It is apparent with the infrequency of our posts that we are pretty busy with Lauren these days!! She continues to be just the best baby in the world and it’s crazy to think she’ll be 9 weeks tomorrow! We started getting big smiles at 5 weeks and she loves to smile!! Her favorite time is the in the morning and we get huge smiles when she wakes up and after her first feeding. Breastfeeding is still going awsome and we haven’t had a single problem. I plan to pump once I go back to work (in January) and I hope that it continues to go well and that we won’t have to supplement with formula.
I’m VERY excited to say that starting about a week and a half ago (she was 7 weeks old), Lauren started sleeping through the night!! She is sleeping from 9 or 10pm until 7:30am straight!! I have never had a reason to complain as once I was given the ok not to wake her, she only woke once a night for a feeding. But it is wonderful to sleep straight through again!! I feel very, very lucky and am only hoping her future brother or sister (we hope for brother!) will sleep as well!
Lauren is also getting on a pretty good routine…she wakes around 7:30 and she eats and gets dressed for the day. By 8:30 she’s down for her morning nap and will generally sleep for 1-2 hours. She’s eating every 2.5 - 3.5 hours during the day. She’ll take a few more naps here and there during the day, but nothing too set yet. Daddy gives her a bottle of breastmilk everyday at 7pm (I pump then). She’s generally awake from about 5pm until she goes to sleep between 9 and 10. If she’s going to be fussy, it will be in the evenings but she is very easy to calm by either sitting in her swing, giving her a bath, or just sitting and talking to her.
I’ve spent a lot of time out of the house as she’s the best baby when out and about. She’ll nap on and off and the rest of the time just look around. I’ve scoped out all the “mothers rooms” in the department stores and know the best fitting rooms in which to change and/or feed her!
She had her 2 month pediatrician appt today and received 3 separate shots. She immediately screamed like I’ve never heard before and it took her a good 10 minutes to calm down. Needless to say, mommy was crying also!! I’m really glad Billy went with us! We gave her infant Tylenol before and every 4 hours since. Then Lauren and I hit the mall for the afternoon followed by the grocery store and she just slept the entire time. She’s been a little fussy this evening, but that’s to be expected according to the pediatrician. As far as her weight goes, she’s up to 10lb 12oz!! That keeps her in the 50th percentile (same percentile she was at 2 weeks at 8lb 3oz). For length, she’s 22″ which is also the 50th percentile (she was 20″ and 40th percentile at 2 weeks). Her head is up to 15.5 inches from 14.5 inches at 2 weeks and is still 75th percentile. Her dr. was very pleased with her growth! She also commented that Lauren is “very interactive” and loves attention but we knew that! She’s doing REALLY well with her head control and when her dr. placed her on her tummy, she actually not only lifted her head up, but used her arms to push up and stayed that way for a minute or two! We hadn’t seen her do that before and the pediatrician was really surprised and pleased as they don’t expect babies to do that until 4 months! Her dr. said she’ll be rolling over soon!!
I’m really enjoying my maternity leave and am dreading going back to work in some ways (the stress, leaving Lauren at daycare, not spending all day with her) and am looking forward to it in some ways (the adult interaction, using my brain again, back to a routine). I have 3 more weeks including this week and then I’m going to work 2 days a week the last 2 weeks of December (Billy will stay home with her those days) and then I go back full time January 2. I think Billy and I have our schedules worked out to maximize our time with her and minimize the time she’s at daycare (which is in-home with a friend of a friends grandmother). I will wake her up to feed her at 5:45 and then Billy and I will both leave the house at 6:30 and he will take her to daycare. We’ll both work out over lunch (instead of after work like we normally do, we both have awsome gyms at work) and then leave work around 4 and I’ll pick her up. According to that plan, we’ll both be home by 4:45 at the latest. That’s the perfect world, we’ll see what happens…especially considering neither of us are morning people and that plans requires us to get up at 5am, which is more of a bedtime to us!
As far as the weightloss is concerned, I lost about 20 pounds by 2 weeks and then it stopped. Considering I gained a total of 45 pounds, I have a ways to go. I’ve lost another 2 or so pounds in the last few weeks, so I have 23 pounds to go and then another 15 to get back down to my goal where I was a few years ago. I imagine my body will keep some of the weight while I’m breastfeeding though, so if I could just lose another 25 or so for now, I’d be happy. We have a wedding at the end of April, so I’d like to lose 25 by then. Then have the other 15 off by the next wedding we have in September which is when I should be done breastfeeding.
We are looking forward to our first Christmas with Lauren, although she’s obviously too young to undertand or care. We had planned not to get her much, but that plan went out the window everytime I go to the mall. As Billy said, we’re going to have a lot more money when I go back to work as I won’t be shopping every other day!
