Six weeks.

Happening this week...

• still not eating perfectly but she's perfect to us
• gaining a bit, which is good; we want those thigh rolls! 
• smiling and cooing a lot which is AMAZING
• reacting well to acid reflux medicine, though mommy forgot for a day and a half...
• loving on grandma who's visiting
• developing some brown eyes
• liking her play mat for about five to ten minutes
• making funny faces
• sleeps well on mom
• took a bottle
• has been dabbling in cloth diapers

xoxo, natty ♥

Five weeks.

Here's little bit.

A whole inch longer than five weeks ago!

She so favors looking around so here's that sweet face.

Going on this week:

• making cute sounds 
• smiling {is it too early? I hope not}
• sleeping better on people than in her bassinet
• not sleeping super well after three AM {help us}
• still working on eating well and gaining weight
• being very cute

Have a good day folks!
xoxo, natty ♥

Brother.

Guinness wanted in on the photo taking action yesterday.

Poor little dog has had quite the life change, though he seems to be adjusting.

He like to give Hanna Lu licks on her hand and her head when we can't stop him.

One month old.

We got these fun stickers and headbands from a friend...what a generous and cute gift for a new mom! 

Someone wouldn't stretch out her legs.

Happy one month Hanna Lu! What a month it’s been with my health adventures…baby girl has adjusted really well and done beautifully.

She’s a very alert baby, holding eye contact for a long time and she’ll even follow something as it goes past her eyes.

She’s not the longest eater…I might have some issues with my milk supply {too much too fast} that make it tough for her and possibly give her a bit of reflux so hopefully she can adjust/grow out of this.

Hanna had a good week of morning/afternoon naps and then the past few days has been on strike. She’ll also have a fussy period from about 7 PM to midnight. This is tough and HL’s daddy really takes over at this time, which is awesome. She’ll have a good stretch of sleep at the beginning of her night, whenever it begins, and then maybe another good stretch of sleep, and then the last sleep before “getting up” for the morning isn’t that great. I’m wondering if her fidgety sleep is reflux/digestion related?

Hanna Lu is creeping up on a pound heavier than when she was born and definitely is too big for her newborn clothes. She’s a wee small for some 0 to 3 month clothes but not for all so that’s what she’s mostly in these days.

It seems like she can almost roll over but it could be her arching her back from tummy troubles…

We love this little girl oh so very much and can’t wait to see what she’s up to in the next month.

xoxo, natty ♥

Blossoms.

We ventured down to the cherry blossoms last week.

Pretty, but where's the pink?

The trees were pretty but the blossoms seemed way less pink than they were last year; it could've just been me.

"Yawn".

It was a short {& muggy, yuck} visit but we got a few pictures for posterity's sake...we were actually there!

Next year we should be able to stay down there a bit longer, hopefully!

Four weeks.

I’ll do an official “One Month” post on the 18^th but today marks four weeks of Hanna Lu in our lives and that’s four weeks of our lives being infinitely better than they were. Unfortunately last week I fell ill again, but it was determined, finally {we sincerely hope}, that it’s a blood clot that I’ve been battling {they can cause fevers}…I’m currently on two types of antibiotics and blood thinners and a whole lotta desire for this ordeal to be over so that we can fully enjoy the sleeplessness and our beautiful baby. Thankfully, my step-mom was here helping us out/helping us to live {the woman knows how to feed people and watch a baby} and for that we are eternally grateful.

Anyway, on to happier things! I’ll be doing just once monthly updates after this so this is Hanna Lucy’s last weekly update, though I’ll stick with a picture a week for sure {I just love to see those thighs!}.

Not the clearest of today's bunch but at least her brow isn't furrowed the way it likes to be. And do I notice new thigh rolls on the left?!?!

