Letter to a (Stella) Bean

Dearest Bean,

How exciting that you are finally among us! Do you love it here? You seem to:) You smile an awful lot for a teeny tiny baby...and even though my baby books say that any smiles noticed this early are more than likely a result of gas......I don't believe them;-)

Life has been great since you got here. Daddy stayed home from work with us for our first 2 weeks as a family & it was wonderful for the 3 of us to have all of that time to get to know each other:) He only just went back to work yesterday. It was a sad morning...but we ended up having a nice first day alone together, I must say:)

In spite of it being painful at times, breastfeeding has been going really well for us & its mostly because you are such a natural at it. Your pediatrician said so & so did the nice lactation consultant lady we met at the hospital. I am so proud of you...and of us for being such a good team:) You really do love to eat! You weighed 6 pounds, 10.5 oz. at your first doctor's appointment (at 5 days old)...and then you were already up to 7 pounds, 8.8 oz. at your second one (at 12 days old)!! You gained 14 oz. in 1 week! Dr. Trotsky was very impressed & said that I must have high octane milk! Daddy & I are still laughing over that one;-)

I'm also proud of you for being such a good sleeper so far:) You slept in your cradle swing for your first few nights home...but then we transitioned you over to your bassinet and you seem to love sleeping there now:) You generally sleep for 4-5 hour stretches before waking up, wanting to be fed. Some mornings I have to actually wake YOU up to feed you. I can't say I blame you, though. I love sleeping very much, too. Maybe you get it from me;-)

Well, my love...I suppose that's all for now. You are currently in a milk-induced sleep coma in your pack n' play bassinet...but these late morning naps aren't usually very long...so I'm going to run for now so that I can catch up on some email before you wake up...

I love you & will be in to check on you in a minute.

Thanks for being wonderful.

Love always,
Your Mom