One night at a time...

The first night home from the hospital was great. H-bear slept like a champ; we had to wake her up to feed her, otherwise she would have slept straight through the night. We were pretty excited about it, and wondered who all these people are who talk about being kept up all night with their fussy newborns?

The next night set us straight. She cried and cried and just wouldn’t settle down. We passed her back and forth between us and took turns trying to get some sleep.

The days have been fun. It’s amazing to see her learn to stretch out her arms and legs. She makes new faces and noises everyday, too. She can open her eyes real wide, and recently we’ve noticed that she seems transfixed by bright lights, and especially the TV. She can’t focus on anything more than about a foot away, but she can definitely see the bright flashing light on the screen.

We’ve learned that she only likes to poop in clean diapers (right after bring changed). She also likes to poop during baths.

I’ve successfully clipped her fingernails twice so far, which has prevented any more self-inflicted scratches.

On Monday, the 9th, we took her to her first doctor’s appointment with Dr. Arensdorf. She did great, and we go back this Friday for her 2-week check-up. This was her first time out of the apartment! Her first “real” outing was on the 13th (8 days old) when my mom and I took her to the grocery store. She slept in her sling that goes around my shoulders, and probably hardly noticed where she was. She's also been to church, as well.

We have had a few good night like that first one, and several bad ones where none of us get a wink. Most nights are somewhere in the middle, where she’ll be fussy on and off, with a good 4-hour nap somewhere in the middle. Her cries aren’t too loud, fortunately for our neighbors, but she just fidgets and flails and refuses to settle down enough to fall asleep. We’ve tried swaddling but she frees herself very easily. We just do our best, and nap during the day. She’s only 12 days old, so it’s a bit too much to expect much consistency yet.

D-husband has gone back to work full-time now, so I get H-bear all to myself during the nights. It’s not easy, but I’m still loving it. It’s frustrating when I know her belly is full and her diaper is empty, and she still won’t sleep, but I stay up with her as long as she needs me to. We just take it one night at a time, enjoy the good nights when she sleeps, and try to remember that the day is coming when she will sleep all the way through the night, every night.