1 month

Being born in the unique month of February, Daphne hit both the 4 week and 1 month mark on Saturday. It's true what parents of 2+ say - not only is the transition from one to two pretty intense but it also goes by a lot faster than the first time. Her stats on Saturday were 11 pounds, 2 1/2 ounces, thanks to a baby scale I'm borrowing from a friend of a friend (easing my anxiety following our thankfully brief time in the "slow weight gain" category earlier in her first month). She's undeniably smiling now, with a fair amount of effort on our part. While Elias smiled at the "kissing fishes" in the bouncy seat, Daphne gives some of her best smiles to the elephant attached to the play mat. That, and big brother Elias. She immediately lights up whenever she sees him. He continues to be pretty darn adorable with her but has to be consistently reminded to be gentle, not get right in her face, not dangle things dangerously above her, etc. But so far, so good.

Otherwise, Daphne is nursing much better now than she was a couple of weeks ago, hence the steady weight gain. It's still a bit awkward to nurse in public but I'm told this gets better as the baby gets bigger (it never really did with Elias but then we weaned shortly after the 4 month mark, when I'm told it gets easier!). She's pretty floppy still so there's a lot of maneuvering that has to happen underneath a cover that doesn't want to stay in place! I started going to a free "baby & me" support group at the hospital where I delivered last week and there were a lot of bared breasts there. It dawned on me that at times in the Bay Area, a nursing cover will actually attract more attention than a little bare boob!

She continues to show some symptoms of reflux but still not to the point of Elias at this age. Because she seems particularly sensitive to my diet and after a few incidences of seeming to react to milk products in particular (cheesy lasagne, a milkshake shared with Eli, etc.), I first cut out obvious dairy but this past weekend cut out hidden dairy as well. I actually have a hunch it's totally coincidental but now that I've started I figure I might as well stick with it for the 3-4 weeks it can take for the milk protein to completely clear both my system and Daphne's. On the one hand, it might be nice to have an obvious cause to the fussiness and digestive discomfort which comes mostly at night (oh, the grunting!), but on the other hand, this diet is a drag. Nursing and otherwise caring for a newborn is hard enough; it would be nice to be able to eat whatever I want. Daytime meals and snacks are fine, if a bit boring after awhile since my options are somewhat limited, but dinners are tough. I'll stick it out until closer to the 2 month mark but so far, at least, we don't have a drastically different baby on our hands.

And she's certainly not fussy to the point of being "colicky", at least not yet, knock on wood. This may be more common baby fussiness with the mild reflux being a separate issue. At any rate, it should all clear within a few months. It's hard to be patient but I know, at the end of the day, that's really the only remedy to my stress and anxiety - to just be patient and ride out the newborn storm!