Oh, the Places You'll Go!: Quay's First Month

Quay's first month has been exhausting and delightful. She is almost six weeks old now and our family is starting to get into a routine now that I am mostly recovered from the c-section delivery. The only restriction I have left is on heavy lifting. Daniel starts back to work tomorrow, so I will start my days as a stay-at-home-mom of two that will continue through the beginning of November when I return to work.

It has been wonderful getting to know our new daughter and also watching Trafton get to know her as well. He has been a terrific big brother to her. He enjoys kissing her, hugging her, and holding her often. He is a little rough and when he kisses her - it is sort of like a head-butt with a kiss after the crashing of heads. He likes to touch her and name her different body parts - especially eyes, feet, and belly button. Quay doesn't really like it when Trafton pokes her in her eyes, though. He always wants to know where she is if he can't see her, and he likes to help change her diapers by handing me all the necessary supplies. He is also very sensitive to her - once he threw a toy up in the air and it landed on Quay's head. This made Quay scream terribly and Trafton felt so bad he started to cry as well. By the look on his face, you could see he felt really bad. He hasn't acted angry or jealous or any of the the things that I was anticipating.

Quay has been both challenging and enjoyable. She is a much different baby than Trafton was. She seems to have a really easy time sleeping during the day, but is often not interested in sleeping at night at all. Many times she is wide awake in the middle of the night and ready for attention or a good screaming period. We are trying to get her on a good schedule and keep her awake during the day more so that she will sleep at night - this is much easier said than done. Sometimes it is just impossible to keep her awake in the middle of the day! I guess we asked for this sort of behavior when we nicknamed her Baby Owl after such a nocturnal creature.

Quay holds her head up well already and only days after we brought her home and tried tummy time, she was lifting her head and turning it from side to side. She really enjoys being on her tummy and often takes her naps during the day in this position. Her head is quite average-sized, unlike Trafton's head. I used to feel like his neck was going to break with the floppiness and weight of his head. Quay has a high pitched screech as her cry - also sort of owl-like. As soon as she was born, every time she would drift off to sleep, she would smile. This behavior has continued through until now and the smiles have become more pronounced. I know they say babies can't smile, but she does and it is the cutest thing! For the few seconds that she is transitioning from awakeness to sleeping, she flutters her eyes, rolls her eyes back into her head, breathes very rapidly, and gives a series of quick smiles. This all happens simultaneously and lasts only about 15 seconds. It is precious and absolultely one of my favorite things she does.

Quay's belly button fell off right at the end of her fourth week. She rolled over for the first time during her fourth week as well. She has outgrown her newborn sized diapers and all of her newborn sized clothing already. She is wearing the 0-3 months sizes now. It has been a ton of fun dressing a baby girl - I didn't think I would get so into it, but I love it!

The moment we brought her home from the hospital - Trafton was quite curious.

Can I touch her?

Is she always going to be this loud?

My parents were up for the birth and then my dad went back to work for a week while my mom stayed to help out as I recovered as we adjusted.

Grandpop

The first time Trafton asked to hold her - he thought it was necessary to use the Boppy pillow since that's what I use to nurse her. When Trafton gets really anxious or upset he assumes this classic position: left thumb in the mouth, left fingers rubbing his left eyelashes, right hand rubbing his right eyebrow.

Helping him feel more comfortable holding her

Grandmom

This is the same bassinet that we borrowed from our friends Brad and Lori when Trafton was born. It continues to get passed around and used by different families. This time we got to put the pink ribbon on the outside! We used the sleep positioner for Quay for the first several weeks, even though they aren't exactly recommended anymore.

First bath!

With his clean little sister

Trafton was really interested in her umbilical cord - here I am trying to explain to him that it's the same as his belly button.

Flowers from my dad to celebrate Quay's arrival

Skype-ing with my dad on the iPad

Family of Four!

My littlle diaper-changing helper - I was thinking that him helping me with this task would make him want to wear diapers less, but I think it has actually made him enjoy getting his diaper changed even more - Yikes!

Grandmom's story time

Trafton wasn't too into seeing Daddy 'wrestle' Quay - he had to jump in and disrupt that!

Play-doh and morning smoothies

Family of Four with one cranky member

Family dinner

Even though Grandmom was here to help for a week (there's no way we would have made it through nearly as well as we did had she not been around!), she may have been surprised to find there was an awfully helpful two-year-old in the house. Actually his 'helping' usually caused far more work for Grandmom to do, but I am sure it was entertaining :)