Intermission

I am so excited that I have to post.  Sunday and Monday night Kinsey went four hours at a time sleeping at night.  On Wednesday night she woke up every 3 hours, and after being sick I was completely exhausted yesterday.  Then last night she did a 5 hour span!  Whoooppeee!  I feel like a new person.  It's amazing what a little sleep can do.

On another front, I just had a Facebook conversation about going back to work.  My friend who is also a nurse said,  "I love being a young professional woman who can balance work and be a mother and wife at the same time. I feel so accomplished at the end of the day."  I love this.  She is an inspiration for me, in light of going back to work.

Week 5 - One Sick Mama and David Back to Work

Thursday - David and I did some babysitting for one of the Young Married small group meetings, where I was later to find out I caught a stomach bug.

Friday - Pictures taken at the mall.  Kinsey did ok, she would have done better if they had been on time.  We tried feeding her in the middle of taking the pictures and that helped a bit.

Saturday - Kinsey turned one month old!  Went to cousin's softball game, Kinsey was a piece of cake. 

Sunday - And the stomach bug flared its ugly head.  David had taken Kinsey the entire night Saturday night and ended up taking care of her all day Sunday, too.  I was really grateful that the worst of it happened the last day David was still home and not at work!

Monday - David went back to work!  I was still icky and didn't eat a whole lot until dinner.  It wasn't the most fun I've had, but at least I stopped vomiting.

Tuesday - Still getting over this stomach thing.  More energy which is helpful!

Today - I think I'm better!!  Now I have no excuse not to get housework done ;-)

1 Month Old Today

Here are the pictures from the last month!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2170077&id=71210563&l=2c4bcf6b49

Week 4 - Babies R Us Mishap

As you can see, Phoebe is warming up to Kinsey nicely.  She will lay near her every now and then.  Phoebe still doesn't get along with Moni, as you can see.  The dogs are still the same towards Kinsey, they would like very much to lick her and nudge her if we were to let them.

Kinsey is eating slightly more; about once a day she eats about 4.5 or 5 ounces.  The sleep is still the same; she goes about 3 hours in between feedings.  We took her to my cousin's softball game on Saturday after eating dinner with them and really enjoyed getting out in the fresh air.  We have gone for walks in the stroller.  We are fortunate to live next to a park with walking paths.  We also went to Target and BabiesRUs.  We first tried on Monday to go to BabiesRUs to get stuff off the registry we still needed, but we got all the way to the store and I realized I forgot the giftcards!  So we had a lovely afternoon drive that day.  Then yesterday we finally made it there with the giftcards.  We bought a baby bath (we have been borrowing a friend's before now), a couple toys, some bottles, a bottle drying rack, and bottle brushes. 

Speaking of the bath, my mom said that she never used a baby bathtub for us (did they even have them then?) so I tried using the kitchen sink for Kinsey's first full bath (about week 2) after her umbilical stump fell off.  That was VERY scary.  It was like trying to give a large wet noodle a bath.  Don't know how you did that Mom!  Kinsey enjoys bathtime!  I'll have to take a picture next time to post.

On Monday I also went to girl's night with our Young Marrieds group and got some advice from some of the moms there.  I was asking how much fussing was normal.  For example, when Kinsey is not sleeping (which is most of the time) or eating she is often crying if not being held.  She usually needs to be held in order to fall asleep.  This is not something that has been bothering me by any means, because really she doesn't cry a lot.  But I was just wondering how much alert-without-crying time was normal.  She usually has some non-crying awake time once or twice a day for about 30 minutes or an hour after a feeding and before falling asleep.  So they said for her age it was probably normal and to keep trying things like the swing, bouncy seat, etc. even if they don't help yet along with holding her, swaddling her, rocking her, and using white noise.  The white noise is very effective; I usually make the tv snowy and turn it up very loud.  Combined with holding her and the pacifier, it is calming and she will fall asleep.

Week 3-Two Week Check-up and Welcome Home Party

On Thursday we had our 2 week check up and Kinsey gained all of her birth weight back and then some!  She came in at 8 lbs, 8.5 oz, 20 inches, and head circumference was 37 cm (compared to 33 at birth).  That put her in about the 75th percentile for all measurements.

Last week was all about getting ready for Kinsey's Welcome Home Party on Saturday.  We had done a good job cleaning the house before she was born, but of course there were beds to be made, carpets to be shampooed, bathrooms to be cleaned, etc.  Plus, we had to plan the food for the party and do the shopping and prepping.  David did a great job with the food trays and I'm sure saved us money vs getting premade trays from the store.

I filed her nails on Friday which was interesting.  I tried first clipping them but they were so soft (something I didn't realize) that the clippers wouldn't really work.  We still kept her mittens on for a few days but over the last few days we have just left her hands free.  They still feel sharp but she doesn't seem to have scratched herself yet.

