One month old!

Today, Ellie turned one month old! Can you even believe it? I know I can't!!

She's grown up SO much in the past month and it's so crazy that it has gone by so fast! She's starting to smile for real when she's alert and awake but is still figuring it out. She is a very good and happy baby and only fusses if she needs to burp more or if I'm not quick enough to feed her.

She's super great at taking naps during the day, and is getting better at sleeping during the night. She usually sleeps 4-5 hours between feedings at night, with exception to her second night feeding where she decides that it's super awake time/fussy time. I can usually get her to calm down and fall asleep after 30-60 minutes of her laying on my chest, or her lying next to me. She just LOVES to be close to us. We're trying to keep her more awake during the day to help her sleep at night and usually it works pretty well.

Things she loves:

• Bath time--if she is fussy at night, we give her a bath and she calms right down. She's going to be a little water baby!
• Cuddling with mom or dad--she will settle right down if you just snuggle her up to your chest most times and I LOVE to snuggle with her.
• Sitting in her bouncy seat.
• Listening to mom or dad talk and sing.
• Being carried in the baby carrier while mom is trying to get things done around the house.

Things she doesn't really like:

• Tummy time--she usually fusses for the first little bit of tummy time, but once she is there for a bit she starts to enjoy it.
• Getting put in the car seat--she doesn't like the initial sitting in the car seat, but calms down once we're in the car.
• The swing--the swing we have right now is a small travel swing (we have a full-sized one, it's just in Roosevelt right now so who knows if she will like that one!?) I think the one we have scares her because it goes too fast even on the very lowest setting.

I'm happy to report that she weighs about 8 lbs 8 oz and is starting to get a little bit of chub on her little legs. She's still wearing newborn clothes, but the newborn onesies are starting to be too short. We've put her in a couple 0-3 outfits and they don't drown her so much anymore. We can also put socks on her little feet without them falling off because her ankles FINALLY have some chub on them! She still wears newborn size diapers still, but I'm sure she'll be in size 1 soon.

She's such a joy and I LOVE being home with her. Sadly I can't stay home with her forever, as I am returning to work in about 3 weeks. However, I will only be working for about 9 weeks after I go back! Hooray! Because our schedules don't mesh perfectly, we needed to hire someone to watch Ellie for about 9-10 hours a week. I am happy to say that we hired someone through care.com and I am pretty confident that she will be a good fit for us.

In other news, we are still waiting on security clearance for David's internship. KAPL (Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory) called David a while ago to let him know they have a new way of doing fingerprinting. It is digital and will shorten the wait time of the security clearance anywhere from 2-3 weeks. Here's the catch--the fingerprinting has to be done at one of their facilities. Uggh! So, David is flying to Idaho on the 10th to get fingerprints and flying back home on the 11th. Good thing they're paying for all of it!

We're staring to look for apartments in the Albany area, and I have NO idea what we're going to end up doing! Everything is kind of waiting on the clearance because David won't have a start/end date for the internship until the clearance goes through. Hopefully it's done soon and we'll know when we're leaving, coming back and where we'll be living!

That's about all that we're up to these days. We're still both adjusting to being parents and dealing with sleep deprivation and stress but we wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

Enjoy the pictures from Ellie's first month of life!