Zebra!

Here's Judith in her bouncy chair - a gift from our friends Debbie and Merrill. She has always enjoyed sitting in the seat, but the few times that we've attached the animal bar, she hasn't really even noticed them. Yesterday that changed! She sat and talked at the animals - mostly the zebra - for about 10 minutes. Fortunately, I managed to get it on film, because after the 10 minutes, she was DONE with those animals. Lance said she enjoyed looking at them several hours later as well. It's very fun to see her really noticing things now.

She has also, in the last day, begun to notice us (Lance and me). Until now, she hasn't really cared one way or another if we were in her line of vision. She just stared at whatever. Today she actually watched me walk away every time I left her in her chair for a minute, or in her crib for a nap, and as soon as she couldn't see me any more, she let me know. And when she's crying in her crib, she would stop as soon as she saw me and coo - as if to say "see, I'm good if you're here!" We'll see how long it takes before she figures out that spitting the pacifier out makes me come and starts doing deliberately.

Giggles!

Today, for the first time, Judith giggled at me! And I'm pretty sure I wasn't imagining it either. She has, in the last day, begun to smile at me if I smile at her, and today I was laughing as I approached her (she had dropped her pacifier but it was right next to her mouth and she was trying to get it back in) and she giggled three little giggles back at me. Amazing.

Fingers

Although she hasn't quite mastered the art of keeping them there, Judith has begun to find her mouth with her fingers - or rather, her fist. She will get her fist to her mouth suck (quite loudly) for a few seconds, and then her arm will move, and she'll lose the fist...and this is repeated frequently. With both fists.

She actually prefers her fingers to her pacifier, and will knock the pacifier out of her mouth because she's trying to get her knuckle in there instead. Unfortunately, since (as previously mentioned) she can't keep her fist, she'll get desperate for the pacifier, which we'll give her--and the whole process will start all over. I am anxiously awaiting the day when her fingers stay in her mouth!

less rough

So, it's been a couple days, because Judith's been having a rough time. Yesterday, after her 9:00 a.m. feeding she didn't sleep for longer than 30 minutes at a time until we put her down for the night at 10:00 p.m. I'm really hoping that that's just a side-effect of the vaccinations still, and that she'll be a little less discombobulated today. Because she wasn't "happy to be up" when she wasn't sleeping - she was fussy for most of the day, and obviously so tired and yet not able to sleep. Something kept startling her awake and instead of going back to sleep, as she normally does, she'd want to be up and held instead. So yes, I'm sincerely hoping that today is different...I don't mind her being awake more, if she's willing to sit in her seat occasionally, but if she's going to cry for most of the day again...

She has still be sleeping for 8 hours at night - followed by a 10 minute feeding and at least 2.5 more hours. But on Tuesday night, her 8 hours started at 7:30 p.m., and Wednesday night started at 8:30. That meant a middle-of-the night feeding for me for both those nights, and since I didn't go to bed at 7:30, it was a pretty short night. By God's grace, last night she was finally "back on schedule" and I slept pretty well. So I shouldn't be quite as desperate for her to sleep today.

pretty rough

Judith's had a pretty rough day today. She seemed ok this morning, when she and I went for a four mile walk (well, Judith rode) with a good friend. Since we got home from that outing, though, she's been pretty fussy. She's had a low-grade fever for most of the day, and she hasn't wanted to sleep for very long - something startles her awake every 45 minutes or so. And then she hasn't wanted to go back to sleep - with some periods of inconsolable crying. Needless to say, it's been a pretty rough day for me too. I'm pretty sure this is all a reaction to the immunizations that she got yesterday. I'm praying that she'll be able to sleep for most of the night, because I think that would really help her. It's not fun to see my little girl so unhappy.

Two-month checkup

Well, Judith is officially growing! She weighs 11 lbs, 6.5 oz (60 percentile) and she's 23 inches long (75 percentile). And the doctor said it's really my fault that she eats for such a short amount of time - he said that it all depends on how quickly the mother's milk comes out. So I guess I'm just a fountain (or maybe even a power washer)!

Then Judith had 5 shots. I know that in the long run it'll probably be ok (the debate on immunizations is still undecided in my mind) but watching her react to that first shot...and then watching the big drops of blood pour out of her leg...that was not ok for me. Naturally she screamed for a little while, but she was sleeping when we left the office...and the nurse said "is she ok now?" And I thought "well, we won't know if she's ok for a while! There's all this junk that you just shot into her that her body has to fight." But of course I didn't say that.

status update

Wow - I skipped a day yesterday for the first time since I started this blog...perhaps now that the sleeping saga has ended I don't have a specific thing to write about every morning! So an update on that: Judith has slept for 8 hours for the past four nights in a row. And for the past three mornings she's woken up at the same time - so my day is a lot more predictable. It makes everything so much easier! Although it's hard not to take that for granted. For example, this afternoon/evening she didn't want to eat at one of the normal times - she just wanted to sleep. And it sent me into a panic - "she's not going to get enough food" "She's not going to sleep tonight" etc. Fortunately, Lance was here to be the voice of reason. (And why does it matter anyway, right? It's not like I have much of a life outside of Judith right now!)

Tomorrow morning is her two month checkup (how did 8 weeks go by so fast!?!). I'll finally have an answer for all those people who ask "how much does she weigh now?" (as if I weigh her every morning!) I also hope that the doctor can reassure me about how much she eats (10 minutes max!), because I still have worries about that, despite reassurance from a number of people. It's so much more official coming from the doctor. On a sadder note, she also has her first shots tomorrow. I've been taking extra Vitamin C to help her fight any reactions to the immunizations, but I'm still a little stressed that she might have issues...so many scary stories!

That's it for the update...more as it happens!