Easter

Just realized I didn't post Grace's Easter pictures, her first major holiday!  I had thought about taking her to an actual Easter bunny place but their pictures started at $19.99 and who knew how she'd be at that precise moment so I just took some pictures at home and they turned out great.  Thanks to the Hazlewoods for the bunny outfit!

Palm Sunday with the palm branch cross given out at our Church.

 

 

 

 

First Easter bunny, onesie and bib.

The best of the bunch.  Pretty pleased with this one.  She looks so sweet.

Her first dress.

Normally not a big fan of head ornaments for babies but she has so much hair this looked pretty cute.

8 weeks old

On Thursday April 24th Grace was 8 weeks old.  There has been a lot of development in the last two weeks.  She is focusing better, tracking things with her eyes, looking for the source of sounds and grabbing things.  She often holds my shirt or bra strap while she is nursing and has started grabbing her own hair.  She'll probably stop that soon once she realizes it's herself that is hurting her head!

Our favourite new thing is the smiles.  She is now smiling in response to things we do, and they are such wonderful, big, open mouthed delights that there isn't much we won't do to elicit them.  She is just adorable. Along with that is a lot more noises, trying out her vocals and even started to imitate noises we make.  Also super cute.

Yesterday was her two month old appointment.  Her height is good, 22.5 inches, so she is in the 50th percentile there.  She gained a pound and a half, she is 9lb6oz now which he said was not bad, but a bit low compared to her height growth (10th percentile).  It could be because she is starting to move around more, but we requested an extra appointment in a month (usually she would go two months at this point) to get weighed to make sure she is gaining steadily.

To that end I've started pumping a bit.  I need to start doing it more often so I build up a supply, as Mike will need some when I go back to week in less than four weeks now. *sigh*
Also the doctor said that if she still seems a bit hungry after nursing we could give her an extra ounce by bottle.  Today Mike tried to use the bottle and she did a two ounce feed with no problems, so the bottle seems to be a success.  I'm having a bit of a problem with my double electric pump, one side doesn't have much suction, so I'll probably have to call the company.  It's no good if I'm getting better results with the manual pump.

And now the rough part.  This appointment also contained her two month vaccinations.  She had to get one orally and three needles.  Daddy was very traumatized as he had to hold her arms still.  These needles were so long!  I thought they were going to come right out the other side of her leg they went in so far.  We have never seen such a face or heard such a cry from her.  It was pretty awful.  All three of us teared up.  At first we were disappointed the doctor didn't do the vaccines, but it all made sense when the nurse told us that once the children are old enough to remember getting shots they start crying as soon as they see her face.  We don't want our little girl to hate her doctor!  She bounced back fine though.  I nursed her right after and then took her home.  I gave her one dose of tylenol as she seemed a bit extra upset in the afternoon, but I haven't noticed any other adverse effects.  Took all three bandaids off today and she didn't even seem to notice so hopefully that means her legs aren't hurting her.

She is sleeping at night like a trooper.  From week two she was already sleeping for one five hour chunk, but this week we're getting seven to nine hours at once which is great.  Generally she'll sleep for another two or three after a morning feed too which is great.  On the other hand, she's not so great at sleeping during the day, but if I have to pick one I'll go with night!  Trying to get her to nap now, she's kicking up a storm, vocalizing and her eyes are wide open.  Even sleep sheep isn't helping,  It's super cute, but I know she's tired and I'd like to get some pumping done!

So things are going well.  She's adorable and we can't get enough.  Looking forward to some warmer, sunnier weather so we can spend some time outside!

Smiles

Grace has always had a cute little grin since birth, but often she would show it in her sleep, or just waking up, or even when she was gassy.
In the last week and a half it starting getting more pronounced, and then on Monday I was sure that it was finally a social smile, responding to people and things.  I got three of them on Monday, Bailey got one and so did the plastic Koala rattle toy on her bouncer.  The last few days have definitely been a treat for her Daddy and I!  Yesterday she was pretty fussy so there were a lot of smiles but I've had several today.  They are also starting to be open mouthed with happy sounds which is especially cute.
It's been hard to catch them on camera because, lets be honest, a square bow is not the most stimulating when it comes to grins, so the pictures I have so far are somewhat blurry as I'm rushing to catch the smile after it's started, and often when she's happy she is moving around too.

