7 Weeks

Our baby is practically all grown up! We just weighed her (just by setting her on our normal scale) and she's 10.8 lbs - a porker :) This week has been pretty great - the weather was awesome, Annie is getting more and more happy when she is awake (during the day at least - NOT in the evening!), and Ben was off work for a few days again! Only 2 more weeks until we are home together for 3 whole weeks - can't wait!!

Family photo, since we all looked halfway decent :)

In Mom and Baby class this week, we went over infant massage, which Annie seemed to enjoy - but then again, she just likes being naked I think :) She also seems to really enjoy just being on her back and left alone - she can hang out that way for a good 10-15 minutes now when she's in a good mood. It's kind of sad, because she's already preferring this to being held sometimes -yikes! Now I guess I can understand why some people miss the newborn stage - I will miss it when Annie doesn't want to be held at all!

This group again just shows me how almost every newborn gets fussy and how we really have it very good, especially with the sleeping - Annie is pretty good about taking a few long naps during the day, and will sleep anywhere from 5-8 hours at a stretch at night - hopefully she keeps that up! Ben and I are both getting better about not picking her up when we see her eyes open, because almost always she will go back to sleep (especially in her swing). She also has been pretty good about being able to fall asleep on her own if she wakes up when set down in her pack n play at night.

Annie got to take a trip with Dad to surprise Grandpa at his office on his birthday!

I had my 6 week post partum check-up on Friday - it was fun to see Margaret (the midwife) again, and to show her pics of Annie. Everything checked out fine, which is good! Kind of nice to know that I won't have to go back to that office for hopefully a LONG time - I had to sit in the exam room for about 30 minutes waiting for her, while I could hear her talking to someone in the next room - annoying!

Definitely the largest cause of stress this week was the stupid bottle. I mentioned in last week's post that Annie hasn't been taking the bottle as well now - well, that has definitely continued. We have been trying every day, and it is just a battle each time, and she'll usually take about an ounce and just stop. I called the baby advice line at the hospital and talked to the midwife about it at my 6 week appointment, and both basically said there are lots of things you can try, but really the only thing that works is just the baby figuring out that this is the only way they are going to get food, and that will happen eventually - they won't starve themselves. This is very annoying, because then I feel guilty leaving because I know whoever has her will have a battle getting her to eat, and she'll probably be hungry. I'm sure when daycare comes around, she WILL figure it out because she'll be starving, but it's just so sad to think about her getting to that point.

Some tummy time with Mia - we need to give her something to strive for :)


Starting to enjoy her bouncer as more than just a place to nap!

We still haven't had a discernible 6 week growth spurt where Annie wants to eat all the time - the person I talked to on the baby info line said it is possible that Annie just started taking in more at each feeding, but that it still might be coming. I wish it would just happen and be done already! She really has been not eating quite as often anyway - sometimes after she eats and plays, it takes her awhile to fall asleep, so I don't want to wake her, but it has been 3 hours - I'll let her go about 3.5 during the day before I wake her, but some days she's only been eating 6 times... hopefully that is okay! She still seems content when she's awake and has enough wet/dirty diapers so I am guessing it must be fine.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it has been gorgeous here in Minnesota the past week - I have definitely gotten lucky with my maternity leave - lots of sunny nice days, which is a true gift here in March! We have been taking advantage of this by going for lots of walks, and sitting outside. I even managed to get sunburned just from sitting in the backyard - ha! We also went out to lunch at Groveland Tap with Annie - she was asleep at the beginning, but woke up later - she stayed content though!

The toughest part of this week was actually last night - we were at Ben's parents house for his dad's birthday dinner, and Annie just would not calm down - she is always fussiest in the evenings, and I think being passed from person to person didn't really help - she was just having a meltodwn! It's so sad when that happens, because I just want people to see the happy fun baby that we get to see during the day! She would occasionally fall asleep, but wouldn't stay that way, wasn't eating very well, and just in general was grumpy. It is really getting hard to watch others try to comfort Annie because Ben and I feel like we know how to calm her down... but I also want her to get used to being around people too... hopefully this evening fussiness doesn't last TOO long!