It’s hard to believe, but our Clare has now been on ‘the outside’ for 3 weeks now. The first two weeks seemed like an eternity (mostly in a good way) but the last week has flown by. I think it’s partly because we’re getting into a little more of the routine of this parenting thing and because it was a very busy week. Jeremy’s mom Teresa (Grandma T) and Aunt Donna (who we’ve named Auntie Donna the Great, since it’s more fitting than Great Aunt Donna), and my brother and sister-in-law, Uncle JP and Auntie Debbie, all came to visit over the week and weekend. Teresa got in first and Clare and I met her at the airport. Clare decided to greet her grandmother for the first time by throwing a royal fit over being hungry. Fortunately, we found a nice chair in a private spot and Clare and I had our first airport nursing experience. Welcome to PDX Grandma T!
We had a wonderful visit with Teresa and Donna, who both just loved our little girl. With them in town, not to mention JP and Debbie, little Clare wasn’t out of someone’s arms until Saturday night. It was pretty sweet.
Clare is growing like a little weed. Yesterday she weighed in at 7 lbs 4 ozs at the pediatricians. This is an average of an ounce a day weight gain from the week before. It makes sense to me, since the kid wants to eat what seems like all the time. The pediatrician was thrilled with her weight gain and J and I are relieved to know that we seem to be doing something right. We were a little bit concerned because she’s started sleeping for really long periods at night (sometimes up to 7 hours!). I felt bad being worried about this (not that I was complaining, but I was a little worried) but the pediatrician assured us that as long as she keeps gaining weight then she can sleep for as long as she wants. For any Mom’s out there who are reading this and giving the blog the stink eye over an newborn who sleeps for 7 hours at a stretch at night, rest assure that Clare acted like a normal newborn the last two nights and woke up every 3 hours to eat. Sigh – it was nice while it lasted. We’ll see what tonight brings.
Oh! I almost forgot the biggest news of the week. Clare has started smiling! I don’t have a picture of it yet, but trust me, it’s a sight to behold. It usually happens after a big meal and the first few smiles seemed to be in relation to having a full tummy, not necessarily in response to what she was looking at (except the first smile, which happened when she was looking at Grandma T – I’m sure that was all about Grandma!). However, the last couple of days she’s started to smile specifically at people and last night I got my first smile directed at me. It was magic. I hope to get a picture soon to share.