Haddon's 1 month letter

Dear Haddon,

I haven't even written your birth story or taken your "one month" picture yet but at least those things will happen. I promise. :) 

Oh my fourth baby, how is it possible that time has flown by so quickly and you are one month old today?!? I knew it would, but still. I feel like it was just yesterday that your daddy and I were trying to figure out when we should go to the hospital and now you're one month old!

You have truly captured all our hearts and there is no shortage of loving that you get from your big brothers albeit even if they do get tired of holding you within a few minutes. 

I just sorted through your clothes because, my big boy, you weigh around 12lbs now and are into 3 month clothing already! 

You love baths. It took me over a week to get around to bathing you for the first time (just add it to the list of fourth child problems, sorry!) but once I did, you absolutely loved it! You kick your sweet little chicken drumstick legs and look around and it's clear you are quite content. 

You have the baby acne which came early on but then faded and now is back but hopefully it fades soon. 

And speaking of your face, it's clear to everyone that you are a Strickland boy. When you were born I couldn't get over how much you looked like Blaise but shortly after I started to see strong resemblances to Jude and now? Well, now you clearly look like you are related to your brothers but you just look like you now. And you are a cutie! 

You are a good, efficient nurser like your brothers and want to eat every 2-3 hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less. There have been two occasions that you have gone a 5 hour stretch between feelings at night and I won't complain, it both shocked and pleased me to get that much sleep so early on! 

You are a fussy guy from time to time but you do sleep and calm down an average amount. A big difference is that unlike ALL of your brothers, you do not always easily go back to sleep in the middle of the night. Often times you require multiple changings and several rounds of nursing and then me rocking you back to sleep. So that isn't really fun for me, but we are both getting the hang of it. 

You also are a grunter. You remind me of Jude in that respect. Often just laying in your bassinet not upset and crying but just grunting and quietly working on some gas - sometimes not so quietly but you are nevertheless a grunter. 

Oh! And one last thing is that a week after you were born we noticed that you would look like a pirate when you would cry or yawn - with one eye wide open and one scrunched shut. We laughed and thought this was cute and then I showed our midwife and she said it could be something to do with your nerves in your face and referred you to a pediatrician. By the time we got the appointment, you had almost compel rely stopped doing "the pirate" and both eyes seemed to be functioning normally. The pediatrician said it was likely a case of Bell's palsy which shocked me but she said all was clearing up nicely and that it was more common than I knew. 

I love you so much, little mister and we are loving getting to know you. We are so glad you are part of our family!

Love,

Mama