My baby is a month old already!
When I was asked recently how I like being home all day, I realized that I really don't feel like I have time for anything else. I can't imagine trying to go back to work any time soon! She eats every 1 1/2-3 hours during the day, and takes anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to finish, depending on her hunger and the number of breaks she takes and how often she falls asleep while nursing. If we haven't done a diaper change while she was taking a nursing break, she needs one when she's finished. Then she needs to be soothed to sleep, or played with for a while until she gets sleepy and then soothed to sleep. And she is so irresistibly adorable that it's hard to put her down right when she's fallen asleep on me and not in her rocker or somewhere else. By the time we get through all that another hour has easily passed and I have up to an hour to feed, clean, and/or toilet myself and the dog, pump some milk to store, scrub the baby poop out of whatever has most recently been soiled, and try to accomplish something as far as house cleaning. I feel good about myself if I can do one chore per day. Extra good if the dog gets a walk and some love as well.
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| Who could resist this face? |
Penny is growing and developing like a champ! Her two week birthday was marked by the arrival of her birth certificate and social security card, and the loss of the stump of the umbilical cord. Unfortunately, the birth certificate claimed she was male, and had to be returned for correction. Penny celebrated turning two weeks old by being fantastically fussy all day, and refusing to nap longer than a few minutes at a time. My mom was still here to help me deal with that, so I had some relief. Penny slept great that night.
Birth weight was attained once again by her doctor appointment at 10 days. For those who don't know, newborn babies who are breast fed lose weight after being born. They don't eat much the first day or two, they are too busy recovering from birth. Their mother's milk doesn't come in for a few days either, and while colostrum provides important antibodies it doesn't provide many calories. Babies start gaining weight again as their appetite increases and the milk comes in, and most babies have regained their birth weight by 2 weeks old. So Penny was right on track! She has continued to gain, which I can tell because her newborn size clothes are stretching to fit her these days. We have been dressing her in 0-3 month size sleepers since we brought her home, and they are fitting her much better now than they did at one week old. She is now the right length for the 0-3 month size, but the sleepers are all baggy and much too big around the middle. It looks like she is already long and lean, just like her dad.
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| Changing table fun time |
Her face has changed in shape already. The round, puffy newborn face has gotten a little longer and leaner. She has stopped doing The Woodpecker like she used to, instead she turns her head more slowly, letting my nipple brush her lips a few times, before suddenly opening her mouth wide and diving her face into my breast for the latch. Her full and satisfied face that she makes when she's finished nursing hasn't changed yet. I'm glad, because that face is adorable. A new habit she has recently developed is nursing with her eyes open, usually staring blankly at whatever is in front of her face (my boob) but sometimes gazing up at me or something else that has caught her fancy. Once, she tried to turn her head to look out the window. We won't be allowing that one to happen again, ouch!
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| The tail end of a toothless grin |
Penny's newborn startle reflex is diminishing in frequency, but not in the amount of amusement it provides her parents. When some sound or shift in position of whoever is holding her sets off the reflex her arms fly up with her hands splayed open, then slowly drift back down into relaxation. The hands are the only indication she is not fully sound asleep; her eyes stay closed and she doesn't stir or become upset. Sometimes we miss whatever caused the startle (a car passing on the street? a sniffle? the clink of silverware against a dish?) but glance at her in time to see her hands doing their slow motion descent back down to her lap. Sometimes they get stuck after her elbow touches down, and she sleeps for a while with her open hand above her chest as if telling us not to pick her up and disturb the bliss of her milky dreams.
The smiles. Oh, the delightful smiles. She is starting to smile in response to things. On the changing table she will give us big toothless grins while we marvel to her about her impressive ability to dirty her bottom and soak a diaper in 5 seconds flat. She will also smile at my breast after falling asleep while nursing, and at the window, which holds her in fascination. Toothless grins really are the best kind.
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| Loving that pig |
Awake time is getting longer and more frequent as Penny learns that she can be awake and alert without having to be hungry or on the changing table. Have I mentioned how much she loves being on the changing table? Loves. It. She calms down immediately upon being set down, and cheerfully stretches and kicks and flails her arms, while offering us her sweetest, biggest smiles. But lately she has also been cheerful and smiley while not on the changing table. This has changed my life. Almost as often as not she is content to be left in her rocking chair or on the floor (on a mat or blanket of course) to stare at things and kick her legs. The other day I'm pretty sure she was watching her own arm move around. She particularly likes the pink pig toy that dangles from her chair, showing obvious preference for it over the blue sheep that hangs on the other side. This leads me to believe that she will eventually exhibit a strong affinity for all things pink and frilly and fluffy, much like I did as a small child even though that kind of thing makes me want to throw up a little nowadays. Oh, well. When she's old enough to demand the most ridiculously girly things, she shall have ridiculously girly things. I just hope she will also deign to play in the dirt with me!
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| Interested, because she's not looking |
The dog is warming up to the baby, slowly but surely. Poor Bilbo was terrified of her when she first came home and refused to come closer to her than 2 or 3 feet. Funny little dog worries about her though; when she cried the first night he hopped up on our bed to make sure we attended to her. He will come into the room in which she is upset if he was sleeping in a different room, and if she cries and I don't immediately go to her, he stares at me until I do. Now that he's had some time to adjust he will sometimes go up and sniff her of his own free will, but only if he thinks no one (including the baby) is paying attention. Silly dog. But then again, maybe he is right to be cautious. Maybe he is dreading the day she discovers he exists, and later the day when she becomes mobile and begins chasing him down with her sticky baby fingers and drooly baby mouth. Maybe he is being a smart dog, after all.
