Campbell is one month old! Actually, she is one month and 5 days old. Oops! We have all had so much fun getting to know this precious little girl! She makes a great addition to our family and I already can’t imagine our life without her.

Campbell’s Stats–

• Weight: 10 lbs 7 oz (90th percentile)
• Length: 23 1/8″ (97th percentile)
• (Fun fact: Sam’s height and weight percentiles were exactly the same at 1 month.)
• Sleeping Pattern: We had a few rough nights at the beginning of this week in which it seemed like Campbell was regressing. She had been working up to 4 hour stretches at night and then earlier this week she started doing 2-3 hour stretches–not good! I started making extra sure Campbell was getting full feedings and I tried keeping her up a little longer during the day (about an hour per cycle). It seems to have paid off and the last few nights I have only had to feed her one time between 11 and 7:30! Hopefully that will continue…and get better!!

• Daily Schedule: We try to get Campbell up for the day sometime between 7 and 8. If she wakes up a little early, I either rock her back to sleep or give her a short feeding so she’ll go back to sleep. Ben gets up with Campbell for this first feeding and I go back to sleep! Campbell has another feeding at approximately: 10:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 6:00p.m., 8:30 p.m., 11:00 p.m. and whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night. She takes a nap after being up for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.
• Starting to get a little more neck control.
• Makes eye contact but looks away quickly.
• Gives us occasional smiles.
• Much more alert. It’s easier to keep her up after feedings and she seems to enjoy lying down on her play mat and in her bouncy chair (she used to cry as soon as you set her down!).
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• I can’t believe Campbell is already four weeks old! Overall, these four weeks have been much easier than they were the first time around and I have really been able to enjoy this stage a little more, knowing how fast these babies grow up!
• Grandma Judi left this week and I spent two days home with both kids and no adult to help!! Eek! On Thursday Sam had preschool which was really helpful. And then on Friday we packed into the car and headed to Deirdre’s house for the morning. Sam loved playing with all of Evie’s awesome toys. We ordered pizza so I didn’t even have to worry about lunch!
• Sam has really impressed us with how he has handled the new addition to our family. He often asks where Campbell is when he gets up from naps. Whenever she cries he says, “That’s ok baby sister!” (often with an increasing level of panic). The other day when she was crying in her car seat, he ran over to rock it gently. He loves to give her hugs and pats.
• At the end of this week, we started putting Campbell to sleep in her crib “drowsy but awake.” Naturally this has involved some crying, but she has done really well and usually falls asleep within 5-20 minutes. We did the same thing with Sam at this age and he turned out to be a fantastic sleeper and overall happy kid so we are pretty confident in our decision to do it again!
• We switched from evenflo nipples to medela nipples on Campbell’s bottles and that has gone much better! She no longer loses half her bottle. Yay!
• The other night Campbell slept for 6 straight hours! Woohoo! Of course, the following night she woke up after 3.5 hours and then wouldn’t go back to sleep, but we’re making progress!

• Grandma Judi came to visit this week! She took good care of Sam–they played, cooked, and took many trips to the playground. Judi also made all of our meals which was lovely!!

• Campbell had more periods of being awake this week. I am following Babywise again (it worked SO well with Sam!) and doing my best to keep her awake after feedings. This is the first week that I was actually successful. However, she is getting harder to put down to sleep. She really fights sleep, even in her car seat! She doesn’t like the swing and that doesn’t put her to sleep at all. She’s okay with the bouncy chair when it’s set on vibrate. You have to wait till she’s asleep before putting her in there, but then she does stay asleep.

• I am feeling a little better this week, probably because Campbell has been sleeping better at night (3-4.5 hour stretches!). She usually sleeps for a longish stretch the first half of the night and then a shorter one the second half.
• I’ve actually started dressing Campbell up in some of her cute little clothes this week!

• Campbell has not been doing well with the bottle. Ben gives her a bottle every morning at 7ish (so I can sleep in) but she loses a lot of milk out the sides of her mouth.

I’m having a hard time writing a coherent narrative, so I am just going with the bulleted format!

• My mom left and we were totally on our own! I was pretty scared about it but at least Ben was still off work. We made it through and it wasn’t too bad. It was actually nice to have a little nuclear family time!
• It was also my birthday this week! I have to admit that this was not my best birthday. I started off the day feeling pretty sorry for myself that I was spending my birthday so sleep deprived and not able to go out for a fun night. But Ben did his best to make it extra special. He made me a sweet little banner and a nice breakfast.
• Nicole came to visit on my birthday with yummy take out from Guapo’s (the Mexican restaurant down the hill where she and I often go to lunch with the boys). She also brought balloons and cupcakes. This definitely made me feel a little more birthday-ish.
• For dinner, I was a little bummed that we couldn’t go out (just not feasible) but we got sushi take out which was perfect! I had been craving sushi my whole pregnancy but couldn’t have it.
• On Thursday, Deirdre came over with take out from District Taco, cupcakes, and flowers. (I have wonderful friends!)
• On Friday, my sister came to town with her family! It was so great having them in town. Ben and Gene took all the kids out during the days (zoo, national mall, etc.) while Nikki stayed with me to cook and help take care of Campbell.

