Juliet is 1 Month!

General 
Juliet is a little lovey!  She is just the cutest squeakiest baby.  I love the baby falling asleep on my feeling, so warm and cuddly.  She has brown hair but it is starting to fall out (Ellie's did the same thing then took a LONG time to grow back, but grew back lighter).  Her eyes are the typical newborn grey/blue color and I look forward to seeing what color the end up! Sometimes I forget that she isn't the same baby as Ellie, but I get such deja vu!  She looks a lot like Ellie and wears the same clothes so I forget she is her own person!

Feeding/Sleeping
Juliet is doing pretty well for a newbie!  We usually put her down at around 9/9:30 pm and she wakes up for the first time around 1 am.  It takes a while to settle her down and get her back to sleep after nursing (she seems to get very burpy/gassy) so the whole feeding/rocking process takes about an hour +.  She wakes up again usually around 5 am.  If I am lucky I can feed her and get her back to sleep and grab a little more shut eye before Ellie wakes up between 6-6:30 am.  We moved her out of our room (aka the dining room) this past week and put her in the living room because, similar to Ellie, she makes noises in her sleep all night long and it keeps us up! So we have the monitor on her and we can hear when she REALLY wakes up instead of every squeak, and this has improved our sleep a little. So sleep is ok but not great!  Brian tries to go up and get Ellie in the morning but sometimes she wants to come downstairs and see mommy so that means I get up too. 

She nurses a lot during the day and I tend to feed her whenever she fusses to make sure I am filling her up during the day instead of at night.  She does pretty well during the day with nursing, I honestly don't know how often she feeds because I will nurse her a lot during the day.  She has a couple of witching hours between 5-8ish at night which makes the whole routine of getting Ellie's dinner and putting her to bed a challenge if I am the only one home.  It has been a life saver having my mom here because most night's Brian doesn't get home until after Ellie goes to bed.  

I have been pumping usually around 1 time a day on 1 side to get about 4 oz just to get a stash going but we haven't introduced a bottle yet, but probably will in the next week or two to get her used to it.  We bought a big freezer chest because freezer space in my mom's refrigerator is at a minimum.  I am overly excited about the freezer because 1) I can start a major stash of breastmilk in there and 2) I love to have frozen meals/bread on hand!  Right now the freezer is at our house but we need to move it to my mom's in case the builders decide to turn off the electricity during construction at our house (in which case I would lose my stash and be so sad).  


2 Under 2 
Ellie is doing pretty well with the adjustment of having a sibling.  She loves to give Juliet kisses (which she does about 20 times a day) but she is struggling with her gentle touches a bit.  Sometimes she throws some tantrums if I am holding Juliet and she wants to be picked up.  She does like to help out with diaper changes and other baby things! There is a constant struggle of feeling like I am not giving my full attention to either child...it is so hard to hold Juliet when she needs to be held (which feels like all the time) but also tend to Ellie!

Ellie was cutting some teeth for a while there so that was pretty rough and the tantrums picked up but right now she is doing pretty well.  We have started to do more "Time out" sort of discipline which she is somewhat responsive to.  Some days when she doesn't get a long enough nap or doesn't sleep well at night she can be quite a screamy mess and she sure does know how to push my buttons!  I can tell the terrible twos are coming if they haven't started already!  She is generally pretty good when we are out of the house and I think she gets fussy when we are cooped up inside too much.  Hopefully the winter won't be too bad with us having to be indoors more.  

Recovery
I loved being pregnant but here are some things I don't miss:

*feeling like i have to pee every 10 minutes.  Seriously I now can go hours without peeing, imagine that!  I can't believe how often I used to have to go while pregnant.

*Not being able to tie my shoes without groaning.  I also like that I can pick up Ellie and carry her much easier than I could while pregnant.  

*Not being able to each much at a time.  I feel like I am twice as hungry now that there isn't a baby crowding my stomach.  And nursing ups my appetite dramatically.  

*Wine!  I haven't enjoyed a full glass yet because I am breastfeeding quite frequently, but I enjoy a half glass or so most nights!  Once Juliet is more predictable with feedings I will feel more comfortable with a full glass. 

I am currently about 2+ lbs from my pre pregnancy weight, so that is good.  I still have a bit of a pudgy belly, but hopefully that will go down over the coming months.  I am back in my normal clothes which is nice! 

House
The house is moving along well.  It was going pretty slow there for a few weeks but Brian basically started yelling at our builder to hurry things up and they have put more people on the job so that is good.  We have interior walls up which makes it seem a lot more real!  Hopefully the plastering will be done in a few days and then a week after that Brian and I will get in there to do some painting before all the interior trim goes up!