The Darling Dozen: Week by Week! Ninth Week

Wow! Anna turned two months old yesterday and is officially nine weeks old today! Today we are spending some family time with Lon. He only works his next shift tonight, so we will be hanging out together all day! We are all pretty excited. I also have a lunch date with my friend Tanya. And hopefully we will meet up with Alan's friend Tatum and her family for a playdate at the park! Tomorrow we are going to Zoo Montana with Grandma Melanie for Grandparent's Day. Then we will be headed to Grandma Amber's house for Sunday dinner. Should be a good weekend for us!

I was thinking about having a daughter the other night, one of those many nights this week that she only would sleep in my arms. I remember way back when I was little, how I wanted to have a girl so badly. And when I was pregnant with Alan, how I had secretly hoped he was a girl. Now that I have Anna, I can't wait to think of everything we will do together...

Playing baby dolls and house together. Having tea parties and dressing up in our prettiest clothes. Taking her to dance class and being "that mom" who takes pictures and is a little too invovled. Dressing her up in dresses and bows. Braiding her beautiful hair into braids. Letting it fly free sometimes too, just like her mothers. Hearing over and over again how much she looks like me (it happened all the time to my mother and me too) from other people. Dressing her like a mini me so we get more of those responses. Going to dance competition after dance competition. Staying up late nights fixing costumes. Giving each other manicure and pedicures while we chat about boys. 

I cannot wait one bit. I want my beautiful girl and I to have a wonderful, close and loving relationship. One like my mother and I have. I can tell my mother just about anything. She loves me unconditionally and always has. My mother is the next adult I would ever trust with my children after Lon. I want that relationship with Anna. I hope that with all the love I give her, she will grow to love me just as much as I love my mother. I love you endlessly Anna Ariel.

Okay, enough with the nostalgia! Here is this week's Darling Dozen post!

Week: Ninth Week

So calm and peaceful

Weight: 8 pounds and 12 ounces

 

Height: 23 3/4 inches

 

Diaper Size: Still in Size N but you aren't going to believe this, just in this one week she has grown so much that they almost don't fit her! We are only really using up the last of them. She's grown so much though!

 

Clothing Size: Mostly Size 0-3M right now. Big girl!

Cutest outfit I have made for her so far!!

Eye Color: Light grayish blue with navy around the edge

 

Hair Color: Dark red, especially in the light!

 

This Week's Developments: Anna should start sleeping longer periods in the night, more like seven hours in between feedings. Yes! She will also start listening closely to words that are said to her, learning how to distinguish them down to the sllyable and will mimic them to the best of their ability. The drool forcast for this week apparently is mostly cloudly with a definite chance of drool! Oh how fun!

 

New Achievements This Week: Anna's little head just lifts higher and higher each day we do Tummy Time. She just loves to hang out like that, on her belly looking around with her strong little neck. She enjoys "standing" alot too. We will hold her standing up in our laps and let her put weight on her legs. She loves it, I think it makes her feel like a big girl. So cute!

Can you tell its playtime???

Breastfeeding: Still going fantastic! Nothing too new to report. Anna has slowed down on her feedings a bit but she will still eat for forever everytime she nurses. This is very pleasing to this Mama because I remember those early days when we were so worried about her blood sugar and jaundice and weight gaining. Everytime she eats it makes me smile, knowing she is getting further and further away from that. Grow girl grow! Take your Mama's nourishment and grow!! In other breast feeding news, I finally got the prenatals that Anna's pediatrician recommended to me. And they are seriously horse pills! The pill is so long, its as tall as our kitchen cupboard door handle! Ewww, it was so weird to swallow it too. Oh how I love supplements lol.

Look at this pill!

Colic: No colic as far as I know. But it could be that Alan was so colicky from his acid reflux that now with Anna we feel like its nothing. Alan used to cry for hours, no matter what I did. I remember holding him swaddled while he screamed in pain and anger countless nights. Anna only ever fusses if she is hungry, tired or dirty. She has only cried for no reason once, or so we thought. Later we found out it was because she was working on a painful bowel movement that didn't want to vacate premises. Poor princess! So we say, no colic around here!

 

Differences This Time Around: Like I mentioned before, Anna is alot easier of a baby than Alan was. And no I'm not bashing on my son (even though I kinda feel like I am), he had a handful of issues when he was a newborn that continued with him until he started solids. He was not a happy baby most of the time and I think alot of it had to do with him getting bored. We would have to change his perspective every five minutes, even at a really young age. We joked and called them his stations. But with Anna, she is content with sitting out in the living room with me for quite sometime. Alan would have never done that. We would have moved from the couch to standing to the baby wrap to the bouncer chair to the floor to the couch again to the rocking chair to the floor again to the swing to standing again. He was so interested in life, he wanted to experience everything!!

 

Sleep: It has been okay this week. Wednesday night really was only my bad night. She kept me up all night and I ended up only getting two hours of sleep. Other than that though, she wakes up around five now to eat, so other than waking earlier, I'm pretty okay on sleep. But let me tell you, I am not a morning person. And when Anna wakes me up to eat, by the time we are done everyone else is up for the day too. Ugh such is a mother's life.

Anna's Personality: We have been blessed with a diva. She needs everything her way, right away or she's mad. She does not like to be put down either. We have been getting our money's worth on the Moby Wrap but the bouncy chair, bassinet and baby swing? Not so much lol. I know we will get more use as she gets older so I'm not totally worried.

 

Places Anna has Been: Walmart, Albertson's, Grandma Melanie's house, Grandma Amber's house, Village Inn, 5Star MMA, Pioneer Park, Applebee's, Rimrock Mall, Oasis Waterpark, Geyser Park, North Park, YMCA, Metra Park, Texas Roadhouse, Norm's Island, Pioneer Park and Chuck E. Cheeses

 

Bathing: We are back to the washcloth baths. Only because she fought the real bath so hard and in the day by myself, I don't have time for that. A washcloth bath is much quicker and less traumatic for everyone! I told my mom this though, and she suggested trying to at least do one regular bath a week. Might start that in a month or so.

 

Best Moment This Week: Alan's third birthday. All the love I felt for my family and children that day was just amazing!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

How's Mama: Hanging in there, doing good. Anna has been very nice to her Mama and has only kept us up one night this week really. I feel that the house has taken the blow this week though. Anna never wants me to put her down when she naps in the daytime so I never get too much done. My vaccuum cleaner has been sitting in our hallway all week, waiting for a time when I can use it again. Hopefully will happen today or tomorrow! But I feel good and the family is happy and healthy, so we are okay. Our house can be a little dirty some weeks, I am remembering this now. I will also be starting work this Monday and Anna will be away from me for the first time. I am pretty anxios about it, though I know my mom will have her and its only for two classes. It will just be alot of getting used to. But I am excited to get back to dance again!

 

How's Big Brother: Alan is wonderful. I think that he has grown so much since he became a big brother. He is more patient, thinks of others and is a great sharer now! I credit alot of his new growth to being a big brother but he is also just a smart, kind boy in general too. Keep up the good work Alan! 

 

How's Daddy: Lon is such a hard worker, that man is my hero! He started working early mornings in the gym this week and has been home even less now. Yet when he is, he will help out with the kids and around the house. Thanks babe! You are just wonderful!

Only three posts left! How sad! She is growing too fast for me! Anna Ariel Andersen, you slow down! :)