Isla is 3 weeks old today! How did that happen? Time has flown by! We had a bit tougher of a time with her teddy bear photos today.
At first I couldn't get her to wake up
-Tonight she gets to try her very first real bottle! (She did have one tiny 10 ml bottle of formula in the hospital--much to her mommy's frustration-- because she was hypoglycemic and wouldn't nurse but we're not counting that). Our plan is to feed her one bottle/day of pumped breast milk to make sure that she'll take the bottle. I'm thinking this will be great bonding time for Daddy and her.
-Today she can also have her binkie if she'd like (our pediatrician recommended waiting for binkies and bottles until 3 weeks to make sure breast feeding was well established). We're certainly not going to force her to take a binkie if she doesn't want one but part of me thinks it will REALLY help with her nighttime grunts.
Cute, even when asleep
-Speaking of, she is still grunting and groaning throughout the night. We've have started to notice that the grunting seems to take place when she is in her light phase of sleep. She's definitely still asleep when she does it though--it's crazy! We're not sure how long we're going to be able to keep her in our room with us as I'm not able to sleep through the noise. It's funny--I was talking to my mom and she was reading through my baby book and said I used to do the same thing. She found a note that said I "grunted and groaned like a weight lifter." :o)
-Isla seems to have found her voice. She still doesn't cry much but she is starting to make it a little more obvious when she wants something. She has also begun to coo and caw a bit--more cawing than cooing. It's pretty cute!
Pouting
-The past couple nights we have decided to try to wait until she really starts crying before we do anything. Previously, we'd been responding to the grunts, thinking they meant something, and also to avoid the hour-long grunt fests that ensued if we let her be. We decided however to bite the bullet, lose sleep and see if that helped at all with our night trouble. The jury is still out.
-Isla may be going through a growth spurt as she is more consistently feeding every 1 1/2 hours in the evening and into the night. Over the past 2 nights, my longest stretch of sleep was two hours. We'd been trying to feed her every 2 hours in the day (per her dr) in hopes of having longer stretches at night. So far, minimal success.
Karate chop!!!!
-Isla is going through her baby acne phase. I think we've hit the peak though and it's starting to taper down.
-I really do think I see strong evidence of Graham's personality in her. She's fairly laid back, is a night owl and seems not to want to "play by the rules."
Relaxing
-Isla is getting more and more alert and is having longer sessions of awake time. It's fun to watch her look around and absorb her surroundings. She can track for very short amounts of time but mostly seems to stare at our bright red wall.
-She started to spit up a little this week. Nothing projectile. Mostly just when she gets the hiccups after eating. Each hiccup brings a little back...
-Thankfully, Graham was able to get another two weeks off work. It has been a lifesaver to have him around so I can nap! My mom and sister both took a morning this past weekend where they took Isla at 7AM so I could go back to bed for a couple hours.
-Isla is developing an adorable little belly and double chin. :o)
Even though our sleep troubles are leaving us a bit weary, we are doing well and are completely in love with this 3 week old little girl.
Today is our 1/2 anniversary! When I informed Graham of this, he said "Do we celebrate those?" Ha! Guess not.... :o) I like to at least acknowledge them though. So we're "celebrating" by attending a nice formal dinner and reception at SPU for the grad students and their dates. Free dinner? That's what I'm talking about! Graham's been at his orientation all day and Isla and I have been testing out what our days will look like when we're home alone with Graham back at work.
