If you’re a friend, member of the family or have been following along on Instagram then you are well aware that Sloane is almost 2 months old (this Friday actually) and that this post is long overdue! I want to document and share all of her milestones, so here is a look back at month one and a brief story of her birth.

Sloane was born 4 weeks early on February 6th at 36 weeks (a late pre-term baby). My water broke the night of the Superbowl after the Patriot’s lost (can you say “stressed induced”?). I ended up having an emergency c-section after some 3+ hours of pushing. Sloane was born healthy with a few complications and was transferred to a hospital in Boston for monitoring. She spent a little time in the NICU at the hospital and after a week of being in the hospital, we were sent on our way home: happy, healthy and ready to start our new life as a family of 3!

Sloane at One Month

Age: 1 month

Weight & Height at 1 month visit: 6 lbs 8 oz. & 19.4 in

Eat:

When we brought Sloane home, her weight had dropped down to 5 lbs 6 oz. and she was still battling some jaundice. To get her weight back up and bilirubin levels down, we needed to feed her every 2 hours. Once she reached her birth weight, we were able to cut back to 3 hours.

We have been exclusively feeding Sloane breastmilk both from the breast & the bottle. We breast feed during the day and bottle feed at night. Life pretty much consists of pumping, eating, (not) sleeping and repeating. My milk supply came in fast at the hospital (which came in handy with Sloane being in the NICU). But, I’m not going to sugar coat it – breast feeding is REALLY hard and has been very challenging for me, especially with her being 4 weeks younger. During Sloane’s first month, I had almost given up breast feeding on multiple occasions. I had a few appointments with the lactation consultants at the hospital we delivered at which have been very helpful.

Sleep:

At one month, Sloane spent almost her entire day sleeping and her entire nights awake. She slept in a bassinet and grunted extremely loudly the whole night (baby books fail to explain how noisy newborns really are!). When we first brought Sloane home, Mike and I were both getting up for her nightly feedings and in turn, were both beyond exhausted. After 2 weeks, we started to tackle her nightly feedings in shifts. I handled the evening to midnight and Mike tackled the early mornings.

Special Moments:

When we first brought Sloane home, we didn’t have any clothes that fit her. I felt terrible. Once we were home from the hospital, my husband ran out to Carters and bought every premie outfit he could find. It was so sweet of him and such a relief to have clothes that fit her well. Since then, she has outgrown her little premie outfits and is almost out of newborn!

Favorite Things:

Sloane loves getting a sponge bath and taking naps in her pack n’ play napper. Mom and Dad love her stroller!

Mama’s Experience:

Being a new mom has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It may sound cliche or sappy, but it is 100% true. Month one had its ups and downs (blame it on the damn hormones) yet overall I have been overwhelmed by emotions of happiness and love for this new member of our family.