6 Weeks Old!

Molly is 6-weeks old today! This is the point at which fussiness is supposed to decrease and the first social coos and smiles appear. Well, Molly must be an early-bloomer because we've already seen results on both counts! Finally, after 6 weeks I think we're really getting to know Molly and she's becoming accustomed to this big, wide world. We're doing a better job of reading her hungry, tired, or uncomfortable crying cues and responding accordingly. She has even started to nap on her own in her crib (Hallelujah!!!). For the last 3 days, we've been able to put her in her crib drowsy-but-awake for her morning naps. The first day it took 15 minutes of on-and-off crying before she was asleep, but today, there was only 6 minutes of crying before she was off to snooze-land. We used to have to go to great lengths to soothe her to sleep, usually bouncing her on the physio-ball until she stopped crying and became drowsy, then putting her in the Moby wrap. It's amazing how freeing it is to have her napping in her crib in a separate room and NOT attached to my body. I've been able to do laundry and other chores around the house, not to mention eating and showering ;-) She's still having trouble with putting herself to sleep for afternoon naps, but those tend to develop later anyway. Besides, I'm not quite ready to give her up completely for napping. I'm savoring the moments she spends sleeping on my chest because I know it won't be long before I won't have a "newborn" anymore that can sleep on me.

She is growing so fast. She's officially outgrown her newborn pajamas! She'd been getting close for a while. Her feet were filling up the little pajama "footsies" and the sleeves were getting short. But we started using our cloth diapers this week and that definitely pushed her over the edge for fitting in her old jammies. We LOVE the cloth diapers, but they are so bulky that her puffy little bum fills the pajamas up :-) The cloth-diapering experiment has been a great success so far. It's a relief to not feel like we're constantly "wasting" expensive disposable diapers. If she dirties a clean diaper on the changing table, it's no big deal. We just throw it in the laundry bucket, knowing we can wash it and use it again another day. Plus, that squishy cloth-diapered bum is just oh-so-adorable!

Daddy returned to work this week after his wonderful 5 weeks of paternity leave. It was scary at first to imagine being with Molly for 8 hours of every day by myself, but after a few days we've established our own routine of playing, eating, soothing, napping, and bedtime. I've learned to do lots of things one-handed and to prepare meals for myself in advance before Eric goes to work for the day. Now that all the grandparents, neighbors, and 24-hour-Dad have returned to their normal lives, I'm realizing that I really AM a mother, and it's a job I'm created for and capable of. It's true what they say that when a baby is born, a mother is born as well. God blesses new mothers with instincts that help them take the best possible care of their babies. I am beginning to trust those instincts more day by day as I fulfill this new role in my life.

Molly, Mommy, and Daddy had a new experience recently...a date night. Molly had her first evening with babysitters (my fellow OCS teachers who've had dibs on babysitting rights for months!) while Eric took me out on a date for my 26th birthday. He took me out to Tyler's Taproom in downtown Durham. It's located in the old Lucky Strike factory which has been converted into retail and office space. It was fun to be out again as a twosome, but it also felt a little strange, like a piece of us was missing. During my pregnancy, I got used to strangers touching my belly and asking when I was due, if it was a boy or girl, etc. Since Molly's been born, I've gotten used to strangers peeking in the carseat, stroller, or carrier and asking how old she is and, once again, if she's a boy or girl (even if she's decked in pink from head to toe). It was odd to be out as a couple without a baby belly or a stroller for strangers to peek at. It was just us. It was a great opportunity to get reacquainted with each other as husband and wife. I feel like we've been seeing each other as "Mommy" and "Daddy" for the last few weeks and I almost forgot what it was like to view Eric as just my husband. I think we both did a good job of not worrying about Molly for the evening, but we were both surprised when we decided to head back to pick her up and realized we'd only been out for less than 2 hours. It felt like we'd been away from our little girl for much longer. We enjoyed our time out, but it was a great feeling to cuddle Molly in our arms again once we returned!

Here are a few pictures of the last few weeks:

Molly loved her first Steeler's game! Her GG bought her a cheerleading outfit. It's still a bit big, but we just had to break it out for the opening game of the season. It must've been a good luck charm because the Steelers beat the Titans that night. However, Molly was napping in her jammies during today's Steeler's game and they lost to the Bears :-(

Now that Molly is becoming so grown up and sleeping so well on her own, I think both Eric and I will miss our naptime snuggles with her.

One of Molly's absolute favorite activites is sucking...on ANYTHING! For the first few weeks, I mistook this desire for hunger until I realized that I was becoming a 64-inch pacifier. This is when Molly discovered her fist. She has not yet figured out how to separate individual fingers for her sucking pleasure so she attempts to fit the entire fist in her mouth. I love this picture because it looks like she's staring at her fist like it's a giant candy bar. It reminds me of those cartoons where two guys are stuck on a deserted island. When they look at each other, the other person has turned into a pork chop or a drumstick. That's Molly and her hand!

So sad...Molly has now outgrown these adorable giraffe pajamas! 6 weeks and we've already lost our first set of PJs.