Almost 8 weeks

I'm sorry to say I did not get any pictures taken this week until today due to running out of batteries for the camera, and not getting more until today!! So, I have one cute video and a couple pictures of our cute kiddos, but that's it!

Anna will be 8 weeks on Tuesday, and 2 months in a week!! Lately I've been looking back at the blog to compare Eli to Anna. It's so fun to be able to do this and easily compare pictures, developments, and other tidbits of info. Two things have stuck out in my mind when comparing: 1) Eli weighed 2 lbs. more than Anna at this age, 2) Eli had already developed his "cat napping" and would only take brief naps during the day. Anna, thankfully, is the complete opposite and has fallen into a pattern of a long nap in the morning, a long nap in the afternoon (sometimes so long I have to wake her in fear it will affect her nighttime sleep!), and some cat naps in the evening before she is asleep for the night around 9-10pm!! I remember Eli's cat napping and how frustrating it was as I could not understand why he would not stay asleep for longer than 30 minutes, and most of the time it was more like 15-20 minutes! Hopefully Anna continues this trend and remains a good napper....I think mommy deserves it :)

Some similarities are: 1) I wrote about Eli being very talkative and so is Anna! The video below shows what I'm talking about, 2) Eli and Anna look A LOT alike! In the pictures below, you can see what I mean:

Eli at 8 weeks:


Anna at 8 weeks:

Anna is doing really well. Taking the bottle is still not mastered, but worked on almost daily :) She'll get there, I'm sure. Eli continues to do well, for the most part, and really loves to talk to her in a "baby" voice. Every morning when Anna & I come out of the bedroom he says "Mommy & Anna wake up!". Of course, remembering to be gentle and not get in her face all the time is hard for him, and this week I showed him that if he stays back from her face, she can actually SEE him and will smile at him!

Anna coos, squeals, and yelps a lot when awake and loves to walk around being held or in the baby bjorn facing outward. She's sleeping pretty well at night, due to using a swaddle blanket. I ordered a Miracle Blanket because she is outgrowing the one we have lengthwise already and I've heard awesome reviews! She is swaddled at night and will give me a 5-6 hour stretch and then 3 hour stretches until morning, so she gets up about 2-3 times a night. This could all change, though, as Eli did the same with his nighttime sleep and then it all came crashing down :) We've been co-sleeping since birth, but this last week I decided to see how she would do in her bassinet. She has done well, so what we do is she stays in her bassinet until her 5/6am feeding and then I bring her to bed with me where I lay her on her belly. I'm sure we'll end up co-sleeping again as she gets older and she will be able to side lay nurse, which currently is hard for her. Then for her long afternoon nap, I lay her on her tummy and check her often but she sleeps SO well on her tummy.

Lastly, below is a video of Anna smiling and you can also hear Eli talking to her. Too cute!

Below is a funny picture of Eli. This week he discovered how to lay down in the tub with his ears under the water and how funny everything sounds. He pretty much stays this way most of bath time!: