This Hetrick House: 4 Weeks Old!

Addy is 4 weeks old now, and will celebrate her one month birthday tomorrow! Time sure is flying! She is already so different from when she was born less than one month ago. It's amazing how much babies change in such a short time. We are really trying to cherish every moment that we spend with her because these days will be over before we know it.

In the past week Addy has really started smiling a lot more, and I am loving that! It melts my heart to see her smile. She has also been starting to coo, which is so sweet to hear. She has been tracking Mike and I with her eyes, and will even turn her head slightly to the sound of our voices!

Another interesting thing is that her cord is still attached! Yup, four weeks old and it hasn't fallen off yet. We keep it dry and exposed to air, and we recently started cleaning it with alcohol in hopes of hastening the process. But, nope. She's still hanging onto mama ;).

Still having some problems with daytime crankiness when we aren't holding her, but she has definitely been getting better. All in all, I'd say we have a pretty fantastic baby (not that I'm biased or anything :) ). She still has only been getting up once a night between 4 and 5AM.

We've started Addy's nightly routine this past week, and it seems to have been helping her get to sleep faster. I set up a small space heater in our bathroom about a half an hour before bath time, then we bathe her around 10PM. (Still sponge baths of course because that cord refuses to fall off.) After the bath, I feed her, we read her a few books (not that she pays any attention at all yet), and then we put her down for the night. She has been falling asleep within 15 minutes and then sleeping until the 4-5AM hour.

Mike has been doing all of the early AM feeds (since he is still off of work), and then putting her back down in her crib, and she'll sleep until 8-9AM. I'll take it! I'm in for a rude awakening now that Mike is going back to work this coming week. The early AM feeds will be my job now. Although, maybe it won't be too bad; I am always up around that time anyway because I am uncomfortable, so I have to pump. It's been easier for us to give her pumped milk for those middle of the night feeds because she eats faster and isn't constantly falling asleep. It makes the whole process a little bit easier, and allows all of us to get back to sleep quicker. We'll see what we end up doing now that I'll be feeding her at night. It probably won't be quicker anymore if I have to pump and then feed her. We'll see.

What else happened in Addy's fourth week of life? We took her to a BBQ party and she was a stellar guest. Very quiet; didn't cause any commotion....she slept essentially the whole time. Other than that; not much is new. Life has slowed down a little bit for us now and we are loving it. We take walks around the neighborhood, play under the activity mat, eat, sleep, and poop. It's wonderful!

Here are some pictures from our fourth week with Adilyn Marie: