sleeping beauty

I put her down for some tummy time & it turned into nap time. As far as Rachel is concerned, anytime is good for nap time.

aren't those fuzzibunz cute?

This week, Rachel has started sleeping longer at night -- to the tune of 7 or 8 hours. Last night, however, she broke the pattern, so she's not totally transitioned. But, I'm excited at the prospect. This means she goes from midnight to 8:30 or so between feedings. Hopefully, she'll keep up the good work.

some firsts . . and other miscellanea

First hold. Pure joy on Laurie's face as she got to hold "Ray-ful".

First (ish) smile -- or a moment or two after a smile. She does really well with Josh, and I have gotten a few *real* smiles, as well. I put this down to Josh being WAYYY sillier than I am.

More thumb sucking goodness. She is getting so big & I'm having to adjust straps & things on her car seat & the little pillow in her swing because she's taking up more space.

At a recent family gathering & behind clothes doors. TA-DA!!! Snow ballerinas!

While the older cousins are getting into mischief. . .Laurie finds a baby to mother. She can't wait until she has Rayful to play with!

5 weeks

We've got a little weed growing at our house, but unfortunately, I don't have any recent pics to show you how much she's grown. And, I'm not sure you could tell from a picture. But, this morning when I got her dressed for church, and she's wore a dress that didn't fit her no way no how just last week. And, she's got little rolls on her geggies (legs in Aunt Jenny-ism).

Amazing feats & interesting facts:

She's rolled over from tummy to back at least 3 times that I can think of. I think it's pretty accidental, but it's still funny to find her in a different position than I put her in!

No more swaddling! We ditched that routine about 3 weeks, and she loves sleeping on her back. Sometimes, if I'm trying to rock her into sleepy state, she might be really awake & chatty if I've got her up on my shoulder, but the second I put her down on my lap or on some horizontal hold in my arms, she's out like a light.

She LOVES her bouncey seat. She spends a lot of the day in it, sometimes on, sometimes off. Have I already mentioned that I completely underutilized the "bouncey" aspect of this seat last time through this. Sometimes I sit at the table & use my foot to "bounce" her. She also loves her swing, but bouncey is #1.

She has an outie belly button, still, and I'm wondering if it's going to stay that way.

She has a dimple, I think. We don't see it too often, so I'm looking forward to seeing lots more smiles & really getting a good luck.

She's smiled "for real" at her dad a few times, but I mostly get the dreamy smiles (also cute!)

She's got some cute jouncey cheeks!

She likes her cloth diapers. And I'm liking them too.

Her hair is in a natural faux hawk.

We don't go for her next appt until 2 months old, so I don't have an update on her weight, but she's a chubby, especially in comparison to sister at 1 month. It's like night & day.

She can sleep for long periods of times, but usually during the day or even at night, but her stints usually start at 8 or 9, and as you can imagine, I'm not leaping into bed at that time of night, so I don't always take advantage of the full 5 hours or so. And, as you can tell by the time of this post, tonight I decided to stay up folding laundry & watching Lonesome Dove until her next feeding. :-)

2 weeks and a half

At her 2 week checkup, Rachel had a great report. She weighed 8 lbs 7 oz & measured 20.75 in long. This puts her way ahead of sister as far as "percentages" go. I just love how newborns grow so much on pure mother's milk! In honor of her turning 2 weeks (and a half), I tried a photo shoot with her this afternoon & had varied results.

Grandma Kathy, here are my long feet, toes. . .

. . . and my looong fingers.

. . .keep looking. . .

babysitting

Sunday morning, Josh needed both hands to finish getting ready for church, so he employed our built in baby sitter. Apparently, this situation lasted for about 10 minutes! Amazing!

Also note, my ongoing project: Kate's bangs.

more thumb sucking

She's still pretty haphazard in her thumb sucking -- not a habit yet -- and she's a bit more receptive to the paci. These pics are from this morning (1 week, 6 days old). The bouncey seat was in the living room, but when Kate & I got into the kitchen to eat breakfast, Kate insisted that I move the bouncey seat close to the table so Rach could be with us. Kate, "But I want to SEE her!"

** 2 fresh posts -- so keep reading!