5 weeks and counting

Aria is now 5 weeks old (plus a couple days in change), and new things seem to develop every day. She's smiling more now, holding her head up more, and can roll partway from her back to her side. She's grown a couple inches and put on some weight - last we checked, which was a couple weeks ago, she was nearing eleven pounds. I suspect she's heavier than that now - I can feel it in the soreness in my arms.

This week she had a major growth spurt, coupled with a small cold. So we didn't get much sleep at all for a couple days while she fussed and ate like crazy. Then she passed out at about 9:00 p.m. a couple nights ago and slept practically through the night, with just a couple of small feedings. We were really lucky she did that, because if the sleeplessness had continued, we would have gotten pretty, ah, shall we say, *feisty* with each other (and with you, more than likely).

As promised, I put together a photo album to share at snapfish.com. I can't directly link to it, I have to email the link out. I've already sent it out to a few people, but I'm sure I missed a bunch. If you'd like to see it just send me an email and I'll get it out to you.

Blogging is unfortunately going to stay light for a while. When I'm at work I'm far too busy to write in this thing, and at home there are just more pressing priorities...

Also, we'd like everyone to know that we are thinking of you all a lot, and although we aren't calling people much for whatever reason (napping, or have baby latched on boob, etc), we do love hearing from you. Don't be afraid to call because you think you might be bugging us. Especially during the day when Hosanna is home, she loves to hear from you.

family visits

Lots of family have come up to visit over the past week. I have some great pictures that I tried to post on Saturday, but I lost my blog entry before completing it. User error. I'd blame it on having a new baby and being tired & distracted & yadda yadda yadda... but the truth is I forgot to save my work, like a total noob.

I will try to get the pics up in the next few days - but it's pretty hard to do a major blog entry during the week with my work schedule, so it might have to wait til the weekend.

Quick highlights of the past week: first bath (she loved it), she started holding her head up a little bit, and she did a half-roll from her back onto her side a couple times. She also loves to look at the big Ansel Adams "moon over half-dome" picture we have in our family room. We think she likes the contrast of the black frame against the yellow wall.

Last day of my time off

It occurred to me that we didn't have any shots of the family together. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Charlie into the picture. But we were able to stuff in a bit of A's propoganda, so there ya go. :)

I go back to work tomorrow. Aria is just over two weeks old now, but I feel as though it has been two years. So much momentous change crammed into such a small period of time. Any other two weeks would have been a blip on the map. It's crazy.

I stayed up very late last night with Aria. I had a lot of energy for some reason, and I thought it would be nice to give Hosanna some more restful sleep. The Godfather was on TV. So there I was, giving my daughter a bottle at 1:30 in the morning, watching mob bosses kill each other. Aria fell asleep in the burping position on my shoulder and stayed there for at least an hour. She was so calm curled up there, with her little tiny butt resting in my hand.



The Godfather ended at 3 a.m., but she was still asleep and I couldn't bear to disturb her. So I snoozed for a while on the couch. I loved it. I never wanted it to end. But at 3:30 she was hungry again, and I had used up all the breast milk Hosanna had pumped.

As far as giving Hosanna the restful night of sleep, the results were mixed. Sure, she got to sleep through until 3:30. But after that, I was utterly useless, and slept hard until 11 a.m. today. So I wasn't much help with changing diapers or making breakfast. Hosie told me I'm not allowed to do that anymore. :)

We've met a few more of our neighbors as a result of bringing Aria out. There aren't really that many kids in our neighborhood - it's still populated mainly with retirees who bought here in the 70s - but we've met a couple of them. That's been fun.

Aria has her first Halloween costume now. Our friend Holly brought her a duck outfit. It's pretty cute. She'll probably be swimming in it though, it's kinda big. But we'll give it a try anyway.



I discovered, quite accidentally, that when Aria is really hungry she will suck on anything that you put too close to her mouth. In this case, my nose. Weird... but cute... but weird.

I am very sad to have to go back to work after this amazing experience. I'm afraid of missing so many exciting moments with Aria. What if I'm not here when she rolls over for the first time, or starts crawling, or says her first word? And, somewhat more selfishly, it's been very nice to have the time to work around the house, enjoy late breakfast with Hosanna while Aria takes her morning nap(s), even play some video games and watch a couple movies. These two weeks have been so crazy, but they have also been very relaxing too. I will really miss that. I fear for my stress level when I drop back into the hectic atmosphere of my work life, then come home to an ever-growing, ever-more-demanding child. And I'm afraid for Hosanna, too - of being lonely at home, of her feeling trapped by the need to be at Aria's side at all times. We will have to work hard to make sure she has the support she needs.