Four Weeks of Fun

A Christmas gift from the Hosker's.

At four weeks old, Lucy has grown and changed so much right in front of our eyes. She has delightfully fun waking hours where we enjoy singing, dancing, bathing, massages, tummy time and the occasional photo shoot to make sure we capture every ounce of cuteness (see right :-). Lucy is definitely responsive to my voice and stops to listen for me when she is with daddy and I am talking. She is pushing forcefully with her pudgy little legs when she is held chest to chest and is majorly interested in bright lights and contrasting colors. In fact, Jim has discovered that bright lights can be a nice distraction from gas or fussiness.


Nursing is continuing to go very well and we swear she grows a little every day. She did have a pretty rough day last week. Her belly was gurgling and she couldn't get more than 25 minutes without being interrupted by it. Lucy and I did everything we could to make her feel better, but by the time Jim got home we were both exhausted. Lucy was so overtired that she couldn't even think about going to sleep. It was painful for me to see her like that I can only imagine how hard it will be to watch her struggle with any pain throughout the rest of her life. Jim and I agreed that seemed to be milk protein that was upsetting her tummy and I have completely cut all dairy out of my diet. Hopefully we will be able to slowly reintroduce it later, but for now it is gone.

We made it to our first party together and Dave
and Nico's and mommy made her wear a pretty dress.

On any account, the three of us had the opportunity to do lots of learning that day! I also got to see that Jim has his own techniques that work and I have to trust him to employ them, or at least being willing to give him the chance to try. (Sometimes you just need your mama and mama just needs her baby). I finally got in the shower with her (her first one!) which really seemed to soothe her. When she seemed nice and calm I plopped her in a towel covered daddy's arms and he snuggled her tight, I dried off, then we put her little naked body on my bare chest, stuck a pinky in her mouth. She was so tired she was startling herself awake with the sound her own sucking, so daddy bear rescued us again with the sound machine and we all finally fell asleep.

To give you an idea of how rare this day was, let me describe a normal day in the life of Lucy Lynn. Her and I usually join Jim in bed by midnight (or so). She sleeps for about 2.5 hours, I change her, nurse her and she falls peacefully back to sleep for about another 2.5-3 hours. We wash, rinse, repeat and she usually sleeps until about 9:00 or 10:00. Then we have some play time...a bath, a massage, dancing, reading...any of her favorite activities, before she takes another 2.5-3 hour nap. Wash, rinse, repeat. Then we try to get outside for a walk if the weather lets us. If not, we do some baby yoga or some more playing. Or I strap her to me and we start dinner or do some chores together. You guessed it, then she naps. From about 7:00-11:00 in the evening she is a little less easy. I know, poor us :-). For some reason she fights sleep at this point, so we have been trying to get to an indoor place to walk so she will take a snoozer in the front carrier. Then we wash, rinse, repeat and crawl in bed with daddy. She is unbelievable. I would find her incredible no matter what, but she is so fun to hang with all day. And, although I am definitely always a little tire, am overall very well rested. Because she doesn't stay awake at night, so far anyway, Jim hasn't had to get up with her at night at all yet. I have also learned that babies are always in REM sleep. This means that they will tend to move and make noises a lot. This does NOT mean that mommy should scoop up the baby right away. I could hold her alllll day long, but even mommies need to eat and use the bathroom and I want her to have some sleeping skills as she grows. She usually naps on me once a day, which is down from ALWAYS, and it seems to be making a positive impact on her day to let her sleep. And then I snuggle her so much when she wakes up that I am pretty sure is already embarrassed by me.