Hazel is 1 Month

A few days old, and at 1 month

The first week after Hazel's birth was rough.  It had been a while since I had nursed a baby, and so my nipples were super sore.  At one point Hazel sucked a chunk of skin off my nipple.  It KILLED every time she sucked on that side.  And then my milk came in.  I always get super engorged.  So that KILLED too.  I tried to use my little crappy pump to relieve some pressure on the injured side and as soon as the pump started solid red blood started coming out.  I didn't know what to do.   How could I feed Hazel on that side without her drinking pure blood (and hurting painfully)?  And how could I relieve the pressure if I couldn't pump or let her drink that side?  Fortunately I went outside and was talking with some of my neighbors.  One lady had a baby 3 weeks before Hazel was born.  She said she had extra nipple shields and gave me some.  I had never used those or even heard of them before.  But they worked amazingly.  Somehow that tiny little plastic piece allowed Hazel to nurse on my injured nipple without drawing blood.  It didn't hurt at all.  Everyone should use those things.  I used it for 3 or 4 days so my nipple had time to heal, then when I stopped using it the painful stage was over.  But I have the best friends and April brought me a Jamba Juice one day.  It was delicious, but it doubled as an ice pack for my massively engorged boobs.

Hazel was a super sleep baby, but nights with her were difficult.  I had friends talk about their kids being up for hours in the night and how they had "nights and days confused".  I never knew what they were talking about.  I just thought, put them down and night and don't let them stay up for hours.  But then I had Hazel.  She would wake up around 2 am to nurse and just wouldn't go back to sleep.  I would rock her and try everything to get her back down, but nothing worked for 1 or 2 hours.  I was getting so frustrated and didn't know what to do.  I was completely exhausted.  I think the only way I managed was that Isaac had 2 weeks of paternity leave so he would get up in the morning and get the older kids off to school.

I think Isaac had a good taste of what it's like to stay home.  Sophie and Aspen started school the day or two after I got home from the hospital.  He had to go to Aspen's meet and greet with her teacher.  And took Luke to the grocery store without me.  He wasn't thrilled about doing those things, but was a lot of help.  We also went for a walk every day after Sophie and Aspen went to school.

 I love her "satisfied" face after she's done nursing.  And baby yawns are the cutest.

Once I caught her sleeping with Frankenstein arms.  And another time she was dreaming about "don't shoot". 

Eventually I read an article about kids being awake in the night.  It talked about kids needing to build "sleep pressure" before they can fall back to sleep.  So we changed a few things with the way Hazel napped during the day and when she woke up in the morning, and the nights started to improve.  But Hazel was a super noisy sleeper and made tons of grunting and choking sounds in her sleep.

She loves baths now that she can sit in the warm water.  She didn't like the first few when she had to have sponge baths.

She is wearing a cute outfit my friend, Tessa, gave her.  She looks so small in her carseat.

Other than the sleep issues, Hazel is such a good baby.  She nursed really well and was super sleepy during the day.  But she is a spitter.  Hazel spits up a lot.  You can see it oozing out of her mouth in the picture above.

She is so cute and sweet to snuggle.  Sophie, Aspen, and Luke love her so much.  It's a full time job to keep them away from smothering her all the time.  And poor Hazel baby has to put up with a lot of noise from her siblings.  But we all sure love sweet baby Hazel.