11 Weeks Old

Well we have an 11 week old baby.  And she's changing so much, every single day!

This is one of her 6-month outfits, fits perfectly!

Here's the latest with Grace Jacqueline:

SIZE: She is a growing girl!  This week, for the first time, I put her in 6-month outfits and they fit perfectly fine. I couldn't believe it.  Those 6-month outfits looked so big and long to me just two months ago.  When she was first born, even her newborn outfits were big on her.  How can she possibly be fitting into these 6-month outfits already?  Luckily, she still fits the 3-month outfits too, so we just have more to choose from.

TEARS:  Grace has always been very vocal with her happiness/unhappiness, which includes crying plenty when she's not happy.  But somehow that crying never had actual wet tears come from her eyes.  Just in the past week or two, she has cried with actual wet tears.  Oh my gosh the tears are heartbreaking!  It makes her cries so much worse, because you see these little teardrops coming from her eyes!

Telling her dad all about her day

MILESTONES:  She has definitely done intentional rolls from tummy to back.  They aren't consistent, but she is capable of doing them (mostly just due to a desire to kick and get off of her tummy).  In addition, her hand motions are becoming slightly more fluid and smooth (as opposed to the jerky arms she's had since birth).  She is reaching out to grasp things, and can will on to something for a few seconds if you place it really close to her hand.

NOISES: She has started a yell type of noise.  It's usually a happy sound, but occasionally can turn into a mad sound.  It's still cute either way.  I like to think that she's talking to us and yelling something at us (happy or mad).

TUMMY TIME: This is still quite the battle.  She seems so miserable on her tummy, I can't bear to let her stay there for very long. But, slowly but surely, she is building that neck strength, and lifting up.  Sometimes she can be on her tummy for a few minutes without actually crying, but usually no longer than 2 minutes.  We're working on it.

SMILES: She is still smiling away when we smile at her.  She doesn't usually smile for

pictures though, which can drive me nuts.  Her smile is honestly magical to me.  I'd love to catch a good one on camera.

BOOKS: Previously, when I held a book in front of Grace, she would look away, or look over it, or honestly not care.  This past week, my mom visited and pulled out a book.  Grace honestly stared at each page, reached her arms out at the pages, and made noises as my mom read to her.  It was completely different and way more engaged in the book than she had ever been previously.  Very cool!

FOOD: Still exclusively breastfed! When I think back to those first weeks and how painful breastfeeding was, it makes me so proud to know that I stuck with it and am still going strong.

SLEEP: Her big milestone this past week was lulling herself back to sleep in the middle of the night after waking up.  She wakes up at 2 am frequently, and a few nights this week she was able to get herself back to sleep  without me (after making grunting and squeaking noises for about a half hour).  This is a big milestone, because it should hopefully reduce the number of wake ups I do with her. We are definitely still swaddling and will be for awhile.

She honestly has no "sleep pattern" quite yet besides the 2 am wake ups and a consistent morning nap. (6-8 am).

This little girl has flipped my world upside down in the most amazing way. Her smile is the greatest smile I have ever seen in my entire life.  She could scream at me and spit up on me and kick me and I will never stop loving her.