Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Our Adorable Anna’s 1st 8 Weeks

(It's really hard to capture Anna's smile, but here you get a taste of it.)

Now that our 2 weeks in MI has passed and life is getting a little easier with our baby girl, I thought it was about time I updated the blog and let you all know how Anna is doing.

I have learned so much about my daughter in my 1st 8 weeks with her. Let's see... Anna likes routine! She gets pretty cranky when she doesn’t get to sleep on her terms. She is happiest in the mornings. She holds her hands in fists most of the time with her little thumbs tucked between her index and middle fingers. She loves her bath (I’m hoping this means she’ll be a little fish in the water!). She loves to snuggle and is perfectly content when I carry her in the MobyWrap. She sleeps the best when she is swaddled. She likes to be bounced or rocked to sleep. When she gets really upset, she does what Meme calls a “double cry” – a fast, gasping cry. She likes to be outside; if she is crying, she quiets right down when we walk outside. When she is nearly inconsolable, a walk in her stroller or a car ride appease her most of the time. She does NOT like tummy time; she cries most of the time so I try to put her on her tummy for a few short periods throughout the day. She is definitely a Texas girl because she seems to like the heat. She often sucks on her lower lip or tries to put her whole fist in her mouth. As you can see below, she has already mastered the art of pouting by sticking out her lower lip.


We spend lots of time staring at each other and having “conversations”. Anna gets very vocal at times and it is cute to see her surprise herself as she lets out a long and loud coo. She follows people with her eyes as they walk past her. Since she was born, she has always been very alert and she continues to be very curious about her surroundings. She is now grasping blankets and her clothes; right now she has her little dress pulled up, showing off her chubby belly. She is starting to put on some baby fat, but still is pretty thin. I recorded the following video clip yesterday.

I have been very blessed because Anna is a very good sleeper; she has basically slept through the night since she was 3 weeks old. She falls asleep somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30 and wakes up somewhere between 7am and 9am.

We’ve already had a number of firsts…

  • Anna started smiling when talked to right around the 6 week mark and now she smiles a lot each morning. The number of smiles decrease as the day passes on, but are most frequent after waking from her naps.
  • She rolled over on the couch at 7 weeks. We can’t officially call it a roll-over since the cushiness of the couch helped her a little, but Robert and I still got excited about it!
  • And, of course, she got to experience many things on vacation for the first time… first drive to IL (which she did wonderfully on), first trip to MI, first boat ride, first “dip” in Silver Lake, first sunset by Lake Michigan, first time blueberry picking.
Yesterday, Anna went swimming with Nicole. She went in the pool twice and enjoyed being pulled around in her Pooh floaty. Here are my two blue-eyed cutie-patooties!

I’m really enjoying all the time I get to spend with her. I’m SO thankful that my company allows an extended leave because there is no way I could leave her while she is so young. I’m sure it will be hard even at 9 months, but I’m hoping it will be a bit easier (hopefully!).