One Willa filled month

Willa has been with us one whole month today.

Willa at about 12 hours old

Somehow, despite the predictions of some of my work colleagues, I've managed to let everything else go and just do whatever it is that Willa needs me to do. It's been bliss. My favourite times have been our afternoon naps, where we curl up in bed together and have a snooze. She snuggles in against my chest and sleeps deeper and longer, and I relax a bit more because I know exactly where she is.

Who is this one-month old Willa?  I'm still not sure. She's a 5.1kg bundle of baby.  She's a long limbed 57cms of breastfeeding monster. Willa gives us smiles pretty regularly now (though they are fleeting and incredibly hard to capture on camera).  She sleeps in fairly regular 2-3 hour blocks during the day, and a delicious 6-7 hours of sleep at night and usually feeds as though she's had to personally hunt and trap the breast. She gurgles and burbles at us, and seems to enjoy being sung Waltzing Matilda.  I'm not sure why I began to sing Waltzing Matilda to her - one day when she was squawking I decided she needed to hear the soothing tones of her mama singing and the only song that sprang to mind was Waltzing Matilda.  I think it calms her because singing it still amuses me greatly - today she dropped off to sleep before I made it to the second verse.

Which is not to say that there haven't been moments of difficulty. Some days I feel an overly heavily sense of responsibility sitting on my shoulders (or probably more accurately, sitting in my chest). These tend to be the days when I am tired and she is tired and the night has some periods of crying. It's the crying while trying to breastfeed that really upsets me - its as though she is somehow disappointed in my breastmilk.* Fortunately these evenings have been few (in fact, I think there have been three of them), and so the amazingly good days outnumber the slightly stressful at a rate of about 10:1.  She's a cute wee thing, our one-month old Willa.

Willa at 2 weeks old, at Himatangi beach

*My latest theory on this is that the hot weather combined with not drinking enough, and doing to much means my milk supply has dropped and she is hungry and frustrated.