Dan & Tara: Norah's First 6 Weeks

Wow, if time is not flying by since little Norah was born! She will be 6 weeks old tomorrow, and what a wonderful 6 weeks it has been. In contrast with our first 6 weeks with Charlie, it has been a breeze. I'm sure there are many reasons for this - perhaps being second time parents who are less anxious and perfectionistic, having a laid-back and good-natured baby (Charlie was pretty colicky his first year), having a home birth with follow-up appointments at home, and knowing how fast a newborn grows up (and therefore cherishing every moment instead of wishing away each present difficulty)! We are so very thankful for such a different experience this time with recovery and nursing (which was still difficult but thankfully much less difficult and for less amount of time), as well. I thought I would blog about Norah's first month (which has now turned into 6 weeks) before time flies by any quicker and we forget how tiny she once was.

Norah was 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 20 inches when she was born. A week later she weighed in at 7 lbs. 14 oz., so she must not have lost much weight in the first few days! At three weeks, we took her to our follow up midwife appointment and found she was 8 lbs. 10 oz. and 21 inches long. Now, at 6 weeks, she is 10 lbs. 5 oz. and 21.5 inches long. Although she was more than a pound smaller than Charlie at birth, she certainly gained quicker her first month.

Norah spends most of her days eating and sleeping, and for the first few weeks would smile while she was dreaming (sometimes with her eyes even open, which was pretty creepy!) but more recently she has started smiling at me after feedings. Real, interactive smiles! So much fun. Melts my heart. As if she is saying, "I love you, Mama...thanks so much for putting up with all that sickness and exhaustion during pregnancy, for giving birth to me, for changing my diapers, and feeding me what feels like every minute of the day!" Haha. Okay, perhaps not. But I don't care, as long as she smiles at me. Since birth (just like Charlie), Norah has had super human neck strength, holding her head up for crazy lengths of time for a little newborn. She likes to push off of her little feet while held on our laps so that she practically jumps like a frog, hence once of her nicknames, "Little Froggy." One of the best things besides the smiling lately has been the cooing! Oh, I forgot what a beautiful sound it is!

Charlie has been doing great in his transition to Big Brother. He's suddenly been very active and loud, which is I know normal for an almost 3 year old boy, though challenging with a sleepy newborn. Charlie loves his baby sister and enjoys giving her hugs and sweet little kisses, giving her the paci he found on the floor, or shoving toys next to her. For some reason when she was born he kept calling her "Baby Sonya," but now he knows she's "Baby No-wah." About once a day Charlie asks to "hold the baby" as he sits very still and his face becomes very serious while she "sits" in his lap. Since he wakes up around 7am each morning, and with night feedings this seems ridiculously early to me, Charlie has learned to come into our room quietly and climb into bed next to us as we get a little more sleep together. Love it. Speaking of sleep, Norah doesn't do too badly. Normal newborn stuff. Somehow the night wakings/feedings/changings don't seem like such a big deal as they did last time around. She wakes every 3 hours to eat usually (with an occasional 4-6 hour stretch), but she never cries really, and I know this stage won't last forever. I know I won't always be tired :)

Some of Norah's outings so far have included the photographer's studio for newborn pictures at 2 weeks old, the midwife's house for her 3 week appt., church, friends' houses, many a thrift store, Target, Bruegger's, and Caribou. She loves her Baby K'Tan wrap/carrier and usually falls asleep immediately in it. The biggest struggle as a mom of two so far has really just been the challenge of getting two kids ready to go somewhere, getting them in both of their carseats, getting them out of their car seats, and having to learn to multitask a bit more (not a strength of mine). Otherwise, so far, the Lord has blessed us with a fairly easy transition to two kiddos. We feel so incredibly blessed and undeserving.

And now...here are some pictures from Norah's first 6 weeks!