Eight Weeks: Not a newborn

Eight weeks? It just keeps getting better. I remember sitting down to type my four week post and tears flooded my eyes as I was typing my words. Maybe it was the crazy hormones still affecting me, but I think it was the first moment where I realized that growing is good. You don't want your baby to be a newborn forever. You want to see them grow, flourish, explore and be fascinated with the world around them. At just a ripe four weeks, she was already starting to be alert and participating in some interactions in her world, but at eight weeks it's like a whole different baby. She coos, she smiles, she raises her eyebrows, she frowns, and she can recognize our voices.

My tiny little bundle is no longer a newborn. Long gone are the days where she would sleep on my chest all afternoon and snuggle with me into the evening hours. This girl spends most of her days kicking her legs, waving her arms and wanting to assert some form of independence. We used to spend almost three hours snuggling in the afternoon - now she'd much rather be in her swing listening to her music & watching the lights dance in some sort of synchronization to the music. I can't blame her. It's not like I'm that exciting anyway.

Morning and late evenings are my favorite times with Jules. She wakes up happy and she goes to bed happy and her smiles are coming more easily now. The other night Alex walked into the bedroom while she was laying on the bed kicking her legs and "playing" - she couldn't see him but she heard his voice and her eyes got really big, her arms started going nuts and the biggest, toothless smile came across her face. It was special and tugged at my heart. She has also recently started to "coo" when interacting with us. At four weeks she was really just noisy. She'd make lots of grunting noises and would cry if we tried to get her to respond to us. At eight weeks, she can smile and flirt with the softest vocal noises. It's cute. I need to get in on video ASAP.

Growth. Holy smokes. We were at the pediatricians office ten days ago for a little blocked tear duct and we put her on the scale - she was well over 10 1/2 pounds! So it'd be no surprise if she was close to 12 this week. Her cheeks, her legs, and her arms are all filling out. Even the tops of her little feet are starting to look a bit chubby : ) We are long out of newborn clothes and are currently fitting into 3 month outfits pretty perfectly. 

We still have yet to try the cloth diapers. They just seem a bit daunting right now and I think she needs to be a little closer to 14 lbs before they will fit her properly. I'm not sure if we will use cloth 100% of the time. When I was 16 weeks pregnant I thought cloth was the most brilliant thing ever. At 8 weeks postpartum, I think they seem like too much work! Hopefully sometime soon I will feel ready to tackle them. I do plan on mostly using them at nights and we will send some to daycare with her as well. We figure that on weekends if we are out and about, the last thing we really want to do is haul dirty cloth diapers around with us. So I do plan on doing a mix of disposables and cloth. 

Nursing is continuing to go well. Again, I just feel so lucky and so proud that we've been able to make this work. Nursing is a super demanding job, but the relationship and the closeness is well worth it. The hardest part about returning to work will be dropping her daytime feeds. The thought makes me sad and brings tears to my eyes, so I'd rather not think about it yet. 

As far as work, I'm really just trying not to think about it. I still have a month home with her and I'd rather enjoy these days than spend them welling up with tears and counting down the moments until I have to return to "normal" life. I'm thankful that I've been given a longer than average maternity leave and that this has been such an enjoyable time for all three of us. 

Alex and I just returned from my best friend's wedding in Houston. We left Jules with the grandparents for the weekend and she did great. As expected, it was harder on me than it was on her. Both of us survived though and I do believe that some separation is good. It allowed for good bonding time with the grandparents and it was really, really nice to have a weekend with just Alex. I don't want to do it again for awhile (at least until I'm done nursing), but it's good to have a weekend away under my belt. The wonderful thing about grandparents; you just trust them. There is nobody else I would rather her leave her with. 

We have Julia's first Thanksgiving/Black Friday to look forward to as well as a two month check-up at the end of the month. I'm definitely looking forward to family time at Thanksgiving but am dreading the two month visit. She'll get shots. Four of them. It's totally different when your the mom comforting your baby that just experienced four sharp pokes, rather than being the nurse that is administering the four sharp pokes. Again, Jules will probably be a champ and recover super quickly while I sit there sobbing like a baby! Oh, the joys.

Here is to another four weeks of growth, health, smiles and lots of kisses and snuggles. 

Xo, 

KBG