New kid on the block

Now that I'm a mature girl of 4 weeks, it's time for me to speak for myself on this blog! After all, I have a lot to say. I spend most of the day sleeping, which is when I think up all of my big ideas. Then I wake up around 11PM and spend the night sharing my thoughts with Mama. It works out pretty well for me, but Mama seems to have a hard time paying attention. I often catch her nodding off right in the middle of one of my soliloquies! I feel like I'm a college professor or something. Once I figure out where my hands are and how to grab things, I'm going to bring a chalkboard eraser to bed with me so I can throw it at Mama when she dozes off.

The last four weeks have been pretty exciting! More exciting than hanging out in the womb, at least (although I must admit it was pretty comfy in there). After my grand entrance to the world (see my birth story here), I spent a couple weeks getting as much sleep as possible. I lost a fair amount of weight and wasn't very interested in nursing, so everyone got worried. Once I hit my due date though, everything clicked into place and things started going much more smoothly. I learned to latch on to nurse more effectively, and I spend a little more time of each day awake and checking things out.

I had my 4-week check-up yesterday, and everything looks great. I weigh 8lbs 1oz, which means that I've gained an ounce a day since my last weigh-in. I'm 21.5" long and my head is 36.5cm in circumference. I'm in the 50th percentile for weight and head circumference and the 75th percentile for length. Mama looked up my big brother's stats, and can you believe that he was only 6lbs 14oz at 4 weeks old? He looks so big to me -- I can't imagine that he used to be so much smaller.

I didn't get to see the Dude, but I saw Dr. N instead and I like him too. He said that I look nice and healthy. I'm starting to fill out a bit and my newborn rash is almost gone. My skin is still kind of blotchy, but Dr. N said that's normal and will go away by the time I'm a year old. He also said that we should get a better idea of what color my eyes will be by the time I'm about 10 months old. For now they are a deep slate blue, but who knows where they will end up! Maybe they'll be green like Daddy's?

Dr. N also said that I'm A-OK to travel to Denver in a couple weeks for my Uncle Brendan's wedding, although Mama and Daddy have to be very careful with me. Per the doc's orders, no one is allowed to touch or hold me and I need to be isolated as much as possible. He said that if it were anyone's wedding other than Daddy's brother's, he would say that I'm not allowed to go at this age. Mama and Daddy are supposed to remember that everyone is there for Uncle Brendan's wedding, not to see me, so they promised to keep me as isolated as possible and not to take me to any events other than the wedding ceremony. That means that I won't be subjected to a game of "pass the baby" until I'm older. Whew!

Other than my first airplane trip, my plans for the near future include sleeping, nursing every 2-3 hours (and sometimes every 40-60 minutes in the middle of the night), crying, and watching exciting things like lights and my big brother Z. When I cry, Z comes over and says, "Mei-mei, awwwww..." which I like. He also tries to pat my leg to make me feel better, but he's kind of heavy-handed so I'm not sure how much I like that part.

Well it's been about 90 minutes since I last had a snack, so I think it's time to start getting Mama's attention. After all, I can hear that Z is waking up from his nap. I like to time my wakings and nursings for the exact times that he gets up from his nap or needs to eat because it's fun to watch Mama scurry around trying to juggle both of us.