Tayls of Life, Love, & Babies: Camille Penelope

Our little Camille Penelope is one month old! It seems as if she's been here much longer though......we've come a long way in a month. The first week was interesting, I came home from the hospital on Thursday and then the next day Gabrielle started her 10 spring break. Nick worked a half day on Friday but then basically went back full time the next week, so I had all three kids by myself. We did something each day; went to the library, to a friends house, or saw grandparents. The week went pretty well, just exhausting. Camille hated her pack 'n play we set up in our room and completely refused to sleep in there after a couple of nights. I'd feed her and then it would take 30-60 minutes to get her back to sleep just to have her wake again soon. She ended up in bed with me or in the bouncy chair on our bed a lot that week. I broke down and bought a Rock 'n Play which every mother on earth has raved about. I bought one that rocked itself with a motor and Camille has done well in there since.

Gabrielle has done really well with her sister and loved to hold her all the time the first week she was home. She is still interested, though I think will enjoy it more once Camille can play/sit up/do other things besides eat and cry. Oliver struggled a little bit the first week - he was just a little off. He was more hyper and more emotional than usual. That only lasted about a week, now he's back to his old self and probably doesn't even remember not having a baby sister. He always runs over and piles her hats and blankets on top of her. Him and I had a much needed date when Camille was 11 days old - we went to lunch together at Applebees. He was so excited to do something with just me, he hugged and kissed every person in the house goodbye when we left. He told me "I'll be your date mommy, I'll hold your hand and give you hugs and kisses". So cute!! He calls Camille "our baby" and asks "where's our baby?" or "is our baby coming with us?". Gabrielle mostly calls her "sissy" and says "I'm going to marry sissy when I grow up!"

Between week 2-3 Camille was pretty fussy. We are figuring out her little schedule and that she HATES to be tired (or hungry of course). She has been doing pretty well at night; she has been swaddled intermittently but I've stopped doing it because she hated getting in it and it didn't make her sleep any longer than unswaddled. She was doing 2-3 hour stints at night for the first couple of weeks and lately she has been doing 3-6 hour stints. Typically going to bed between 9-10pm. She'll either wake around 2/3am and around 6/7am or 1/2am and 4/5am, getting up for the day around 8am typically. She'll have awake time for 1-1.5 hours before going back to sleep for a 1-2 hour nap. I'll make sure she eats every 2 hours with some awake time if she'll do it through the day, then she'll have awake time from about 5-9pm with a cat nap in there somewhere. That seems to be working at the moment.

Camille is still somewhat high maintenance, she likes to be moved around a lot. Bouncing/jiggling is usually what calms her the most. She loves to be upright on my chest and is really strong - she loves to hold her head up and look around. She's a great nurser and is taking bottles decent too, though it's still a bit of a struggle. We've been pretty good about doing a bottle each day and we've tried to do an ounce of formula here and there to make sure she's used to that too....though she definitely doesn't like formula much! I keep trying to get her to take a pacifier....it mostly makes her angry when I try, but once in a while she will take it.

Camille likes being rested and full, looking at windows and lights, and stretching on the floor when she wakes up in the morning. She's starting to smile a little bit when she's really well rested. She also likes when I wear her in her front pack (most of the time).....usually falls right to sleep.

Camille is growing like a weed though! At three weeks she started wearing some 3 month sleepers/outfits. Our tiniest baby is getting big fast! She went to the doctor at 9 days old because she had green goopy eyes (clogged tear ducts) and she had gained a whole pound in 6 days since she was there last! She was up to 7lbs 15.5 oz from 6lbs 15oz at her 3 day check-up.

At her 1 month appointment (1 month 3 days) she was 9lbs 15oz (63rd %) and was 21 inches (44th %). I found out she had thrush.....ugh. So we are starting medication and will need to boil bottles and wash burp cloths/bras on hot each day. Hopefully we can get it under control quickly. She also got a referral to the ophthalmologist for her tear ducts and for them to check her sight (as much as they can for how young she is). Other than that, she looks good!