Six Weeks Old

Natalie is six weeks old - and feeling fancy in her cardigan!



She's a big-time smiler now. I think my favorite is when she wakes up in the morning and she's all smiles in her crib! It definitely beats waking up grumpy (which also happens sometimes).

I can't believe how quickly she's changing. When I look at the pictures from her first few weeks, she looks so different! Her cheeks keep growing and we can tell her hands and feet have grown, too. I need to get a picture of her hand on mine so I can remember how tiny they are right now. Her hair has started growing too, which I only notice when I look at pictures of her. She had pretty much rubbed it off of the sides of her head, but it's beginning to grow back now.

Things we know about Natalie:

1. She prefers Jingle Bells over all other songs.
2. She doesn't particularly like to be swaddled, but she can't stay asleep without being swaddled (we're looking forward to that ending!).
3. She loves her pacifiers.
4. She's very quiet when she's in a crowd.
5. She is very squirmy.
6. When she's tired and we hold her over our shoulder, she rubs her head back and forth over and over again (this is how she rubbed the hair off the sides of her head).
7. She likes it when I read to her. Last night she sat in my lap while I read three board books to her, and she stared up at me the whole time with big eyes and a big smile. So cute.
8. She's a VERY good, sweet baby (knock on wood)!

Melt-Your-Heart-Smiles

Natalie has started smiling at us! It's the cutest darn thing. I took several adorable videos of her smiling today (one of them ended with Milly licking her on the top of her head) and then, sadly, I accidentally deleted them. I tried again and got a couple of good smiles out of her. Check out the videos:

One Month Old!

Natalie is one month old!!



She had a 1-month checkup today and was weighed. On our way to the doctor's office, Jeremy and I tried to guess how much she weighs - I guessed high 7 lbs and Jeremy guessed low 8 lbs. We were both surprised to find out that she weighs 9 lbs 4 oz!! She's in the 50th percentile for weight, and 50th to 75th percentile for height (she is now 21.25 inches). I can't imagine that she'll be "tall" for long, considering that we are both shorties, but I guess she could have gotten some of the tall genes from my family.

There are some decidedly unexciting aspects of being one month old, like baby acne, dry, flaky skin on the forehead and head (I can't remember the medical term), congestion, and increased fussiness. So far, Natalie has experienced the first three. They say babies are at their fussiest (if that's a word) from four to six weeks, so we have some fun to look forward to with that. Right now she's only occasionally fussy for what seems like no reason, and it doesn't last long. Obviously we're hoping this will keep up rather than the introduction of a grumpy baby!

We had our first family outing over the weekend - we all went to Target to buy ornaments for our first Christmas tree:



We thought Natalie deserved a tree for her first Christmas!

Three Weeks Old

Natalie is three weeks old! Time is flying.



She's growing fast and getting chubbier every day. We're so curious to know how much she weighs, but I guess we'll have to wait until her next doctor appointment to find out! Every day she looks more and more like Natalie as she outgrows her "newborn" looks.

Just in the last few days, she's started being really alert during her awake times. She stares at the people who hold her like she's really checking them out and learning from them. She will also now turn her head to look at something. While we were in Tuscaloosa over Thanksgiving, our nephew Austin had a moose that sang Christmas songs and lit up when you squeezed his paw. A few times while Natalie was in Grandma Frances's lap, we'd squeeze the moose's paw and Natalie would turn her head to the left to look at the moose!

She's getting really good at holding her head up and does it every chance she gets. It makes her seem so much bigger.

Today Natalie's umbilical cord stump fell off, revealing a cute little belly button! Since this happened, we were also able to give her a bubble bath instead of a sponge bath. She was sooo cute in her whale tub:



The last few nights she's given us longer stretches of sleep since she's been going three hours between feedings instead of two hours. That extra hour makes a huge difference in the middle of the night, so I hope she'll keep it up!!

Two Weeks Old

Natalie is two weeks old!



We can tell a difference in her size and she is getting some chubby cheeks on her! She's also fitting into clothes that didn't fit last week, so I put her in my favorite little outfit in the picture above. She has long hands and feet, and her feet are already almost too big for the "footies" in this outfit. We don't have a scale at home so we don't know how much she weighs, but we think she must be over 7 lbs now.

She's sleeping well some nights and not so well other nights. We had a good night last night, where she slept for 2 - 3 hours at a time. I wish that would happen every night! She's also gotten fussier than she was when she first came home, which is to be expected. We've read that she'll continue to be fussy until she's about six weeks old, when she should settle down a bit. The good news is that even when she fusses, it's usually not for more than five minutes at a time so it's tolerable.

Her next doctor's appointment is on December 6th, when she is one month old. I think she may have to get a vaccination which should be pretty painful for both Natalie and Mommy!

Unto us a child is born!

As my faithful blog readers (all two of you!) know, our baby girl was born on Saturday, November 6th! Natalie Elise Lizza weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and was 20.5 inches long at birth. She is beautiful and perfect in every way and we could not possibly love her more. She is now a whole ten days old and has been an easy baby so far.

Jeremy was home with me all last week and will be here through this Thursday, which has been a new mama's life saver. He's a natural in his new role as "daddy", which amazes me every day since who knows how long it's been since he's handled a baby, much less a newborn. He holds her in his lap and she stares up at him and studies his face so sweetly.

Natalie has been sleeping in a cradle beside our bed, but we're planning on moving her to her nursery soon (maybe this week!). She makes tiny little squeaks and grunts throughout the night that make it hard for us to sleep (and believe me, sleep is hard enough to come by as it is), and her pediatrician recommended that we go ahead and move her to her nursery.

Here's a picture of Natalie on the day she was born:



And here's a picture of Natalie at 1 week old:

39 Weeks

We're at 39 weeks and, other than stronger Braxton Hicks contractions, there's been no real sign that this baby is ready to leave the womb. But you never know, maybe it will all happen fast!

Baby Center's 39 week update:

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

And here's a picture of your favorite expectant mama from today: