Dear Autumn @ 1 month-

  

December 2013

Dear Autumn-

You are 1 month old today. I still can’t believe you are here, let alone you’ve been here for a month. The month has just flown by.

I look at you and I am overcome with happiness. It’s a joy that comes from you making me a mom, a moment I’ll never forget. Your dad announced to me that you were a girl and right then we knew our little Autumn Olivia had arrived. This was a moment we happily waited for as it would change our lives in the most amazing ways.

When we found out you had an omphalocele it was like a punch to the gut. It was impossible to think of you being sick and having to struggle when you were first born. We just had to take things one day at a time learning more and more about what was going as you grew inside of me. Thankfully, as time went on we learned that you were healthy and that you would just need to face one surgery to correct the omphalocele. Still, that just seemed impossible to me. How could you just be born and need surgery so soon after? But that is what we were facing so we just trudged on waiting for the day to meet you and figure out more about the omphalocele.

Thankfully, when you arrived the Dr’s said the surgery was going to be ‘a piece of cake’ and you would do really well because you were so healthy. Every day when you were in the NICU you would reach another milestone and amaze us. You really shocked us as we were able to take you home just 7 days after you were born, instead of the month that we were warned about. So incredible!

And since then you have been delighting us with your growth, healthy appetite, strength, and beauty. You have been steadily been putting on weight (7 lbs 0oz at this mornings appointment!), much to my delight since it makes all the work related to pumping all worth it.  You have been eating more and more each week and are now around 3- 3 1/2 ounces each feeding. Oh man, you can be so hard to burp though! Your dad will have better luck getting you to burp at times. We are just happy to see that your cheeks and belly are filling out. Oh those cheeks, I just love to kiss them. And every now and then I love to sneak a kiss on your mouth which you open in response.

You definitely have my mouth, ears, and toes. While you have your daddy’s eyes, long lashes, and chin. We love your brown hair and how soft it is. We are hoping that it will grow in with a bit of a wave like your dad’s when his hair is long. We shall just have to wait and see that, as well as what color your eyes end up being as they are a striking dark blue now with a lighter blue ring right around your pupil.

You don’t really like tummy time but do well with holding your head up when we have you perched up on our chests and shoulder. You have become more and more observant to the world around you as you look around at Kemper or family who has visited. You’ve had some fussy days and nights but for the most part are pretty mellow. But when you are unhappy or hungry you really do let us know. You will wail and wail until the bottle is in your mouth and then, just like that, are happily gobbling it down. You actually do more yelling at us than crying, as you scream ‘ahhh’ vs ‘wahh’. You are a noisy sleeper and eater as you grunt and click all the time. Daddy jokes that you sound like a dolphin.

This month has been filled with so much joy that we can’t wait to see what the next month brings as you grow bigger and bigger each day and develop into a beautiful little girl.

I love you so much.

Love,

Mom