Well, Sarah is now 6 weeks old as of Wednesday. She has changed immensely in all aspects of her. The way she acts, the noises she makes, the way she looks, everything. She is actually getting to a point where she can just lay down and look at the world around her and be content (for a short period of time). This is the beginning of the stage that I was/am really looking forward to. Don't get me wrong, I love just holding her, but I want her to experience so many things that she just needs to experience on her own.
Last week, Karen bought her a mat with dangling toys that she can play on. She wasn't too fond of it at first, but she is getting more used to it, and she enjoys looking at all the colors. We also have been putting her in her crib for short periods of time and she seems very content with that. We put a mobile up that came with her pack 'n play, and she is most amused by that. Of course, it is not one that spins itself, so I have to stand there and spin it, but she really likes it. Guess we'll have to buy one now.
Sarah's cries have also changed in tone and volume. They seem to be much more mature, and they really differ depending on what she is crying about. It has gotten much easier to tell if she needs changed, needs fed, needs held, or is just plain cranky (which she still has a tendency to do every evening for about an hour or so).
Another really neat thing to watch is the way she is responding to "classic conditioning". Much like Pavlov proved years ago, she responds the same way to the same stimuli now. When she is hungry, if I place the burp rag lighly on her face, and then tuck it in to her clothing, she get's quiet, opens her mouth, and waits for her bottle.
Not that any of this is unusual, it's just really fascinating to watch. I'm really enjoying this!
I tried again today to give sarah some formula. I feel that it is inevitable that she will have to be switched over from breast milk before too long--she is just eating too much for me to be able to keep up with her. We have decided that if that has to be done then that is what we have to do. So, I thought I would start trying to introduce formula to her slowly so that when the day comes she will be used to it. Well it has been a disaster so far....
the poor little thing was puking her little guts out literaly because I gave her something she isn't used to. When the puking went from the formula to a yellow gross substance I called Doug and we decided to call the doctor. The nurse did not seem concerned but she gave me some tips about the gentle introduction of formula to her since she hasn't had anything but breast milk for 5 weeks now. She suggested that we start with non-iron stuff and then if that still doesn't work we should go with soy for a while and then to a non-iron milk based variety. I guess I will try again in a few days to see if I can make the transition as easy for her as possible.
I finally got a chance to upload the past 2 weeks worth of photos to the gallery. Take a look.
Sarah had her one month check up tonight.....she weighed in at 8 pounds and 8 ounces and measured in at 19 1/4 inches--I guess she's doing something right. She isn't quite on a schedule yet but she has gotten her days and nights straightened around. She sleeps about 4 1/2 to 5 hours at a time during the night and really only gets up to eat and then goes back to sleep but during the day she eats, takes a half hour nap and then is awake for 3 or 4 hours. The other day she was up from 9am to 4 pm with only about a half our of sleep during the day--it's really borning when they don't "do" anything when they're awake so I just walked around the house with her and then we stared at each other for a while then she decided that she was hungry and then took a cat nap and we started all over again. She is growing and changing all the time and soo fast--I don't want to go back to work......
Last night and yesterday were a bit rough. Sarah was up almost all day from shortly after I left for work until shortly before I got home, making her awake time a whopping 7 hours! She is never like this! Not that it is a bad thing, but she became overly tired and would not fall asleep last night. We tried feeding her and she ate a bit, but didn't want to continue. We also changed her and made sure she was dry and clean. I also tried to just lay her on my chest, which we found she really likes when she is sleeping. She slept for about 30 minutes, until I had to get up and go to bed. I laid her down, and she woke up.
This obviously was not going to work since I am fighting a cold, and have to get up and go to work. Also, it's unfair to Karen to have Sarah all night every night, and she was just tired. Karen suggested swaddling Sarah to see if that would calm her down.
It's funny, Claire and I were just discussing how to do this the "proper" way the other night. I've never really been a big fan of doing this, I thought it was cruel to an extent since I know Sarah loves to have her hands up at her face, and in order to properly do this, you need to wrap them so tight that they can't move.
I decided to give this a try, and low and behold, 5 minutes after wrapping her, she was sound asleep and stayed that way for most of the night. Guess I'll keep that in my bag of tricks for later use.
Does anyone understand why maternety leave is for the first 6 or 12 weeks when the baby doesn't do anything but eat, sleep and dirty their diapers and then they go off to day care and are all grown up it seems. They roll over, talk crawl and all kinds of other fun stuff when you can no longer seem them more than 8 or 10 hours a day. How is that fair?
So I went to the doctor today for my 4 week post partum check up. According to the scale at the doctor's office I have lost all but 5 pounds of "pregnancy" weight--I don't know that I agree with that but thats what the scale said. My blood pressure was fine (actually somewhat lower then usual) and the midwife was happy about that since it was so high when I was in the hospital. She asked about the breast feeding situation and was interested in how well I was keeping up with the little piggy since it not really a supply and demand situation anymore really. It seems to be okay again I guess.
I was also given my birth control pills even though Shelly (the midwife) claims that I won't have my period at all while I am breastfeeding and I shouldn't get pregnant but there is always that chance and I would like the second one (if there is going to be a second one) to be spaced a little better then that. So in thinking about this whole process so far......I may want to do it again before I'm 32 but the next few weeks may change my mind.....
It's been a while since I posted about Sarah's adventures in life, and so much has happened. To start, she passed her hearing test with flying colors mid last week. When they tested her 24 hours after birth, one ear passed and the other referred (didn't pass) twice. Not a big deal, but we had to go back at 2 weeks of age and have her retested. She passed just like we knew she would.
Saturday night was her first experience with fireworks, and like her father when I was young, she was not happy at all. We walked up to the hill by Todd and Megan's to see the Marietta fireworks, and ended up leaving shortly after they started. She was tugging at her ears and was just screaming. We probably shouldn't have taken her out, but hindsight is always 20/20. She's fine now, but next year could be interesting, not sure if we will take her out or not yet.
Yesterday, for the first time, she met her great grandparents. They are back from Florida for the summer, and to see her, and we were finally able to get together and show her off. We were able to get a four generation picture. She also was able to meet one of her great aunts and her second cousin. There still is more family to meet, but we are doing it on her schedule and little by little.