The first month

Elias is already a month old! I really have no idea how that happened. I feel like it should still be the beginning of December, but somehow it’s almost the middle of January and we’ve had our son here for a full month.

There have been a lot of tears in the Leek house in the past month.

Eli has cried some too.

Parenthood comes with a crazy mixture of emotions. We’ve felt so incredibly blessed, frustrated, tired, overwhelmed, and happy.

The first month has been very difficult at times. (Eli is screaming in his swing as I write this.) I don’t think I’ve had postpartum depression, but the lack of sleep and crazy hormones don’t always make for the most rational Erica. Really, talk to me about hormones at 4 in the morning when I’m crying about Eli pooping on my nursing pillow…again.

Side note: I apologize for how much Derek and I have been talking about poop and pee in the past few weeks. It’s just what we’re experiencing right now.

For the first couple of weeks, Eli hardly cried at all. He was very sleepy most of the time, and we had to wake him up to eat every three hours. At that time, I told people I wished that he would be more awake and want to eat. Now I think we could go back to him being a little more sleepy sometimes 🙂

Speaking of eating, our little chub chub gained 2 pounds in 2 weeks and weighed 9 lbs, 6 ounces at his 4 week appointment! We might have a 10-pounder soon!

Also speaking of eating, I’m convinced that the hardest thing about having a baby is breastfeeding. I think breastfeeding is both the best and worst thing ever. It’s pretty amazing that a mother’s milk provides the perfect nutrition, but it’s also very hard to have someone depend on you to feed them every 3 hours. And with Eli, he had some trouble breastfeeding since he was a little early, so we’ve supplemented with a bottle from the beginning. Feedings are a little bit of process between trying to keep him awake to breastfeed and then also giving him a bottle.

My thoughts on how this whole parenthood thing is going vary greatly from day to day…okay, hour to hour. Sometimes Eli eats great, is happy and snuggly, and sleeps well. Other times he wants to eat for 5 minutes every 15 minutes and screams for hours. People keep telling us, “It gets better!” and I keep wanting to ask, “Exactly when and how does it get better?” I’m excited about the time in the (hopefully not so) distant future when Eli doesn’t have to eat as often and can be a little bit more independent, but I know I’m going to miss him being so little.

I really feel blessed that we’ve been able to meet and spend a whole month with our little guy already! We can’t wait to get to know his personality better and for him to get to know you all!

Weight: 9 lbs, 6 oz.
Height: 21.5 in.
Likes: Snuggling, his swing, eating (sometimes), starting to like bath time
Dislikes: Getting his diaper changed
Clothing: He’s still wearing newborn clothes, but they’re getting tight!