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!