Bink-aholic

Kyra slept pretty good last night! She did a little more than 2 hours in her bed and did well the rest of the night in ours. So we made it to Wednesday night bible study tonight for the first time since Kyra was born. (YAY!) Actually, it was for the 1st time since the Wednesday night T.E.A.M. night study at church started since Phil was working until 8pm before and study starts at 7. Kyra, after being somewhat fussy all day, fell asleep about 1 minute before we dropped her off in the nursery and then slept soundly through the whole study! There was an adorable little girl who was probably not quite 2 in the nursery last night too and she thought Kyra was a doll until she moved! The nursery worker said she sat on the floor with Kyra and the little girl and the little girl sat there "holding" Kyra with her help going "baby, baby, baby" until the nursery worker's back fell asleep. :) So cute! Then Kyra went to Wal-Mart with us and was VERY stubborn. She wouldn't open her eyes so Phil's co-worker who gave her all the clothes could see them but as soon as we got back out to the car and Phil set her in the carseat they popped right open! She can be such a stinker. :) On the way home we got the mail and HOORAY! There were her new Gumdrop brand Binks. She likes them! She sucks on them just as well as the Soothies but can keep them in her mouth a lot better. I like that they're still all one piece so they're very safe too.

This Little Piggy Goes to Market

Last night, Kyra didn't want to sleep.... She wasn't actually fussy or anything, just decided she wanted to eat every half hour or so from 1 on until.. uhm.. whenever we finally fell asleep on the couch... Needless to say, Mama & Kyra tried to get a nap in this morning after Phil left for work.
This afternoon, Kyra & I went grocery shopping, mostly all by ourselves for an actual full grocery list, not just one or two things! (Phil was done at work when we were checking out so he helped check out, load and unload.) She rode in her Ergo and did very well! She got one comment on being cute and having lots of hair from a bald man who commented "Look at all that hair! Well I know she's not mine!" and then, when I acted sort of started (because this was a new comment and not one of the "lots of hair" comments I was expecting) the poor man thought he'd insulted me! I don't think he believed me when I assured him that it was alright.

Bark!

After sleeping in to try to catch up on some of our missed rest, we took advantage of the nice weather (50 degrees and cloudy) and Phil being off work to go out to the dog park today for the 1st time since Kyra's born. She and the dogs were all very good and it was so nice to get out and get some exercise! Kyra rode very well in her Ergo and snoozed all through the park. The dogs listened well and found lots of other puppies to play with. They all did so good, I think I'm going to start trying to get them out there by myself a time or two a week. Echo and I are both so out of shape from me being pregnant that we need it! (poor Echo gained more weight than I did...)

Baby Bigfoot!

Last night, other than going to sleep a little later than usual, Kyra slept really well, which meant we got some good rest! While getting her stuff out for church this morning I decided to put her foot up to the chart on the back of the 0-6 month sock package and her toes are already half-way up the size range!
She was awake when we got to church this morning and had her eyes open to see everybody. She stayed with us for service and really liked worship time and slept through T.J.'s sermon other than some squeaking.
After church we went out to visit Grandma and Grandpa B., Great Grandma Pat and Aunt Jackie. Kyra showed off, especially for Grandma Pat who held her for the first time. She was awake a lot and didn't really get fussy until just before we left.

Lunch with Dad

Today Kira and I went out on our own for the first time, but I don't really know if it counted since we went over to meet Phil for lunch! Kyra wore her "Wal-mart uniform" just like Dad. This was the first time she'd ridden in her stroller and she really seemed to like it!
After Phil got off work we met John, Amy & Tristan at their church for an auction and then went over to their house to visit. Kyra showed off all evening and was mostly cute and well behaved other than spitting her bink at Auntie Amy as we were leaving and screaming on the way home. Kyra didn't react as desired to Tristan's attempts to make her smile by grinning really big and saying cheese (would never guess his mom's a photographer, would you?) but the rest of us sure thought he was a riot!
It's hard to believe she's already 3 Weeks old!

1st Bottle!

