McDaniel Family: Little Melody

Bringing in the New Year!!

Our baby girl is almost one month old and I can't believe how fast these first weeks have gone by! Time really does fly when the majority of her days are spent sleeping, eating, and diaper changing. Melody has begun to be more alert during the day and will spend an hour or two sometimes just looking around at things. She hasn't really been able to focus on Ryan or I yet, but I know she will soon start to recognize and turn towards the sound of our voices. Every once and awhile we'll catch a slight smile and I can't wait for her to do this more often!

So far she is healthy and doing really great overall. She is fussy at times, but for the most part she seems to be a pretty content little baby and loves to be held when she can :) She is a really good eater and has been gaining weight steadily these past three weeks. At her 2 week appt she was just above her birthweight at 8lbs 13 oz. When I had her in at three weeks, she already weighed 9lbs 6 oz...so she gained 9 oz in one week! At this rate she's gonna be out of her newborn diapers and clothes very soon! I'm so blessed that breastfeeding has gone well and she's getting enough to eat...even though it does feel like that's all I do day and night. The other night we gave her a bottle for the first time to see how she'd take to it, and she downed 3 oz in about 5 min! I'm still not a huge fan of pumping though, so we are going to gradually work our way into that routine when the time comes.

People keep asking me "how everything is going"...which has been somewhat hard to answer the first few weeks because I really hadn't been feeling like myself. I'd say something like "well Melody is doing great but I'm still trying to recover". Which is understandable, but I've had a more difficult time coping with my own recovery than embracing my new role as a mommy. Thankfully Ryan had been truly amazing and wonderful at being there for me as we are learning how to become parents together. The past few days I've actually felt a little more like myself and know that this adjustment period is only temporary. We have already learned so much about our little girl in just three weeks so we'll be "experts" in no time ;) She really is such a beautiful miracle and I find myself falling more in love with her each day that goes by.

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to so far:

my first bath