• My dad came down on Sunday and we all went out to lunch–first time with both kids.
• Gave Campbell her first bath. Poor Campbell has not gotten many baths this first month…

• Campbell slept a lot this week in her car seat and we always have her swaddled! She doesn’t like the swing and won’t fall asleep in it.

With Sam, I said that this week was the hardest of my life. Luckily, this time it was much easier! Of course having a week-old newborn will always be tough, but this time I was able to enjoy it a little more knowing how fast this time flies by. Ben and I made the most of our time in the hospital and sent Campbell to the nursery frequently to get some sleep! We also ordered in delivery for most of our meals (thanks for the Lost Dog tip, Alison!). Sam came to visit both evenings that I was in the hospital. He was very excited to meet Campbell and even more excited to receive the garbage truck toy she gave him (see him holding it in this pic):

And I just love this pic of Sam greeting his baby sister:

(Signs courtesy of Ben)

Once we were back home, my mom was soooo helpful in getting us settled. She cooked and cleaned and helped take care of Sam. I think we would have been completely overwhelmed without her help.

Unfortunately I had similar problems with breastfeeding that I had with Sam and again found myself in a crazy amount of pain. This time, however, I knew to call Pat Shelly right away and she was super helpful, so the problems were all fixed by week 2! Ben took over one middle of the night feeding and gave Campbell a bottle of pumped milk which helped a lot with sleep deprivation. Unfortunately Campbell is not so great at taking a bottle, and she probably dribbled out half of each bottle!

Back in 2009, I started this blog with 5 posts about Sam’s first month: labor and delivery, week 1, week 2, week 3, and week 4. Now that I have Campbell, I am enjoying reading over those posts and comparing what life was like then and now. I thought it would be fun to recreate those posts with my experiences with Campbell! So here is the birth story. Don’t worry, it’s not graphic and there won’t be any videos 😉

As I think I mentioned before, my doctor and I decided to schedule and induction on the day before my due date because we didn’t want to risk me  having an even bigger baby than Sam. Originally I was scheduled to go in Tuesday morning for my induction and I’d told almost everyone that date. But then I read my friend Merritt’s blog in which she talked about keeping their scheduled c-section date a secret so that everyone would be surprised when they heard the news. I wished I had kept my induction date a secret, but it was too late at that point. However, at the last minute (Friday afternoon) my doctor called to reschedule my induction for Monday morning. I decided I wouldn’t share the date change with anyone so we could still have a little element of surprise. I also assumed all along that I would go into labor before my induction anyway!

My induction was scheduled for Monday morning at 1 a.m. So after watching the Super Bowl. Ben and I got our stuff together and headed to the hospital. Once I was admitted, the resident came in and administered a drug that is supposed to cause contractions. They told me that my doctor had ordered a very mild dose, so it was likely that not much would happen. However, I was sure that it would send me into labor. I went to sleep fully expecting to be awakened in an hour or so with intense contractions. At 7:30 my doctor came in to check my progress and found that my cervix hadn’t changed at all. I was 3 cm dilated when I came in and I was still 3 cm dilated! She told me she gave me a mild dose because she didn’t want me to be uncomfortable! I was so disappointed! Then she told me she would break my water and then come back in a few hours to check my progress. If breaking the water didn’t send me into labor, I would be given Pitocin, which is the standard drug for an induction.

Immediately after she broke my water, I felt a contraction. My doctor said I was probably just feeling discomfort from having my water broken, and she left. But within just 20 minutes, my contractions were so strong I decided it was time for an epidural. My nurse was surprised and looked on the monitor and said she didn’t see any contractions. She decided to adjust my monitor and as she was doing so, she felt my belly and said that I definitely was having a big contraction! She went to go get the anesthesiologist. After about 20 minutes (of pretty excruciating pain) the anesthesiologist arrived. He was the chattiest doctor ever. He found out what Ben did for a living and started talking politics and cracking jokes. Poor Ben was doing his best to be polite while also trying to ignore him so he could provide me with the support I needed! Finally I got the epidural in and started feeling a little bit better. But after a few minutes, my nurse and I realized that I had what is known as a “window” on my right side where the epidural was not working. So half my body was numb and the other half wasn’t.

Meanwhile, I started feeling the need to push. This seemed pretty improbable since at this point, I had been in labor for about 45 minutes. My nurse called my doctor back in who checked me and found that I was already 9 centimeters dilated (10 cm is considered fully dilated). They scrambled to get prepped while I screamed in pain! I really did not plan on having an unmedicated labor so I was less than thrilled with the fact that I still had full feeling on the right side of my body. I remember squeezing Ben’s hand and pleading, “Help me! Help me!” Ha! It is funny now, but not so much at the time! Finally the doctor said I could push. I pushed one and a half times and the baby was out! It was SO fast! All told, I was in labor for one hour and 15 minutes! The nurse and doctor were joking with me about how fast it was afterward. My doctor confessed that she had crawled back into her bed at the hospital, assuming it would be several hours before she even needed to check on me again! And they both said that next time I should come in, get an epidural, then have my water broken! I am sooo thankful that I was in the hospital when my water broke, or else I probably would have had the baby in the car on the way to the hospital! Yikes!

If I’d had a “birth plan”, this wouldn’t have been it. But the end definitely made it all worthwhile!