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| Not so sure about smiling |
First, physically, she has gotten so much bigger than her 6 lbs 12 oz newborn self. At nearly 11 lbs she feels so much bigger and less delicate. Her head is noticeably larger and I'm so glad I didn't have to deliver that kind of diameter. She's got a little spare tire where she keeps all the milk she's been drinking. Her hands are bigger too or maybe they just seem that way because they're not always balled in fists now, but she spreads out her dainty fingers.
Personality wise, she has changed the most. She smiles so much. First thing in the morning when I hear her calling out from her nest, I walk by and ask her if she's ready to get up and I am greeted by humongous smiles from ear to ear. I love her morning smiles! Then after she's been fed she lays on my lap and smiles and smiles and smiles. And she doesn't just smile for me, she's quite social. First she is shy when meeting someone new and will study their face but then she breaks into huge smiles.
She is becoming more aware of her hands and has even figured out how to hold her soothie to her mouth (to keep it in, sadly she can't put it in herself, yet). She still scratches her eyes, but she gets finger privileges all day long (at least when I've kept her nails short). She sucks her hands quite a bit too, which is a bit gross because somehow her hands are so dirty. Her palm creases are always filled with lint even though I clean them daily. It's like she plays in the dirt!
She is getting better at holding up her head, but does get tired of it. Mostly the melon just balances on her stout body (sometimes her head and body just look like a giant toe, since the neck is always hiding). I am hoping to get a bumbo soon so that she can keep sitting up. She loves to sit up and look at what's going on.
She still does not love tummy time but is able to straighten her right arm some of the times. On her back (which she has definitely come around to), she loves to kick and punch. Sometimes she hits her toys but we're not always sure it's intentional so much a well-placed flail. She's happy on her mat playing for about 30 minutes and then is exhausted and promptly demands a nap!
Her sleep schedule is pretty regular, with most of her sleep in the morning. Then she's awake for about an hour at a time and then goes back to napping. However, her naps are usually 50 minutes or less. BUT, just this week she's started sucking a lot on everything (fabric, shirts, hands, soothers) and so we've used a soother with her naps and sometimes that will make it last over a hour. Of course, if I want to sleep with her for a nap, she'll sleep 2 hours. Basically, I've gotten really really good at cramming a lot of me-time into 20 minutes.
Night sleep is still the same (4 hour chunk, 3 hour chunk). However, we've had a couple of 6 hour chunks and 1 7 hour chunk!! We are trying to figure out what bedtime she wants. We're thinking 7:30 but she still somehow manages to be up from 9pm to 10pm, even if we get her down at 7:30. 7:30 is also really hard for us to adjust to because it's so dang early. It hardly gives David time to play with her and for us to have dinner. If we're out visiting for dinner, it's pretty much impossible to have her ready to sleep by 7:30. We've tried to compromise by putting her in her carseat if we're out, but when we get home the bedtime routine is a shambles.
That's one thing I've really noticed about the Bean, she loves a routine! She wants things to happen in the order they always do - Sleep, eat, play (with some sleep/eat/sleep at night). She likes stability and having us follow the same steps. She doesn't put herself to sleep or won't fall asleep on her own. But as soon as we sing the usual lullabies, swaddle her and bounce her on the exercise ball, she is out like a light (provided she's actually tired - if not, it's 30 minutes of bouncing and a sore back).
She does not love loud though, which means our playdates in large groups are pretty limited. She doesn't like when lots of people are talking loud or if lots of babies are crying. That means that church, large parties and baby meet ups are pretty overstimulating and she can get pretty fussy. These sorts of events also mean that she doesn't fall asleep or sleep well which adds to the fussiness. But as soon as we leave or find a quiet corner, she's right as rain.
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| These kids are too loud! (also you put me here when I was napping!) |
I can really tell that she wants to be a good girl and tries not to melt too often. Usually I can tell if a meltdown is coming and I cycle through the usual feed/diaper/tired/cuddles options and we avoid it. I also have a really great app that helps me track everything about her and provides sweet statistics and charts for me to analyze. It's turned baby-management into statistical & trend analysis and I love it! Seriously it's helped me notice her patterns so that I can anticipate what is going to happen next. Sure it switches up (I'm pretty sure she's going through a developmental leap right now) but it gives me some sort of predictability to her behaviour. Plus graphs!!
I am really loving being at home with her. I love going on playdates (mostly for me & my friends), taking walks with her in the carrier, and having snuggle naps. Being a mother has been way more rewarding than I thought. It's not that I didn't think being a mother would be fun or challenging, but I honestly thought that I would be bored and not all that satisfied. I didn't think that I would love the baby talk and the dumb stories. But I love it! Over Mother's Day I got a chance to really reflect on what a blessing it is to be a mother. I am the one that is trusted to take care of her sweet spirit and I'm the one that she trusts to answer her cries and make her feel better. I feel like I'm the translator for her and the world - I know her code and I get to explain her to everyone else. At this point, I honestly can't imagine doing anything else. And I understand better why moms love their jobs so much. It's hard to put into words but once you're in the role, everything else seems secondary. I reserve the right to need more later, but for now the BeanBean is it.
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| On Mother's day with my Mother's day necklace |
She's making so many leaps everyday and while I miss the newborn-fall-alseep-anywhere-anyway, I'm loving this new personality. I'm looking forward to each day and trying really hard to remember everything she does, like the sound of her little girl coos, so that I don't forget her little self when she's bigger.
Also we got her newborn pictures done and I love love love them. Here's a few of my favourites, though I really love all of them!
Also babies mean I ain't got time for spelling and grammar checks….
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