Since Kyra will be 3 weeks old tomorrow (the suggested age for a first bottle from the Lactation Consultant's where she was delivered) and since we'll be busy tomorrow after Phil's off, she had her 1st bottle tonight! Other than complaining afterwards that I hadn't put quite enough milk in it, she did great! She took over 3 ounces in the bottle and then nursed for 5 minutes besides and she went right back to nursing like a champ with no fussing.
She's getting so big! That's something I really hadn't noticed until I got her dressed today and realized that the little 0-3 outfit that was so big on her right after we brought her home is fitting better already.
She did really well at the restaurant last night. She slept through dinner while Grandma B. was holding her and didn't fuss at all beyond a few squeaks and stretches. We DID figure out that her carseat doesn't fit in the restaurant highchairs, but we sort of already suspected that since we knew when we got it that it doesn't fit in most shopping carts. That's alright though, we were already planning on getting her a bumbo or a bebepod to sit in at restaurants.
We didn't do much today. I woke up with a headache that turned into a migraine so we mostly hung out in bed trying to get rid of it and watching "Due South" episodes on dvd. The headache finally went away around 2 or so, just in time for Kyra's clingy, alert period so definitely not much accomplished today! (We did manage to switch a load of laundry... but that's about it!)

Chinese New Year

Kyra is going out to dinner for the 1st time tonight! (Assuming you don't count the day we got Icees at Subway.) We're meeting Grandma & Grandpa B. for dinner at the Chinese restaurant for Chinese New Year tonight and she's been resting up all day. We'll let you know tomorrow how it went. :)

The BIG news is, we didn't have any long sleepless stretches last night! She did wake up 3 times to eat, but afterwards, she went back to sleep!!! PTL!! It was so nice to get up at 8:30a.m. (Phil didn't wake us up before he went to work) and feel rested! She was awake and alert for a long time this morning too and she even giggled and smiled at Mama in the shower! She's continuing to adjust to the bink too and she's currently taking a nap in her bouncer chair. My sweet, cooperative baby girl has returned! Well, for today at least. :) I need to go get ready to go now and pack up the diaper bag, so Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

SLEEP NEEDED!!

So Last night, Kyra was up for almost 4 hours starting at 1a.m. I took her out to the couch eventually so Phil could get some rest since he had to be up for work and I eventually dozed off there with her napping on my chest around 4:45. Phil woke us up at 7:30 when he went to work and we caught another couple hours of sleep after she was changed and had breakfast but we really need to figure out how to get her to sleep at night instead! Otherwise, I did get a lot more done today than I had been as she was in a good mood or napping for a good share of the day so that's good.
She is finally deciding that when she's wanting to suck on something, maybe the bink is alright, which is great as it means I get to use my fingers for other things. She'll only take the soothie from the hospital though, not the other binks we bought and that's a problem because it means that as soon as she starts to relax, her nose pushes the bink out of her mouth before she's ready. The couple times she's used the others this hasn't been an issue because of the nose cutout, but she doesn't like those! So I ordered her some "gumdrop" binks that are shaped like the soothie nipples but have a nose cutout. We'll see how she does with those! We are still trying to stick to binks mostly only for nighttime and in the car but I've been letting her have it for naps sometimes to try to get her used to using it!
She got 2 packages in the mail today, a quilt from her Aunt Jackie on my side and a package from Chris with a stuffed Pooh & Piglet and two of the most adorable pairs of pink and white baby tennis shoes! I love baby shoes! :D

1st Day of Just Us Girls

Well, we survived our 1st day without Phil home! Kyra was feeling a bit needy today so we didn't get quite as much done as I'd have liked, but we did manage to get both of us showered and dressed and thanks to the Ergo from Grandma R. we got the dishwasher unloaded and some laundry folded and put away. After her shower, Kyra relaxed in her bunny robe and slippers for a while before we got her dressed. We were both sure glad when Phil got home though since we missed him! The goal for tomorrow is just to get more done than we did today, which will hopefully not be too hard if Kyra will let me set her down and resign herself to eating less than every 45 minutes!

