Growing Like Gangbusters

Today Miss Kayla (aka Snuzzler, aka Snuzzleface, aka Miss Snuzzalot, aka Acorn, aka Orange Seed, aka Baby Girl, aka...) had her second follow-up appointment with the pediatrician. The good news is that her color looks "perfect" now with all the yellowness gone from her skin and eyes. The doc also calmed some of our fears regarding her little stork bites, her gooky eyes, and her recently shortened eating sessions. This whole being a new parent thing is hard! There is so much to needlessly worry about! Add to all those little concerns a lack of sleep and changing hormone levels and man...they should really just have the doc stop by every couple of days to check on the baby and, more importantly, to make YOU feel better.

The eating thing is funny. Realistically, you know a baby is getting enough to eat if they are gaining weight and producing enough of the right kind of dirty diapers. That's right, there is a "right kind". You are looking not only for wet diapers, but for poopy diapers and those poopy diapers are supposed to have a very distinct consistency and color. Never did I ever think that I would be so concerned with pooh. We examine that pooh like it is a code, which if cracked, could direct us to the location of the Holy Grail. Seemingly, we can set any worries aside though; Miss Orange Seed is growing like a weed! After weighing in at 7lbs 6oz on the 19th and 7lbs 14oz on the 21st, today Orange Seed proved that she is "Just fine, Mommy!" by weighing in at a whopping 8lbs, 8oz. She has now officially exceeded the weight limit on some of her newborn clothes, although you wouldn't know it since the pants still slide off her skinny little butt and she still seems to be swimming in half the shirts. Needless to say, it appears that mom and dad can quit worrying that maybe she's not eating for long enough. If she eats for any longer at each feeding, she'll be toddler-sized by 1 month!

I do have to say, she gets cuter every day. She's getting to be more wakeful during the daylight hours (praise the lord) and so we're getting to see more of her pretty blue eyes. She and mommy are also working out a better schedule (as much as one can have a schedule at this point). We've decided that if she is going to be up from 10pm-12am, 2am-3am, 4am-5am, and 8am-9am, then there is nothing wrong with us sleeping in until noon, if that's what it takes to get more than 4 hours of total sleep. Mom is not a napper. Never has been. Mom starts to feel guilty is she lies around for more than an hour at a time, but Mom is quickly learning that with a newborn in the house, if Mom doesn't let herself rest whenever the opportunity presents itself, then Mom rapidly passes the point of exhaustion and becomes a serious waste of space.

So here's to baby growth spurts, mommy sleeping in, and all the other little pleasures and accomplishments that a new baby brings. Truly, it is the little things that count.