The Pate Potpourri: Greta At 1 Month!

I cannot believe my infant daughter is 1 month old!!! It has flown by so quickly! I feel like I am getting to know her and understand her a little bit more as each day passes. I knew that she would be a different baby from Ava, I just didn't know how different. I didn't know what to expect from her. So, it has been fun figuring her out! :)

Here are some things I am learning about her:

She likes to sleep on my chest ALL THE TIME!! Since she is not my only child to look after, I have had to find another way for her to get sleep. The answer for us and for her has been swaddling. With Ava, we only swaddled at night so that she would know the difference between night and day. With Greta, we swaddle at every nap AND nighttime. That snug-as-a-bug feeling is the only thing that works for her (so far)
She HATES her pacifier (most of the time) In a whole month, she has taken her pacifier maybe 10 times. Hopefully this means she will not want it in the future (which means that we don't have to wean her from it. Yay!!)
She likes quiet. Everyone told us that the second child is more accustomed to sound because they are used to hearing it in the womb. Not our child! When the TV is on and Ava is in the same room, Greta gets very fussy. It is way too much stimulus for her. I can usually get Ava to whisper and turn the TV down lower. That usually does the trick.
I have to fight her to get her to drink her formula. She does not just willingly accept her bottle. She puts her hands on her face and pulls and scratches. I usually have to hold her hands down to get the bottle in her mouth. Then it is smooth sailing!!! :)
I am learning that she has MY personality!!! She likes things to be just so. She functions very well in a schedule. When we run a lot of errands during the day and get off schedule a little bit, she does not thrive well. But, since I also function well in a schedule, it is easy for me to keep her on one. So, she usually does very well.

Here are a few funny things about Greta:

She has a cry that sounds like a kitten hissing. It is usually when we are in the car (and she is in her carseat) that she uses this cry. She will make a spitting sound that I remember a kitten sounding like. It is pretty funny! I call it her "hissy-fit."
She has a look that I call the "Griphook" look. If you have seen the Harry Potter movies, then you may recall the look Griphook gave Harry Potter in the very first movie when Harry was able to present a key to his bank vault at Gringotts. It is a narrowing of the eyes with a slight turn of the head. It is so funny! Greta has given that look to me on several occasions!
She is very hard to burp. I usually have to hold her away from me and sit her on may lap to burp her. Every once in while, she will let out a really big burp and it will scare her. She will jump and look around to see where the sound came from!

Milestones and General Information:

Greta does very well at tummy time. She can usually endure about 10-15 minutes at a time.
She can now hold her head and chest up for a few seconds at a time.
When she does hold her head up, she can turn her head side to side.
Today is actually the day after her 1 month birthday, but I will post this anyway. She can roll over from stomach to back. Yay! She did it five times today! I could tell she was pleased with herself because she smiled when she did it. It probably helped that Ava and I were standing there cheering her on. We both gave her a big applause!
She eats about 2.5-4 oz at each feeding.
She is in a size 1 diaper.
She is still in newborn clothes (not for long, though)
She only wakes up 1 time at night.
She is really beginning to settle in to her feed, wake, sleep routine. (Babywise schedule)
She can handle about 45 minutes to 1 hour of waketime after her feedings. We are slowly working up to 1.5 hours of waketime before a 1.5 hour nap.
She smiles a lot in her sleep and will occasionally laugh in her sleep. I am sad to say, though, that she gave her first "real"smile to someone at church. It was after VBS one night when a friend of ours walked over to talk and say hi. He had not seen Greta yet, so he was looking at her and talking to her. Greta turned her head away from me and looked at him and smiled. It was pretty precious!
Greta really enjoys bathtime! I give her a bath in the kitchen sink and she just looks around and takes it all in. She loves when I pour warm water over her shoulders and belly. Bathtime is one of my favorite times with her!

Miss Greta Elizabeth is a sweet, precious, baby. I am pretty sure that she will be a cuddler. She is pretty calm most of the time and seems to be temperamentally easy. God has blessed us again!!

Here are some pictures taken of Greta throughout this first month of her life: