Sunrise, sunset

I am not a person who is entirely unaware of the fact that babies grow and get bigger.  Yet, I was completely unprepared for this!  Observe:

Adele's first bath (about 1.5 weeks old)

Adele's most recent bath (8.5 weeks)

 

I mean--look at her!!  When I first started giving her baths, I had to make sure not to fill up the tub too far or the water would get in her mouth.  Now I can fill it all the way to the top, and it doesn't even come to her chin!  And look at her head sticking out of the top of the head rest!

And look--she hardly even fits in her swing anymore

And forget about the bassinet-- her head and feet both touch!! It's not clear from this picture, but seriously, her head and feet both touch the edges of her bassinet when she's not scrunched up.  Fortunately that doesn't happen often.

I don't think it's accurate to even call her my little baby anymore!  At very least she is my medium-sized baby.  And I've already been trying it and "Mama's medium-sized baby" just does NOT have the same ring to it!

She's also having lots of firsts.

First time playing with a toy

First theatre experience

First time swimming

And while we're talking about swimming, I have to show you this very, very cute picture

I know!  Darling!! 

And yet not as cute as this unbelievably adorable frown:

But, it's probably not right for me to be showing you her frown, when I have not yet posted a picture of her smile.  Which is a shame because she has turned out to be such a talented smiler!

She's making some good strides!  For example, even though we were a month late starting tummy time (someone never bothered to look up when we were supposed to start doing that), look what she managed to accomplish only her second day out:

That's right--head UP!  Boo-yah!

And a sad change: whenever we were out and about and she started fussing, almost always someone would seek us out to look at my beautiful baby and they would say, "Oh, I could tell by her cry that she was just a little one, so I had to come see her!"  That didn't mean much to me because hers was the only cry I've ever been very familiar with.  But I will tell you, yesterday something clicked in her brain and/or lungs and that cute little baby cry is gone!  I should have appreciated it when I had it.  Now she is more of a wailer.  Good thing she doesn't cry much!

So, as you can see, things are progressing along quite rapidly here.  We are having a great time getting to know little Adele.  I go back and forth between thinking "Don't grow anymore, stay just how you are so that you will always smile up at me so sweetly when I wipe spit-up off your chin" and "hurry and grow up so I can see who you're going to be!!"  I guess that I won't necessarily be getting either wish, but I am just so so grateful for the ride!

Six Weeks!!!

Today little Adele turned six weeks old.  Based on the literature out there, it seems like that is a the end of the newborn newborn stage, and from her development it certainly seems that way! I decided that if she's making all this process and development, then I could write a blog post.  So, this is the six week report.  Boring stuff first, then bunches of photos.  I will write about her birth later.

First, if you haven't already  heard me brag about it, Adele has grown FOUR inches in the six weeks she's been alive.  This is very unusual.  Now she is 24 inches, which is as tall as I was when I was born (also on the unusual side).  Second, I've noticed a significant decrease in the karate chops to the head.  Third, she's getting closer and closer to figuring out sucking her thumb.  Although lately, I've been thinking maybe that's not even the goal.  Maybe she just likes sucking on her hands.  I know that that is a sign that she's ready to eat, but it is so cute sometimes I just have to watch it for a bit before I feed her. 

Yesterday, she started social smiling.  It's a hit-and-miss thing that only happens when she's making steady eye contact with someone.  Dad hasn't seen it yet, but I have several times.  It's precious!  She'll do a series of different types of smiles and you can see that she is so pleased with herself!  But since breaking eye contact ends it, and since it normally happens when she's snuggled super close to me and when I'm not wearing any clothes, I don't have a photo of it.  Hopefully soon!

Also, yesterday she started paying attending to (and being delighted by) her mobile.  She never paid any attention to it before, but like a light switch, yesterday something clicked with her and now she loves it.  I did take a photo of that, but since the swing was moving, it's quite blurry. 

 

So now we'll start a photo documentary about her first six weeks of life.

Day 2 Dad had to go to class and since I wasn't supposed to be alone at that point, my mother-in-law came to stay with me.  I also decided to invite my two sisters, three nieces, and two nephews to come visit and meeting the new baby.  Since I was up anyway, I also did an hour of work for my former boss to finish up a project that my replacement wasn't trained on.  (I didn't realize until just recently how unusual it was for me to be feeling so good on the second day.  But don't worry, I took  it easy for several weeks anyway.)

The baby was a big hit with the nieces and nephews!

And here's a close-up on Day 2.

Here's when I realized why some people choose a decorating/clothing theme instead of just choosing random patterns that you like.  

Here's where I realized that color coordinating can be a good thing. 

 Some random, cute photos

Day 6 of Adele's life was our 2nd wedding anniversary.  Yay for us!!  We got to spend the whole day together as a family.  Since I wasn't really suppose to be out and about yet, but was cleared for a car ride, we decided to go to In-n-Out.  It was super yummy.  I'm glad we didn't go any further than that because my tailbone was killing me!  It was my first time wearing shoes in almost a week and it was Adele's first time in her carseat and in a car.  I think it also might have been her first time leaving the house. 

 It seems like she liked it!  She conked right out and slept for quite awhile even after we got home (during that stage, it was rare for her to more than cat nap during the day).

 
 Day 7 while Dad was in class, Adele and I ventured outside for a bit.  I'd been instructed to put her in the sun to help with the jaundice, but I wasn't sure if it should be direct sunlight, since she might burn really easily.  So, we sat in the shade for awhile.

Sometime in there, she had her first bath.  You can't tell from the picture, but she really liked it.  

Day 13 my mom came to help!!  Yay!!   Unfortunately, this is the only photo I got of the two of them.  

Day 18, we went to Matt's niece's baptism and got a picture with his WHOLE family (the only person missing is one brother-in-law).  What an awesome group!  So glad I get to be related to them. 

 And we got a family photo.  (Adele wore a lovely blue dress I got at Target for $7.  I didn't realize it was sparkly until we were fighting sparkles for the next three weeks.  Matt says she shouldn't wear that dress again, but it is so cute!!!)

This picture illustrates her Houdini-like ability to get some sort of limb out of her swaddle at night.  (This is less likely to happen when Dad swaddles her.)  In this picture, you can also see how long and elegant her fingers are. 

Day 21 we went to see the ear, nose, and throat doctor to fix her tongue tie (which had been diagnosed by the lactation consultant the day before).  My mom was with a different sister that day and Matt was in class, so my mother-in-law came for moral support.  This was the last picture of Adele as a tongue-tied baby (I forgot to take an after shot, but obviously she didn't look any different anyway.)  We are so so thankful for the awesome lactation consultant who diagnosed the problem and the really awesome doctor who did such a great job fixing it.  Nursing has been going much better since then and she started gaining weight right away. I love this picture because she looks so darling in those little pants.  

I love the adorable way that Adele often clasps her hands.  I've never quite caught it on film, but here's one right afterwards.

 And occasionally, she'll try to clasp her feet.  (again, this photo is after the fact, but still cute.)

Here's a cute, cute quasi smile on her 3 week birthday

And a cute pose during the same photo shoot.

 First time going to church on day 26.  We only stayed for sacrament  meeting.  Check out her super cute dress!  My dear friend Jamie got it for her because it reminded her of an outfit I had in middle school.  Love it!

Random cute morning photo

Ready to go sit in the sun with Nana.

A stretching sequence that I really like.

Between getting a very small amount of sleep the night before, and being super tired during the very overwhelming follow-up visit with the lactation expert, Day 27 was really a struggle for me.  As a result, my super sweet sweetie brought me roses on Day 28.

Hanging out with Dad.

Random, cute photos (I don't know why, but I really love the plain rose-colored outfit)

It's hard to tell from this photo, but I took it to show that she is almost too long for her bassinet.  And she has grown another inch since I took this picture!  Luckily, she doesn't stretch all the way out very often while sleeping.

And to end our photo documentary, here's a photo I took today (Day 44, which FYI is a today later than the "today" mentioned in the first paragraph) to document that she is gaining weight and her cheeks are getting nice and chunky. 

Such a cutie!  We are so, so, so thankful that she came to our family!