Milestones

It's been a big second week of life for little Molly.

On Christmas Eve, she was awake and alert for longer than she's ever been before. Her eyes started opening wider and she looks at faces and smiles a lot.

Also, Monday we had our first mother-daughter manicure. I used a little nail file to smooth out her itty bitty fingernails.

We spent the evening connected by Web cam to Oma's family Christmas party.

Christmas morning we checked in with the Kirkwoods via video phone, then Grandma D showed up with Christmas ham and gifts.

Molly met her uncle Craig for the first time and spent almost the entire day asleep in the arms of her family.


Today Molly had her first recreational expedition out of the house -- a trip to Blockbuster and JoAnn Fabrics. She slept through the whole thing, but her mommy really enjoyed getting out of the house for the first time in a week.


Then, when we got home, her cord stump fell off. Yay! Looks like the sponge bath this morning was her last. Now she can get wet so we can give her baths in the little tub.

Also, another first today: Molly wore socks for the first time. She also wore her first pair of pants briefly before Daddy took them off. We all know how Daddy feels about pants!

Some Pictures from Today

Wonderful night!

Hi everybody! I'm back!

Molly had a great night last night. Jim and I got in bed around 10 p.m. Molly got me up for nursing and diaper around 11 p.m. and again around 2 a.m. Then I didn't hear a peep from her until after 6 a.m.! We nursed and diapered again and she went right back to sleep, and she's still sleeping now.

The nights have been getting better since Thursday, when I had a teensy breakdown. Molly had me up until 3 a.m. without more than a few minutes to doze at a time. She wanted to nurse constantly and she fussed whenever I laid her down in the bassinet attached to our bed. The only thing that finally got her to sleep was lying on my chest, as I reclined on pillows in bed. That's not exactly a very restful sleeping position for me and I was nervous about her rolling.

The next night we decided to make a more deliberate attempt to have her in bed with us (thank you Anna and David for talking us through that decision and for the support!!) She slept for four hours at one stretch. It was amazing. We figured out the side-lying nursing position, too, and Saturday night I woke up from a relatively deep sleep and was a little surprised to realize I was still nursing her. Pretty cool.

The drawback is that I don't sleep as well when Molly's in the bed. And the side-lying position is not as comfortable for me as other nursing positions. Plus, we were baffled as to why Molly would sleep in a Moses basket or her "cradle rocker seat" during the day but had to be next to us to sleep at night.

It turns out she doesn't have to be next to us at night -- we just weren't putting her in the right container. Last night she was sleeping soundly in her cradle rocker, so we decided to leave her there. Jim detached the bassinet from our bed and put the chair on the floor there instead. It worked like a charm. I did bring her into our bed between the two nighttime feedings -- she seemed like she needed to be snuggled -- but for most of the night she slept in her rocker and we got some much-needed, deep sleep.

Everything else is going great. Alan, Tessa, Lex and Eve brought us lunch yesterday and met Molly for the first time. Jim DJ'd a mini-rave dance party in our living room and Lex and Eve boogied down. What fun kids! Molly's going to have a great time with these guys once she's big enough to party.

More Pictures

Below are a couple of pictures from David, Anna, and Lucy's visit. I've also added more pictures at the picture link on the right.

Bathing and Visitors

We gave Molly her first sponge bath last night. It was much less traumatic than I thought it would be. She screamed pretty good at the hospital when they gave us the demo. Anna has a couple of pictures of the process on her blog (see links at the right).

It was crazy to see the differences between Lucy and Molly. It is hard to imagine that she could possibly change that much in a matter of months. Makes me realize I better get started on the baby-proofing soon.

Pediatrician Visit

We took Molly to visit the pediatrician this afternoon. Boy, the things they do with those thermometers. She weighed in at 7lbs 8oz which is 5 oz heavier than her last weight at the hospital, so she's gaining her weight back (yay!). She's feeding like a champ, so it isn't really surprising. Julie and I being the analytical (or anal retentive) type, have charted all her feedings and diaper changes so we can make sure she's on schedule. I'm pleased to see we can be geeks even at parenting.

We're Home

We got home from the hospital this afternoon and everyone is settling in nicely. Hopefully in the next day or two we can get the whole story of the delivery posted. In the mean time, try this link for more pictures of Molly.

Pictures