Newborn Days with Lyra

30 Apr 2010

Newborn Days with Lyra

These precious newborn days with Lyra are flying by so fast- it’s hard to believe she’s almost 6 weeks old already. She is such a beautiful baby- lately we have taken to calling her Little Bird (occasionally) or Little Papoose (we call her this more often). Sometimes Little Papoose gets morphed into Papooski or Papooskit.

Mary, Nathan & Savanny continue to be enthralled with her. Nathan sings “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” anytime she fusses and Savvy is always commenting on her “tiny toes” or “tiny biscuits” or “she have tiny ears”. She usually calls Lyra “new baby” and will say “new baby likes me” or “her likes me”. She gets VERY concerned if I take Lyra somewhere and wants to be sure that I’m going to “bring new baby home”. Mary is, of course, Little Mommy and loves to check on Lyra, sing to her, examine her fingers, etc. She was so thrilled to get to feed her a bottle the other day.

Notes for myself to remember later:

-As with all the other children, I continue to have supply problems so we are supplementing with formula as needed. I nurse her first, usually for 30-45 minutes and if she is still acting hungry, give her a bottle after that. We have to do this 2 or 3 times a day usually, which is disappointing to me. I wish breastfeeding were as easy for me as is for some women. I plan to keep on going and hopefully my supply will increase.

-Sleep is going alright. She seems to sleep really well for a night or two and it is then followed by a cranky night or two. The other night she slept from 11pm until 4:30am. I felt SO good the next day. Another night she slept from10pm until 2:45am. But that is balanced by nights like last night where she only slept 90 minutes between 11:45pm and 5:30am. Needless to say, I was exhausted this morning. Once she hits six weeks, we start gradually moving toward a schedule and sleep training. Usually between 3 and 4 months my babies sleep 12 hours a night. Methods I use: “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” by Weissbluth. Love this book. I am “slow” to respond to crying. I avoid doing anything consistently. I use many different methods to get her to sleep but avoid relying on any ONE approach so that she does not start requiring that specific method to get to sleep. Today she has slept in her crib, in the swing, in the stroller while out for a walk, in my arms (several times) and in the bassinette. Some of this I know Weissbluth advocates against and we do start to avoid “junk” sleep as she gets older. At this young age I am not worried about it- I am more concerned with helping her to be well rested. If possible, she should only be awake for 45 minutes-1 hour at the most before going back to sleep.

- Lyra has grown out of her newborn things much faster than the other kids! The other three wore preemie clothes for a few weeks and then newborn size for a few weeks before finally getting into the 0-3 month size. Lyra’s been in 0-3 month clothes for several weeks now. She also quickly outgrew the newborn sized diapers and has been in size 1 diapers for a few weeks.

-Her infant pictures are the exact, carbon copy of Nathan. I told Kip I will have to be careful about labeling pictures because I’d never be able to tell them apart in a few years. Same nose, same profile, same cheeks, ears, hair, hair line, eye shape, eye color- everything. It’s uncanny. I can’t wait to see what she looks like as she gets older!

FIRST BATH PICTURES:

MARCH 28, 2010