…who is one month old today!
I’ve been thinking about how to formulate this post and have it make any sense – or least be more story like but I give up making it work out. Here you will now get a bulleted list of things about Hannah!
- Hannah is an eating machine. On average babies eat about 2.5 oz per day for every lb they weigh. Hannah exceeds that everyday. Sometimes by a little, sometimes by quite a lot. (She is, as I’m typing this, starting to stir next to me. It’s been roughly an hour and a half since she ate. I bet she wants more already). Sometimes we have 12 feedings in a day. Sometimes less. It’s impossible to guess how much she will eat from bottle to bottle. Sometimes 1 oz because she wanted a snack, sometimes 4. Even 5 once. I’m just saying – she likes to eat. Which leads me to…
- Food coma – after she eats a large amount she’s like a floppy noodle. When she’s hungry she can hold her head up, look around, move her body about but when she’s full? It’s like she loses all ability and goes completely limp. It’s hysterical.
- She has gained about 2.5 lbs since we left the hospital – in her first month of life. She was 6 lb 10 oz at birth, 6 lb 3 oz when we left the hospital, 7 lb 11 oz at her 2 week appt. And doing the ‘weigh myself holding her, weigh myself without her' thing – she’s just over 9 lbs now. Amazing!
- Hannah hates to poop. And I don’t mean she kind of dislikes it – She LOATHES pooping. She has at least currently reached the point where she doesn’t cry her eyes out every time she poops. I have to put her in “poop position” (as I have come to call it. Catchy, right? I’m clever. I know.) and she will concentrate and get it done without crying. If she needs to poop and I haven’t noticed it yet she will cry until I put her in that position and immediately stop. I keep telling her – You aren’t gonna out grow this pooping thing so you might as well get used it. People poop. It’s part of life – but she doesn’t really listen to me. ;)
- She makes tons of faces. I have posted picture proof on her picture blog. She can furrow her brow like no ones business.
- Hannah is very easy to put to sleep and once she is asleep I can set her down anywhere comfy and she will keep sleeping. (This is a new experience for me. Leah would only sleep if I was holding her or laying down with her & holding her. I couldn’t do anything) This is fantastic for me. So I can get things done in little bursts between the feedings. This isn’t to say I don’t hold her through many naps because – well – I love holding a sleeping baby. It’s just nice that I CAN set her down when I need to clean or cook dinner or play with Leah or whatever.
- I should interject here that Drew disagrees with this. She’s easy for *me* to put to sleep. It takes her longer and she’s way more fidgety if anyone else is doing it.
- If she’s hungry and you kiss her on the lips she will open and close her mouth and kiss back. Okay really she’s trying to latch on because she’s hungry but it’s adorable. And I do it every chance I get.
- She has gas troubles. She’s on formula to reduce gas, bottles to reduce gas, gas drops with each bottle – and still the child has gas. Not as bad as if you forget the drops but still gas. I just have to keep her legs bent and it passes fairly quickly but as with pooping – she does not like it. And of course gas pains hurt so who can blame her.
- Hannah has the worst latch. It’s called a lazy suck I learned. Even at the hospital I feed her the first few times and the nurse feed her once while we were out getting something to eat and when we got back she asks me “How did you even get her to take that much!” (meaning about .5 oz) and went on to talk about how lazy her suck reflex was. She’s done much better since we left the hospital and are using wider/larger bottle nipples. But this contributes to the gas of course. And to the fact that when she drinks a 4 oz bottle we have to stop 2-3 times to burp her during it. You can tell when it’s time to burp because she gets all squirmy.
- Burping – she’s the best burper ever! Sometimes all you have to do is sit her up and she burps but it never takes more than a minute or so. And normally much less.
- Her gag reflex however is superb. She can’t use the soothie pacifiers they use at the hospitals because it’s too long and makes her gag every time. Poor kid. She will also gag simply from having to much spit gather in her mouth. She has to sleep at an angle. If she’s flat on her back she will gag in her sleep – and wake up of course.
- I’m forgetting things to add. Maybe I’ll come back later if I think of more. Not that this isn’t already an insanely long-winded list…
- ETA (the next day - I knew there would be something!) - Hannah LOVES being in the water - as long as I'm holding her & with her. Whether it's sitting in the bathtub or taking a shower. It makes her all calm and happy. She only cries when she realizes it's over. So fun!
Now one more thing I want to address. I’ve had a few quiet questions about Hannah’s race. So I’m gonna share about it here but first let me share my reasoning with you for doing this.
I understand, of course, that race is a sensitive issue and that people are worried about asking it because it’s not “PC” and no one wants to offend. But if *I* don’t talk about it and show my genuine delight and excitement about the mixture that is Hannah, how will she know? How will she know to be proud of all of the parts that make up who she is? If we’re quiet about it will she think it’s something to be ashamed of? Because that’s a horrifying thought to me!
So – Hannah is 1/4 African American, 1/4 Italian, 1/8 Vietnamese, and 3/8 Caucasian.
Her coloring seems to be changing every day. Her eye color definitely has changed several times. She even had a stretch where she had 3 rings of color in her eyes at once. They seem to be blending now. I find the genetics fascinating. And it’s like we get to watch the interplay of these things work themselves out inside her body. Bi or Multi-racial children can take several months to gain whatever color they may be in the long run. Leah only took about a month – and still her color is different depending on the season.
Anyway! We are having a fantastic time here. Hannah is a joy and has fit quite well into life.
Leah is absolutely loving having a baby sister but that’s another (probably long winded) post that will have to wait for another time. I have to go show Leah how to tie dye now. She’s REALLY excited! (She got a kit from Aunt Leah for Christmas and we just aquired white t-shirts this weekend – thanks to Nana for stopping at Walmart!)
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