The Journey: Month one

Oh where to begin!! I definitely need to start keeping this up to date as it gets extremely difficult to remember what life was like with a newborn now that she is almost 4 months old!

However I will do my best to recap her first month of life here in Abu Dhabi.
Her first outing was to the doctor 3 days after birth in order to get a follow up check up with the pediatrician that examined her at birth. He was mainly looking for jaundice (which she had none) and her weight. Since my milk had not come in, she had lost 100 grams. She actually went home from the hospital at the same weight as birth (just like I did when I was born) but that is most likely due to the fact that she was only there for less than 30 hours. It was 5 full days before my milk came in, so we had a couple of rough nights and some big scares. When she didn't go to the bathroom for an entire day, we almost took her to the emergency room that night. But finally, she woke up with a wet diaper the next morning and my milk came in so that she started eating well and growing!
At one week old, we took her to the US Embassy in order to apply for her passport and file her Birth Abroad paperwork. We were running late so I didn't have time to feed her before we left, so I knew she would start crying and get super hungry on the way. However, she fell asleep in the car and slept through the entire hour wait at the embassy and on the car ride home! We were so shocked as it was super loud in the waiting room, but we learned that she slept well in the car seat as it was nice and cozy.
That night my mom and sister arrived in Abu Dhabi after a long flight to meet their new baby! Although it was 11pm, and they hadn't slept much in the past 24 hours flying, they stayed up several hours in order to spend time with the newest (and cutest ;) ) family member! I thoroughly enjoyed having all the help. I was spoiled with all the cooking, cleaning, and babysitting help as I still recovered from the birth. At 10 days old, we took Lillian to the mall for the first time. We walked there as it is only 2 blocks away and I was a nervous wreck as we all 3 protected the stroller crossing the street and avoiding the crazy cab drivers. We left the stroller covered with a blanket as she slept and avoided getting within 3 feet of any people, ha! At 2 weeks old, we took Lil to the beach in Saadiyat for the first time. Unfortunately it was a windy and cloudy day, so we kept her covered up. But the sun came out a bit so that we could take pictures with her before she fell asleep to the lull of the ocean waves. At 3 weeks old, we took her on her first road trip to Dubai when Jason's mom arrived in town. We had a late start so only had time to see the Atlantis at the Palm and eat a nice dinner outside on the patio. But she loved looking at the sky while Mimi held her and it was so funny to see her enjoying this little outing at a restaurant.