Hey, strangers! Sorry it’s been so long – (six weeks!) – since I’ve updated! We just returned from our month-long trip to Pennsylvania.
Our little Norah is now eight weeks old, and not so little! She is now almost 24 inches long (97th percentile!) and 10 pounds 11 ounces (between 50th and 75th percentile). When she was a newborn, she was at about the 75th percentile in both length and weight.
She’s been smiling more and more – several times a day now. She’ll almost always smile when we smile at her and talk to her, and she has a little panda toy that she always smiles at in the car seat.
She still seems very strong for her age. She holds her head up with no problem at all, stands up very well with support, and is able to hold up her head and chest during tummy time. She even rolled over the other day!
She is definitely interested in looking at things. She likes looking out the window and being outside, and she’ll smile at toys sometimes (especially, as I mentioned, her panda).
She’s starting to figure out how to manipulate her hands, especially to get them in her mouth. She likes to suck on her fists. She will take a pacifier sometimes…she has to be in the right mood. We have some Soothie brand ones, but they constantly fall out of her mouth, and they’re not very soft. Yesterday we picked up a couple of Natursutten pacifiers (the natural rubber kind), and she seems to like them better. They still fall out, though!
She’s been sleeping for at least four hours in a row at night. It’s pretty random, though. Once she slept for nine hours! If we’re lucky, she starts out in the Pack ‘n’ Play or the bouncy seat, or occasionally the car seat if we’ve just come home from somewhere. Then I bring her into our bed the first time she wakes up, and she stays with us for the rest of the night.
She’s still really laid back and doesn’t cry much unless she’s hungry or overtired.
She has been cooing during her alert times. The sounds she makes are really cute! She usually says “Guh” or “Gah,” or sometimes just vowels.
Cloth diapering is going really well and still doesn’t seem like much work. Eat your words, naysayers! :-P
We have found that you get what you pay for where diapers are concerned. The BestBottoms (www.nickisdiapers.com) are by far the best ones. We might’ve had one little leak with those so far. But they’re expensive. The $5 Alva Baby diapers (www.alvababy.com) are mostly good, but sometimes leak, and a few of them almost always leak. I think they will be better when she’s bigger. The problem is that the leg holes are too big.
Breastfeeding has been going pretty well, too, but it’s been harder than I expected. I’m determined to stick with it even though it is still sometimes very painful and I’m now struggling a little bit to keep my supply up. When we were working at a music camp in Pennsylvania for 4-5 hours a day she had to have some formula almost every day, even though I tried to pump enough for her. I still had enough milk for her on the days I was with her all day, though. When we were getting ready to come home, I was hoping I could increase my supply just enough to pump a few ounces a day to save in the freezer for whenever we need it. Somehow, though, almost suddenly I couldn’t seem to make even enough milk to keep Norah fed. Yesterday morning I fed her till I was empty, and then she took three ounces of formula, and it was the same story again a few hours later.
Since we had our final midwife appointment yesterday, I bought a supplement from them called More Milk Plus, made by Mother Love. It seems to be working already! Thank goodness. They also recommended brewer’s yeast, which I bought today. (You can get brewer’s yeast by drinking beer, but if you do that you have to wait at least two hours before you can nurse again, and I never know when she’s going to want to eat. Also, I just don’t like beer.)
Those of you who have seen me in person lately probably noticed that I’m pretty open about breastfeeding in the presence of other people. As long as I’m not exposed, I could care less. I would never be able to go anywhere if I was embarrassed about it, because Norah eats so often and takes so long to eat. I have fed her in several restaurants, in the (parked) car, at a picnic table in a state park, in other people’s living rooms, at the doctor’s office, and even while walking down the sidewalk! Travis has noticed some strange looks from other people, but I’m so ADD that I’m pretty oblivious, and who cares? Baby’s gotta eat. I think it’s kind of a ridiculous thing for people to get bent out of shape over.
Today Norah had her two-month vaccines. It was the saddest thing ever. There were three shots: two in her left thigh and one in her right. She instantly just squealed and cried like we’ve never heard her cry before. The nurse said she never saw a two-month-old kick like she did!
There was also an oral vaccine that we opted out of. It was called “Rotarix,” for rotavirus, which sounds similar to the flu. The concern with that would be dehydration, but we opted not to give it to her because most children who get rotavirus are in contact with lots of other children (like in daycare). It also is not one of the vaccines that are required to go to kindergarten. We don’t want to give her anything that isn’t necessary. All of the other vaccines prevent against illnesses that are very severe.
Anyway, after she got the shots, I nursed her to sleep and we ran some errands. When we got home and she woke up, I fed her again and she kept whimpering, eventually leading to a total meltdown that lasted for something like a half hour. Finally we gave her the doctor’s recommended dose of infant Tylenol (they said she would be sore), and she went to sleep again for a few hours. She is now on her third nap of the day. I hope she’ll be back to normal tomorrow!
Here is a photo of her today, looking pretty unhappy by her standards:
Anyway, the doctor says she’s perfectly healthy and thriving!
Be back soon for another update!
Here are a bunch of photos from our trip to PA!
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