Our girl is growing up!

I wrote this post on May 28th, 2011.

Hannah is 12 weeks old today, and has been changing so much! I can't believe she is already 12 weeks. This weekend is bittersweet for me, because it is Memorial Day weekend, so I get to enjoy 3 weekend days with Steve, but it is my last weekend before I have to go back to work. I've been crying all day, every time I snuggle Hannah or look at her, I think about how I won't get to spend every day with her anymore. I am not happy about it. But I am trying to enjoy my weekend by doing lots of things to stay busy!

Last night we had my coworker, Christina, and her fiance, Mike, over for dinner. We barbecued and had some drinks. Hannah hung out with us, being such a good girl. She sat in her bouncer on the dining room table with us, as we cooked and ate. At one point, Mike, who does MMA fighting, was talking to Hannah, and fake sparring with her. He had his hands up by his face, and was punching the air, and telling Hannah to do it too. Next thing you know, she IS doing it. He got our attention and told us to watch, and she did it again. It was nuts. It was not a coincidence. She really was mimicking him. She had such control over her hands, it was crazy! Earlier in the week she had discovered her hands, and she has been doing more and more with them. But this was crazy.

Then, today, my parents came over to watch her while Steve and I went on a motorcycle ride. When we got home, we were all hanging out, and Mark came over too. Hannah was in her swing, and Steve started playing peekaboo with her, for the first time, just to see if she was into it. Well, she ended up laughing for the first time! I had just read that by the end of her third month, she should be laughing. So again, she is early! It was so fun to hear her laugh, I can't wait to try again tomorrow. Here is a video of it...

Finally, the last big change is that Hannah is no longer sleeping swaddled.  It is working!  She isn't really sleeping any longer than usual, but at least she isn't getting stuck like in the picture that I posted a few days ago!   Here is a picture of her tonight, all sprawled out.  I think she will be just fine!

Hanging out at 2am

Here is a cute video of Hannah that I took at 2am in mid May, about a week before we stopped swaddling her. It's pretty cute. I had just finished feeding her and had put her back to bed. She was so cute and smily and awake that I had to take a video.

No swaddle

I wrote this post on May 26th, when Hannah was just shy of 12 weeks old.

Lately Hannah has been breaking out of her swaddle. She loves it and sleeps really well when swaddled, but now she breaks out all the time and I think it is waking her up. She gets her hands out and gnaws on them and decides that she is hungry. Here is a pic of her today, after breaking out...

Obviously, not too happy. So tonight I decided to try putting her to sleep without a swaddle. I have her in a light sleep sack, with her arms free. I put her down, and at first she just played with her hands, and was really quiet. Then she screamed and flailed around for about 10 min, and passed out. So far so good. Now, as I sit her writing this, she is awake again, and playing with her hands, but not crying. Hopefully she will go back to sleep soon.

She was going to bed around 6pm, which was nice because Steve and I could actually have a baby-free dinner together. A month ago, Hannah would scream at our dinner time, and we were constantly eating cold food, eating separately, etc. So once she started going to sleep at 6, it was kind of nice. But then she'd wake up for her first night feeding around 11 or 12, after I'd only been asleep for an hour or so. Not good. So we pushed her bedtime back, and she is now going down about 8pm, give or take a half hour. And she is much calmer in the evenings, so dinner is still nice. This is also better because I am going back to work next week, and I'd like to see her once I get home, instead of having to put her right to bed. The only problem is, since we started putting her down at 8, she has started only sleeping 4 hours or so at a time, so she is still up at midnight. Oy vey. So now, without the swaddle, let's hope she sleeps longer!

Wish us luck! I'd like to get some decent sleep once I go back to work!

2 month update

Well I am posting this way after the fact again, so I will try not to forget anything!

The day Hannah turned 4 weeks old, we took her down to Hermosa to hang out with our cousins the Bertino's. It was a pretty successful outing. It was so nice to get out of the house and be out doing something! Hannah got to meet her cousins Finn and Sawyer which she loved. We watched Finn's baseball game, and had a yummy dinner.

The following week I had to have a tooth pulled, which was just lovely. I had a molar that i had already had two root canals on, and it cracked or something and got infected again, so I had it pulled. I thought it was going to be a bigger deal than it was. I wasn't in too much pain, and didn't have a problem still taking care of Hannah.

On April 11th we took her to the doctor again for her one month checkup. Really, she was 5 weeks old. She weighed 9lbs exactly and measured 21.5 inches. That means she grew 1 whole inch and over 1.5 lbs since her last doctor visit at 2 weeks. Our doctor is always amazed at how mellow Hannah is!

That same week we went to a infant massage class with Sarah and Kami. It was interesting, and I learned how to massage her belly for gas pains, and her legs/feet/arms/hands for relaxation.

The Burgwalds came to visit us and Hannah got to meet Shawn, Morgan, and her future boyfriend Oliver. I don't know why we didn't get any pictures! We had a nice morning hanging out with them.

The last week of April and first week of May, I had to go to Moorpark College quite a bit. I had to get a physical and 2 TB tests, so I had to go there 4 days. I spent a lot of April getting my other requirements done too. A drug test, CPR certification, buying my uniform, etc. So the first week of May I turned everything in and I officially start school in August!

Steve went back east for business from May 1-6, which meant I was alone with Hannah. Tina was over to help a lot, which was great. We missed Steve, but we survived!

On May 5th, her 2 month birthday, I decided to put her to sleep in her crib, instead of the pack n play in our room. I figured since Steve was gone, if we had a rough night, at least it was just us and we wouldn't keep him up. Well it was successful! I put her in her crib, swaddled up, and she scream for a few minutes, but then went to sleep. I got up to feed her a couple of times, and each time she went right back to sleep! I thought I would be up listening to the monitor all night, but I actually slept, and just woke up when I heard her.

The next day, on May 6th I took Hannah to the doctor again for her 2 month check up. She weighed in at 10lbs 3oz and was 22 inches long. That means she gained 1lb 3oz and grew a 1/2 inch! She was in the 75% for height, and 33% for weight. Also, I had to fill out a developmental survey, of things that she can and can't do. She scored at a 4.5 month old level! So I said that she is a tall skinny genius! She also had her 2 month shots, which I forgot she was getting until we arrived. They gave here 3 shots - one in one leg, two in the other. She turned bright red and screeched and looked furious for about 2 minutes, and then was fine. It made me laugh because I have never seen her like that. Later that afternoon we went to lunch with mom, Tonya, Leslie and another friend of theirs. She slept all thru lunch from the trauma, so I actually got to enjoy a peaceful lunch with everyone!

Here are some pictures from Hannah's second month...