How old: 4 weeks old

Weight: She clocked in at ten pounds and ten ounces this morning. Little bit is still a weird eater. It could be that “forceful letdown” thing but for the past few days she’ll have a feeding or two a day where she angrily cries and pulls off, then gets on again. She’ll repeat the process until she falls asleep if I let her but it’s so pitiful to see/hear her cry and I worry that it’ll cause her to dislike nursing. I ran it past the pediatrician briefly today and she said it won’t turn her off of it and to just keep an eye on the behavior. I’ll keep trying to pump for a minute or two before baby eats.

Likes:

·      Eating…sometimes.

·      Staring at people.

·      Staring at lights/windows.

·      Staring at a purple ribbon that’s part of a card that hangs on the wall above her changing pad.

·      Baths.

·      Being “worn”…but for a not-long time.

·      Driving…for a time and as long as the car is moving.

·      Making the cutest little face where she rounds her lips and seems to arch her brows; at least I like it.

Dislikes:

·      Eating…sometimes.

·      Those few cold moments after getting out of her bath.

·      When she’s settling in for a good sleep, she makes a very sweet little “ah” sound.

Milestones:

·      Baby girl saw her first cherry blossoms last week. We weren’t down there long and she was ready to go home and eat the moment we arrived but she saw them!

·      She has been doing some “tummy time” on her playmat for the first time. She can almost scoot forward, which seems odd. She lifts up her head and also turns it from side to side, though she rests it right after. There is a bout a two-minute appreciation of this exercise and then HL is ready for something else. She also enjoys the same playmat on her back, but I want her to get the time flipped over for her muscle development and head shape.

·      Someone got her very first bathrobe! 

The face belies her true feelings towards he duckie robe. I think I'll be forcing her to wear it until it fits as a shirt, I think she's that stinkin' cute in it. Says an overly biased mother.

     Thank you Lola!!!

·      We think we might be seeing some actual smiles…they come when she’s in a staring contest with me and they’re not complete smiles but I love them. They'll never be camera catch-able, I'm sure.

·      Hanna Lu will also make an almost laughing sound in her sleep and maybe half smile at the same time…SO CUTE.

Sleep and eat:

·      Hanna Lu is eating every one and a half to three hours.

·      Some feedings are way shorter than others; she’s efficient and other times she’s either not ready to eat or peeved that it’s coming out too fast…same issues as earlier.

·      She has been sleeping in one of those Velcro-baby-straight-jackets instead of being swaddled in a blanket…she seems to fight this a bit less? Maybe because it’s not as stretchy as a blanket can be.

·      She is still a loud sleeper. My step-mom, Hanna Lu’s Lola, is SO gracious and will let us have the baby sleep out with her, and I’ll get up and go out and feed her…this has been tremendous because sometimes it’s hard to sleep with those crazy sounds she makes and with another ER visit in our recent history, this extra quiet sleep is amazing.

·      When she’s fixing to wake up, HL will often get really loud/fussy for about an hour while remaining asleep…should I let her sleep through this? She doesn’t come out of it really upset or that fussy, so I figure that even if it’s a light sleep it’s a sleep and I should let her be.

·      I’ve done the white noise machine during her naps a few days now and it seems to go well…but we haven’t given it a try at night yet. I also don’t know if we could handle the “heartbeat in the womb” sound {or any of the others, for that matter} that the baby seems to favor. What we can abide by, though, is the fan and I think it might be time to start having the fan on at night anyway {despite the next two days’ predicted cool weather} so maybe that can help drown out the baby sounds.

·      HL falls asleep best while eating, though she can be lulled to sleep while being held; neither of which are truly sustainable but I don’t believe we’re anywhere near getting to the point where we try to full-on teach her how to do it alone. Though I’ve read/heard that quickly waking baby as she’s put down to sleep and allowing her to re-fall asleep there in her crib is a good technique. I’m just way too scarred to give that one a try.

Miscellaneous:

·      Hanna Lu definitely has her witching hour towards the end of the afternoon/early evening/through to midnight sometimes. We work through it together and having the extra set of hands has been a true Godsend. I do think she’s just overtired/processing the day’s events {though she still sleeps for a lot of the day [on a good one], what gives?} and I’ve read to preempt the signs of tiredness but sometimes she’s just not ready to eat and that’s truly the best way for her to go to get there so we’ll have to just try different things and be glad that she’s adorable.

