Happy Baby

I feel like we must be doing SOMETHING right because Delaney appears to be a very happy baby.  She is smiling all the time now, and not just little grins, but mouth-wide-open smiles.  She is also "talking" all the time.  We don't know where she got her blue eyes from, but the babbling is no surprise!  We respond to her sounds with similar sounds in an effort to boost her self-confidence.  She is especially chatty in the afternoons. 

2 months

Delaney is 2 months old and we got a cupcake to celebrate, which I ate for her of course.  It’s what she wanted! 

She is 11lbs 7 oz (60^th percentile) and 22 inches (50^th percentile).   She has such a small head (25% percentile) that none of her sunhats fit her!  She held our hands through her 3 shots on Tuesday while all three of us cried.   There is nothing worse than seeing your child in pain.  The good news is that the doctor is very happy with her health and progress. 

Her features and personality develop more and more every day.  She definitely recognizes our faces now and smiles when she sees us.  Her smiles are so enthusiastic that she now has an open-mouth smile, and she laughed for the first time yesterday!   One of her favorite faces to look at is her own;  we sat her in front of the mirror and she was absolutely amused.   She lifts higher and holds it longer every day during tummy time and we are working on her tracking skills. 

In the past two weeks, Delaney has slept through the night five times (not that we’ve counted)!   The other nights have been only one wake to feed, and she has nursed for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes and gone right back to sleep, so we are feeling very fortunate.   I spent the second half of my pregnancy reading nearly every book and theory on baby sleep, and there were a few important lessons, reinforced by Kim, that we adopted since her birth:

-          We always put Delaney down tired but awake.  She has learned to put herself to sleep from the beginning.   Of course, it is difficult to pry her out of loving arms, but we’ve tried to stick to our guns and she’s only fallen asleep in someone’s arm or on the breast/bottle a few times.  We wait for her tired cues (yawning, glazed look in her eyes, etc.) and then put her down.  She spends a few minutes having “me time” and then slips off to dreamland.   If we wait too long and she gets overtired, she often has a fussy sleep. 

-          We’ve followed the Eat-Activity-Sleep routine for every cycle except during the night when we put her back down to sleep right after eating. 

-          We’ve concentrated equally on getting quality daytime naps, daytime wakefulness and nighttime sleep, each with a different purpose, each day with varying degrees of success. 

-          We keep her wakeful hours to no more than 2 hours, but mostly she does not make it past 1.5 hours at this point.   Her wakeful hours will increase over time of course.  The current goal is 1.5 hours awake followed by 1.5 hours asleep.  Many naps she wakes up after 45 minutes (apparently when going from 1 sleep cycle to the next) and we are sometimes able to get her to go back to sleep.   The goal is day time naps averaging 1 hour. 

-          Especially recently, we’ve implemented a consistent wake up time (7am), even if we have to commit the cardinal sin of “never waking a sleeping baby.”   In fact, we commit that sin pretty often to keep her on a consistent schedule. 

-          We also started a bedtime routine in the first few weeks, but the activities have evolved and the timing has become more consistent lately.  Starting right after her last nap of the day (which we cut short after no more than an hour) and 1.5-2 hours before her bedtime, we give her half a feed, hold her/play with her lightly, give her a bath with her Comfort Calming Bath and then use the Comfort Calming Lotion, dim the lights, finish the feed, read a book (Goodnight Moon), turn on her Sleep Sheep, swaddle her, put her down, give her her lovey/transitional object, sing Twinkle Twinkle, kiss her and tell her how much we love her, and then turn out the lights and leave the room. 

-          She has slept in her crib from Day 1.   We’ve made a few exceptions (when traveling and the first couple of nights that we were on our own without Kim), and day time naps are anywhere from her crib to her rocker to her carseat.   We do have a video monitor and her room is right next to ours.  

We are trying to get into a schedule that looks something like this:

7am Wake-Up and Bottle feed (4.75 oz currently, but she frequently does not finish.  We try to increase by ¼ oz every week)

Activity (activities include tummy time, bumbo sitting, touring the house, activity mat, going for a walk/run, etc.)

