Anna turned 6 weeks on Tuesday and time continues to fly on by!! She weighed in at 11 lbs. on the dot on Monday (the day before she turned 6 weeks) so she continues to gain about 5-7 oz. a week! She also is falling into a teeny tiny bit of a schedule...HER schedule of course, but at least a hint of a pattern is emerging :)
Upon waking for the day (which essentially means that she doesn't immediately go back to sleep after this nursing) she seems to be the happiest & most calm. She is awake & enjoys her time being walked around the house in either mommy or daddy's arms facing outward, swinging in her swing, vibrating in her vibrate chair, being held by her brother, or some outside time. This awake time varies in length but is usually around 45 min to an hour. She then becomes tired and usually quite cranky, at which time she returns to sleep either while I wear her or after I nurse her to sleep and lay her in the bed. Or, if we have an activity that morning, she usually sleeps in the car seat and then again after we arrive and I wear her in the baby bjorn. This sleep lasts around 1-2 hours, depending on a variety of factors. Then she wakes again, nurses, and is awake for another hour or so. This pattern repeats itself for the day and she usually has around 3 naps before actual "bedtime", but sometimes 4 if she decides to sleep again before her longer stretch of sleep. Then between 8-9pm (while we are putting Eli to sleep), she decides she is ready to sleep, at which time she is swaddled (if not already), shushed, swayed, and nursed to sleep. This stretch of sleep is usually around 3 or so hours but sometimes 4. Hopefully in the near future she will decide it can extend to more like 5 or 6 :) She then wakes every 2-3 hours throughout the night to nurse.
Speaking of nighttime, what we have worked out is that I usually have Anna swaddled and shushed after Eli's bath. I then hold her in my arms while she sleeps or nurses and I read books to Eli. Then we turn out the lights and both Eli & Anna fall asleep (or continue sleeping in Anna's case). This works the best as I don't have to worry about Anna waking up if I lay her down while I am putting Eli to bed. So, it works for now, but I'm sure we'll have to adjust in the future as she grows older. Eli does really great with this and for the most part, is very patient and seems to enjoy having Anna there during his bedtime. It could be worse and he could get jealous of her being there and then I think I would lose my mind a little at bedtime :)
Anna is smiling more these days and continues to talk, talk, talk! She makes many cooing noises and when starting to get upset, she lets out these yelps that are too cute. She kicks & punches her arms when talking and Eli always comments that she is "knocking" him or whatever is around her. She is quite particular at times, and will yelp and screech to let you know that what you are doing is not up to her standards. She is quite the mama's girl and we are trying to help her be more happy with her daddy & grandma since mommy has to start back work eventually!! We also introduced the bottle starting last week and I can say it isn't going so smoothly. Because she prefers me, it is hard to find a good time to have daddy or grandma feed her since many times when I hand her over she gets upset. Daddy was successful once, but grandma couldn't even try due to her being so upset! So, I decided to try to feed her a bottle and the first time she took 2 oz! Since then, though, she's just "played" with it and not taken hardly anything. This will continue to be a work in progress!!
Enough narrative, here are pictures from last week!
Upon waking for the day (which essentially means that she doesn't immediately go back to sleep after this nursing) she seems to be the happiest & most calm. She is awake & enjoys her time being walked around the house in either mommy or daddy's arms facing outward, swinging in her swing, vibrating in her vibrate chair, being held by her brother, or some outside time. This awake time varies in length but is usually around 45 min to an hour. She then becomes tired and usually quite cranky, at which time she returns to sleep either while I wear her or after I nurse her to sleep and lay her in the bed. Or, if we have an activity that morning, she usually sleeps in the car seat and then again after we arrive and I wear her in the baby bjorn. This sleep lasts around 1-2 hours, depending on a variety of factors. Then she wakes again, nurses, and is awake for another hour or so. This pattern repeats itself for the day and she usually has around 3 naps before actual "bedtime", but sometimes 4 if she decides to sleep again before her longer stretch of sleep. Then between 8-9pm (while we are putting Eli to sleep), she decides she is ready to sleep, at which time she is swaddled (if not already), shushed, swayed, and nursed to sleep. This stretch of sleep is usually around 3 or so hours but sometimes 4. Hopefully in the near future she will decide it can extend to more like 5 or 6 :) She then wakes every 2-3 hours throughout the night to nurse.
