Seven Weeks Old!

Weight: This week I'm guessing around nine pounds, but we'll find out for sure at her two-month (what?!) appointment on Monday.

Sleep: Baby girl is evening out her nighttime sleep pattern a little for me. It's pretty much routine now that she sleeps in two, four-hour chunks now, and then goes back to sleep one more time for a couple of hours before waking up for the day (which ends up being around eight or nine o'clock), which I'm really happy with. I don't feel short on sleep in the least.

In the daytime hours, she's more up in the air -- which is fine, because it really doesn't matter or affect much. This week, she tended to wake around eight and then not nap again until around noon -- which really surprises me! She's got a lot of steam after her 10 or so hours of sleep overnight! She'll then fall asleep and pretty much stay napping until around five, just waking to eat once in that five hour time frame before falling back to sleep. Once she wakes at five, all bets are off! A few nights this week, she stayed up all evening until 10 or so. Some nights, she cat naps a few times for 15-30 minutes and then wakes up again. She's been falling asleep for good around 9:30 or 10 each night, so we try to get her in her jammies and in a fresh diaper as soon as we see her getting drowsy. That way, we don't have to wake her at the risk of having her end up feeling refreshed and energized enough to stay up another two hours :)

Medical Issues: She still seems to have some gas trouble some days, but not always. We'll visit with her doctor about it on Monday and see what he thinks. I guess I don't feel that it's a major issue, but when she's in the middle of feeling sad about it, I do start to feel like it is a major issue. Does that make sense? Basically, I'm finicky because I don't like hearing my baby cry :(

Clothes:Newborn clothes continue to be our friend at this point! Still working on getting into some of our bigger newborn sizes. She is, however, starting to outgrow her newborn jammies because she's getting too long for them. Unfortunately, her 0 to 3 month jams are way too big! Guess we might end up having to swim in our 0 to 3 months for a little while if the newborns get much more uncomfortable!

Socialite!: We made our usual stops this week: hung out at the Y at the drop-in childcare, where she continues to be a well-behaved little lady; went to watch the Bachelorette with Grandma and Auntie Jenny on Monday night; baby girl even took in her first-ever Vikingland Band Festival on Sunday! Lizzie also met her Great Grandma Janice for the first time a couple of weekends ago, and Great Grandpa Jack came to see Lizzie again too. Lizzie also ventured to my Old Navy store last Saturday and met a few of my co-workers there. She also met some more family members on my side of the family at a surprise birthday party for my great aunt.

Diet: Milk -- still nursing exclusively, not using bottles.

Baby Gear Love: Something I realized that I've never mentioned is our stroller! We were so lucky to receive it as a gift from my brother and sister-in-law, who needed a double stroller with their new addition who arrived in early June. It's the Contours Options stroller, and we love it! Baby girl and I take walks every single day in it, and half of the days during the week, we also take a walk in the evening with Daddy. The stroller pushes so nicely and so smooth. It's definitely getting lots of use!

Crying: Oofsch. I'm afraid, my friends, that our time on cloud nine, has ceased. Though Lizzie girl is a dream during the daytime hours, right around 6:30 every night her fussy time kicks in to high gear. It typically lasts until 8:30 and consists of us doing every trick in the book until she's tired of each one, and then starting over with them again. I'm not so sure that it's colic really, because it's not a constant cry that can't be calmed. This girl can be calmed... she just wants you to change up the routine every three to five minutes! And if you don't, she'll let you know. Anyway, I would say we're in about week two of this new change. My mom says it might last three or four weeks... so I figure we've got another two ahead of us! Slowly we're learning some strategies that seem to last for longer than three minutes -- she really likes to have her legs pedaled while singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and also likes to be set up really high on our shoulder. The second one I like, because sometimes I feel guilty that she's not getting any tummy time in the evenings since she's fussy, so this kind of serves as tummy time because she has to hold her own head up like that.

Mommy News: I taught my first Pilates class at the Y this week since going on leave, and it was great! I think everyone who attended was surprised that it was Pilates because the people who filled in for me taught yoga during that time -- so I'm not sure how they felt about it being switched on them, but hopefully they enjoyed and hopefully they'll return in the coming weeks.

Lizzie's fussiness at night gives me all kinds of mommy guilt. I feel guilty that we're not playing with her while she fusses because we're just trying to keep her happy during this time frame. I feel guilty and afraid that people will think she's a naughty girl because she cries, when really, she's not naughty! I promise! I feel guilty because I think she's crying because she feels like we don't love her and aren't doing what she needs. I know this isn't true, because I've read lots of books about "the witching hour" when babies get fussy at night, but the thought still sneaks in there.

Mommy is also having a very hard time not buying this little girl skinny jeans. Ah! It's like a disease! So far, she's got four pair waiting for her when she's in 3 to 6 month clothes. Let's hope I can be strong from here on out...

Milestones: More smiles this week! They're slowly coming, more and more often :) But just when we think we've figured out how to get a smile every time, she decides that particular thing we were doing just isn't all that funny or fabulous anymore. Dang! So we try new things and get more smiles... the work to figure it out is totally worth the reward! We can't wait to see more of them and to hear some giggles!

Baby girl also spoke in a sentence this week while we were on a walk one night! Okay, so maybe her sentence was made up of baby oohs and aahs, but still. It was so cute!

I also put her in her bassinet in a sitting up position (propped against the walls, of course!) and she stayed there for probably 15 seconds! I was impressed, and promptly took a picture to send to Daddy at work, who was even more astounded than me!

On a sad milestone note, I think we've almost outgrown the jammies we wore home from the hospital :( Sad day for Mommy!