Month 1

I cannot believe Ella is already 1 month old. It feels just like yesterday that I was holding her in my arms for the first time. My little miracle! What a month it has been. You ask, "Is motherhood everything you thought it would be?" Yes. I love being a mom. My life is never boring nor slow anymore. Every minute of my life now revolves around this precious little girl.

The First Month:
Along with parenthood being wonderful it is also the hardest thing I have ever done! People always say it's difficult but until you are in the midst you have no clue. Ella is going to be a very intense person. At the end of month one she intensely eats, intensely stares and intensely cries! Also, she won't dirty a dirty diaper, which I find hilarious. If you change her pee diaper as soon as you finish swaddling her perfectly, she poops and wants to be changed!

She sleeps okay. She now sleeps for 4 -5 hour stretches then when she wakes up around 1:30 she likes to stay up for 2.5 hours before going back to bed which usually winds her up sleeping on my chest on the couch. She sleeps long and wonderfully!

Ella's day usually consist of: waking up, eating, contentment time (she just stares and seems happy), followed by crying, then swaddled, held, swing and/or bouncy seat, nap. Eat, 2 minutes content time, crying, swaddling being held then swing and/or bouncy seat. Repeat!

I am so thankful to have read The Happiest Baby on the Block this week. It was wonderful and a true sanity saver for me. We are now only 2 weeks away till the peak of her crying and then slowly it will get less and less.

This month she experienced her first Christmas and what a wonderful first Christmas it was for her. She got so many things that I know she loves! Christmases in the Crabtree household will never be the same again, they will be so much better than they ever were!

I know it sounds like I'm complaining but I'm not. I am just telling it like it is. If I said everything about parenthood was always sunshiny and smiles I would be lying. It is the toughest thing I have ever done but it is also the thing that has made me the happiest person too. She is my world and I love her more than anything. She is worth every dirty diaper I have changed, every tear that I have cried and all the electricity I will use because of the swing.