Phil's Last Day Home

This morning we got up earlier than we have been and went to do some errands and Kyra did VERY well and snoozed the whole time. We went to Other Mothers and got a swaddle wrap that seems to be working well! Hooray! She seemed to get a little overtired though, between not wanting to settle down when we did last night and then the busy morning because we had a bit of a meltdown after we got home but once she was fed and changed into dry pants and nice cozy jammies and the swaddle wrap and snuggled up on my chest she relaxed and looked around for a while and then had a good nap. Today is Phil's last day off work until March when we go to Wisconsin other than his usual days off so we're trying to really enjoy having him here since we're on our own tomorrow! Don't know how we're going to manage if we have another rough day but I guess we'll just plan on not getting much done on hard days.
Also, we FINALLY caught a Kyra squeak on video!!! It's only taken two and a half weeks to get her to do that for us.. :)

Kyra's 1st Superbowl!

Well, Kyra's definitely feeling better than yesterday so the icky effects of the Hep. B vaccine must be wearing off. She slept really well last night after establishing in about 10 minutes that she did NOT intend to sleep in her bassinet. She had her 2nd shower with me this morning and did great again, alert and content the whole time, even for the hair washing! Dad got her dressed for church this morning in less time than it took me to get ready (and Mama forgot to take the camera with us and she was already in her jammies when we got home so there aren't any pictures of her in her cute little pink dress and sweater.)
Kyra stayed in the nursery this week during service!! Don't think we're too awful for leaving her there so early as we know the nursery staff pretty well and they wanted to have our sweet baby for the hour. :) Also, after spending about 23 and a half of 24 hours holding her yesterday, we were ready for a little break! She was very good and slept the whole time so we didn't even get a page to go feed her.
She also went to her first Superbowl party today!! We hung out with Amy, John & Tristan to watch the game and she mostly just slept and ate but she did get to snuggle with both Uncle John and Auntie Amy. She wasn't nearly as excited as the rest of us about the last minute Giant's win!


Also, I finished the video with all the pictures from Kyra's 2nd week and added it to Saturday's post since that's when she was 2 weeks! :)

Rough Day!!!

Kyra is 2 weeks old today!!! It's hard to believe it! We actually had a pretty good night sleepwise last night, especially after we relented and let her come to bed with us when she woke up around 12 and wouldn't go back down in her bed. Today though, we had a tough day. It seemed like she was feeling crummy, probably from the vaccine yesterday. I think we were able to put her down for about 20 minutes all day without major panic issues. She was restless and a lot fussier than normal for her. We're all worn out so I'm heading to bed now too see if I can get her down for a while at least. Goodnight!

OUCH!!!

Today Kyra had her 2 week checkup. She's gained an ounce a day in the last week and is up 7 ounces from her weight last Friday, but not quite up to her birthweight yet. The dr. was happy with her coloring and didn't feel the need to recheck her bilirubin which was a good thing since she already ended up getting poked THREE TIMES in her poor little heel for the PKU test. Dad was just about ready to hit someone by the time they brought the lab tech in instead of the nurse with a better lancet. Also, why doesn't anyone warn you that they're going to do your baby's vaccines with a needle that's an inch and a half long? Poor baby was so upset she exhausted herself fussing at the appointment. She did get a big crayon shaped band-aid on her thigh, but is still too young to find this to be much consolation for having been poked.
So on the sleep front, we're making some progress... maybe. She did sleep in the playpen for the longest stretch yet last night all wrapped up in the beautiful flannel baby quilt that our neighbor made her and brought over! She then proceeded to stay awake (mostly eating and staring at Dad, only a little fussing) for about 2 hours. We did however give her the bink back a week early. We're going to try to keep it for only at nighttime. She's latching so well though for feeding that I'm not too worried about that, and if it starts to seem like a problem I guess we'll just have to take it away again.
Oh, and just to illustrate HOW well the pets are adjusting... just in case you can't tell, she's sitting ON Denali in the pics below. See how disturbed he looks? Finally found an alternative to constantly telling him he can't sit on her when she's in our laps. (He doesn't want to snuggle with her when she's not with us, only wants to share the lap!)