Filling out and up

One of the cute things that Sonia does is click her tongue. She started doing this shortly after we brought her home. Tammy is the one who noticed that she seems to do it more when she is hungry. Usually it is after she cries to let me know she is hungry and we have started the proceedings (changing her diaper, getting a bib, finding a place to sit down). I have started to click back at her when she is nursing. It would pretty nice if she clicked to tell us she is hungry instead of crying, wouldn't it? Do not worry, I am not getting my hopes up. Like most babies, she has multiple ways of telling us it is time to fill her belly. One of her favorites is to eat our shoulders as she is doing to her dad in this photo.



My dad and Sandy came to visit and marveled at how big Sonia is. It is amazing how she is tipping the scales, now weighing about twice what she did when she was born, when she usually only nurses for 10 minutes every two to three hours. All the books say fifteen to twenty is the norm, so I am assuming she has gone from the remedial program to an advanced class. Looking at her so closely everyday, I sometimes lose the big picture and forget how far she has come in two and a half months. My dad and Sandy could not stop talking about her progress. Here are pictures of them looking absolutely enthralled with their grand baby.




(Photo credits go to Sandy for the ones of Alan and Ron with Sonia)

One development we are particularly excited about recently is that Sonia has started focusing farther in the distance. As is typical for newborns, she used to just look at our faces or other things going on within one to two feet of her face. The past week, I noticed that when we went into her nursery, she was actually looking at the ceiling. If I took her to a different part of the room, she would even look at little startled at first until she got used to what she was looking at. I can't blame her though, as her ceiling does have a lot to take in:



Well, I hope I have given you enough to take in for the day. This week is not so busy, so I may be blogging more often. Thanks to Jeff and Phyllis for responding to my plea for comments!

Blog 101

Blog 101: Those of you familiar with the workings of a blog can skip to the next paragraph. My guess is, I still have a number of people reading at this point. I wanted to point out that there is a comment section below each blog entry. Look just below the entry and in green it says, " 0 Comments". Two blogs actually say, "1 Comment" (thanks Alan). It would be great if I could read what you people think of after they read an entry. Stories, tips, recipes, whatever. Everyone can read the comments and I can even comment on your comments. Blogs are meant to be interactive!

I am not proud of this, but my television viewing has increased substantially since having Sonia. At night I want something to keep me up while I am feeding her, but during the day somethimes I just wanting something to do while feeding Sonia that is not hard to turn my attention away from if she needs me. This morning I was flipping channels and ended up watching the last half hour of "Cold Mountain". The book by Charles Frazier is an incredible story. If possible, you should read it. The movie mostly reminds me of the book but it is better than most in its own right. I do not want to give away the ending, but as usual, I got tears in my eyes.

Although there is a lot of tragedy in the story, thinking of the movie and looking at Sonia asleep in my lap did not make me sad, but gave me a warm sense of peace. I realized that babies are a reminder of the promise of tomorrow. Alan recently pointed out to me that for centuries people have thought the Earth was on the brink of a catastrophic collapse that has never actually happened. He wondered if the processes of global warming, pollution, desertification threatening our planet will not be as destructive as we fear. For a long time, the scientist in me could not see how these things would ever resolve, but now I wonder if there are solutions. Sonia has indeed brightened and widened our thoughts.



This picture was actually taken over a month ago, but it seemed to fit.

3 days

We have been exclusively breastfeeding for over 3 days now! Yipee!



In addition to closeness of nursing, it is an incredible relief not to have to pump. Pumping does not hurt or anything, but it tied me down. I could get disconnected, but that is a hassle. There were times, I did do it more than once, when I would unsuccessfully try to console Sonia while she was laying next to me so then I would pick her up and try to find a place to hold her midst the equipment on my lap. That does not work. Everything but Sonia would go flying or she would just keep crying. In addition, pumping is mildly interesting at first (the human body is amazing) but then maddeningly mundane.

Sonia has now decided that getting a baths and diaper changes are fun. As those of you with children now, she was not born with that opinion. It is a good thing she changed though because babies fed breast milk poop a lot. I hate to embarrass her too much, but if I get a good bath picture, I will put it up. Future embarrassment is something to think about with this blog, but hopefully she will just get a kick out of it when she reads it someday.

Now, I am going to have a small glass of wine with Alan.

Happy 4th!

We had a great 4th of July eating dinner with Jeff and Tammy. I worked for the first time in a few months that day, so poor Jeff and Tammy did not get to hold her as much as they usually do. I enjoyed working, probably because I was just filling in and not actually going back full time yet. Of course I was working in the newborn nursery. Even though I was pretty absorbed with the work at first, by the end of the day I way thinking about Sonia with each exam I did. When I got home we rushed to their house, so by the time we arrived, I had some serious Sonia cravings brewing. I was hoping to be able to post some pictures of Sonia with fireworks today, but we were in bed before it was even dark.

We are back on the breastfeeding bandwagon after some brief hiatuses. She will nurse really well for 4-6 feedings in a row but eventually she gets to a point where she has to have a bottle. If I try to nurse her, she either screams or falls asleep until I take her away from my chest. I feel bad for her, and frustrated for myself, when this happens, but I do not know what to do. I definitely have enough milk but I think sometimes her body tells her to demand the more free-flowing bottle. At this point today though, it has been about twelve hours bottle free! I should just thank my stars that I do not have a baby that refuses the bottle. That would not mix well with a full time job.

Sonia is spending more of her days awake and alert. When something really interests her, her eyes pop open wide her pupils gets really big. She likes to lay upright with her head against my chest and her eyes peeking over my shoulder taking everything in. Then, she gnaws my shoulder and clicks her tongue: Hey mom, dinner-time!

Corrected

So I have to admit right off that the second photo is staged. I was looking at pictures of Sonia and thought the first one of her was really cute. She had just come home from the hospital and weighed in at 7 pounds. I put her in a onesie that was way to big but also way to cute not to put on. Presto- adorable baby. OK, no real magic, she is always cute. Today I took the second photo in the same onesie to get a perspective on how much she has grown. A week ago she was nine pounds, eleven ounces, so she is probably close to ten pounds by now. Plus, she was two months old on Tuesday.

But really, she is only two weeks old. Her due date was June 15th, so two weeks and one day. Two weeks is her corrected age which is what is done for premature babies to express what should be expected of them physiologically and developmentally. Two months is her actual age. This came up recently when my dad, god bless him, asked me if she was sleeping through the night. After I got done hysterically laughing, I pointed out that two week olds do not sleep through the night. It is hard to remember that she is younger in her mind because she is such a big baby. Based on her actual age, she is 50th percentile for length and 25th percentile
for weight. Go Sonia!