Elsa: 2.5 months later
Yeah, so now she's 10 weeks old and I've finally gotten around to posting here again. I have plenty of excuses...damn good ones too...we moved 1 week after she was born. Well, other than being mom of a newborn and a 4 and 3/4-year -old, moving is my main excuse. I have some others but they are on the weak side.
I have fleeting moments of brilliant ideas about what to write but I never seem to remember them later when I have a spare moment. This particular moment finds me at the computer furtively trying to log something before Elsa wakes back up from our inaugural experiment in putting her down to sleep by herself. Until now, she has been very much of a "hold me constantly" baby. She's a wonderful, sweet, beautiful baby but she loves her some cuddling. Experiment thwarted. She's waking up. I swaddled her, nursed her, stuck a pacifier in her mouth, sang lullabies in the rocking chair in a dark room and laid her down carefully in the co-sleeper. Her routine until now has been holding in a swaddle while she sleeps until we go to bed. Not viable. I'm more worried about her sleeping alone for daytime naps. My whole plan for making the return to work tolerable was to spend most the time working at home and Elsa being able to nap alone is vital for that to be a real option.
About Elsa: very bright eyed, strong (she could lift her head up almost right away after being born), very calm. We're seeing lots of smiles right now, she loves to play the tongue game where you stick your tongues out at each other. This evening she was using her hands to swat at the toys hanging on her gymini play mat thingy. We were at a kid's birthday party today and all the moms were passing Elsa around and commenting on her wonderfulness. I was so proud. I was also thrilled to have a couple people tell me how great I looked for a new mom. These comments were especially well received since I'm feeling frustrated about not fitting into my regular clothes. I broke down and bought some new clothes, 2 sizes bigger than normal. I was almost in tears at one point trying on jeans. It's funny how these types of changes make you realize how hot you were before and how even then you could find faults. Getting older is like that. If I knew how hot I was at 23, I would have done a few things differently. I'm actually not sure if that's good or bad.
Anyway, point is, Elsa is a sweet little elf of a baby. She got her first vaccinations a couple days ago. One of the vaccinations was for Rotavirus and is oral. The nurse was telling us how most babies spit it out and that's okay. Our girl sipped it and didn't seem to mind it at all. What a champ! The shot wasn't as well received but hey, anything other than a howl would just be weird. We are following the Dr. Sears Alternative Vaccination schedule with more frequent visits but fewer shots at each visit. This reduces the amount of alumimum that their little bodies must process and also allows you to more easily identify any allergies, etc. Our pediatrician, who looks about 15, was fine with this strategy. I'm reminded how lucky we are to live in the Bay Area where things like this aren't perceived as freakish.
TTFN
