Eyes Wide Open

I realized after looking back at some of my recent blog posts that most of our pictures of Leah were taken with her asleep. It's understandable, since she was always either nursing, burping, or sleeping again. But lately she is awake and studying the world around her, so I was able to take some new photos where her eyes are open.

Avery's Preschool Progress

Avery has been going to preschool since last fall and seems to be learning new things every day. Just today he was playing a preschool video game on the Sesame Street website. The goal was to find the three objects (out of six) that begin with the letter they show. To my amazement he said the names and sounded out the first letters.

If you take the time to go through the sounds of a word with him, he can spell them out. He is also in a rhyming phase, which is pretty amusing to hear. And he can spell and write his name with no trouble. Sometimes the letters come out backwards, and sometimes he writes them from right to left ('yrevA') but he seems to do it on purpose rather than by mistake. I wouldn't be surprised if he is able to read before Kindergarden starts, a year and a half from now. Eli and I are both very proud of him.

Happy New Year

We are off to a good start for the new year: eating healthy, exercising, having fun. I guess it isn't much different than our normal life, but now that Leah is born I can move around and cook again so my outlook has improved. The weather has been very mild so we have been able to go out and play at the local parks.

Like the boys at this stage, Leah isn't even close to sleeping through the night. If we're lucky it'll happen around the 10 month mark. She wakes up anywhere from 2 to 4 times during the night to nurse, and sleeps a lot during the day as well. She has adjusted well to our schedule of me driving the boys to school all week and running random errands.

Leah rarely ever cries for any extended period of time. There is some fussiness when she is tired, and a cry to let me know she is awake or hungry, but other than that she is an easy baby. She loves to be held, and I currently have her sleeping in our bed at night. In another month or so we'll transition her to the crib, at least for the "first sleep".

Leah's One Month Checkup

I took Leah in for her one month checkup today. The pediatrician said that she had no concerns and that Leah looks to be a very healthy baby. Leah has had a blocked tear duct since birth, and as a result has crusty goop in her eye all the time. That could take several months to clear up, but is nothing to be concerned about. She has also already had two colds (one from hospital visitors, one from the boys) but her lungs and ears are fine.

Her stats are as follows:
Height: 21 1/4 inches
Weight: 9 lbs
She is in the 50th percentile for each.

Christmas Holidays 2007

Christmas was its usual superlative self. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas Eve dinner, which was quite an elegant affair. After dinner we went to Hagerstown to celebrate and exchange gifts with the Spichers. The kids got some awesome gifts from their great-grandparents. They really know their toys!

Christmas morning we opened stockings and presents. The kids were nearly schizophrenic with glee; they would open a gift, play with it for a minute, and then immediately start looking around for a new gift. Avery was quite the little helper: he was able to find gifts with his, Zach's, and Leah's names on them and hand them out to the correct person.

Gifts were followed by a brunch that was unfortunately rushed; we were scheduled to be at my Uncle Scott's by 2pm. There is never enough time on Christmas day; I wish it were 48 hours long instead of 24. When we arrived at Scott's, dinner was almost over. Everyone wanted to meet Leah, so it was probably for the best. We got to see all the usual immediate family members, along with my Aunt Leslie, Uncle Pete, cousin Lee, and Grandee.

Things Not to Do at Night

We hit a small snag with Leah last night.

When Leah was first learning to nurse in the hospital, she was rather aggressive and did some damage to Sara's nipples. Since nursing is her only source of food, and occurs 5-8 times a day, there hasn't been much opportunity for Sara to heal. One breast has become increasingly painful every day.

Things finally came to a head last night, just after midnight, when Sara decided she needed to pump on one side for a few days. Here's the rub: we knew where the breast pump was, but had "hidden" all of our baby bottles and nipples. So, there was a rather frantic 1 to 2 AM ransacking of the house on my part to locate the missing pieces.

One silver lining: Leah nursed on the bottle like a champ on her very first try, and again this morning. It took only about half as long as nursing, and didn't to make her gassy or spit up.

Leah's First Week

I know it's trite, but isn't she just perfect?

Leah is shaping up to be more like baby Avery than baby Zachary, at least when it comes to sleeping. He hated being in the crib, and so does she. We are able to get her to sleep in the swing, the bouncy seat, the car seat, and anywhere else that is inclined (like Eli's shoulder).

As you can see in the pictures, we have been keeping Leah pretty tightly swaddled. Eli picked up some pointers from the nurses this time around on how to really get the swaddling tight. She sleeps better, and longer, when wrapped up tight.