Speaking of nighttime, what we have worked out is that I usually have Anna swaddled and shushed after Eli's bath. I then hold her in my arms while she sleeps or nurses and I read books to Eli. Then we turn out the lights and both Eli & Anna fall asleep (or continue sleeping in Anna's case). This works the best as I don't have to worry about Anna waking up if I lay her down while I am putting Eli to bed. So, it works for now, but I'm sure we'll have to adjust in the future as she grows older. Eli does really great with this and for the most part, is very patient and seems to enjoy having Anna there during his bedtime. It could be worse and he could get jealous of her being there and then I think I would lose my mind a little at bedtime :)
Anna is smiling more these days and continues to talk, talk, talk! She makes many cooing noises and when starting to get upset, she lets out these yelps that are too cute. She kicks & punches her arms when talking and Eli always comments that she is "knocking" him or whatever is around her. She is quite particular at times, and will yelp and screech to let you know that what you are doing is not up to her standards. She is quite the mama's girl and we are trying to help her be more happy with her daddy & grandma since mommy has to start back work eventually!! We also introduced the bottle starting last week and I can say it isn't going so smoothly. Because she prefers me, it is hard to find a good time to have daddy or grandma feed her since many times when I hand her over she gets upset. Daddy was successful once, but grandma couldn't even try due to her being so upset! So, I decided to try to feed her a bottle and the first time she took 2 oz! Since then, though, she's just "played" with it and not taken hardly anything. This will continue to be a work in progress!!
Enough narrative, here are pictures from last week!
Eli holding his little sister:
Almost asleep:
Enjoying a nap in the wrap!:
Eli cleaning his canvas for his art:
Eli decided HE would be the canvas....silly boy:
After playing with markers, we played with play-doh:
And watched Anna watch her mobile (which she can hardly stand for more than a few minutes):
Cute socks:
Chillin' in the vibrate chair:
Tummy time is more like rest time so far:
This is a good picture of Anna's rash. She has small raised bumps on her face that turn red with contact or heat. After research, it seems it is baby acne that gets agitated and turns red. It doesn't seem to bother her, though!:
Eli & Anna on the 4th of July:
I never have her wear them, but here is Anna trying on a couple head bands:
We went to Grandma & Grandpa Clarksons for the 4th and Eli loved swimming as usual! Grandma bought him a suit that has floaties in the torso so he can swim independently in the pool. Then as he gets better at swimming, you slowly take out the floaties! But, it takes some getting used to so he needed to use the rings for support:
Eli's flag tattoo:
Funny story about the tattoo. As we pulled into Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson's drive way, we heard an ice cream truck coming down the street. This is not unusual as one goes around our neighborhood a lot. We hadn't ever bought any ice cream from the truck, but Eric & I found it very humorous that not only was there the usual ice cream truck music, there was a drum beat being played behind it AND the driver was ringing the bell to the beat. It just struck me as funny and seemed the guy was trying hard to get some ice cream sold so we stopped him and got Eli a Batman ice cream bar. Since it was on the 4th of July, the guy also gave Eli a flag tattoo....Eli loved it!Anna's noticing her toys more these days, too. Here she is looking at Mr. Zebra:
On Monday, we went to the mall to let Eli run around. Anna enjoyed looking at the carousal lights:
Hope everyone had a great 4th of July...check back next week for Anna's 6th week pics & Anna/Eli updates!
2 comments:
I LOVE Anna in the color red! Suits her. Great pics of Eli, the art canvas--priceless!
Those swim suits crack me up! I think they're a great idea but it always makes the skinny kids look like they have really fat torsos ;)
Post a Comment