Romachino: 7 weeks

Apparently I'm posting every 2 weeks! It seems like a ton has happened developmentally with Gabby since I last posted. At one month, she was able to hold her head up fairly well while being carried, and was fascinated with bright lights and high contrast objects.

Now, she's not only so much bigger and stronger, she's really started to study faces more, and become more interested in toys. She will sit on my upright legs after I feed her and "talk" to me for a bit before she gets really tired and needs a nap. Here's a video I made with some really cool "words" and some hiccups:

She's also started to smile quite a bit.

The best one I've captured--I think she has my smile.

Grandma and Grandpa Romo were here again this past week, and Grandma got a couple of smiles out of her. She and Brian were tied in the smile count until Saturday when he took care of her all afternoon while I went to a bridal shower for one of our good friends. Gabby was very happy to have Daddy to herself, and showed it by giving him tons of smiles and coos.

I managed to get this great shot before I left!

Gabby still doesn't smile all the time--she must be both well fed and well rested--but when she does, it melts my heart. One of the blogs I read compared the early weeks of child rearing to being constantly waterboarded, but then one day, the baby looks you in the eye and smiles at you. Then you start to feel like the whole thing may be worth it. That is absolutely how I felt the very first time she smiled last Monday, March 19. I'd just fed her, had propped her up and was talking to her, and she just grinned at me. I got all teary and thanked her for giving me that gift. I really needed those smiles during the growth spurt that happened last week!

Oh yes, the growth spurt. Boy, that was fun. Gabby still slept pretty well at night, but during the day, fought me tooth and nail for every nap. She also ate every 2 hours, which was awesome for my poor boobs. When she wasn't eating or (rarely) sleeping, she was whining and complaining. I don't really blame her--I remember growth spurts from my teenage years, and those bad boys hurt! Achy joints, sore bones, being hungry and tired all the time, and I knew what was going on! It's got to be so much worse for Gabby, since she really has no idea why she's hurting, and also no idea why I can't just make it stop for her. I'm mom, the food giver, I should be able to keep her comfortable all the time!

Seriously

We did survive it, though, and lately my happy Gabby has been back. I know I'll have several more of these coming up, and I'm not looking forward to it!

As far as sleeping goes, Brian put her to bed between 9:30 and 10:30 (she still chooses), and she'll sleep until 2 or so. She'll then give me until 5 or 6, eat again, and then go down until 8 or 9. During the day, she gives me a morning nap of an hour or so, a mid-day nap of another hour, and then an afternoon nap of around 2 or 3 hours. She'll usually fall asleep again around dinnertime, and then we start all over again. Nighttime is spend in her crib, which she's really good about, but all naps are still spent on me. I admit that I'm not really discouraging this--I love sitting with her asleep on my chest.

Yeah, this is awesome during the day

But I'm so glad she sleeps here at night!

I do admit that her sleeping on me makes it very much impossible for me to get any sort of housework done, which means our house is pretty much a disaster. Brian isn't complaining, so I'm just going to leave it! One day, she did give me 2 hours in her swing, which let me vacuum our tile, straighten up, and do my University of Phoenix teaching for the day.

This was so nice

That was actually pretty great, and some days I do wish she didn't insist on sleeping on me so I could get some work done, but then I tell myself that she'll be pulling away from me soon enough, and I should enjoy this while it lasts. I'll most likely give it another couple of weeks and then transition to putting her in the crib or swing to nap. Better to do it young than wait!

Yeah, she's not happy about my plan

One last cool thing she did this week: roll over from her stomach to her back. I actually didn't get to see it--I was on the couch not paying attention--but Brian did. She's only done it once, mainly because I'm really bad at doing "tummy time" with her, but I'm really glad Brian got to see it. I see so many skills of hers for the first time that I'm really happy he has one all for himself! That being said, I really can't wait for her to do it again so I can see it!