Mabel's First Month

Stats: At her two week appointment, Mabel weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces (27th percentile) and was 20.75 inches long (78th percentile).  She's grown out of her newborn clothes and is filling out her 3 month clothes already.  She seems so big to me, so we weighed her last night and she is already 9 pounds! 

One thing you might notice is that she has a birthmark along her hairline.  It's a benign tumor called a Nevus Sebaceous, and is pretty rare (0.3% chance of occurrence).  There are some pretty scary rare diseases associated with it, but given it's size and placement, our pediatrician and the dermatologist are pretty confident that it will just be a cosmetic thing.  The size of it will grow along with her.  It may have some appearance changes through puberty (become warty) and has a ~1% chance of becoming cancerous during adulthood.  We were given several options regarding removal, one of which is to leave it alone for now, so we'll cross that bridge later.

Sleep:  Sleep is typical for a newborn.  Seems like she has sleepy days and nights and then more active/ awake days and nights.  Sometimes we get nice back-to-back 3 hour stretches, but sometimes (like last night) the longest stretches we get are 1.5 hours.  Those nights are tough.

She is the loudest sleeper ever.  Tons of grunts, snores, etc.

The easiest way to get her to sleep is to put her in the Ergo wrap and walk around.  Otherwise, she likes rocking in our old squeaky wood rocking chair.  She's mostly sleeping in the Rock-n-play or the Ergo wrap.

Eat: She's eating like a typical newborn as well.  Nursing is going well, thank goodness.

We've also tried bottles.  Usually about every other day with just an ounce or so.  She doesn't love them, but she is drinking from them.  Hopefully she'll continue to take them!

She does have pretty bad reflux.  She gets hiccups after every meal, and she'll throw up an entire meal every other day or so.  Makes laundry loads of fun!  The doctor said that so long as it's not affecting her eating and growth, they typically don't treat it since she'll grow out of it in a few months.

Play/ Milestones: Other than eating and sleeping, Mabel enjoys being in the Ergo wrap.  I think she also enjoys taking baths. 

We have set up a movement mat in the living room with some black and white prints and a Munari inspired mobile.  She enjoys it (in limited quantities).

Other than her fussy "witching hour" (which can be anywhere from an hour to four hours in the evening), we enjoy her funny faces and generally chill attitude.

We love family time with Mabel!