nearly as much as her dad’s hair does. I’m thinking it’ll be closer to my hair texture (wavy now, but ringlet curls when I was little). Her eyes have gotten bluer and bluer and I’m thinking they’re going to stay super light, which is surprising to me! Alex has brown eyes, I have green, and Jameson has dark hazel so I figured hers would be somewhere in that range too. But nope, girlfriend has the most beautiful baby blues. They totally melt me!
Sleep: I have to remember to thank her when she’s older for the blessing she has been in the sleep department. She goes down for the night around 8, wakes up around 3am to eat (and goes right back to sleep), eats again around 6, and then gets up for the day between 8-9am. Sometimes she only wakes up once during the night to eat! I feel like we totally skipped the hazy newborn sleep deprivation phase. She’s amazing. And even with all that good sleep at night she’s still napping like a champ really anywhere we put her during the day. The interesting thing is that she actually prefers not to be rocked to sleep (which is 100% different from her brother). Give her a blanket and a binkie and put her down by herself and she’s out within minutes. It’s the strangest thing. I’ve never met a baby like that before. She really loves having her own space at times. Of course she does like to be snuggled too but in general she is super low maintenance when it comes to sleep.
Eating: Nursing pretty much every 3 hours on the dot during the day (sometimes sooner if she’s a little grumpy). Another difference between Nora and Jameson that I’ve noticed is Nora will not nurse if she’s not hungry. With Jameson, I could pretty much use it to soothe him even if he had just eaten half an hour ago. Not the case with Nora. She actually gets kind of mad if you try to feed her before she’s ready haha.
Milestones: She has surprisingly good head and neck control for a one month old and she’s way more in tune with what’s going on around her these days (when she’s not sleeping that is, haha). She follows us with her eyes and turns her head to different sounds or new voices. We’ve gotten a few true smiles from her and once or twice I heard her giggle in her sleep, but no real laughs just yet. I can’t wait for that day though. 🙂 Baby laughs are the BEST.
Loves: Sleeping (of course), kisses from all of us (Jameson is especially sweet with this!), snoozing in the baby wrap, her binkie, holding onto something as she falls asleep (usually my shirt or this little bunny lovey we have), music (especially when Alex plays his guitar), and listening to mommy’s voice.
Hates: I’m having a hard time coming up with something she hates. Honestly she is such a happy, content little thing. I guess she’s not fond of her carseat sometimes and she does really despise having her nose cleaned out. But besides that she’s really a go-with-the-flow kind of kid.
She did sort of hate this outfit at first though hahaha.
Communication: She’s so much quieter than Jameson was. He was always grunting or making some sort of annoyed sound haha. Unless she’s hungry or getting tired, she’s pretty much quietly observing everything around her. She makes little cooing noises here and there and I can tell the difference between her different cries now. In fact I actually get excited when she cries for real because it’s so rare that I hear her little voice!
Things I want to remember: Your quizzical face (eyebrows all the way up, lips in a little “o,” big blue eyes as wide as they can go), how you grab onto my shirt when I’m holding you and you’re falling asleep, the way your whole little body relaxes and you sigh the second I pick you up, the way you watch my every move so intently as I’m holding you, how unbelievably sweet your brother is with you (asking where you are the second he wakes up in the morning, begging to hold you all the time, smothering you with kisses and hugs, and doing his best to help you when you’re upset), the way your hair curls up right at the top of your head, how your daddy calls you “Newt” haha, how sweet you smell all the time, and how you’re calmed instantly when you hear my voice.
Oh Nora, we just love you so much. You are such a beautiful blessing to our family and we adore everything about you. I can’t believe there was ever a time you weren’t here with us! You complete us so perfectly. Happy one month, sweetheart! <3
Milk with a Meal 