Monday April 14th

Wednesday April 16th

Growth

Seeing Grace every day we don't completely realize how much she's grown.  Looking back on pictures from when she was a week and a half old, it's clear she has grown a fair amount!

Mommy instincts (and baby's too).

This morning I was an overtired negative mess. Why you ask? Did Grace have a bad night? No. She had the best night ever.
She slept for 6 1/2 hours, was up feeding for 45 minutes and went back to sleep for another 3 1/2.
How much sleep did I get? 3 hours.
I'm done with this waking up business. I've been told since she was born that I need to wake her up and feed her every three to four hours.  That wasn't a problem.  Grace has always been a good eater.  Some days she wanted to eat every hour and a half.  Grace is also a good night timer sleeper and a bad waker upper.  From week two she wanted to sleep for 4-5 hours in one stretch in the middle of the night.  So I was trying to wake her up and she wouldn't until she was good and ready.  And she was fine.  I went to my pediatrician and he said she looked great and was gaining weight fine, so I told him my instinct was that since it was only once in a 24 hour period, I felt I should let her sleep, and he agreed that it was ok just once in 24 hours.  But if I hadn't pushed it, no one would have said it, and I'd be a tired, irritated mess every day.  Instead, we both started getting 4-5 hours sleep in one stretch at night and everyone was happy and decently rested.  This is especially important since she doesn't like to nap a lot during the day.
She didn't nap at all for more than 20 minutes for 11 hours yesterday which means I didn't nap either.  She was super hungry all day, probably going through a growth spurt as well as wanting comfort while she's getting over this cold that we've all had and I was happy to oblige since breast milk is the best medicine.  Mike had a meeting after work so by the time I could have napped it was time to eat and I was too hungry to skip dinner, and I need to nourish myself to nourish her!
So after 5 hours of her sleeping last night (I had had three, I usually try to go to bed when she does but she fell asleep really early in the evening and I just couldn't) I spent an hour and a half unsuccessfully trying to wake her up. By the time she woke up on her own and fed, and then went back to sleep, I had been up for three hours and was frustrated to tears which got me so upset and stuffed up again that even though she fell back asleep I couldn't.
This morning she woke up after 3 1/2 hours and promptly fed. She had a huge pee so clearly she isn't dehydrated, she hasn't turned into a skeleton and she didn't spit up or have tummy issues from going too long without food. This happened once before a few weeks ago and both ended in tears. Mine.
So if once every three weeks she's extra tired and sleeps a bit longer than she's "supposed to", I think I'm going to let her.
Being sleep deprived because she was up and needing me is one thing, but being sleep deprived and knowing that you could have had the best sleep you'd had in two months is just bad on a physical AND emotional level.  I may not have a lot of experience with babies but so far my instincts have served me pretty well and I need to go with that or it's not going to be pretty. Me crying over her at 3am and being completely exhausted and irritated when she wakes up at 8 isn't helping her, and it certainly isn't good for me.  Grace is healthy.  She's gaining weight fine.  Therefore I think there is one good thing that came from that horrible night.  I've figured out that my baby isn't an "average test baby", she's MY baby.  I spend every day and night with her and I know her patterns and what's good for her and I need to follow my own instincts in her care.  Obviously the pediatrician's advice is important, and there are many good guidelines to follow when it comes to an infant, but sometimes they can't be followed 100% to the letter, because not every baby is the same.  I'm fortunate that I have a baby who sleeps well and for the good of us both, from now on I'm going to let us sleep!  She knows when she's tired and she knows when she's hungry.  I need to trust HER too!

