Letter to Anna: Month One

Dear Anna,

Wow, time certainly does fly, you're a month old today! The past four weeks have been the best weeks of my life; filled with tears of joy, intense laughter and so much more love than I can ever comprehend. You arrived two weeks early and although the pangs of pregnancy are just a distant memory, I do remember that I was sooooo ready to meet you, yet shocked and nervous when I actually went into labor. You're sitting next to me right now, making the cutest coos and tiny grunts; I melt each time you gaze at me, able to recognize and focus on my face over the past few weeks and now I have no idea what there was to be nervous about.

We didn't know you were going to be an Anna until you were born and both your father and I swore you were a little boy. Needless to say, you were the best surprise we could have imagined! You're named for my maternal grandmother, Anna McWilliams, and your father's maternal grandmother, Bessie Elias; they were both phenomenal women and I'm so blessed to have had the pleasure to know them. I have no doubt that they are both looking down on you from above with so much love pouring down, and hope you will think of them when you see that tiny break in the clouds that lets the sun filter through on a gloomy day.

You are one of the most content babies I've ever been around and you genuinely excel at being a baby. You took to breastfeeding right away, sleep very well (up to 3 1/2 to 4 hour stretches right now), pee and poop with gusto and get more adorable each day. You hardly ever cry and when you do it's likely because you're having your hair shampooed. Even during your first hours of life when you were being poked, prodded and given shots, the only thing that made you cry was when they washed your hair during that first bath. The bad news for you is that your head is full of luscious black locks that show no sign of going away, so you're in for a life of shampoos; if you're anything like your mother, you'll quickly come around to being pampered.

I can't imagine what I did with my time before you were here and have no idea how I thought I was as busy as I did. It took a few days to realize that my days for the foreseeable future would be spent in hour and a half to two hour increments in between feedings. This past week we started getting out and about a bit more - Target, Old Navy, Babies R Us and the Grocery - and you are a champion shopper and traveller. You generally sleep through the car ride and then wake up a bit during our destination outing. You always show-up the other babies by hardly making a peep and generally attract numerous comments with buzz words including "tiny, peanut, all of that hair! and happy baby."

This past weekend we had a situation that I initially thought would have Child Services at our door in a matter of minutes. Long story short, you sustained your first bee sting under my watch and I was in hysterics and proclaimed to your Dad (away for the evening) and your Gigi that I was the "worst mother EVER." A call to your pediatrician and several questions later it was determined that you were perfectly fine and I was told to watch for a few symptoms for a couple of hours. During the entire ordeal you hardly cried and even that short bout was likely due to my hysterics. I'm sure this will be the first of many head bumps, scraped knees and scratches and although I know that seeing you in pain won't get any easier, it's par for the course and you're one tough cookie already.

I could go on forever, but eventually you'll be ready to eat again, so I'll sign off with this last bit.  I know I'm in for a wild ride … I'm hoping that somehow I'll be prepared to have everything I did to my parents returned to me by you and times a thousand … but in the meantime please know that you will NEVER find someone who loves, prays, cares and worries about you more than I do!

Love,
Mom