It is hard to believe, but we have a one month old baby! Everyone keeps telling us how fast these first few months will fly by so I am trying my hardest to enjoy every little moment with our Maddie girl! She is honestly the best baby so it isn’t hard! Sure there are days where we struggle but she is better than we ever imagined!

I always imagined what the late night wake up calls would be and how we would cope with the lack of sleep, but she has surprised us at every turn! Ever since she came home from the hospital she has been a great sleeper at night (during the day can be a different story). And other than a couple rough nights here and there, our Maddie girl has started sleeping 5-6 hours at night! We are SO THANKFUL!

That first night that she slept until almost 4:00 we both woke up in a panic!

Maddie truly is the best baby! She is a great eater, we are talking 4oz every few hours followed by some chill time…usually. The hardest part of the last month has honestly been just getting my emotions and hormones under control. When I am happy, I am really happy while when I am sad, I could cry for hours! Thankfully I have the most understanding support system in Ethan who does what he can to alleviate my sadness or just give me a break if I need to go for a drive to clear my head. Hopefully by the time I write a month two post I can come back and say we are starting to feel a lot better.

This first month has been so amazing but also so fast! Here are a few of my favorite things and memories from month one:

ONE MONTH MEMORIES

• I loved getting to introduce Maddie to her grandparents and aunt and uncles! While COVID hasn’t allowed us to show her off like we may have planned, I am happy that we were still able to have some normalcy in all of this!
• Having my mom just a call away if I needed some help taking care of Maddie or just needed some adult conversation.
• Eating sushi as our first official date night as parents where we got to drop Maddie off at the Grandma and Grandpa Howe’s for a couple hours! When we first made the decision to deliver in Decorah, I told Ethan I wanted my first meal as a parent to be sushi. Obviously that didn’t happen but it was still worth the wait! Also the margarita the following week was also amazing 😉
• Spending time with Maddie in her nursery! I spent so much time in that room imagining what that would feel like and it is everything that I imagined as I painted the walls a third time during quarantine!
• Taking Maddie to her first doctor appointment alone was scary but so fun! She weighed in at 9lbs 6.5 ounces at her two week check up. A whole pound over her birth weight! I can’t wait to see how much she has grown when we go in for her 6 week check up!
• Seeing her smile, especially when I get her up from her naps! 
• But my favorite memory is just seeing Ethan be a dad. We were both so nervous those first few days but seeing him grown more comfortable every day has been amazing! I can already tell she is going to be a daddy’s girl. She is obsessed with him (and his beard) and I can’t blame her, he is pretty incredible!

Maddie’s Favorite Things

• She LOVES her car rides! Other than one trip to prairie, I don’t think she has cried while in the car. Fingers crossed it stays that way!
• Maddie loves to eat and she will tell you if you aren’t feeding her enough! She has the cutest grunts and after a few if she doesn’t have a bottle in her mouth she shows us the true power of her lungs!
• She isn’t a big fan of being swaddles and would prefer to have her hands above her head at all times!
• Maddie burps like a man and farts like one too!
• She is starting to like her baths, except for last night’s that is!
• Maddie girl loves sleeping on her belly on our chests!
• She is picky about her pacifier but if she wants it, good luck trying to get it away from her!