Milestones

Delaney has been hitting her milestones-- I can't believe how much she grows and develops every day!   Here is a current tracking of milestones:   

1. Smile?  She started legitimately smiling (not from gas) at around 6 weeks.  Now she is smiling all the time, both as a response and randomly when she is happy. 

2. Pick head up when doing tummy time or pick head up off shoulder? The pediatrician noted that Delaney had the neck control of a 1 month old when we were discharged from the hospital, so we started doing tummy time right away when we got home.  She has lifted her head up from the first time we did tummy time. 

3. Sit in a bumbo?  I only brought out the Bumbo last week (6 weeks) and she enjoyed it right away.  I'm guessing she could have sat it in earlier, but we had not tried.  (See previous post for Bumbo picture.)

4. Roll over?   She has not started rolling over at all, although has made a few attempts.  We aren't in a huge rush for her to do this because once she can roll over, we can't swaddle her any more, and she has only slept without a swaddle a couple of times.  

5. Laugh out loud? No laugh yet.... We can't wait for that!  I feel like it's going to be any day now though since her smiles are getting more and more enthusiastic and she is cooing so much. 

6. Track with eyes?   Delaney could track contrasting colors and faces with her eyes at times from the beginning, but she does so all the time now.  We can tell that her eyesight is improving a lot (despite being cross eyed after many feeds) because she notices when someone walks into a room and tracks them. 

Also.....
How much milk/formula do they take and how often?  It is difficult to tell how much she is taking from the breast and because of our bottle feeding issues, we were set back on the volume she would take from the bottle.  She's been nursing 15 minutes per breast from the beginning, although sometimes we struggle to get that long.  We hit 4oz bottles at 6 weeks.  We are now at 4.25oz and will try 4.5oz tomorrow.  She was feeding 7x per day up until Thursday when she dropped a feed and now we are doing 6x. 

How much do they sleep?  I will do another post about sleep and schedule later, but her daytime awake/sleep schedule averages 1.5 hours of awake time followed by 1.5 hours of nap time.  

Our First Trip

We decided to take our first trip to Palm Springs to introduce Delaney to her great grandmothers.  The trip was successful!  We spent more time strategizing on how/when to hit the road and packing than we did on the actual trip, and for all the time that we were in the car (probably 5 hours total for the weekend), she only cried for about 5 minutes of it.   She would not have cried at all if we had been able to make it home without the stop for gas!   We stayed very comfortably at Brooks and Bonnie's house and had so much fun.  It was wonderful to get away for a couple days and really special for Delaney to meet such important people. 

She sat patiently waiting for us to pack the car:

She made herself at home in Brooks and Bonnie's giant bed:

She met Saemi, Brice's 90 year old grandmother:

She was very excited to be meeting so many new friends.  This is the Trifecta of Double Chin, Smile AND Dimple!: 

She listened to Saemi's stories: 

But stopped paying attention after awhile: 

She took a bath in the kitchen sink (a little scary for us without all of the "equipment" we have at home):

We had a wonderful dinner on the patio of Tommy Bahama's. 

She had her best night of sleep yet!  Unfortunately I was too excited that she was sleeping so much that I didn't sleep myself.  Silly. 

She relaxed and watched some TV: 

She couldn't believe that we had to leave!  She didn't even get any pool time! 

Unfortunately we did not get any pictures of her with Thelma, her other great grandmother, since we forgot to bring the camera in with us in the midst of trying to get her to go back to sleep!   

We could not have been happier to introduce Delaney to her amazing great grandmothers.  What a special first trip! 

First Mother's Day

I had a truly special 1^st Mother’s Day.  Brice planned a fun day for everyone.  We all went to Toast for brunch, our favorite breakfast place in West Hollywood that we have been going to since we first started dating, but hadn’t been to since we moved to Studio City.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing at home and then had my family and Brice’s family over for home made pizzas and salad for dinner.   I felt so blessed to celebrate the day, and have a deeper appreciation for my mom than ever before. 

Here are some pictures from our Mother’s Day “photo shoot.”  She’s definitely my daughter! 

1 Month Old

Delaney is 1 month old!   She weighs 9lbs 2oz and is 21 inches long. 

We are all doing great!   The terror and panic have subsided, and we feel like we are getting the hang of things (at least for this stage!). 

Delaney is a great eater and has been gaining weight at a very healthy rate.  She is already outgrowing her newborn diapers and newborn clothes, which gives me a mixture of pride that she is so healthy and thriving, but also sadness that she is growing up so fast!

Our biggest challenge has been our difficulties with bottle feeding.   Thanks to an abundant milk supply, we were eager to do more bottle feeds to give me a break and to give Brice the bonding experience.  We’ve tried 4 different kinds of bottles (Medela, Breastflow, Dr. Browns and Born Free), 2 different kinds of nipples, different positions, me feeding, me not in the house while Brice is feeding, different temperatures, different environments, etc.  We finally went on a 48 hour bottle mission where Delaney was only given the bottle.  This was pretty traumatic (mostly for us) but we did make some progress.  She still has a strong preference for the breast, but at least I can now leave the house without feeling like she might starve.   We are going to try the Playtex bottles next which have latex nipples that are recommended for breast-fed babies.      

I won’t say much about her sleeping since I don’t want to jinx ourselves, but I will say that we are getting the hang of the night time routine and feedings.  She typically feeds between 7-9pm, we have bathtime and put her down in her crib, she wakes again between 12-2am and then again between 5-7am.  If the timing works out well, sometimes we only have to get up once in the night!  Brice does the 12-2am bottle-feed but I am still up at that time to pump.  We’ve managed to get about 6 hours of sleep at night, even if they are in 2 or 3 hour increments. 

From the beginning, we’ve been vigilant about putting her down after a few yawns.  She stares into space for a little while and maybe lets out a few fussy cries, but for the most part, she goes to sleep on her own.  This has been fantastic and we are hoping it has started to instill good sleep habits for her.  Although she sleeps at night in her crib, we have her take naps in her crib, her rocker and sometimes her carseat.  

Delaney’s activities include tummy time—and she’s impressively strong for her age and already turning her head completely from side to side and lifting up her head. 

We finally are getting some use out of the swing.  Unfortunately she’s gotten motion sickness a few times, but she seems to get the most enjoyment from the bird mobile which spins. 

Our favorite time has been her night time routine.  She nurses and then we give her a bath.   She really seems to enjoy the bath and after getting dried, applying her night time lotion, getting her hair brushed, putting on a fresh onesie for the night, we put her down in her crib, turn on her Sleep Sheep (her favorite setting is Ocean) and sing “Twinkle Twinkle.”