Infant Pattern Baldness

This week marks
1. Angela losing her hair in a receding hairline-esque fashion.

2. Sleeping for 4 hours during the night for the first time.
3. Bearing her own weight on her legs (sometimes with very little assistance - even just holding her hands a few times for balance)

One Month Check Up

Angela weighed a total of 9lbs 13 oz, which means she's gained a total of 3 lbs since she was born! Needless to say, this little nugget is packing on the pounds like a champ. She also is now 22 inches (20.25 at birth) and the doctor noted that she has very good neck strength, holding it up while the doctor held her by her belly.

She also had a shot today (insert sad mommy face), and cried pretty bad for about a minute but recovered quicker than I thought she would. They need to create a better way to give babies their immunizations. Next month she has to have 2 shots, no! So depressing.

Angela also took her first trip to work today and got to meet everyone in person.

Last night she was totally awake up till 11pm without any sign of being tired in the near future. However, by lucky chance, I put her in her cradle swing & turned on the light function & within 5 minutes she was out like a light. Learning ways to keep her occupied & ways to put her to sleep are on the front burner in my journey as a new parent.

Yay for the Smiles

Our little nugget definitely hit her smile milestone yesterday. Last night I was holding her and sticking my tongue out at her, after about 5-10 seconds she would eventually respond and stick her tongue back out at me and occasionally let out a little squeal of excitement. I also would point at my facial features and then touch her facial feature "my nose... your nose" and after doing this she would also let out a smile. Then, as if this wasn't enough fun I had her on the bed and was tickling her face with a blanket, she was kicking her legs in excitement and would occasionally smile and let out a little happy laugh. How quickly this all came about!

She also does an excellent job holding her head up when we have her over our shoulder or when I recline on the couch and lay her on my chest, even using her arms to push her body up.

First Smile?

After a respectable night of sleep:
11:30pm-2:15am
3am-5am
6am-8:30am

I had Angela propped up in the bed after a feeding letting her tummy time to digest so that she would hopefully not spit up - alas she did and as I hurried to clean up all the spit up on her chin & neck so that it wouldnt require a change of clothes I noticed Angela get this look of delight on her face complete with a big open mouthed smile. Did she find this amusing? Usually when I see her smile she is always sleeping and it is ofcourse unintentional - just her exercising her facial muscles. Few minutes later - she spits up again and I rush to clean it up and again she gets this happy look on her face and puts on a big smile. (also as a side note - because her neck is so chubby with multiple rolls of chubbiness we really have to wash her well because spitup/milk gets stuck in those chubby rolls) This was quite exciting for me and am yet to get her to do it again.... but I believe my little creature is turning into a baby.

She is also starting to become a bit more vocal letting out a happy baby "ahhhAhhhh" once in a while... granted this is not directed at me - but usually at the various lights throughout our house that occupy her in her free time... we're looking forward to the Christmas season to see how she reacts to all the lights & ornaments.

Jekyll and Hyde Baby

I'm guessing this growth spurt is continuing. For the past days she's been flip flopping her days: one day she's totally awake, hungry, and cranky for a lot of the time and barely sleeps, and then the next day she's totally sleepy, eats just enough to get through the day and is barely awake. This has been going on and off for, I believe, the past 4 days (my days mush together at this point).

She is definitely packing on the pounds and her feet are now big enough for her baby socks to stay on - I swear this changed just occurred in the past 3 days.

The crankiness is exhausting though, the other night (after being up nearly ALL day - and me with very little sleep) she was cranky past midnight and I was so tired I was near the end of my energy and was praying for her to fall asleep -I was so near just passing out and she did finally lay down and sleep.

The days when she does sleep (and I sleep too) my breasts get so full from her not eating frequently enough and I dont really get anything done around the house because I'm trying to catch up on my sleep. Today is a sleepy day so we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Must have been a growth spurt

Angela barely slept for the past two days and was extremely cranky and constantly wanting to feed. When I wasn't feeding her (and I swear she got every last drop of milk at each feeding), I had her in the sleepy wrap and was jogging around the house - this seemed to be the only thing that entertained her. Happily John was home early (5:15) and he got a taste of her mood and jogged around the house while I made dinner. She didn't fall asleep until 11:30 which was the longest period of being awake she's ever had. After all that I believe John has gained a stronger understanding of what it is like to be with her all day and why I'm sometimes incapable of accomplishing anything until he gets home. Luckily this morning she slept from 4:00am-7:00am which allowed me atleast some sleep and now she's asleep again... lets hope this growth spurt is over.

Moving on up...

Angela has officially moved into her size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes. This is a good thing because I had very few newborn outfits and it was necessary to do a full load of her laundry each day to combat the messes she makes that require frequent changes of clothing. The top picture I like just because she has a funny look on her face. Middle picture - finally I have allowed myself to be photographed despite the fact that I'd rather not until I lose about 20 lbs. The last picture is Angela sitting right now in
front of me while I write. Note the hand-knit booties that Kenzie's(my brother Andrew's girlfriend) grandmother made for her.

Today is a less than stellar day, Angela has been sleeping for less than an hour at a time has been rather fussy & feeding a lot and I'm dying to take a nap. Although I am generally not exhausted I am starting to get irritable from not being able to sleep in stretches more than 3 hours. Five hours would be wonderful but I

know it's not in the cards right now or most likely any time too soon.

Overall though she does not cry much, when she wakes up and is hungry she squirms and groans/grunts for up to a half hour which give me time to muster up the energy to wake up. I have also been able to 'catch up' on all the late night infomercials, which I pretty much use the tv for a source of light so I dont have to turn on my lamp and give her the impression that this is 'awake time.'

Last night I took her into our tub with me which was fun. Her baby tub is still a bit too big for her and she doesn't enjoy bath time too much, but in the tub with me I could keep most of her body submerged and she was very comfortable... although I know if I keep doing that I will eventually be dealing with baby poop in the tub and I don't really want to experience that.

Revelations of New Parents

1. 3 straight hours of sleep is a blessing. Last night Angela slept from 11:30pm-2:45am got a diaper change & a feeding, woke up after 6:00am- diaper/feeding, then woke up at 8:30 - what a good girl. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the possibility that this good luck streak could end & I'm appreciating every night when she sleeps like this. On a positive note because I am so tired by the end of the day (and no longer dealing with the insomnia associated with my pregnancy) I sleep better now than I did before she was born.

2. 7pm-11pm is cranky baby time. I get through this by reminding myself that eventually she will fall asleep.

3. Baby bowel movements amuse us. Nothing like John coming home from work & greeting Angela - only to be returned the favor with a big wet gassy poop noise. Atleast we know when it's time to change a dirty diaper. And despite our supposed maturity we laugh pretty much every time she does this.

4. Angela is mystified & in love with the mobile attached to her pack n play. I don't know if its the music or the rotating bears but she instantly calms down when it's on - the only shame is that it functions by a winding mechanism so we have to keep winding it. I am yet to find anything else remotely capable of amusing her.

Two Week Update

Angela had her second doctor's appointment today - she weighed a whopping 7lbs 8oz! And she also peed on the doctor when he put her on the scale... that'll teach him. We used the stroller for the first time to walk to the dr's office, but I think that will also be the last time, the road is super busy & loud and I did not feel comfortable even though it was only about a 15 minute walk.

She also had her first tub bath today which was a bit intimidating for her at first, but tolerable. The baby bump belly continues to shrink, my stitches don't hurt too much at all and I'm beginning to consider some basic exercise - hooray! Breastfeeding also makes me super thirsty and I'm drinking more water than ever before.