4 WEEKS

(I started writing this yesterday, but never got a chance to finish...Let's just pretend it's still 17 Jan 2011)

Little Natalie Marie is FOUR weeks old today! I figured if I am going to do this blogging thing, it's now or never. I haven't written a real update since I had her! The last four weeks have been nothing short of challenging.

Our first week with Daddy home was awesome! He helped with anything and everything and it was so good to spend time with him before he left. His last day here was New Years and with a baby under 2 weeks we had to stay in. We all passed out before midnight-- I woke up at 12:05 and was like I missed it! Awwwwww! And Seth said he fell asleep at about 11:45pm.

After Seth left us my Mom moved in. :) She stayed for a little less than 2 weeks and she was loving it! My family is completely in love with her. Having my Mom here was great. She helped change diapers and entertain/hold her. I didn't know until she went home how nice it is just to have someone else to give the baby to for a minute while I get something done or after I have been holding her ALLLLLL day.

We started cloth diapers at a little over a week old. It's definitely more laundry but it's not hard and, to me, the benefits of using cloth are way more than that of disposables. I will definitely be sticking with them-- hopefully until she's potty trained! I also ordered a couple All in One's that should be coming in the mail. They are a bit more expensive than the prefolds/covers but cottonbabies.com had BG AIO 3.0s on sale so I got 2 of them. I am excited to try them out because I think they will be great for the diaper bag. I never thought of how much [ S P A C E ] prefolds occupy in the diaper bag.

When I was pregnant, especially towards the end, I said that I hoped Natalie was as melo on the outside as she was inside the womb. :) Obviously, newborns sleep a LOT but she really is a great, calm baby. Until recently she never even fussed unless she was hungry or wet. Now, I think she's starting to wake up a little bit and has gotten a bit fussier. A couple days this week, she was awake and fussy for the majority of the evening but one night she slept from 1am to 6am and the next from 12am to 5am. The first night REALLY wore me out but I was thankful she slept a bit longer. Anywho, I do get to sleep sometimes so it's not SO bad.

We have made a couple of ventures out into the great wide open. Haha Natalie has been to Best Buy, American Fidelity, her first baby shower, and 3 trips to the mall! For 2 of the trips to the mall and the time we went to Best Buy we used the MobyWrap! I love it! The first couple times we used the cradle carry and she slept through the trips but I wasn't doing it exactly right. The most recent time I used it we used the newborn hug hold and she LOVED it! Though it ended up being a bit hot, she slept the ENTIRE time. We will definitely be using that again. I don't know how long we were there but we did quite a bit of walking with no back/shoulder/neck pain at all! I will say it beats using the stroller at the mall (especially Quail Springs Mall, where they only have ONE FREAKING ELEVATOR IN THE ENTIRE MALL!WTF)! But that said, she liked riding in the stroller too, it was cute to see her face when we rolled over the tile floor and it made the stroller ride a bit bumpy--like the car, it puts her to sleep!

We are still nursing and it's going great. She hasn't had a bottle yet (except in the NICU) but I may have to start her on one soon if I want her to take it!

Today we went to the grocery store to buy tickets to see Jimmy Eat World on Jan 29th (and I bought oreos and milk!) The only other time we have been apart since she was born was last week when I went to dinner with some friends. I missed her but it was also a great time! That was the most fun I have had in a while and I got to indulge in my first post-baby alcoholic beverage!

Well, I'm sure this is long enough now that no one will even read it so I will try to update more so my entries are not so long!