The Darling Dozen:Week by Week! Eighth Week

I hope everyone is having a good Labor Day weekend! Alan, Anna and I are alone again today because Lon had to work for the holiday rush at both jobs. Poor hubby, I love you strong man! Today we are trying to figure out a playdate with someone or maybe just Grandma and Uncle Kalvin. Who knows? We just really need to get out of this house lol!

 

Here is this week's Darling Dozen post (only three more left after this one! Sob!)! I can't believe that next Wednesday Alan will be three and next Friday Anna will be two months old!! How crazy!

 



Week: Eighth Week

Playing in her play gym

Weight: 8 pounds and 5 ounces

Height: 23 inches

Diaper Size: Still Size N- They are still huge on her too!

Clothing Size: Still mostly Size N, especially for pants, but she is starting to wear Size 0-3M onesies

This Week's Developments: Anna has started to develop her leg muscles. She can put some weight on her little legs now while being supported. She can definitely tell the difference between voices and other sounds, even being able to discern her parent's voices (and Alan's voice too, I know) from others!

Not the best photo but look at that strong neck!!!

Eye Color: Even lighter grayish blue, with navy blue outlining it

Hair Color: Dark brown, but it looks like its lightening into red in the sun

New Achievements This Week: Anna is all about learning and growing this week. She has been eating and sleeping more than usual, which leads me to believe she is mid-growth spurt. When she is awake though, she is very aware and attentive. She will focus on your face as you talk to her, trying to form words with her own mouth! Those hands skills are refining themselves too. She only misses her target every once and a while. She loves to watch Alan move around her, she is just fascinated with his free movement. I love to watch her learning, soaking up as much information as she can. Its a truly miraculous thing. This wek she also blew our minds with how high she was lifting her head and chest during tummy time! This girl is amazing!!

Breastfeeding: Breastfeeding is just amazing. I seriuosly have  no words for how lucky I feel to be able to exclusively breastfeed her. I think I will try to get her to breastfeed after a year, if I can. We believe in baby-led weaning and my son weaned himself way earlier than I had wanted at eight months. I hope Anna will nurse longer and I have a feeling that she might. I think Alan might have only weaned because we had struggled with it for so long and he was enjoying eating solids. Since its going so smoothly this time around, I hope that Anna will want to nurse longer.

This week, she nurses every hour for about forty minutes to an hour and a half on each side in the daytime. At night, she's picked up another  hour feeding usually around five in the morning. Yeah.... Can you say growth spurt lol? :)

All smiles for Mama

Colic: No colic in this household! Only happy babies here!

Differences This Time Around: There are alot of differences this time around. I will start out with the obvious ones this time around. Alan is a boy and Anna is a girl. Anna is about two pounds smaller than Alan was at this time. Anna is exclusively breastfed while Alan was supplemented once a day with formula. Our house is different and we are planning on moving this time around. Those are all the obvious ones I think lol!

Jaundice: No jaundice anymore either! Makes this mama happy! :D

Sleep: Sleep has been rough this week. Like I mentioned earlier, Anna picked up another night feeding, so I lose about two to three hours of sleep each night. Ugh. I just remind myself to be thankful that it so far is only this week, lots of other new moms have been slep deprived since their child's birth.

 

Anna's Personality: Still such a diva. Lol she likes her stuff to be a certain way. There have seriously been times where the only reason she is fussing is because her paci is touching ger lip after she decided she didn't want it or her feet are covered and she wants them out. I don't mind this at all, I think its cute that she already has her own personality and opinions, and is already very particular. What a smart little girl she is!

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 and Texas Roadhouse

Umbilical Cord: Partially fell off at week two and was all the way off by week three!

Bathing: Gave Anna her first at-home bath this week! We used Alan's baby bathtub and put in the Newborn net holder for her. It is so you can put them in the tub but only their butts really get wet. And let me tell you, Anna HATED it lol. She screamed like a banshee the whole time until she was clean, dry and back on the breast lol! Damn! :) Back to out-of-water wash cloth baths.

Anna at Alan's birthday

Best Moment This Week: Alan's third birthday party and how awake Anna was at it.

How's Mama: Exhausted, yet feeling very happy and blessed. :) I am so endlessly lucky to have my hard-working, loving husband and two beautiful, healthy children. We have a safe home to live in and food to eat. In fact, we even get to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together! Lon has two secure jobs and I have one that I love to do. We have a running vehicle and another on its way. And I have loving and caring family members (and friends but they really count as family to me) close to me. We may not have alot (or anything lol) to our names but we are the richest ever in health, happiness and love. :) We are so lucky!!
 

How's Big Brother: Another blessing of mine is my wonderful big boy! He is the best helper a mommy could have and the best big brother my Anna could ever dream of! He loves her so much, its crazy! Before seeing him with my daughter, I didn't believe that children had the capacity to love as much as adults. I believed it developed through life. But now I realize that I was terribly ignorant, because my son probably loves his sister as much as I do! This is amazing and my children are so lucky to be siblings! Ahhh, sheer happiness... :)
 

How's Daddy: Lon is very similar to me, exhausted yet very happy and blessed. But he also misses the kids like crazy. :/ On average, he works from 9 to 4 at one job then from 6 to midnight at the other. He does this so that we can live comfortably, but I feel bad for him. That's why I am always trying to plan fun family activities for us on the weekend. Lon loves and cherishes the time he gets to spend with me and his children, so I like to make it as special as possible for him!

She's looking at her big brother while he snuggles with her