Allie is 7 weeks old :))

Good afternoon! It has been a while since we have made a post to the blog- Allie girl has been keeping us both really busy :))

Gosh, so much has been going on, so many new discoveries each day. I am now currently "wearing" Allie as I write this post, as she is a bit fussy and always seems to calm down when I hold her and she is able to sleep on me. Amazing how smart they are and can sense these little things :) Do you think I can make a point to return to work with her on me, so to speak, since I can wear her and type at the same time? ;)

So, since we last posted: Allie has now been sleeping for 3-5 hour stretches in the beginning of the night, which makes it really nice. We go to bed around 9 p.m., and she will sleep usually until 2 a.m., then will feed, and sleep again until 5:30 a.m. or so. We then typically have a nap around lunch time, and she is nursing every two-three hours during the day, to load up on calories for the evening. It seems to be working pretty well- she is up to 11 lbs, which means she has been right on track of gaining about 1 oz per day since birth.

I have gotten into a nice routine as well. I have two Brazilian friends who have young children, and we try to arrange for one play date a week. This last week we went to Panera on Monday, and had lunch. Samia has a 18 month old boy.

I also have a friend from work, Brenda, who is home on maternity leave with a 3 month old boy, Kaden, and we have had a few play dates as well ( more for the moms at this point, but we go for nice walks, especially since the weather has been so nice here lately. Below is Allie getting ready for one of the play dates, with her little baggy denim :)

On Tuesdays, I usually go to the Breastfeeding Moms group, and through that I have met some other moms with babies the same age as Allie. It is a nice opportunity to connect and share experiences, although Allie is such a sweet baby, I feel like that annoying mom that is just always super peppy and happy. Oh well, she is just such a good baby :)

Grandma Tina- you'd be happy to know that we hit the 6 week mark, and no "real" sign of the dreaded Purple Cry. She is a bit more fussy at night, but nothing like the uncontrollable scream they all talk about. We have developed a nice routine where we give her a bath by 8 p.m., then I give her a little baby massage and then we swaddle her and Daddy rocks her to sleep. She is used to falling asleep on Daddy :)

When it comes to developmental marks, she is definitely holding her neck better now, and looking around for voices and objects with no problem. She is "talking" back to us, especially in the afternoons, when I put her in her gym. She loves her crib and the mobile that Grandma Laura gave her, and will follow around the toys when they rotate.

We have also upgraded tummy time a bit by putting her propped on the Boppy, my breastfeeding pillow, since she can see the world around her better. She is pretty content in there.

I visited the doctor last week, and she gave me the all-clear to start exercising again. I am going to go back to teaching on May 13. On my way to lose those last 10-15 lbs I gained during pregnancy.

We have also gotten into a better routine when it comes to meals. I am planning them much better now, and we're back to eating healthy meals for dinner. For a while there, we had one too many lasagnas.

I had a few visitors from work the other day, and they said everything is going smoothly at work, which is a great relief. I plan to bring her for a visit once she hits the 8 week mark. That way, if she were to get sick, we can give her regular infant medicine.

Our next pedi appointment is on May 13, when she turns two months old. She will start getting her shots then, it should be a good appointment.

That's it for now. We will try to post more often, so it is not always this loooong of a post.

Much love to all of you