Go Abby go!

Today was Abby's two month check-up. Now I know why it's so hard to hold her to feed her without using the Boppy or My Brest Friend: she's 12 and 3/4 pounds and 24 inches!! Sheesh! Growing that long that fast, you'd think you'd actually be able to see her stretching.

Eight hours!

She did it! Abby slept for eight straight hours yesterday. I even tried to wake her up after about 5 hours to get her to eat, and she sucked for about 45 seconds before falling so deep asleep I couldn't rouse her again. 'Course, the only thing that sucks about it is that she fell asleep at 5:15 in the evening and thus woke up at 1:15. But hey, it's a big accomplishment--we can work on the timing later. :)

This morning she woke up at 6:45 to eat, and while she was able to fall back asleep in my arms, I was hopelessly awake, which is a bummer since I went to bed late last night. (I wonder when 11:00 PM will stop being 'late'?) Now she's wide awake and in her bouncy seat, giving the animals that hang off the canopy an earful of baby babble, which she's getting quite proficient at. I'm starting sign language with her, not that I expect her to be able to produce it this early, but the way she stares at you when you talk at her I figure she must be taking things in pretty well, so why not start now and make it a habit for both of us? We're just working with the signs for Mommy, Daddy, Abby (which we just do by shaking the "a" sign) and I love you. I can tell she's watching my hand, so it'll be interesting to see how old she is by the time she starts actually mimicking them. When do kids get ahold of their fine motor control, anyone know?

The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

I FINALLY downloaded all the photos (161 of them!) from our camera. Here are some gems...

Doesn't it look like she's about to make a wisecrack?

Victory is mine!

Animals! Woohoo!

Should get stock in Gerber

Abby has a pacifier preference: she'll only take the ones with the shield that cups away from her face or is flat. The ones from the hospital--big green rubber ones--are flat, and Gerber makes some that curve away. 'Course I have about five packs of regular ones that she refuses, and the five packs of the ones she likes have completely disappeared. How is it we can own ten pacifiers and I can only find one?? Are they hanging out with lost socks and pens? Or do they have their own black hole somewhere in the house? We tried to assign one or two to each room of the house where she hangs out, and left one in her diaper bag and one in her carseat, thinking that this would help us to hang onto them. But no. I'm not sure where the system broke down, but it most certainly did. Anyone have any suggestions for hanging onto them?

Giving new meaning to "sleepyhead"...

In the last 36 hours, Abby has been awake for a total of 9 hours and 45 minutes. Yes, that was AWAKE time. I didn't know that a human being who lays around all day doing nothing could sleep that much! She must be going through a MAJOR growth spurt or something--or just finishing one. Unbelievable. We kept checking to make sure she was still breathing because she'd be so deep asleep her breaths were really shallow; half the time you could barely even see her chest move. The longest stretch she had was 7 hours, which, of course, did NOT happen to fall over the bulk of nighttime; she was up at 3:30 AM to eat. But I still managed to sleep for most of that stretch so I can't complain too much. She slept right through 6 car rides, a visit to Hallmark, a 40 minute walk around the lake, a church service, and two restaurant dinners. Well done, my girl!

Six weeks!

Well, the magical six weeks is here! 42 days ago Abby was yanked into the world, and now I finally feel safe showing her off to it. Sunday's Super Bowl party was sort of a trial run, and she did quite well. I think we'll head back to church and small group this week.

Yesterday I bought a blank journal at Borders, because I want to start writing little letters to her about...well, that's the thing, I'm not entirely sure what I want to write, I just know that I want to keep some kind of record of something for her to read when she's older. Just observations on her development, parenthood, my hopes for her--that sort of thing, I guess. Anyway, the journal kicks butt--it's got a wooden cover! Beautiful and polished, a deep mahogany color, with gilt-edged pages and some leather on the binder. Very classy. And if the wood gets all scratched it'll look all worn and weathered. And since today marks such a monumental occasion (okay, I know I'm really hyping this six weeks thing a little more than necessary), I'm going to start writing in it today. It always takes a little time for me to put pen to blank journal paper--all that empty space makes me a little nervous about messing it up, and with that fancy wooden cover and all--whoa! Gotta be extra careful not to ruin the whole thing with the first entry. Ahh, see, this is the kind of ridiculous behavior I'm hoping NOT to pass on to my daughter. Maybe that'll be my first entry: Personality Idiosyncracies And Behavioral Quirks I Pray I You Have Not Inherited From Me....