Jenna's newborn photos are finally here! She looks ADORABLE if I do say so myself. Her tutu and headband is from the Etsy Shop TuTu Twirls.

Growth spurts supposedly occur around 2 or 3 weeks, and again around 6 weeks. Jenna is 5 weeks 3 days, and I think today was the beginning of a growth spurt... aka "the Witching Hour." Today was like a scene from the Exorcist...ok maybe not that bad, but it was not fun!

She was in a foul mood ALL day. All she wanted to do was nurse. I don't mind the nursing, but it interfered with her sleeping pattern. When she wasn't nursing, she was crying. She didn't want to take any naps - when she'd finally doze off she'd only sleep for 20 minutes maybe (she usually takes 1-2 hour naps between feedings) and wake up screaming. Nothing soothed her except the boobs. I could tell she was so exhausted and needed to nap, but fought it all day.

Of course, her spurt has to occur the same day she has a doctor's appointment. Luckily we made it through without a total meltdown. After the appointment she seemed pretty calm, so I decided to take her for a little drive to see if the car would put her into a deeper sleep so she could get some rest.

We cruised from Grants to Milan and back a few times. She was totally quiet, so I thought she might be asleep. When we pulled into the driveway at home and to my surprise her big eyes were totally open, followed by some blood curdling screams for milk! I finally got her to sleep at 4:20 and she's taken a nice LONG nap...thoroughly exhausted.

I hope she doesn't have too many more of these spurts; it's exhausting. I guess it's just practice for when she starts teething!

On a more positive note, her appointment went really well. She weighs 10.5 lbs!!! She went from the 21st percentile to the 76th on her growth chart! I'm glad to see my breast milk is doing her good.

This yummy recipe comes from the Pampered Chef's Season's Best Cookbook. I first tried this when I attended a Pampered Chef party. I've made it twice now; my husband loves it! You can substitute spaghetti for linguini as well.

Ingredients:

12 slices bacon, divided
4 cups chicken broth
2 cans (14.5oz) Italian style diced tomatoes
1 med. onion
4 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
12 oz uncooked linguine pasta
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup loosely packed fresh parsley
4 oz cream cheese
1 oz Parmesan cheese grated
Halved grape tomatoes (optional)

Directions:

1. Slice bacon crosswise into 1/4 in. strips. Place into skillet; cook over medium high heat 8-9 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon from Skillet; drain on paper towels. Drain skillet, leaving 1 tbsp drippings in skillet.

2. Meanwhile place broth and diced tomatoes in a microwavable-safe bowl. Microwave, covered, on high 6-8 minutes or until hot; carefully move remove from microwave. On clean cutting board, finely chop onion. Return skillet to heat; add garlic and pepper flakes if desired. Cook 10-20 seconds or until fragrant. Add onion; cook 2-3 minutes or until onion is tender. Carefully add broth mixture, pasta, half of the bacon and salt. Simmer, covered, 9-10 minutes or until pasta is almost cooked but still firm, stirring occassionally.

3. Finely chop parsely, reserve 1 tbsp for garnish. Cut cream cheese into cubes. Grate parmesan cheese. Cut grape tomatoes in half. Remove skillet from heat. Stir in remaining parsley, cream cheese and grape tomatoes. Let stand, covered, 5 minutes or until pasta is tender and sauce is thickened. Serve with remaining bacon, parmesan and parsley.

I'm participating in Thirsty Thursday Blog Hop!

Happy one month birthday Miss Jenna! This month has flown by...

I don't know how much J weighs, but I'm guessing between 8.5 and 9 lbs. She gets new rolls every day! She started tacking objects and enjoys staring directly into lights. She smiles and frowns in her sleep, but no smiles on purpose yet.

She is sleeping so much better! She fusses to go to sleep around 10, but with the help of the paci, she soothes herself to sleep in her co-sleeper. She wakes up around 2 or 3 to nurse and goes to sleep next to mommy and sleeps until daddy gets up for work at 5, nurses again, and sleeps til 7 or 8.

She's lifting her head, but can't keep it up quite yet. She likes tummy time if she's laying on mommy, but not so much on the tummy mat!

Here's some pics! I got the onesie stickers for each month at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/pickysticky.

So I've been really nervous about running any errands or going to public places with Jenna. Not only do I want to avoid exposing her to a lot of germs, but I also want to avoid having a screaming baby on my hands while I'm in the check out line.

There are lots of people who say, "Just do your errands after you feed your baby and it will be fine." Easier said than done! Jenna has sort of an unpredictable schedule, making planning an outing challenging. Since I'm exclusively breastfeeding (and Jenna won't take a bottle from me), I can't just pop a bottle in her mouth if we're at the store and she starts crying. Even if I feed her right before I leave the house, it's no guarantee - occassionally, she cluster feeds and wants to feed again within 30 minutes of just having eaten.

Needless to say, I made an attempt at taking her to Target w/ me to get baby wipes while we were in Albuquerque this weekend. This was the first place (other than the doc's office) that I've taken her by myself without Daddy or one of the Grandma's. So I fed her and changed her right before we left, put her in the car seat and made my attempt to go to Target (which was literally across the street from the house).

She was quiet until we pulled into the parking lot and I stopped the car. Then the faint beginnings of a cry started... Uh oh.. Maybe parking was a bad idea? So I started the car again and drove around the block a few times until I was sure she crashed out. Great success!

I parked by the nearest cart area and got out and put her carseat on top of the cart. She was fast asleep! I felt so proud - "This isn't that bad" I thought.

As I walked the cart up to the front of Target we hit a bump in the parking lot. Damn! The baby's awake. She opened her big eyes wide as we strolled into the store. I was paranoid she was going to break out in a cry at any moment. I hoped that by walking her around the store she'd doze off again.

We made our way to the pampers isle and her eyes were getting heavy. I stopped the cart as we approached the baby wipes. Just as she was falling asleep, the minute I stopped the cart, she woke up again and let out a little whimper. I quickly grabbed the wipes and started walking her around the store. I did laps around Target until she fell asleep again. This time she was out. Whew!

I probably looked like a dummy, just strolling my baby around the store, but oh well. Me and sleeping beauty made it through the check out line w/ out a single sound. So our first outing wasn't so bad.

I have a new found respect for those moms I see in the store w/ an infant in the cart, a diaper bag on her shoulder, and two toddlers on a leash next to her and she manages to get all her groceries and get out of the store in under 30 minutes... How do these moms do it??? I salute them! Hopefully practice makes perfect!