Baby Nora: Week 2

Weight: Nora weighed in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces today - up 10 oz from last week!

Health: Nora had her 2 week check-up today. Her dry skin has moved from her tummy to her extremities now, so hopefully it will be gone by next week. Her umbilical cord stump is super dry but hasn't fallen off yet. The doctor thinks within the next week it will fall off. She'll go back after Christmas for her two month appointment.

Sleep: We are enjoying Nora's ever-growing alertness during the day. She is still sleeping really well at night. We've only had to console her a handful of times. We are planning to transition her from the pack n' play in our room to her crib soon. She's taken a few naps in her crib so far so I'm hoping it will be smooth! Any recommendations are appreciated!

Diet: 100% milk. As evidenced by Nora's weight gain this week, she's a great little eater. I was so concerned the first week since everything I read said newborns need to feed 10 minutes on each side every 2-3 hours. After trying everything, I still couldn't get Nora to stay awake and interested for 20 minutes. Matt encouraged me to be patient and just let her stop when she was done. Now that I see she is gaining weight, I realize that I can't put so much weight in what I read and that we really have to learn what works for us.

 We've settled into a pretty good routine now, though I know it will evolve. She typically eats for about 15 minutes at a time, and feedings vary from every couple of hours to 4ish hours apart. The doctor said we could let her sleep as long as 6 hours at night (if she'll let us).  

Clothes: Newborn clothes still fit, though some of them are getting pretty tight!

Baby Gear: We're researching baby monitors this week as we are beginning to think about the transition to the crib. (I will probably remove this topic unless we have something specific that we love that particular week).

Crying: Nora has been exercising her voice a little bit more this week! She cried for a good 30 minutes in the car on the way home from the doctor because she was hungry, and she's had a couple of crying episodes before bed this week. She's a tiny bit fussier than last week but still really laid back overall.

Postpartum: We're two weeks out and I'm feeling 90% back to normal!! My soreness is almost completely gone. I saw my midwife on Thursday, and she removed the stereostrips that were covering my incision. I had a low-transverse incision, which is horizontal in the lower part of the uterus, making VBAC a possibility next time.

Toward the end of this week I noticed an increase in my energy level...probably a mix of no pain medicine and also longer stretches of sleep since I was trying to feed Nora every 2-3 hours the week before.

Milestones: Nora looks so much older this week. Her figure is filling out a little more, and she hardly looks like a newborn. She's also beginning to focus with her eyes and has tracked objects a couple of times.

Matt went back to work this week so we are cherishing our evenings together. He had two weeks of paternity leave, and even though one entire week was spent in the hospital, it has been so nice to have the time together to really bond as a family.

+, Lauren Aiken