Rhys - 8 weeks

Rhys is growing and changing like crazy!

Around 5 weeks, she started social smiling.  She is pretty smiley after eating.  She'll just lay there and smile back at you for a while.

Around 6 weeks, she started cooing.  She ads the cutest little noises to her smiles.  After meals, she lays there and smiles and talks for a good bit.  It's good, because I've been trying to keep her awake more during the day, so she is usually so happy to be awake and talking after she eats.

She's got pretty good head control and has been lifting her head for 30 seconds - 1 minute for quite a while now.  She also likes to push her legs to "stand".
Her night-time sleep habits are all over the place.  We'll get a few nights where she goes 6 or 7 hours, and then we get a night where she is up every 2 hours to eat.  On Friday night (7.5 weeks), she went 8 hours between meals!!  Too bad that was short lived, and we were back to the usual 5 or 6 the next night.  BUT, I do know that with Natalie, she gradually extended her nighttime sleep, so these longer stretches will probably become more common, soon we hope!

During the daytime, Rhys has been really consistent.  She goes 3ish hours between meals.  Since I've been spending a lot of time at work, I'll let her go 3.5 hours if she seems content and I'm in the middle of something.  Otherwise, I keep her on the 3 hr clock.

She's definitely getting plenty to eat.  We've all been fighting a head cold, and Rhys' eyes were looking puffy and red and gooey, so I took her to the doctor just to make sure all was in order.  She weighed 11lb 12oz! At 7.5 weeks!  You know she's on the "healthy" end, when the doctor comes in and says "what have you been feeding this child?"  He wasn't concerned; said to continue with what we are doing.  Natalie's 2 month appointment was around 9 weeks and she was 11lbs, so Rhys has already surpassed that.  I think she's around 85th percentile. And - she got a good bill of health..just have to watch the congestion and make sure appetite stays up.

Look at these sweet rolls on her legs. Love them!

Rhys has been such a good baby during the past few days!  She goes right back to sleep after her 7am feeding; even without me helping her (this feels like a HUGE step for me, since she usually wants me to hold her).  Monday she fell asleep in the bouncer while I was working.  And yesterday she fell asleep in the swing.  She just kind of lays there and talks to herself and then dozes off.  It feels like there is a light at the end of the tunnel - maybe I won't have to hold her until she is 12 :)

Very rare - she fell asleep while sitting with her Daddy.

The baby acne has mostly faded.  We're still dealing with cradle cap (dry, flaky scalp).  But that looks like it's going to take some time to completely go away.  Her skin is looking so soft and squishy now!

So far, the carseat hasn't been a problem.  She kind of fusses when we put her in; especially if we aren't quite ready to leave.  But, usually just a few minutes after the car is in motion, she is quiet. Most of the time without the pacifier.

Still not a huge fan of pacifiers.  We got some of the Gumdrop pacifiers (thanks for the recommendation from Tania!), and she takes them more than the others we tried, but she still isn't really dependent on it.  Guess that is a good thing..not entirely sure yet!

We are still waiting to move her into the crib at night.  David and I are ready for her to move, but I don't think she's quite ready.  She makes tons of noise when she is settling in to sleep, and she does much better when we are near.  We put her in the cradle while we are still up at night but end up running back to the bedroom to calm her down several times. Most of the time, she just wants us to pick her up for a minute and then she is back to sleep.  This game is tiring, but would be even worse if we were having to go from our room to hers in the middle of the night.  And, we aren't really ready for her to disturb Natalie.  (although, their crying didn't seem to bother the other one in the car..it went both ways too...)

Auntie Patty gave Rhys this new flower, so I put it on and took some pictures since she was wearing red.  It's been so long since I've done a "photoshoot" where the subject doesn't run away.  So long that I have to re-learn my camera!

David was laying on the floor holding Rhys upright and Natalie decided she needed to "ride" too.  I love that she wants to be with her sister and that you can see her holding her blankie with her fingers in the holes..typical Natalie.