4 Weeks Old!!!

Here are some more pictures of our little miss. She has really started to change in the last few days. Now she is fascinated by her hands when they happen to wander into her line of vision. And she has started to reach out and knock around the toys we place around her. I am sure that it is not intentional yet, but it is awfully cute to watch. Some things about these first four weeks that I don't want to forget:

- her greedy little look when she is getting ready to nurse

- the little patch of blonde hair behind her ear that my mom pointed out...I had one just like it.

- the smiles and giggles she makes when she is in REM sleep

- the first time I realized that she really does look like me and how overwhelming that was...it really blew my mind that another person (that I had a hand in creating) could have my face....of course this emotion could also have been due to my severe lack of sleep

- the way she looks up at me in the sling right before she closes her eyes to sleep

- how I have to be grateful for the small blessings in my life








We had our first PEPS meeting yesterday and I really liked it. Dan came with and we got to hear about everyone else's troubles with their babies. At least two of the other mothers talked about how their babies had witching hours from 11pm to 2am....that made me so glad that Julia doesn't seem to have one. She just fusses when I try to burp her and when it is time to nap during the day. And the fussing when I burp her is the most distressing. She is easy to put back to sleep at night (usually) after feeding. Last night she went 4.5 and 4 hours between feedings which was really nice. Especially because she wanted to eat almost every hour that we were home.

I also found out that one of the other couples from the PEPS group lives two blocks away on our same street. They have a little two week old girl and the mom, Sascha, will be home until mid-July. So I will have someone to take walks with once Dan goes back to work next week. I discovered that they lived there totally by accident...I was walking back from TJs when I heard someone calling my name. It was Sascha, who was also excited to see me. It was especially nice given the toughness of yesterday and how tough this morning had been too (total lack of sleep combined with baby who hates to be burped). Anyway, we've made it through the first four weeks with Julia intact. And seemingly enjoying herself. Big achievement on my part.

Trial Run

Today is a test for Julia and I. Dan went back to work to start some experiments that will run for the rest of the week and we are home alone. So far it is going pretty well, thanks to the sling. After eating, burping, sitting upright for some activity time, Julia is ready to sleep and I can carry her around in the sling until she wakes up again for another round. So we are falling into some kind of predictable routine.

Last night was a good sleeping night. We gave her a bath, then I fed her again around 8:30pm. And she went down fairly easily and slept until 12:30am or so. After that she slept again until 4:00am. She still wakes up at 6:00am or so, not hungry, but lonely. Once we bring her into the bed with us she calms right down and sleeps for another hour. This afternoon we took a nap together on the bed, which was a real blessing for me. Plus we even got some laundry done this morning and we get to make an excursion to the grocery store after she wakes up from her nap and is fed. I hope that I am doing the right thing by carrying her around in the sling with me so often. I know that she likes it (once she settles down) and I am playing with her before she decides she has had enough and starts to fuss.

Dan came home for lunch, which was nice, although we didn't get to eat it together. Dinner tonight is the lasagne we made before Julia arrived...it will provide dinners all week I think. Well, we might throw in some swedish meatballs as well. Maybe a pork roast if Dan gets really ambitious. He made a great dinner on Sunday for Easter: leg of lamb, sweet yams, and sauteed zucchini and mushrooms. I hope he continues to cook...he is really good at it. Anyway, I hear Miss Julia starting to stir. Here are some more Easter pictures....

Three weeks!!! Happy Easter!!

Two Weeks Down...the rest of our lives to go...

Little Julia is gaining weight like a prize fighter....almost 1 lb in a week! So she is up to 8lbs, 13 oz now and the doctor said I can start feeding her on demand at night. Which translates to about every 3.5 hours. Not too bad and we've decreased the overall number of feedings as well, which means more time for me to rest. She is looking awfully cute though, despite the fact that this week she discovered her lungs and crying. Julia seems to have some difficulty getting over the hump of drowsy to asleep, although thankfully this only occurs during the day. At night she goes back to sleep after eating, as long as she is wrapped in her yummy fleece blanket from Gramma.

Speaking of Gramma, she left today after her week plus long visit. We were so sad to see her go; she made our lives so much easier this week with the cooking and cleaning. She also occasionally held Julia, but she did not spoil her. We've also got the video conferencing thing up and running on our end and are just waiting for the relatives back on the East coast to buy their webcams and sign up for broadband.

This week also had a lot of firsts...Our first walk outside with the sling, first trip to church, first walk in the stroller (complete with rain gear...this is Seattle after all), first bath (really cute video taken by Gramma), and first stirrings of fussiness when trying to go to sleep (see above). It is definetly a learning experience and we cannot wait for those first smiles to come and reward us for all of this hard work.




Here we are on our first walk in the sling....we took Gramma to Kerry Park again to see Mt. Rainier and get some fresh air for Mommy. The sling is a wonderful invention....Mommy and Daddy will probably start wearing it full time during the day now that Gramma has gone back to Kentucky.

Later this week we get a visit from Granddad and GrandPam (Dan's dad and Pam). We've also been getting about a package a day from family and friends and are very grateful for all of the nice gifts you've been sending for Julia. We especially like the quilt that Auntie Em made and the dalmation blankie that Ann sent from Madison (we're going to name it Kirby). We'll try to keep the pictures coming.