·      Someone has an Easter dress to wear and if she’s good then the Easter bunny may just deliver her some goodies {goodies that a one month old might enjoy}!

xoxo, natty ♥

Cocoon baby.

Here are some outtakes from the other day's photo shoot.

She was feeling pensive?

Yes, that's the yoga mat but we haven't started baby yoga yet.

Hanna Lu is kind of ambivalent about her swaddling...but I think she's darn hilarious looking when all wrapped up.

Blue eyed for now.

We're hopefully starting some at-home baby yoga this week and we're also enjoying our time with Lola Ling Ling, on-loan from California for some very grateful new parents.

The baby whisperer.

And we're trying to get down to check out the cherry blossoms too...what a busy week for us!

Three weeks.

We’re almost at a month; wow! I hope that we’ve learned some things? Maybe, just like I was going to make a list of things I loved about being pregnant, I’ll try to make a list of things we’ve learned next week. But, let’s see what’s on this week’s radar.

Looking a lot like last week. That red birthmark/spot on her left cheek is fading now.

How old: 3 weeks old

Weight: Despite some odd eating and much worrying on her mother’s part, Hanna Lu is up to ten pounds six ounces…she gained two ounces in one feeding this morning at our twice-weekly breastfeeding/new mom support group at the birth center which was exciting.

Likes:

·      Sleeping on her mom during the day.

·      Warm baths.

·      Staring at lights/windows.

·      Not being gassy.

Dislikes:

·      Nursing on my left side…see below.

·      Having an unclean diaper.

·      Her swaddle when she’s ready to wake up in the morning…when we first unwrap those little arms go straight up in the air and it’s adorable.

·      Letting her parents eat dinner together or go to bed at the same time; Michael will usually take the ten to whenever fussy time while I get to sleep first {thank you thank you thank you dear sweet husband}.

Milestones:

·      Little girl is gaining some good weight, finally, though being her size to begin with it wasn’t a concern.

·      Hanna Lu went to her first soccer game to see her daddy play. We walked around the track in the stroller twice and then went home. She screamed for one of the laps but it was because of a diaper issue not anything soccer related.

·      Our daughter also met lots of new people this weekend, school friends of her father and some of his Peace Corps friends as well.

·      We had our first “play-date” yesterday; a friend with a three-month-old baby came over and spoiled us rotten with lunch, dinner, and gifts; it was glorious and we feel so blessed. No playing actually happened, both babies let their moms eat and then they themselves ate. It was pretty hilarious now that I think about it.

·      I drove just the two of us for the first time last week.

·      We tried the Moby wrap, a long piece of fabric that lets an adult wrap a baby to him/herself. Hanna Lu liked it the first time, and hasn’t liked it the subsequent two times I tried, but we’ll keep on keeping on because people swear by these things and it would be very helpful to try and get things done.

·      We had our first and second story times; we liked the first and cried during the second.

Sleep and eat:

·      The little one eats every two to three hours for five to 20 minutes at a time. She tends to eat for less time on my left side {see below} and doesn’t always burp.

·      I found out that I create a forceful release of milk sometimes which causes  the babe to act angry while she’s feeding – pulling back, re-latching, letting out some annoyed sounds, trying it all over again. The trick will be to get rid of some of that milk by hand expressing it before I feed her. I’ve also tried another trick, making sure that the milk flow is working against gravity. Hopefully this helps her enjoy the experience more. I think that some babies who have mothers with this condition adjust to the flow or just learn to be really efficient eaters {which our child seems to be already} and not love nursing for comfort. I’m hoping for the former.

·      The baby still sleeps for several hours at a time over night, though she can have a wicked crying time for several hours before finally giving in to sleep {like last night} – Michael usually takes this shift which is very kind of him since crying can be so hard to hear continuously.

·      In her last sleeping shift of the night, she kind of fusses for the last hour and sounds like the Hulk trying to break free of her swaddle.

