Five weeks old

This picture is a few weeks old, but I just love it and wanted to share. :)

This past week has been busy with doctor's appointments, dinner with family, dinner with friends, a rehearsal dinner tonight and wedding tomorrow. Mia and I were only able to get out for one 20-minute walk this week so I'm still at the 32 pounds weight loss mark. It's been rainy too so that kept us inside as well.

Mia had an appointment on Wednesday with a pediatric orthopedist. It takes a while to get ready to go anywhere and some careful planning on my part. I'm still getting the hang of going out with her. Our appointment was at 3:10 and we were there 15 minutes early as they requested only to find that the doctor was in surgery. The receptionist said he was expected to be in around 3:30 and there were a lot of patients before us so we rescheduled for September 11th. Don't even get me started on how I feel they could have picked up the phone any time during the day and called to let us know that before we drove all the way downtown for NOTHING! I guess it wasn't all for nothing. GranE happens to work in the same building so we just went to visit her.

Mia is starting to smile more, when she's not sleeping, and interacting. I was standing in the bathroom yesterday warming a wash cloth to clean her eyes. I wasn't looking at her but I was talking to her the entire time and when I looked back down at her she was just smiling so big and had her mouth open wide like she wanted to laugh and nothing was coming out. It absolutely made my day and I got all teary eyed. She is such a precious child and I couldn't be more thankful!

She is still not liking the car rides. She screams practically the entire time we are in the car. I really think it has a lot to do with nursing and when she does the screaming it is usually right around the time she needs to be nursed and we just can't seem to get home fast enough for her. Breastfeeding poses all sorts of challenges but it truly is worth it.

I would like to take a moment to offer up some advice for anyone who has not had children yet. I HIGHLY recommend reading The Happiest Baby on the Block. I suggest reading it BEFORE you give birth so that you will already have one of the most valuable pieces of knowledge that I have found so far. I am only halfway through the book so I can only comment on what I've read so far.

The book focuses on colicky babies and getting your baby to sleep through the night. Mia is not colicky but I bought the book for advice on getting her to sleep through the night. I am so looking forward to that! The first part of the book discusses theories on colic and why the author feels each theory cannot be supported. Anyway, he explains his method on triggering an infant's calming reflex. When I started reading the book, I seriously never thought I would need to use that for Mia because all I needed to do was pick her up and hold her to calm her and quiet her crying.

Well, the other night she was testing us to be sure we were on our toes! The child was inconsolible. She cried for over an hour and nothing was working. She didn't want the breast, she didn't want her daddy or her mommy, she didn't want a pacifer, or to be rocked or swayed, nothing! She just got more upset and angrier by the minute. I finally picked up that book to refer to the first of the 5 steps to trigger this so called calming reflex.

The first step is swaddling. Now, Clay and I learned in the hospital that Mia didn't care for being swaddled. It appeared to us that she did not like being confined even though she seemed quite contend when the nurses from the nursery swaddled her. We incorrectly assumed that she didn't like being swaddled when in fact we were just doing it ALL WRONG. I followed the instructions in this book on swaddling and within a minute of swaddling her and swaying and bouncing her (another step in his method) she was calm enough for me to sit down in the glider. Within 10 minutes of that, she was ready to nurse.

I had to use the swaddling again last night when nothing else seemed to be working and it worked again. I even used the swaddling to get her down for a nap yesterday after she woke up several times in a row when I tried to put her down. There really is something to it and is well worth the read. It will be the BEST $14 your EVER spent and it could prove to be your bestest friend. :) I also recommend using a thermal receiving blanket because it's stretchy and is easier to maneuver than a regular cotton receiving blanket.