Happy one month birthday, Georgie girl!

This past month has felt both flown by and felt like one very long day and night. We survived the first four weeks, and that "we" includes Georgie. All in all, she has put up with her very inexperienced parents very well and is responding to us more and more - I love it when I can tell she recognizes me or my voice!

This month brought some unexpected challenges with it. Not only have we survived the sleepless nights, we have learned and re-learned and then re-learned again how to breastfeed. We survived Georgie choking and starting to turn blue on her first day home. We survived me having postpartum high blood pressure (basically pre-eclampsia, only after delivery) for two weeks. We survived Georgie not gaining enough weight and the accompanying guilt and extra feedings. We survived finding not one, but two black widow spiders in our living room (plus one outside our bedroom window). We survived my having the beginnings of a yeast infection, which then developed into an allergic reaction to something (still not sure what) that spread across my chest, down my arms, and up my face, swelling one of my eyes almost completely shut. Who knew that my health would be the roadblock to a smooth first month at home?

Mostly, we have learned so much in our Parenting 101 crash course. For example, we've learned that the less sleep I get, the less I am able to cope with a crying baby who won't eat no matter what I do and when I start crying too, it's time for Tim to step in. We've learned Tim's still got mad staying up all night skills when the situation calls for it (and I bless him for it). We learned that setting up a crib in your bedroom doesn't mean that's where the baby will be the happiest sleeping. Cleaning your kitchen takes a very far backseat to sleeping when we get the chance. And having something to watch during the long hours of the night not only makes them go a little faster, it also helps us stay awake. 

Most of this month has been operated in survival mode - one meal at a time, one load of laundry at a time, one hour of sleep at a time - and I'm not afraid to admit it. Just the fact that we made it this far is enough for me. It has felt like a "two steps forward, one step back" dance so being able that we have made progress is very rewarding. We're on the other side of a month and I know that in another month, things will be different again. Maybe not better, but different. Today I took Georgie for a walk, and tomorrow we will attempt to go to church. Slowly, something resembling normal life is creeping back into our home. Par for the Parenting 101 course, I think. It helps that Georgie is so stinkin' cute, makes it easier to remember why we decided to sign up for this course in the first place. And I know that someday, probably sooner than I think, I'll be looking back on all this fondly and wishing a little bit that my girl could be so tiny again.