10 Weeks Old

How is it possible that this angel has been with us for 10 weeks now?  I don't even know how I filled my time before her.  I love her so much it hurts me.
 Here is an update for Grace at 10 weeks old:


- Smiles!  She is a pro smiler now and it is absolutely amazing.  She smiles really big with her mouth wide open.  It is the sweetest thing, and even when she's waking me up for the 3rd time of the night, and it's 4am, her smile just lights up my world.

- Sleep: Ehh not so good.  For some reason she's only sleeping for a max of 1-2 hours at a time right now... during the day OR at night. This is really hard for me, because I barely have time to use the bathroom, check my e-mail, attempt to fall asleep myself, and she's up again. (And if I try to use her sleeping time to eat something myself or shower, then my sleeping time is completely gone).

When Grace doesn't sleep well, I don't slept (obviously), and my body gets exhausted and everything becomes harder.  I can't believe how just getting three hours as opposed to two can make such a huge difference.

In addition, right now she's waking up every time I set her down.  I nurse her, bounce, pat, sing, and let her fall asleep in my arms. I wait until I know she's completely, solidly asleep. I set her down, and her eyes open right up.  We have to do this routine many times before she's asleep for the night.  Thursday, I did this bedtime routine from 9pm - midnight! And when I finally got her asleep at midnight, she woke up at 2am, ready for me to do the whole nurse/bounce/pat routine for about two hours again.

Now it's Friday, and about five times now I've had her sound asleep in my arms, only to burst out screaming when I put her down.  It's physically and emotionally draining. Thank goodness I don't have to work the next day, I literally would be unable to function. (Work is a short 5 weeks away.  Something's going to have to change by then.  Please God.)

- Milestones: She's done a few roll-overs!  If I put her on her tummy, with one arm underneath her, she can kick and kick and kick and roll to her back.  (She's only done this three times).  I don't count it as officially rolling over, but it certainly looks like it.

She still absolutely hates tummy time. :-(
It's so hard to force her to do something that she cries and fusses during.  (That could be a metaphor for parenting I suppose: forcing our kids to do what's good for them, even when they hate it, starts straight out of the womb with tummy time).
When I pick her up from her tummy, she's completely out of breath and angry. And I feel horrible for making her go through it. But, I still have to do it, every day, for 20-30 minutes.  I break it up into many small increments, but it's still just as painful each time.

Also, we took our first trip to Meijer this week.  My mom came with me for

moral support, which took a lot of the stress off.  And Grace did great!  I was amazed.  She didn't cry at all in the store (just in her carseat in the car).  I hope it wasn't a fluke, and she can do this again.  I want to feel comfortable taking her out and about and not embarrassed or worried that she's going to pull a baptism on us again.

She still loves her hands, and puts her hands in her mouth all the time.  She still licks anything and everything that her face is near.

- Sizes: She wears size 2 diapers, and size 3-6 month clothes. She no longer fits into her newborn clothes (mostly due to her big belly).

- Eating: We're still exclusively breastfeeding!  With all the pain that my breasts were in those first few weeks, I never thought I could make it 3 weeks, let alone 10, but we're still going strong. I love it now actually. I love that I can provide for her and comfort her all at once.  She's gaining plenty of weight. I need to get back to pumping though, for a few reasons: 1.) She needs to be able to take a bottle!  Brian and I have to get her back in the hang of bottle feeding, so she's ready for daycare.  2.) I'd like to build a milk supply.  I plan to have her receive formula milk at daycare and with my mom, but it would still be cool to have a good store of breast milk anyway.  I know formula is perfectly fine, but breast is of course, best.
Pumping is just a pain (washing all the parts is mostly what the pain is).

Well, it's now 3:40 am.  Grace doesn't want to sleep.  She's fussing at me. I'm exhausted.  But, gosh, I love this little girl.  I'll hold her as long as she wants.  Maybe I'll sleep some day.