What a week!

Up until this past week, Eleanor was on a great schedule. We had our system and I knew what to expect. Well, it's been totally different this past week! Mainly, we've just had some rough nights. She used to sleep from about 10-2, then eat, and then go right back to sleep from 3-6. The other night she would NOT go back to sleep so I was up with her from 1:30-6:00! I'm still recovering from that night. But then last night she made up for it and slept from 10-3. I finally woke her up at 3 because I felt like she was going way too long between eating, but in hindsight I think that was stupid and I should have just let her sleep. It's hard, because you keep waiting for the night that the baby will sleep longer than ever, but then when it happens you just worry that something is wrong!

On Wednesday we visited the BCC lab school, and I think we're going to start going. It's a program that's really more for parents than for the babies, and its purpose is to teach parents about child development. Once a month Hunter and I will go to a class in the evening where we'll learn about the topic for the month. For example, how does the baby's use of her senses enhance her brain development? Then, once a week during the day, Eleanor and I will go to the lab school and do activities that go along with that topic. Eleanor's definitely on the young side, but it will help me to see older babies and what they're learning to do. Plus, it gets me out of the house and interacting with other adults.

Eleanor had a couple of little milestones this week. On Wednesday she smiled at me for the first time! Now, sometimes she happens to smile unintentionally and it's cute, but this time we were playing on her little activity mat and she looked at my face, focused, and her face just lit up! It was so cute and I could tell she actually meant to do it!

She has also learned how to roll onto her side and she's quite good at it. I think it will still be a while before she rolls over, but this is a step. When she's on her stomach she can lift her head enough to turn it from one side to the other. (Look left, then look right) She does not enjoy this and she makes a lot of noise in the process, but she does such a great job!

Eleanor loves laying on her back on the mat and looking at all of the animals hanging down. She's not coordinated enough yet to reach out and grab one, but she has grabbed onto them before just as she's batting her arms around. She'll lay there for about 20 minutes at a time.

Posting comments

I've had a couple of people ask me if you can post a comment on here if you don't have a Google account. Yes you can, and it's very easy. At the bottom of one of my posts, click on comments. Then, write your comment. Under "Choose an identity" you can do two different things. You can choose "Name/URL" and just write your name but leave URL blank if you don't have a website. Or, you can choose "anonymous", but please write your name at the end of your comment if you do that - otherwise I don't know who you are! :)

Baby in the mirror

Rocket launch

A Delta II launched early this morning with a GPS satellite system. I was feeding Eleanor so I missed it (though I heard it!), but Hunter went outside and got these awesome shots. That's the moon you see in the first picture.

Some pictures

This is how I found her in the cradle once. I have no idea how that arm got out!

Ready for bed!

In her cute outfit from Aunt Pam - I can't believe this fits her already! She is already outgrowing newborn clothes.

This is what Hunter found when he got home from work one day.

Enjoying her activity mat

Eleanor is not a big fan of baths!

No words needed :)

Penny and Eleanor, checking each other out

Eleanor loves to "read"!

Cloth is a success!

Eleanor has been wearing cloth diapers for just over two weeks now, and so far I love them! Somebody recently asked me why I like cloth so much, and here are my reasons:

1. They don't contribute to our landfills! Disposable diapers are the #3 item in landfills, after drink containers and newspaper (or maybe all paper? I can't remember). Think about what a small percentage of the population wears diapers - yet, they are contributing huge amounts of trash.
   
2. They don't leave human waste in landfills, leading to health and environmental hazards.
3. I would much rather have cloth touching my baby's skin than all those nasty chemicals.
4. Babies who wear cloth get virtually no diaper rash. Or so I've been told. I can't vouch for that myself after only 2 weeks, but so far, so good.
5. The $$$ savings! Eleanor's cloth supply cost about $450 total, and we did get the fancy kind. (You can spend a LOT less if you don't mind folding diapers.) That's what about 9 months of disposable diapers would cost, and these are all of the diapers we'll ever need for ALL of our kids, assuming they last well. (Well, I do plan to use disposable for travel, but that's not very much.) Plus, I registered for these at Target and received them ALL as gifts or with a gift card. So, I will not be spending a penny on diapers!
6. They are so easy! Cloth diapers have come a LONG way. These go on just like disposables, and they close with velcro. When I take them off I just dump them into a trashcan lined with a wetbag. Then every other day I wash the diapers and throw the wetbag in the wash as well. Eventually when she's eating solids I will have to scrape off the poop, but we'll either use flushable liners or get one of those toilet sprayer things for that so it won't be a big deal. The only thing that takes a little time and is a little gross is that I have to take the absorbant inserts out of the diapers as I throw them into the washer. It takes about 3 or 4 minutes and then I immediately wash my hands. No big deal. When they're dry it takes about 10 minutes to stuff them all back again with their liners, and then we're good to go for 2 more days!
7. They're just as easy to use on outings as disposables. I have a wetbag I keep in the diaper bag, and you just put the dirty diapers in there. I wouldn't want to use them for travel, but even a day trip would be fine.
   

Eleanor sporting one of her cute cloth diapers:

Clean and ready to use
(Those are wipes on the bottom right. I have a solution in a spray bottle that I spray on them before using.)

What am I feeding this child?!

I have been going to a breastfeeding support group offered by our hospital since Eleanor was born and it's been really helpful. It meets once a week and is led by two lactation consultants. You can ask questions, get them to help you with any problems you have, weigh the baby and see if she's gaining weight like she should be, and meet other moms. It's just nice to get out of the house somewhere and be surrounded by people who don't care if your baby is crying (because theirs probably is too) or if you have to feed the baby right then. Anyway, I weighed Eleanor yesterday and I can't believe how much she's gained! I've adjusted these weights a little bit to keep them consistent since sometimes she's worn a diaper and other times she wore nothing.

Birth: 7 lbs 3 oz
BF Group (5 days old): about 7 lbs 1 oz
Pediatrician (8 days old): 7 lbs 4 oz
BF Group (12 days old): about 7 lbs 14 oz!!

Like I mentioned before, the goal is for babies to be back up to their birth weight by 2 weeks. Eleanor's not even 2 weeks old yet and she's already way over her birth weight. She's already going 4 hours between almost every feeding, and I guess that's not a problem!

Sleep is getting better. The last two nights she has slept from about 10 PM to 5:30 AM with just one feeding in the middle. I don't mind being up for one hour in the middle of the night, but I realize that this probably isn't her pattern yet.

Besides eating, sleeping, and making cute faces, she doesn't really do much yet! I just enjoy holding her all the time and singing and reading to her. Here's a cute picture of her little sleepy face.