Our Joy and Blessing from Heaven: One Month Update!

Hello, friends and family! Annabelle is a little over a month now and growing like a weed! I can't believe how fast and slow the time has gone! She is doing great though and is such a good baby!

Last Wednesday, we went for her one month check up. Everything looks great except she's a little overweight! She is weighing in at about 8.4 pounds (she feels like she weighs 10). She has gained 800 grams (about 1.8 lbs) since she was born, and the normal weight gain is 600 grams (1.3 lbs). This is due to the fact that she is drinking formula and a lot of it! She was drinking 3-4 ounces of formula every 2 hours when, according to the doctor, she should only be drinking 3 ounces every 3 hours. We tried to do it his way, but she cried the whole night of hunger! So now, we're doing 3.5 to 4 ounces every 3 hours. She's just a little piggy! She even snorts like one!

My little chunky monkey on her one month birthday!

Due to her gluttonous appetite, she is now wearing 3 month clothes. I'm kind of happy about that cause she has a lot of cute 3 month outfits that I've been wanting to get her in! However, sometimes, she just wears a diaper because it's too hot for clothes during the day!

Developmentally, she seems to be coming along well. She can lift her head to a 45 degree angle. At about 3 weeks, she started recognizing faces. I was so excited about that! I remember one day saying that I wanted her to look at me in the face, and the next day, she did! She also grabs some things. One day, I got her to hold on to a rattle with a thin handle, but she didn't really get the point of rattling it! She does grab her pacifier and takes it out when she doesn't want it anymore!

Already a thinker!

Annabelle is really smart and already has a little attitude! She seems to listen when I talk to her. One day, I had to bathe her by myself (usually Luis or our house help helps me) and I asked her to to be good, and she was! She can get mad and feisty when she's hot or bothered or hungry, which of course is often. She grunts at us when we annoy her. One morning, she was laying asleep between Luis and I in bed while he and I were talking. She started grunting at us, and we stopped talking, she stopped grunting. She was mad that we were disturbing her sleep!

Full of personality!

Throwing a temper tantrum!

She does still do a lot of sleeping. She sleeps most of the day. Before, she would be up most of the night, but now, she's starting to sleep more at night and be awake more in the day. That helps Luis and I out a lot!

Sleeping in her crib

We have taken her out just a few times, but not a lot. In Nicaragua, most people don't take newborns out until they're 3 months. This is mostly cause of the heat and to keep them from being exposed to sickness. However, she's gone to her abuelita's (grandmother's) a couple of times, she went to Luis's brother's wedding, to the doctor's a few times, to the store once, to Tamara's house once, and yesterday, we went to immigration in Managua with her.

Dressed up for her Uncle Jonathan's wedding!

There are a lot of things that Annabelle likes:

riding in the car with air conditioning. She loves cooling off in the air and always sleeps peacefully when we go for a car ride!
visiting her abuelita (grandmother) aka Luis's mom. We've taken her a few times over there, and she just seems so content! It's probably because it's cooler and she gets held a lot!
She loves being held. Sometimes she'll cry just so we'll pick her up.

Sleeping on mommy's lap

Sleeping in the bed with mommy and papa. Sometimes we try to get her to sleep in the crib but she sleeps a lot better in the bed with us! I just have to be extra careful and not roll over at all.
Being clean. When she was just born, she hated bath time. Now, she seems to enjoy it and is calm most of the time. She only cries when she's ready for her bottle or the water's too cold!
Her soft bunny blanket. I introduced it to her a few days ago, and she seems to like the soft textures!

Bunny and Annabelle

Soothie pacifiers. I started giving her pacifiers a couple of weeks ago to see if it would help her to go back to sleep at night. She likes the soothie ones the best; the ones with the hole in the middle to put your finger in. It cracks me up though cause you can see her little mouth moving in the hole!

Here are a few things she doesn't like:

Being hot. She cries a lot just cause she's hot. That's normal for anyone.
Infant swaddlers. I have tried to put her in those things, but she will not have it! She'd rather be sprawled out.
Getting her nose cleaned out. There's been a lot of dust and smoke in our house (thanks to our great neighbors for burning their trash all the time). So she's been stuffed up, and I've had to clean her nose. She hates it!
Her play gym. I have a little musical play gym that has little animals that hang and a piano for her to kick her feet and play. Right now, I think it scares her. She cries when she kicks the piano or accidentally hits the toys. I'm hoping she'll grow to like it.

So that's what we know about Annabelle! There's so much that we've learned about her and about being parents this past month. I look forward to every day to see how she will grow and what she will do. We're so blessed to have her in our lives!

I'm looking forward to see what she will do this next month. I can't wait to see her really smiling and laughing and saying "ah-goo". I'll let you know when she does! Until next time, remember Annabelle in your prayers that she will continue to grow healthy and in God's ways. May God bless you!