Our Suburban Farm: Elijah: 1 month

Dear Elijah,
As I type this, you are curled up sleeping on my chest in our woven wrap. Being curled up on my chest is your favorite place to be. It is also my favorite place for you to be. I can cuddle you and hold you and kiss the top of your head. (I can also get stuff done around the house!) I cannot believe that you have been with us a whole month already. Time flies so fast. At the same time, you are so much a part of who we are, I cannot believe you have not been here always. Though I am sad you aren't my teeny newborn any more, I love seeing you grow into your personality and do new things every day!

Your daddy and I love you so much; it isn't even possible to try putting it into words. We tell you how much we love you about 6 million times a day. I probably give you twice that many kisses. (Daddy wishes he could give you that many kisses, but unfortunately he has to work during the day.) As soon as your daddy gets home from work he takes you from me and gives you lots of cuddles and chats with you about your day. We tell each other over and over how wonderful you are!

I like to call you my chunky monkey because you are doing such a good job growing! Even though you had us a little worried when you lost too much weight at the hospital, we aren't worried any more! You love to eat! It makes me so happy that I can give you exactly what you need. I love being able to do that for you. I also like to call you my Love Bug, Little Man, and Cuddle Bear and Daddy laughs at me. But I hear him calling you his Peanut and Pumpkin.

Your updates:

Weight: 11 pounds 13 ounces! (Funny story: the nurse weighed you and left the room. Then she came back in because the NP questioned the weight because you jumped so much. She weighed you again and it was right!)

Height: 22.25 inches

Clothes: Totally wearing 0-3 clothes. And probably not for long. I was worried about not being able to wear them all before you get too big, but some days we go through 3 outfits, so we should be fine! You are long in the torso though, so some would be big enough, they just aren't very long! But in pants you still can wear some newborn (from Target) because your legs aren't very long!

Diapers: Cloth diapering is going really well! You are now in the bigger NB sizes and even some OS diapers! I am glad we are doing cloth because though you have about 8-12 diaper changes a day, some diaper changes we go through 3 diapers because your favorite time to go to the bathroom is in a fresh diaper or into the open air! You like to keep us on our toes! We have more than saved our money even with just the newborn diapers so far! And they are so darn cute! For disposables you are in size 1.

Sleep: Most nights you sleep 3-4 hours for your first stretch. One night you even did 5 (Mommy didn't)! After that you sleep about 2-2.5 hours. You like to sleep most of the day too. As long a Mommy is holding you. This week you slept in the Rock N Play for an hour while I took a nap! That was awesome! All my other naps have been when Daddy, Grandma, or Auntie Erin were with you. You are starting to have a little more awake time too! It is fun to see you look around!

Eating: You LOVE to eat! We try to have you eat about every 2 hours during the day to encourage longer sleeping at night. I just love being able to provide you with all you need to be a healthy growing boy! When you are hungry you like to suck on everything around you and try to climb up our chests. We don't know where you are trying to go!

Likes: Being worn. It is your favorite thing. Ever. You like your pacifier as long as someone is holding it in your mouth for you (we think it is a trick to be near us). You love to listen to loud country music in the car and you like when I sing you showtunes.

Dislikes: The car seat. You are pretty sure it is the worst thing that has ever been invented. Sometimes when I turn the music up loud you will calm down, but you HATE commercials or anytime the music stops. You also don't like to be alone. You want to be with your favorite people all the time. You aren't really into anything except being held right now. Aunt Suey says she called your daddy a curmudgeon when he was a baby. You are a bit the same when you don't get your way!

Oh! And this: You are a very noisy baby. You make super adorable sounds all day. Sometimes you make chipmunk sounds and sometimes you make hamster sounds. You also like to grunt and let us know when you are displeased. When you are laying on our chests, you like to stretch your neck and scrunch your face and move it around and we like to say that you look like a baby dinosaur! You also have the very best facial expressions. Sometimes I take 20 pictures in 60 seconds of all of your hilarious facial expressions!

New Tricks: You smiled at me yesterday when I was giving you lots of kisses on your cheeks! It was wonderful! You definitely like to grab onto things. When I am holding you, you will wrap one arm around me and use the other one to hold onto my shirt. I love it because it is like you are hugging me! You even push the pacifier away when you don't want it! You are a very smart boy! You have also started sticking your tongue out a little bit. It is very cute!!