Wilhelmina will be 4 weeks old, a month old, this week and every day she is seeming more aware of her surroundings. Though she is still small and new, she is starting to look more like a baby than a newborn, her cheeks are filling out, she is awake for longer periods, she smiles more and reacts to who is holding her, she seems to look forward to laying in bed at night and then when morning comes she seems to not be content until we head upstairs.
Though some days she has a bout of crying in the evening, we get though it by holding her, putting her on the potty often since she needs to go often in the evening, nursing her and just juggling her ever-changing needs. I have found that most often, needing to pee is what makes her upset and in the morning and in the late evening she seems to need to pee every few minutes and if I keep up she stays content and then nurses a final time before falling asleep for the night. Sometimes though, we don’t figure out what she needs or wants and we just hold her and talk to her and sing to her and comfort her until she settles… it hasn’t happened often, but it does happen…
Nights are going so well. Once the night cycle starts (at around 9pm) she sleeps about 4-6 hours (she even did a bout of 7 hours a few nights ago from 11pm to 6am) and when she wakes she stirs just enough to wake me up… not crying, not really waking up much herself…
I reach over for the potty on the nightstand, lean the potty against me, put her over the potty and she pees then I nurse her and she lets go and then falls back asleep. The whole thing takes about 3-4 minutes and we are both off into sleepland… the next time she wakes up it is morning, we do the same routine and depending on the time and who is up, we either fall back asleep a bit or we head upstairs to start the day…
It is amazing to realize how fast they grow, how fast the newborn phase passes by…
I feel so lucky that Simon is home on Parental leave… having home takes so much guesswork out of preparing meals or taking care of the older kids needs when the little one needs all of the attention at that moment. The boys love having their dad home too of course, being able to play with him and spend time with him, and each boy gets a bit of special time doing what they really love to do. Play on the computer or on the Wii, watch a movie, play a board game, read a book etc… with four kids, having two parents at home makes a lot of sense…
She is absolutely gorgeous! can’t wait to see her (and you and the gang again) 🙂
What is parental leave, is it a Canada thing? So lucky!!! And she is so cute!
Joy, well in Canada most working women get a year a Maternal leave…
but here in Quebec the leave is separated into three parts, one Maternal which only the mom can take, one Paternal which only the dad can take and then bulk of it is Parental which can be taken by either or shared…
Because I won’t be using any of the leave, So under the “Special plan” of less time but more salary, Simon gets his Paternal leave (3 weeks) and can take all of the Parental leave (25 weeks) giving him 28 weeks of leave paid at 75% of his salary…
here is a link if I didn’t explain right..
http://www.rqap.gouv.qc.ca/includes/tableaux/tab_synthese_prestations_en.html