Travel

It has been a hectic couple of weeks, but we were so happy to see our family and friends. Sonia has an awful lot of loving admirers. I will try to post some of the amazing photos people took when I get them.

During our road trips, first to Dallas and then to Denver and Longmont, Sonia started clasping her hands together and putting them in her mouth. Sometimes she just holds up her hand and studies it, completely ignoring the toy I might be dangling in front of her. This new development came at a perfect time. She started getting a lot more sleep in her right eye without any redness which is classic for a blocked tear duct. Usually these clear up on their own, but in the meantime the poor baby has a messy, goopy eye. Really, I think this is harder on us then it is on Sonia, but now she can rub her eye with her little fist. I try to let her do it, but sometimes I just have to clean the goo. She is not a fan. She fusses when I do it, then lifts her fist to her mouth.

In addition to rubbing her eyes and her mouth, she is holding up her head. She can keep it pretty steady for a good half hour. This picture is from August 15th when we went to see my friend Jessica and her baby, Clyde who is about 3 months older than Sonia. Clyde is sure a charmer, and so active! Jessica and I were marveling at how far babies come in such a short time. In another 4 months or so, Sonia will probably be rolling, sitting, holding her head up all the time.

In the past few weeks, the stars have aligned to let Sonia sleep for 5-6 hours in a row at night. Ahhh... At this point I would not call it her routine, but it sure was nice. Sonia is not one for routines anyway. She does go to bed around nine every night, but she wakes up for the first time anywhere between eleven and three. Some mornings she eats every three hours, sometimes it is every forty five minutes. I remember someone in the NICU telling me that at least she would be on a schedule when she got home, but keeping that feeding-every-three-hour schedule in the NICU sometimes meant waiting to feed her when she was rooting and fussing like crazy and not changing her when we heard her poop an hour before it was time to eat. I felt like I was betraying her trust. I can see enforcing a schedule a bit later when we can distract her and talk to her more. Spoiling? Naw, we just want her to know she can trust us.