Dear Jane, Month # 1

I can't believe you're a month old already! Five weeks tomorrow, actually.
I just wanted to bullet point some things about your very fist month

• You were greeting into this world with so many people who love you. Seriously, so many people are obsessed with you. I don't think I've ever had so much facebook activity as the day I posted our good news.
• You had a brief stay in the NICU, where you won the hearts of even more people. Those nurses loved you! And you only had to be there for 48 hours. You're a rock star. 
• You lost your voice for the first time when you were just 2 days old. You would try to cry, but no sound would come out, it was the saddest thing!
• For the first couple of weeks you basically slept all of the time when you weren't eating, but now you go through periods of time where you're awake and it's so much fun to see. 
• Just recently your face has started to become more developed, rather than having the scrunchy newborn look.
• Your eyes are my favorite. They are such a beautiful shape. 
• You have decided to hate your car seat. You cry and cry every time you're put in it until you fall asleep. I always feel so bad that I can't comfort you and stop your cries while I'm driving. 
• We have discovered that (to use my friend Vienna's word) you are quite persnickety. You like to be bounced in a very particular way, you're particular about they way you're fed, etc. You like to be upright with your head against my chest while I bounce up and down. Sometimes you like to lean your head to the side while I hold it in my hand, which is the strangest of things, but so very cute. If your bottle slips out or you have to cough or basically if your eating gets disrupted in anyway you get super mad. I totally understand. 
• Also, if you don't want your bottle you swat it away with your hand. I don't know if you're actually coordinated enough to do that on purpose, but you do it an awful lot, so it makes me wonder....
• It's probably too early to tell, but we feel like you may be a stubborn little soul, which is fine, because I'm a stubborn one myself. 
• you love for me to pump you up in the air like i'm lifting weights. The little guy always says, "Fly Baby Jane!" whenever I do it, which is the cutest thing ever. It's a pretty great work out for my arms as well. 
• Speaking of the little guy, he loves you. He sometimes has a hard time sharing the attention, but he's always asking to hold you, bringing you your binky, etc. Lately he's been asking me to sing him Tale as Old as Time (which is, of course, like the one Disney song I don't know the words to) when I put him to bed and the other day when you were crying he came over and sang it to you. My heart melted into a big puddle. 
• We discovered that you have acid reflux, which explains why you fuss so much after feedings and why you wouldn't eat too much at once. You seem to be doing so much better now though! 
• You really love your swing! You prefer to have us push you in it rather than having it rock you because we can push it must more quickly.   
• Your umbilical cord seemed to take forever to come off, but it finally did just after you were 3 weeks old and we were able to give you your first real bath! I was a little nervous because you had hated your sponge baths so badly, but you LOVED taking a real bath and now you always cry when I take you out. 
• You often fall asleep with your mouth open.
• For the first couple of weeks you liked to be swaddled, but after that you decided you were finished with that business. You can get out of basically any swaddle; you just wiggle and wiggle until your arms are free. The trouble is you won't stay asleep very well if you're not swaddled because you like wiggling so much, so we're at a crossroads, which usually involves me swaddling you in secret once you're asleep. 
• We LOVE watching you move and wiggle. Your movements are almost robotic looking sometimes, especially when you're upset. We just love watching you discover how your little arms and legs work. 
• You're not super fond of your pacifier, but you seem to be liking it more and more. You especially like the soothie ones that we got from the hospital. Naturally you would prefer those over the really cute sea horse, whale, and fish ones I got you, haha. 
• Your neck muscles are already SUPER strong because you always lift up your head when anyone sets you on their chest. I think it's because you're trying to find a more comfy spot, which you usually don't find until we get up and bounce with you. And also probably because of your reflux. Silly girl.
• You successfully avoided the stomach flu. Everyone else in the family got it but you. We were so glad you didn't get it! I was so worried that I made Jayson stay home from church on the Sunday that I had it and take care of you all day long so that I wouldn't spread it to you. It was crazy how much I missed holding you after just one day. 

I know already posted newborn pictures, but I thought it would be fun to compare!

This one is blurry, but when I was looking through the pictures for the post I saw it and I knew I had to post it. You still make this exact face ALL of the time, particularly when you want to eat or when you're calming down from crying. It's one of my favorites. 

You still make this face too. We call it your scrunch face. 

One week, making that face again!

Two weeks!

Three weeks. I think this is when you really started changing a lot!

 
And...ONE MONTH!

And more pictures, just for fun. 

See? Mouth wide open.

I wish it was warm enough for you to just hang out in your onesies because I think you're just the cutest in them!

This is your little scowl face that you make when you're upset.

First bath!

Don't be fooled by this, you really do hate your car seat, I promise.

One time you held up your bottle all by yourself!

Jane,

We just love you more than we can ever say.  It has been so much fun to watch you grow and learn. We love this stage and you're just growing so fast! We're excited to see what the next stages bring as well though. We are probably biased, but we think you're the prettiest baby that we ever did see. We are truly so blessed to have you in our lives. In the words of Flynn Rider, "You were a princess worth waiting for."