The Luckiest Madre: She's growing so fast!

Well, as you can see I'm having a hard time finding the time to blog (guess I have a good excuse, with a newborn and all...) but here I am, better late than never.

Victoria is changing so much, so fast, and I feel like I need to write it all down before it passes me by. She had her 5 week check-up the first week of August and weighed 10 lbs, 9 oz - that's a 3 lb. increase from her 2 week check-up. Way to go, V! The doc was very impressed with her growth and told us to keep it up. She's also gotten taller - she was 19 3/4 inches at birth and was 21 1/2 inches at her appt. Thank you Victoria for having such a healthy appetite and to my milk-producing glands for making so much milk! (yes, I'm finally getting the hang of things and I'm not so overwhelmed by being an overabundant milk-making machine!).

Victoria at her 5 week check-up

Victoria is almost 2 months old (AH!) and she grows into more of a little person ever day. Teachers go back to work on Monday and I am so thankful I get 5 more weeks at home with her. She loves to make eye contact now and watch your facial expressions as she figures out her own. Check out this smile I captured earlier this week:

so precious!

She is starting to be entertained by little board books that contain bright colors so we read one every morning. I'm learning that her "alert" time is right after her first morning feeding after she wakes up, so I'm taking advantage of that and try to stimulate her little brain as much as I can before she tires out...usually within the hour. Yesterday we tried her play mat for the first time and she was thoroughly interested in the colorful/black & white designs above her. SO cool to watch. She's also started loving the mobiles in her crib & swing which she hadn't noticed until a week or so ago - again, SO cool!

The best news is she's finally starting to get into a sleep routine. Trey feeds her a bottle of expressed breast milk (or formula, if I don't have any back-up milk expressed) to put her to bed around 9:00. She's usually asleep 30 minutes after she finishes eating and Trey puts her in her crib (yes! We've graduated to her crib and she loves it! We love it too because she is the NOISIEST sleeper!).....then (fingers crossed) she will sleep till around 2:00 a.m., when she wakes up hungry. I feed her and then get her back to sleep by 3:00...and then her next waking is still "up in the air" - sometimes she starts feeding every 2 hours after that, but this morning she made it till 7:00! WHOAH! So, she's still making changes, but at least she's not eating EVERY 2 hours throughout the entire day and night like we were during the first four weeks. Mommy is finally getting some sleep! Yay! :) And thank you to Heather Snyder for her advice on a sleep training book. She told us about Dr. Weissbluth's "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" which we have found to be very helpful. Victoria is still young for any official sleep training, but we have been able to start putting healthy sleep practices into place now so we can keep it up as she gets older.