Grace Elizabeth - 1 month

On Sunday, our sweet baby girl made 1 month old already!! Yes, I am posting her 1 month update before posting her birth story. But hey, give me a break, I have a baby now and her birth story is a long one... or at least I'm making it long because I want to remember each and every detail. It will be up soon though.

Weight/Height: 11 lbs, 22 inches long [95th percentile for weight, 90th for height] Likes: diaper changes, being sang to, Christian music, riding in the car (falls asleep instantly), being rocked, eating (I call her Piglet), looking around, her pacifier (mama calls it a nu-nu, daddy calls it pappy),laying on her changing pad (no idea why but she smiles a ton when I put her on it!) Dislikes: getting put into her car seat, dirty diapers, hiccups Wears: 0-3 months (I squeezed her into newborn for 2 weeks) First Outing: Panera Bread and Target First Intentional Smile: January 27th Farts like daddy... Seriously, she farts like a man. She's often called Tooter. Punches her arms when she's mad  Makes the funniest faces in her sleep.

What Mama has learned: Things no longer go my way or as I schedule them. I no longer eat when I'm hungry or pee when I have to. My baby girl is always put first and I'm second. I've learned that being a mama and specifically breast feeding is the most selfless thing you can do. When you become a mom, you will always put your child before you no matter what. And I wouldn't change it for the world. This month has been one of the toughest, yet the most rewarding. I love being her mama!

It's a.... GIRL!

We planned on having a small gender reveal party in about a month or so. My doctor said that my next ultrasound would be at 18-20 weeks, so that's when we'd be able to find out baby's gender. Well a couple Saturdays ago, I was sitting at work alone and I was thinking about my sweet baby. Oh how I wanted to know who he/she was SO bad. I wanted to call him/her by name (and start shopping of course!). I thought about it and I decided I didn't want to wait anymore! I called Larry and asked him what he thought about going to one of those ultrasound places and finding out baby's gender the next week. He's impatient like me, so he was all in!

Instead of a gender reveal party, we thought we'd surprise our family and announce it to them. So, I went ahead and made our ultrasound appointment for Thursday, July 23rd. We planned on announcing it at my birthday dinner the Saturday after.

Well, Monday, July 20th rolled around and it was Larry and I's 2 year wedding anniversary! I was on a Tuesday to Saturday schedule so I had the day off. Larry works from home, so he's pretty much off when he wants to be. So, Monday morning we were trying to think of something fun to do for our anniversary. Larry suggested a couples massage, but they were closed. Then I got to thinking and decided to call the ultrasound place to see if they had any openings today. Turns out they're usually closed on Mondays, but they were going to be there for another couple, so they told us to come on in!

When we started out the ultrasound, baby was upside-down and asleep. She was all curled up and looked so sweet.

We even got a sneak peak at the 3D/4D ultrasound!

Within 5 minutes of the ultrasound, the tech told us it was a girl! We weren't at all surprised as that it what we both thought baby was from the start! Turns out mama and daddy's intuition was right. :)

We tried to wake baby girl up to get a better view of her, and she turned over and put her legs in her face! My tiny dancer is working on her flexibility already!

Oh yeah, and we didn't end up waiting until my birthday dinner on Saturday to tell our family! Can you tell we're just the most patient people ever? haha :)