Sleep

For those of you who know me, you know I'm a terrible sleeper.  I'm a light sleeper, I can't sleep through noise and light is a problem.  I need a fan for white noise.  When I moved to New England from Ontario it was awful being in a different part of the time zone it gets light here at 4am in the summers and I have a terrible time sleeping when it's not dark.  Plus, Mike gets up at 4am for work and I can count on one hand the amount of times I haven't woken up when he's left for work and we've been married for almost eleven years.  Once I wake up it's hard for me to fall back asleep, sometimes it doesn't happen at all, and it takes forever for me to fall asleep in the first place.  Sometimes after Mike has fallen asleep in thirty seconds and I'm still awake thirty minutes later I'm pretty irritated!  My Dad falls asleep anywhere, anytime as well, really wish I had inherited that trait!
Therefore I was pretty worried about what would happen once I had a baby to take care of and feed in the middle of the night.  I was worried I'd be awake 24/7 and become a real live zombie who couldn't take good care of her.
I don't know if it's hormones, or the breastfeeding, but my body has adjusted.  The first week I got very little sleep because she had had some choking episodes and I was worried about how she was able to roll over on her side from day one and figured her face would get stuck against the lining of her bed so I pretty much napped a bit during the day when someone else was around and got very little sleep alone at night.  After a week of that, exhausted and crying I told Mike we had to figure something out so he called the hospital hotline and we finally got her into a good swaddle thanks to some amazing swaddling blankets made by my friend Arminta Carmichael.

My little burrito

I've been so fortunate that this girl is a great sleeper.  At night.  Daytime naps are intermittent, but if I had to pick day sleep or night sleep I'll go with night!  She likes to sleep for one long chunk.  Sometimes I have to wake HER up.  I asked my pediatrician and he said she can go for a five hour stretch once every twenty four hours.  So most nights I get four to five hours sleep in one stretch which is amazing.
As I said though, my body has amazed me by adjusting.  I can fall asleep so much quicker since she was born (and I wake up much quicker too!) and I can sometimes even fall asleep in the daytime with full sunlight.  One strange thing I notice with this new ability to sleep is the passage of time.  Whenever I tried to nap pre-Grace I'd pretty much just be lying there and I'd know exactly how much time had passed.  Now I nap and I feel like I've been asleep for ages while not as much time has passed.  This morning for instance we fell asleep around 9:45.  When I woke up I thought it must be at least noon, but it was only 10:45.
Whatever the cause of this increased ability to sleep I hope it lasts!

Six Weeks Old!

My little sweet pea has a bit of a cold right now, poor thing.  The old family is getting over it.
She is starting to make a lot more noises and is continuing to amaze me with the strength of her neck.  Between that and a lot more use of her hands and arms, I keep getting clunked in the nose.  She also loves to hold on to my shirt while she's eating.  It's pretty cute.
I know that this is around the time that she's supposed to start her "social smile", smiling on purpose.  She's smiled since day one randomly, so I'm trying to figure out if she's smiling on purpose yet.  I'm not totally sure.  She is looking at things more.
I'm trying to read to her at least once a day and she seems to be calmed by it.  She also loves having her hair washed.  We've both been trying to do tummy time with her and it's amazing how much she can lift her head and use her hands to push up as well.
She loves to sleep all cuddled up on my chest.  I love to cuddle with my girl.  Especially when we've had a little less sleep the night before. ;)

First Cold and Week Five

I've had a cold for a week now but it just got worse.  Mike got it too and now poor Grace has her first cold.
I've been trying to prop her up, been using saline drops, the bulb syringe and we just bought a humidifier.  I also had her chair in the bathroom while I showered which seemed to help. 
How badly do you feel about sharing germs with a newborn?  Unfortunately it won't be the last I'm sure.

She's getting big now.  Cheeks are much fuller.  The newborn clothes are getting too short for her for the most part, but many of the 0-3 month clothes are still too big.  Depends on the manufacturer.  I find Carter fits small and Gerber fits large.  She is also starting to focus more on people and things, including Bailey.

She looks like she's dancing here, in her big girl outfit.

Two Weeks Old 03/13/14