Samantha is one month old!

Samantha turned one month on February 4th. Sometimes it's hard to believe that she has only been in our lives for one month (and at this point was only supposed to have been in our lives for less than a week!).  Already she has grown so much.  At her one month appointment she weighed 8lbs 9oz, which is more than two pounds over her birth weight, and she is now 21 inches (up from 19 inches at birth).  Dr. Marshall said that she appears to be a really healthy baby.

Here is Samantha at one month:

For comparison, here she is at one week.

Samantha has been a wonderful baby.  She is even-tempered, sleeps a lot, likes to look around, and really loves to snuggle with her mommy and daddy.  And we love that we get to see her big beautiful eyes more and more as she has started to focus on objects for little bits of time (and we think look at us as well- although we're still not completely sure about this one).  

In her first month, Samantha has been a very good sleeper. Although, she does make the most ridiculous noises while she's sleeping (yep- somedays it sounds like we have a dolphin in the room and other days a mini-horse). Her first two weeks home she slept pretty much all day, and then would be wide awake when it was time to go to bed.  At one month she's settled into a routine of sleeping for about two or three hours during the day, waking up and nursing, playing for a half hour or so, and then going back to sleep.  During the night she's generally been sleeping from 11-2:30 or 3 and then again until 6 or 6:30.  We know we're pretty lucky.  Our favorite part of Samantha's sleeping routine is waking up time.  She is such a little stretchy-head when she wakes up from her naps (wonder where she got her stretching genes from?!)

Luckily for us Samantha really only cries when something is bothering her (in this case mommy making her take pictures when she wants to eat!)

And clearly, as her weight gain demonstrates, Samantha is eating like a champ (even this bear looks tasty in this moment!) From the beginning she's had a really good latch, and she has loved being breastfed, as evidenced by her epic burps!

Here's to month two with our little girl.  We love you, Samantha!