8:30am Nap in crib

10:00am Breastfeed

Activity

11:30am Nap in crib, stroller or rocker

1:00pm  Breastfeed

2:30pm Nap in crib, stroller or rocker

4:00 Breastfeed

4:00-7:00pm  During this time we play and let her take a brief nap or no more than an hour

6:30/7:00pm night time routine—breastfeed, bath, book, bed

8/8:30pm bedtime

10:00pm dreamfeed

We are going to try this for a week and see how it goes.   Obviously the above times are approximates—we have not had 1 day where we’ve fallen exactly in this timing.  All of this varies +/- 30 minutes.   We always want to meet Delaney’s needs, but especially since we both work from home, it’s important for our family (and our neurotic personalities) to have some predictability and structure. 

All of the above paints a very pretty picture, but that is not to say that we have not had our share of challenges.  Our biggest challenge is that Delaney still struggles with the bottle sometimes.  Due to this, we have not yet felt comfortable leaving her with even family, since her hysterics during a difficult bottle feed would rattle even the most patient and loving grandparent.  

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.” 

The First 2 Weeks...

It is hard to believe that Delaney will already be 3 weeks on Friday!  We watch her grow in both size and personality on a daily basis.  The first day home was terrifying, overwhelming and emotional, and each day since has had its own challenges and rewards.  She is feeding and sleeping like a little champ, and we getting better at recognizing and anticipating her needs, at least some of them .  By her 2 week appointment, she had already exceeded her birth weight (she started at 7 lbs 10 oz, left the hospital at 7lbs 6 oz, and reached 8lbs by her 2 week appointment).  She is very strong, both in body and spirit.   We watch her with awe, amusement, pride and an indescribable amount of love. 

Remarkably, Delaney put herself on a 3-4 hour schedule right away which looks something like this:

-          She wakes to feed (and by “wake to feed,” I mean going from peaceful, sleeping baby to screaming-her-head-off, hyperventilating, must-eat-NOW baby in under a minute).  We change her diaper, typically resulting in more hysterics. 

-          It takes about 45 minutes or so to nurse, which is 15 minutes of “active feeding” per breast, meaning that when she is just hanging out there or falling asleep, it does not count.  She is also a “challenging burper” so we spend a great deal of time trying to get a burp out of her, often with no success.  Over the shoulder burping was a lost cause from the beginning, so we are trying other, more aggressive, techniques.  The first day we were barely patting her back.  Kim, our night nurse, laughed and told us we weren’t going to get anywhere with that.  Now, you can hear us pounding her back from another room.  We’ve quickly come to realize that she is not as fragile as we initially thought.  We are doing one bottle feed during the day and one at night, and the bottle feed takes MUCH less time- about 10 minutes.  Brice does these feeds since I need to be pumping at around the same time, and we both felt it was important for him to do these bottle feedings as bonding time with Delaney (and a break for me).  Bottle feeds, while more efficient, are more challenging since they go so quickly, she doesn’t quite realize she is getting full, so when we stop to burp her at various times, she goes into hysterics again, making burping even more difficult.  We started off at 2.5 oz, got to 3 oz at 2 weeks, and are currently at 3.5 oz as of 2 days ago. 

-          After she eats during the day, we have “activity time.”  Obviously she isn’t doing a whole lot in terms of activities at this point, but we do tummy time either on our chests or on her mat—and she’s already lifting up her head and moving it completely from one side to the other, call family on Skype, sing songs, play with her arms and legs, tell her stories, read books (her current favorite is the Sassy photo album with black and white contrasts), go for a walk (we LOVE our BOB stroller), take tours of the house, sit outside, but mainly just talk to her since her sense of hearing is the first to develop.  This is our favorite time, but is also the shortest time, lasting only 15-45 minutes or so.   At night, there is no activity time; right after she feeds, she goes back down to sleep again. 

-          At the first sign of sleepiness (crankiness or yawning), we swaddle her and get her ready for her nap.  We then put her down to sleep, turn on her Sleep Sheep (her favorite setting is Ocean) and she sometimes have a few minutes of “quiet alert,” meaning she is calm and just staring into space, presumably thinking about how awesome she is, and then drifts off to sleep.   By putting her down to sleep while still awake, we are hoping to promote some sleep independence. 

