Brianna is 8 weeks old now and is slowly working her way into a schedule. She typically sleeps anywhere from 5 to 7 hours at night (this past week she generally slept from midnight to 6 AM!). When she wakes up in the morning, I feed her and she usually goes right back to sleep for another couple of hours. One morning last week and this week she must have been exhausted (perhaps she is growing?) — after getting up and being fed, she slept another 6 hours!
We have started putting her in her crib for her morning naps. I plan to do the same for her afternoon naps as soon as I can convince her that the crib is just as comfy as my lap (and as soon as I can convince myself that I don’t need to snuggle with her). 
At night she is still in the cradle next to our bed. I know we will have to move her upstairs soon. I am just waiting until I am convinced that she will sleep through most nights so I am not constantly going up and down the stairs. Plus, I kind of like having her next to me.
She is still colicky and usually has at least one bad spell during the day, but I think it is getting better. I am told it should go away by 3 months, so not too much longer.
She is finally starting to fit into her clothes, and she even is starting to grow out of an outfit or two. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures as she models all her adorable outfits! Here is one of her in a new yellow jumper/onsie one of my co-workers gave her. Isn’t she adorable?
We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend just relaxing and enjoying being together. Saturday we were homebodies. Amazingly, this day is the one day of the weekend that passed so quickly, Jason and I are not quite sure what happened to the time! Sunday we went to some beautiful gardens. Here is a picture of Brianna in the Baby Bjorn at the gardens.
I would like to say she loved it, but as you can see, she slept through most of it. I guess she found the gardens very peaceful! Here is a picture where she was awake (for about 5 seconds).
I know I haven’t posted any pictures lately, but I had a bit of a camera accident on Thursday. My one and only memory card “died” on Thursday, which rendered my camera inoperable. Wolf camera wanted $40 to recover the pictures. What a ripoff. My darling husband bought a card reader for ~$20 and recovered the pictures himself! Since we were unable to reformat the memory card I am out of the photo business until my new memory card arrives (sometime late this week). Until then, here is one with Brianna in her swing.
Brianna started smiling back at me last week. Today I finally caught her on camera!
I was reading The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister to her.
Brianna is 6 weeks old now! It is hard to believe as the past 6 weeks have gone by very quickly. We have enjoyed every minute. I suspect things will be a bit more challenging from here on out since we have had so much help these past 6 weeks from our family. Here is a collage of pictures of Brianna with her family.
Right after we got home with Brianna, my Mother (Mimi to Brianna) came to visit and spent almost 3 weeks with us (see upper right picture). Mom was such a huge help doing laundry, cooking, and helping take care of Brianna while I healed. She originally thought she would be getting up with Brianna at night, but that wasn’t really necessary. Brianna is so good at night — she eats and then generally goes back to sleep. It was during the day I needed the help!
The last weekend my Mom was here, my Aunt Kathy came (Tatie Kat to Brianna — see lower right picture). She travels so much that this was just a quick day trip to see the baby (who can resist little Brianna??).
After Mom left, I was alone with Brianna for a few days until my mother-, father-, and sister-in-law arrived for a week (Nana, Poppa, and Tia to Brianna). They were also a huge help! Tia loves children and is studying nursing at the University of Florida and eventually plans to be a neonatal nurse (see lower left picture), and therefore, she couldn’t get enough of Brianna. Of course, Nana and Poppa (see middle left picture) also couldn’t get enough of Brianna! In addition to helping around the house (Nana even mowed the grass for Jason!), Poppa helped Jason build a cornice for the nursery and Nana sewed all kinds of things — the fabric cover for the cornice, fabric curtains for Jason’s tea room, and mattress covers for the cradle mattress (see cradle picture in last post). The nursery is all done now — Jason will post pictures soon (I promise).
The day my in-laws left, my Dad and Step-Mother (Grandpa and Grandma to Brianna) arrived (see upper left picture). They could only stay for the weekend, but it was a great visit. They were here over Mother’s Day Weekend and made my 1st Mother’s Day very special. We dressed Brianna up in her fancy-shmancy dress (see picture above) from her great-Grandfather (Papa) and went to out to a local steakhouse where my Dad treated us to brunch. It was so yummy and Brianna was such a sweetheart (she slept through the whole thing)! We had never been to this particular restaurant before, but now I know why it is so popular! After stuffing ourselves we went home, turned on some golf (great napping TV), and we all took a nap, Brianna included.
In addition to all the family, lots of friends came by to visit. We are truly blessed to have so many wonderful and caring friends and family — it is humbling to be the recipient of all of their kindness and generosity.
This past week I have been home alone with Brianna. Aside from one trying day, she has been an absolute angel. She gets a little fussy at night and the doctor suspects she has mild colic and/or reflux, so we are going to try some new stuff — like put her down earlier before she can get overtired and start the vicious crying cycle. I am worried this means she will be getting me up a lot at night, but the doctor says I may be pleasantly surprised to learn that this schedule may help her sleep even longer at night. Wish me luck!
Today is a wonderful day. I say this despite the fact that I have been up since 6 AM and it is cloudy and rainy today. My darling, beautiful daughter slept SEVEN hours last night (from 11 PM to 6 AM)!!! Here she is in her cradle:
She has been sleeping about 5 hours at least once a night for the past week or so, but last night was a wonderful surprise. Now, I am not foolish enough to think this will happen again anytime soon, but I will definitely enjoy it for now!
Here is another picture of her in her Hawaiian outfit.
Brianna is over one month old now and is doing great! Her eyes are still blue (yay!) and she still has all of her hair (yay!). The doctor thinks she will keep her hair (how do they know that??). She is already up to 8 lbs. 10 oz., and she has demonstrated the normal child behavior of having a strong dislike of shots. Still, she did very well at the doctor’s office and is mostly a happy baby. The only time she fusses is when she is hungry and after she eats. We think she has a little gastroesophageal reflux (GER) — otherwise known as heartburn. Keeping her upright after feedings seems to help quite a bit. It should resolve itself by the time she is 6 months old.
Here are a couple cute pictures of her. Now that Jason has shown me how to post pictures on our blog, I will try to do a better job of updating the site more regularly.
Here is Brianna at 3 weeks lounging on the couch…
…and at 4 weeks sitting in her favorite spot — the bouncy seat!
