Happy 1 Month Bella Rose!

I know I'm backtracking but I really wanted to get on and post Bella's monthly updates. Hopefully I can get caught up to this month and be on track by the time she turns 4 months lol.

Happy ONE month beautiful! It has really been an amazing month. Of course the fist few weeks and months with a newborn are tough but I think we have done really well transitioning from one kid to two.  I give Bella all the credit. She is SUCH a good baby. Coming home from the hospital she was giving us 4-6 hour stretches of sleep. Unheard of for most newborns. In the first few weeks she would give us stretches ranging from 3-8 hours. Most of the time she averages 6 or so hours so it's WONDERFUL! Heck, Brayden was waking up every 2 maybe 3 hours forever.  I'm really fortunate, especially considering Brayden still doesn't sleep through the night.  She is an amazing nurser!! This girl LOVES to breast feed. Again i have to credit her with all of our success, she literally came out rooting for the boob and latched on right away. Bells is a marathon nurser. lol She normally eats every 2-3 hours but nurses for a minimum of 45+ minutes sometimes up to an hour and a half.  I'm not going to lie, I think my nipples were going to fall off a a few times, especially after she tore me the one time. But we haven't slowed down and she  is doing wonderful.  I can honestly say that I have not hit that "i don't think i can do this anymore" point with her, she has really made this an enjoyable experience for me overall. Considering Brayden was the opposite and i had NO supply, I'm truly grateful to get to have this time with her.

Since she's eating so well she has been gaining weight at an amazing rate.  We've had some ups and downs. She started presenting with reflux symptoms almost right away. Unfortunately we are all too familiar because of Brayden so I got her to the pedes and we started her on Prevacid.  The pedes usually likes to start with zantac but it never worked for Brayden so we skipped it.  Her pain and projectile vomiting got slightly better with the meds but she was def not feeling better. She was still having unexplained congestion, pain, mucousy stools ext. I knew exactly where this was headed. The pedes ordered an ultrasound to rule outPyloric Stenosis b/c of the excessive projectile vomiting. Fortunately that was ruled out.  In the end I knew it was time to start elimination diet if I wanted to continue to breastfeed b/c it has to be a milk allergy. The doctor recommended eliminating all dairy and soy at the same time because a lot of children have allergies to both.  Let me tell you how much dairy and soy is in EVERYTHING! It's amazing till you have to start reading labels how much is hidden in every day foods. This was and still is a hard transition for me. I LOVE dairy, milk and cheese are my BFF. lol But its definitely more important to keep breastfeeding and she is thriving. About a week in to the diet we were already seeing positive changes and two + weeks in she was doing great. So our suspicions were confirmed she definitely has milk and soy protein issues also known as MSPI.

For her one month birthday she gave us the gift of her first real big smile! She ABSOLUTELY melts my heart. I love all these milestones!  At one month she is still wearing NB clothes and diapers. At her pedes appointment she weighted in at 10lbs 1 oz (75%) and 22 1/2 inches(95%) long! She is one tall girl, and has the cutest little rolls on her thighs :)

Her demeanor is calm and relaxed. Bella always looks so serious but that face means she is happy and content. At one month you can already see her personality coming out! She is going to be my laid back and smiley one. Sounds perfect to me, since Brayden is out hyperactive high maintenance one lol

I am seriously so in love with this little girl. It's been a tough transition for Brayden but he is SO good with Bella and really loves her! I can't wait to watch them grow up together!

Speaking of Brayden and Bella it is UNCANNY how much these two look like twins. I guess you could technically say they are twins but implanted at different times since they were fertilized at the same time, but they seriously look so much alike! Here's some comparisons!