-          She then sleeps for 1.5-2.5 hours, and the whole cycle starts again! 

Delaney loves:

-          Eating

-          Staring at faces

-          Bathtime with Dad

-          Sleep Sheep, Sleepy Bear, Soothing Seahorse (we have 1 upstairs, 1 downstairs, 1 on her changing table and 1 on her carseat) and other noise—she actually has appeared to sleep the soundest in a noisy room of people

-          Her infant car seat, including car rides and walks in the stroller

-          Being swaddled and also breaking free from her swaddle

-          Trying to eat her hands

-          Getting mani/pedis

-          Her Sassy photo album

-          Holding our fingers

-          Her family! 

Delaney dislikes/is not interested in:

-          The pacifier (she was pretty miffed once she figured out nothing was coming out of it despite rigorous sucking)

-          Waiting for more than 10 seconds to feed

-          Diaper changes

-          Hats

We could not live without:

-          Kim, our night nurse.  She has been AMAZING!  She came every night for the first week and comes every other night for these last 2 weeks.  Her philosophy is to train us to be confident and comfortable parents by the time she leaves, and she gives us daily “goals” to achieve.  The first ones were taking Delaney out for a walk or taking her to a restaurant (sitting outside).  We then graduated to putting her in the car and going somewhere (I took her to my parents house and surprised them).   A few days ago her day time naps were in her crib while we used the monitor.   Tonight we will graduate to having her sleep at night in her room by herself.  EEEEEKKK!!!! 

-          The huge arsenal of burp cloths

-          Summer Swaddle Pods

-          Fisher Price Rock N Play Sleeper

-          I have a love/hate relationship with the breast pump, but I could not live without it.  My milk supply came in fast and furiously—our freezer is quickly filling up with milk.  I am pumping about 8oz in less than 10 minutes, and sometimes even after a full nursing, I can pump an additional 3-4 oz.  Meanwhile, Brice is having dreams with the whoosh-whoosh sound of the pump in it. 

-          Her huge bathroom, which houses her changing table, bath station, bottle/pump cleaning station and tons of storage.  

-          Nursing pillow (I’m using both My Brest Friend and the Boppy, depending on what I can grab the fastest when she’s hysterical) 

-          Video monitor—although I’m hoping we eventually get over the need to watch it the entire time

The joys of being a new mom are overwhelming, but there are also many challenges.  The first week was very difficult, physically and emotionally.   I was in a lot of pain, both from childbirth but also from breastfeeding/milk coming in.   I had heard so much about breastfeeding being difficult, and I had worried about her being able to latch and having enough supply.  Neither of these were issues at all, however engorgement, nipple soreness, neck and shoulder soreness and just the fatigue from the constant demands of breastfeeding were what made it so difficult.   While I did not feel any “baby blues,” I was an emotional wreck—I don’t know who cried more, Delaney or me.  At one point she spit up and I panicked and then started crying because I had panicked.   A few days after getting home, I also started to come down with the horrible cold that Brice was still battling, so I was very sick and congested, and in an effort to not infect Delaney too, I wore a facemask while breastfeeding, which made the task of learning how to breastfeed even more difficult.  This was all compounded by extreme fatigue that all new parents battle.   The sickness, pain and hormonal roller coaster have all completely subsided now, and although I have not yet learned how to “sleep when the baby sleeps,” I am getting better at going back to sleep when Delaney goes back to sleep at night.  Meanwhile, the first night we were without Kim, Brice was up every 15 minutes to check on her.  He is getting better and even slept for an hour the other night without waking to check her!    Besides the fatigue, I'm really feeling great.   Getting out every day, even for a walk, a meal or a well-timed mani pedi has really helped.   Most importantly, having the support of an unbelievable husband, a skilled night nurse and extremely generous and thoughtful friends and family who have run errands for us, brought us meals, walked Dakota, gone grocery shopping, sent us gifts, and just been there for us, has made the experience much easier and more special. 

I would say that we are taking it one day at a time, but it’s more that we are taking it one 2-4 hour cycle at a time.  Although I still feel like we really don’t know what we are doing, one thing that we KNOW we’ve already mastered is loving Delaney with our whole hearts.