Beatrice spent her 1 month birthday very quietly, especially compared with all the previous days' festivities and activities. She and I slept in - Zack took this picture before leaving for work. I like that we're nose to nose almost.
About 8am I got up and got ready for the day, thinking she'd be up soon as she'd slept straight from 11pm to 7am (we are counting our lucky stars). When she was still asleep at 10, I got smart and napped with her until she got up again at noon. Such a rock star lifestyle... Beatrice must have been tired though, because she still spent much of the rest of the day napping. It was a big month for her!
As it was her 1 month birthday I did force her to take some pictures with the bear in her cute new outfit. She tolerated it for a bit.
Zack and I had fun talking about how much she has changed over the previous month tonight. She is definitely growing up! I've tried to highlight some of the things we have noticed below. This list will likely be incredibly boring to everyone except us - consider yourselves forewarned:
* Beatrice is so much more active now - awake (except for today) and alert for many more hours every day (and night) than when she first got home. She punches the air with her hands and feet most of the time when she's awake. She likes to be held up so she can "stand" and "walk" on a table. And Beatrice definitely has a stong neck - she's held her head up (with varying degrees of success) since she was two days old, though she does do a good Stevie Wonder impersonation when you hold her upright on your shoulder. And of course she likes to launch herself off of you if you give her half a chance. She's also grabbing on to lots of things - my hair and necklace are favorites.
* Beatrice watches us and can obviously see much farther distances than when she first got home. She will watch me walk across a room and keeps a very close eye on me while nursing. She often tracks Zack as well, reacting not only to seeing him but also to hearing him. She'll stop nursing if he comes in and talks to me. And the other day she craned her neck around looking for him when he moved out of her line of sight.
* She even seems to have the beginnings of a schedule, which thankfully for us includes longer periods of sleep at night. Amazingly she often goes to bed sometime between 10pm and 12pm and then sleeps through to 6 or 7am, though a 4am wake up is not out of character either. After waking up she'll eat hungrily and then sleep again for another 2-3 hours in the morning, often in bed with me. This is often blogging time. We realize we're really lucky she sleeps so much so early! Here's hoping it lasts.
* Beatrice is also starting to talk to us in her own special way. Right now most of her sounds seem to be made for her own entertainment, most often when we're not around. She likes to spend time on her own, either in the bouncy chair or in her crib in the mornings, just moving and sort of cooing or grunting. When she is ready for us to play with her she lets us know! My favorite noises right now are the grunts she makes when she's either about to or is nursing.
* Still no real smiles at us yet, but we're hoping they come soon. That small dimple is to die for!
* Beatrice still doesn't like baths that much or changing her clothes or diapers, but there is much less screaming these days than before, so we seem to be moving in the right direction.
* She also likes to burrow into me when nursing and likes to make sure she's got a good grip on me with her little hands. She'll still try to nurse most anything that comes near her mouth - Daddy's finger, arm or neck are particular, though not very fruitful, favorites.
* Just last night we had to stop using the infant blocks in her crib - she had inched her way up out of them and turned 90 degrees sideways. Our little inchworm!
Today she definitely missed her grandparents and Uncle Graham, and Zack had to go back to work, so it was just the two of us all day. Perhaps this explains why she slept so much - she was bored! Luckily her California family arrives in a few days, so she'll get lots more love and attention very soon.
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