Weeks 7, 8, and 9

Well, today, our sweet Georgia is 9 weeks old! The past few weeks have been great, but challenging. Right around 7 weeks old, Georgia started stretching her sleeptime gradually. Her last bottle of the day always falls between 9 and 9:30 p.m. and she goes right to bed afterwards. Around weeks 5 and 6, she was sleeping until 2 or 3 a.m which was great. She’d eat and go right back to sleep and not wake again until 5 or 6 a.m. Michael was taking that feeding so it allowed me to get some great sleep… well, what I call “great” sleep now isn’t what it used to be. : )  Anyway, so around 7 weeks, she started stretching it to about 4 a.m. and by 8 weeks, it was 5 or 5:30 a.m. It was like Heaven to me. I couldn’t believe it… and she was doing it pretty consistently. So of course, everyone’s question is “How is she sleeping?” and I could finally hold my head high and say “She’s doing great, sleeping about 8 hours a night!” Well, of course, as soon as I start saying this, our sweet little Georgia throws us for another loop! So, starting this past Saturday night (8.5 weeks old), she woke up at 4 a.m. I thought, Oh no big deal, just one night…all babies have their “off” nights…. and 4 a.m. isn’t so bad. Well, the next night, it was 3:30 a.m., and the next night was 3:15 a.m., and the next night (last night), it was 1:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m.! UGH!! What happened to our sleeping baby?? Well…

Today I heard of something from my friend, Joanna, that I had never heard of before… Wonder Weeks. A Wonder Week is when a baby is making a mental developmental leap. Some of the signs of a Wonder Week are

1. Being disinterested in feeding (which I will elaborate on later b/c for the first time ever, Georgia has been refusing bottles!)

2. Disrupted sleep cycles (hello?)

3. Being very clingy and wanting to be held and played with constantly.

Well, this describes Georgia’s behavior for the past 5 days to a T! There are many, many Wonder Weeks that occur throughout the first couple of years of a child’s life, and the second one is around 8 weeks. This leap is called “The World of Patterns” and this is a summary of what’s going on:

Sometime around 8 weeks your baby will begin to experience the world in a new way. He will be able to recognize simple patterns in the world around him and in his own body. Although it may be hard for us to imagine at first, this happens in all the senses, not just vision. For example, he may discover his hands and feet and spend hours practicing his skill at controlling a certain posture of his arm or leg. He'll be endlessly fascinated with the way light displays shadows on the wall of his bedroom. You might notice him studying the detail of cans on the grocery store shelf or listening to himself making short bursts of sounds, such as ah, uh, ehh.

Any of these things—and a whole lot more—signal a big change in your baby's mental development. This change will enable him to learn a new set of skills that he would have been incapable of learning at an earlier age, no matter how much help and encouragement you gave him. But just as in his previous developmental leap, adjusting to this new world will not come easily at first.

So basically, our little girl’s brain is growing and she’s getting much smarter. And honestly, it is noticeable. She is reacting more and more to our behavior. She is smiling all the time! She is making great eye contact and has been following objects much better. She is able to focus more and really tune in to the world around her. So now that she is noticing all the cool things around her, she wants to be up all the time (and not sleep, even at night :/) and wants to play with mommy and daddy constantly. It’s really hard to complain about this because it’s so great to see her grow and change. Plus, she’s so much fun now that she’ll smile and laugh at anything you do… talk about an ego boost for us. Anyway, a Wonder Week, is suppose to last about a week (hence, Wonder WEEK) so hopefully we’ll be having sleepless nights for only a couple of more days.

Now, let me elaborate on her not taking her bottles! Remember in my last post, I talked about Georgia being such a fierce eater. That girl never refused a bottle and would scream if you took it away to burp her. Well, a couple of days before she turned 8 weeks old, she became disinterested in her last bottle of the day (9 p.m.) She would only take half and it was a chore to get her to do that. I mentioned this to her pediatrician at her 8 week check up and he said that it’s very normal. He said that she probably was reaching a point where she didn’t need as much. Well, the next day, not only was she disinterested in her night bottle, it started happening during the day, too. Georgia was trying to move herself to a 4 hour schedule instead of 3. She absolutely would not take a bottle before 4 hours! So, I went with it. MISTAKE!! That is when her sleep cycle at night began shortening. She wasn’t taking in as many ounces during the day so she was waking early. But honestly, I couldn’t make her take more in or more often, I tried and she absolutely refused. Needless to say, I’m trying my best to get her back to a 3 – 3.5 hour schedule, hoping that she will regulate again soon. Also, I am waking her at 7 now to begin the day. She takes her medicine then and eats at 7:30… even if she ate an hour or 2 before. This, hopefully, will teach her to sleep until her wake time. This is the time that will work for us when I go back to work in a few weeks so we’re trying to implement it now. I’ll be updating in a few weeks and hopefully, I’ll have a good report.

I mentioned earlier that Georgia had her 8 week check up last week. That means vaccinations. L It really was so sad. She got 1 oral vaccination, and 3 injections. She took the oral vaccination easily, of course. But the injections were a different story. She was lying down flat and looking at me while I stood behind her. She was smiling at me, and then BAM! She got her first shot. Her face went from “Happy Go Lucky” to “What in the world just happened to me?” to “Oh My Gosh, that hurts” screaming and crying.  And with each injection, she got louder and louder. While she was crying because of physical pain, I was crying because of emotional pain. It’s the saddest thing in the world to see your baby cry in pain and there’s nothing you can do. Both of our tears dried pretty quickly though. I felt like I should take her to get ice cream or something… and one day, when she’s old enough, I will. Other than the vaccinations, her check up went great. Our BIG girl weighed in at 12 lbs., 13 oz! That’s 93^rd percentile! Her length was 23 inches (79^th percentile) and her head measured 15.75 inches (83^rd percentile). She is already outgrowing some of her 3 month onesies. This makes me so sad because her pile of clothes that she can’t fit into anymore just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I’m trying to take it all in the best I can because she’s growing and changing right before my eyes. It’s bittersweet because it’s wonderful to see her thrive, hitting milestones and growing quickly, but it’s so sad because she’ll never be as little as she once was. I’m tearing up as I write this now. Oh, Georgia, you’re loved so much!