·      Daytime naps happen best and longest on my chest. I just recently tried swaddling her during the day…I was under the impression that a bit lighter/less sleep during the day may encourage better/longer night time sleeping, though I’ve since read otherwise. I still think if she sleeps away the day the night time sleep stars later {again, yesterday} but a good deep sleep is important because it can prevent her from being over tired. During the day if she’s in the bassinet/Moses basket, Hanna Lu sleeps maybe an hour…on my chest, it could be two to three. I love those naps together but I don’t need that much rest at one time and it feels good to have a bit of autonomy so I’d like to see her nap better on her own.

·      We’ve tried the white noise machine and she just doesn’t seem to love it. We’ll keep plugging along with it though, trying it in different ways.

Miscellaneous:

·      Are all three-week olds this ____________________________? I find myself asking this question to myself several times a day; I wish we had our own private baby expert other than Dr. Google!! It’s so helpful to go to the birth center twice a week since the lactation consultant who runs the program knows so much and there’s usually a pediatrician type person roaming around. Currently, are they fussy for a lot of time when they’re awake? Or, rather, do we have a fussy baby or does she just need/want more/less stimulation? I suppose I could go nuts playing this game so I’ll just enjoy the beautiful baby that we have.

 xoxo, natty ♥

Just a regular Friday.

Today we went to the breastfeeding clinic at the birth center...it's so good to have this twice-weekly outing. Hanna Lu needs to keep gaining weight but she does eat well; she's apparently pretty efficient at it which is why she doesn't spend too much time doing it!

Then she took a nap at home and smiled in her sleep.

She needs a bow to cover up those patchy hairs!

We went for a walk. HL cries when she's in her carseat and it's not in motion but I got this shot of her just sitting there before we clicked her into the stroller base.

I love her in that bomber hat.

And she got to be worn for the first time - I'm not sure if I got her in the wrap correctly but she was pretty happy and ended up falling asleep...a success I think!

It's so neat that everything is new for her and for us too!

2 weeks.

So we’re officially on our own; my mother-in-law left us this morning. We are so, so grateful for her time and help here and hopefully we can pull this off just the three of us now. Let’s look at some statistics!

Looking concerned.

How old: 2 weeks old

Weight: Hanna Lu has been in kind of a weird eating pattern the past few days. On Friday she weighed 10 pounds even and then this morning she was about 10 pounds two or three ounces. Her doctor said that’s OK but to keep an eye on her eating in the next few days. Hopefully she just had a weird patch.

Likes:

·      Being held.

·      Staring at me and other people who are holding her.

·      Arm exercises, though she doesn’t love them for long, they certainly keep her entertained for about 10 minutes; we open her arms slowly and then close them – very strenuous!

Dislikes:

·      Eating? She’s eating a bit less frequently and for not as long which worries me but I know the best course of action is to relax and let her figure out things.

·      Despite the first point, she doesn't like being hungry.

·      Being cold.

·      Not being held.

·      The time period between 9 PM and 1:30 AM…this is definitely her witching hour and requires a lot of holding/bouncing/walking/soothing.

Milestones:

·      Little girl is wearing size 1 diapers…when we get our hot water heater fixed and we’re feeling up to constant laundry, then we’ll start with cloth diapers but for now it’s size 1!

Sleep and eat:

·      As I mentioned, HL is seeming to not eat as much during feedings and will go a bit longer in between them…maybe she’s over stimulated? Hopefully this will resolve itself because we need our good eater to come back.

·      She’ll sleep for several hours at a time, which is glorious. But I feel like each stage is tenuous so who knows?

Miscellaneous:

·      This little girl is a noisy sleeper! She grunts and fusses while she’s sawing zzzs and it’s very cute but also kind of hard to ignore.

·      What color will her eyes be? They’re still that newborn-could-be-anything color.

·      Also, what color will her hair be? I’m guessing, according to what she has, it will be light brown but I see some very light undertones here and there.

·      Wish us continued luck as we go down this parenting road!