On Friday between 2 and 5, Kinsey was a little bit fussy.  I wondered if the same thing was going to happen on Saturday during the party, but she was awake for the first 30 minutes of the party then slept the rest of the time. 

All in all, we had about 40 people here.  It reminded me of my wedding reception because I felt like there were so many people here I couldn't spend much time with anyone in particular. 

Leatrice made an incredible looking and incredible tasting cake!  I have never tasted homemade buttercream frosting as good as this one!  It was actually four cakes stacked on top of each other.  Cutting it was lots of fun because I ended up lopping off the top half.  Here is a photo:

As for eating and sleeping, she is doing really well.  Eating is no problem whatsoever.  Last night I took her for the whole night because David had a lot of schoolwork to do, since he is taking two classes this semester.  I only had to get up once in the middle of the night, it was fantastic!  I fed her at 10:30, then she went to sleep and didn't wake up until about 2, then I fed her at 2:15, and she went back to sleep until 5:30.  Of course I went back to bed after that to get some more sleep.  She seems to have trouble during the day going to sleep for naps, but I'm sure that comes with the territory.  She fights it, and she usually requires a combination of swaddling (yes, it's back again), holding, rocking, and shushing (white noise).  I guess the cool thing about it though is that she's awake a good bit more during the day.

Also, yesterday we contacted a lead we have for day care when I go back to work.  We are going to explore our options but that ball has started rolling.  I plan to go back to my same schedule, about 2-3 days per week.  Two in the beginning would I'm sure be better, but we'll see.  I still have a little over 2 months before we fully cross that bridge.

Finally, David was changing her diaper yesterday and said, "Whoa we have a little fudge in here!"  Yum.

Here is a link to the pictures from the Welcome Home Party:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2171599&id=71210563&l=3a8a519832

Week 2 - Easter

On Thursday my Mom and I took Kinsey into work to meet everyone.  She was calm as could be.  We also went out to lunch afterwards which I considered my first real outing with her, because before that we had just gone to the doctor's office.  I gave Kinsey her first sponge bath on Friday night, and my Mom left on Saturday morning.  Sunday was Easter, and Leatrice invited us over to her house for dinner with her family.  We had an awesome time!  We ate a delicious dinner, took pictures, dyed Easter eggs, and played Wii.  She is an awesome photographer and here is a cute pic of her all dressed up:

Tuesday morning I went to MOPS at church (Mothers of Preschoolers) and met some nice ladies.  It was certainly a different atmosphere than I'm used to being in!  I brought Kinsey of course while David got some rest at home.  The night before he had offered to take the whole night and let me rest, so I took him up off that offer.  She got fussy at about 4:30 am so I came and helped him and then he was able to sleep while I was at MOPS. 

Then today I went to the park and met a couple friends there and got some good tips on feeding and scheduling her, besides enjoying hanging out.  David has class on Wednesday night and I had a book club meeting so I took Kinsey with me.  I'm getting more comfortable going out with her.  Tomorrow is her two week check-up, so we'll see how she's doing (I think she's doing great!).

Here are some more photos from Easter Sunday:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2171000&id=71210563&l=ac26d01539

Week 1

I really like the idea of blogging every week about Kinsey's development and activities.  I am excited to keep track of everything and since I am on the Internet all the time, this will be a great opportunity to document everything.

We brought her home on Saturday, March 27th and my mom (Grammy) flew in a few hours later from Florida. 

I thought I was going to be super stressed out the first week, but I wasn't at all.  It also helped that Grammy could watch her while David and I napped.  David and I also decided after two nights that we would take shifts during the night for this first month while he is off work.  The first shift goes until about 2 am and the second shift starts.  I started with the second shift and last night was my first night doing the first shift.  Both are pretty equal.  She only sleeps about 2 1/2 hours at a time at night and we space her feedings about every three hours.  I can't at all sleep when she fidgets and makes her baby sleep noises so I am pretty much awake for my whole shift.  During the day she has at least one stretch of sleeping for about 4 hours.  I'm looking forward to the 4 hour stretch switching to night time instead of day time!  She loves to sleep with her arms stretched out to the side or above her head. 

The first several days she loved to be swaddled and held on her side, but swaddling does not seem to be her thing anymore.  Occasionally she takes a pacifier to soothe her but not very often.  A while ago we watched a very simple video, Happiest Baby on the Block and learned some great techniques for soothing her.  I highly recommend that video as a starting point because it gave us some tools that worked.  Even if they won't work as well as she starts getting older, it helped us feel much more calm and capable when we were in the hospital and when we came home the first few days.

We had our first well baby check up on base on Tuesday.  She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz which was normal.  We got something for her diaper rash that cleared up a couple days later.  Everything checked out fine!  Yay for a healthy baby so far.

I love her little baby smiles when she sleeps!