Kaiya- 2 Months!

It's crazy how fast time is going. My baby is two months old already! A part of me is sad that she's growing up so fast, but the other part of me is so happy to watch her grow! She has pretty good neck control at this point, though she's still a little bobbly. The stronger she gets, the easier it is to pick her up and multi-task since you don't have to support her neck as much. She's getting better and better about sleeping through the night too! The night before last she slept until 6am, fed, and then slept until 9am. Essentially, I was up before she was. There are still some nights when she refuses to go back in her bassinet, but the past couple nights she's been fine in there.

My favorite time of the day with Kaiya is when she first wakes up. I call it "Smiley Time" because she's always so HAPPY! She starts to stir, I peek over her bassinet and say good morning and she melts my heart because I'm always greeted with this:

Morning smiles

An uber adorbable tidbit is that in the past couple days she's suddenly discovered all the mobiles that are hanging over everything. She entertained herself for a full 20 minutes yesterday by smiling and cooing away at the little bears above her swing. It's so awesome watching her discover the world around her!

Kaiya is also officially in 0-3 month clothes. I had to put away all the newborn stuff, which was a little sad. The following picture memorialized the moment I made that decision. Note that this sleeper is not a short-sleeve sleeper ;)

Last morning in newborn clothes

In other news, Grandma Brenda sent John a photo the other day of him as a baby and I was stunned. Every time I say Kaiya looks just like her daddy people always say "She looks a little like you too" or "I don't know who she looks like more." Well people, if pictures like this don't prove it to you:

Twins!

Than maybe this one will:

How crazy is that?! If the quality of the picture on the right didn't LOOK like it was taken in 1987, I'd have thought it was of Kaiya.

And while I Kaiya may not look like me, we do share one thing:

Yes, ladies and gentleman, I've been saving my baby blanket for the past 30 years. It's still my favorite blanket for her because it's so so soft and the perfect weight for using in an air conditioned apartment:)

Finally, I'll leave you with a little collage of my favorite pics from the past couple of weeks:

A May Murphy Update

I thought it might be nice to give a casual update for each of the Murphy family members.

Kaiya

Kaiya's doing great and growing like a weed. She's too tall for her newborn clothes already, though she's still slender enough to fit into the newborn onesies and her newborn cloth diapers. She's still a great eater and we continue to feed "on-demand" for the time being. She also still sleeps awesome, when we can get her to sleep. Yesterday and last night were a struggle for some reason, she just refused to GO to sleep. Once I was able to get her to sleep at nearly 2am she slept for a good 5 hours, which is her typical pattern. She sleeps for 5 hours, feeds, then sleeps for another 3ish hours before feeding again. I think there has only been one night her whole life wherein I had to get up more than once in a night (not counting the hospital nights when the nurses made me try and wake her, which was never successful). I'm pretty sure that's not the typical pattern for a newborn, but I won't argue. I'll also share a little secret with you but I have no way of knowing it's validity. Since before I got pregnant, I've been taking a high-quality magnesium supplement daily. There is lots of evidence that it helps promote better sleep in the person taking it, but I'm inclined to think it might aid her sleep as well. (Pregnant ladies, it also prevents muscle cramping and pre-term labor). If you're interested, the supplement I take is from jigsawhealth (also available on Amazon).

And when I saw she sleeps awesome, I mean she sleeps awesome IF she's next to me. We decided early on not to co-sleep. John is petrified of SIDS (and checks every few minutes if she's breathing ANYTIME she's sleeping) and I didn't want to give up our bed again just as we trained Cooper out of it. Kaiya had plans of her own. She'll sleep soundly but as soon as I put her in the bassinet, she's awake again. I've tried warm blankets, adding an item that smells like me, swaddling her, playing white noise and heartbeat sounds. None of it worked. She liked to sleep on our chests, or next to me near the boob. Well, a few days ago I came up with an idea that would allow me to sleep at night without worrying that one of us would roll over on her, or that a blanket would fall over on her face. I stuck the changing pad in bed. She now has her own space and is protected from us. Unfortunately, it means less space for John and me. I guess we'll try again when she can sleep longer in the night. Maybe I'll just stick the whole changing pad in the crib when I transition her over. :/

Kaiya's makeshift co-sleeper

Me (Sarah)

I am doing pretty well overall. I love being home with Kaiya every day, and it'll be hard to transition back. Some days, when Kaiya decides that she can be a bit self sufficient and just chill in her bouncy chair or swing for a little while, I am pretty productive. Other days she's a bit more needy and I end up getting very little done. There are a number of things on my to-do list that are hanging over my head, such as sending out the last few thank you cards, mailing out the birth announcements, completing coursework for my current nutrition class, returning a couple phone calls from good friends that have kindly remained my friends even though I haven't called them back. And then there is the obligatory housework that gets ignored, like the laundry, and finer points of cleaning like dusting and organizing the areas that became dumping grounds for things I just didn't have time to deal with. The upside is that I've been very efficient in catching up on the many shows I had neglected. It's much easier to watch TV with a baby on the boob than do nearly anything else, including reading a book as I have yet to find a great place to hold it that isn't uncomfortable or digging into her somewhere. 

As soon as the weather clears up a bit here in DC I'll start a nice little routine to help get back in shape. In a week or so I'll go in and get cleared by my doctor to go back to my normal routine, which I'm pretty excited about (not that I've restricted myself a whole lot anyways). In the meantime, I've been introduced to a little addictive sensation called Candy Crush:)

John

John is FINALLY slowing down a bit. He is the master of taking on too much, and on top of working full time and being a new dad he's also been taking 3 college classes, working out when he has a free moment so he didn't die doing the triathlon last week, and prepping for the years biggest fund raiser at work. Thankfully his last final was last Wednesday, the fundraiser was Thursday and the Triathlon was Sunday. That means that for the first time since Kaiya was born we're only competing with his regular work schedule for attention. I assure you, it's a lovely change in pace. He's also looking forward to his paternity leave come mid-June. I am too:)

Cooper

Cooper is such a good boy. He's amazing with Kaiya, always coming up and gently licking her ear just to say hi. The only "jealousy" he demonstrates is with John in the evenings when he comes home. Cooper has always had this ritual of laying on his lap at night when John's relaxing on the couch. Now Kaiya's in his lap/on his chest. Cooper will act like he's willing to share 50/50, but then slowly tries to nudge Kaiya further and further off his chest. He's never aggressive though, he's more of a "passive aggressive" dog I guess. When she's on her own though, Coop loves to lay next to her chair or bassinet.

Luna

Luna is a nut and has zero regard for the baby. I woke up this morning to find Luna laying over Kaiya's legs. Not okay. Luna also likes to climb up and lay on people's chests and often she's attempted to lay on my chest by laying ON TOP of Kaiya. It's like she's coping with the addition of the baby by pretending Kaiya doesn't exist altogether. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do about her disregard for Kaiya, but I'm guessing once Kaiya's able to defend herself (ie: pull Luna's tail and other appendages) the issue will take care of itself.

Kaiya- 4 Weeks!!

I can hardly believe that's it's been four weeks (2 days short of a month). I've heard that babies "grow up quick" and it's no joke. She's grown so much in just 28 short days. She's smiling and cooing, following mommy and daddy's voices around the room with her eyes, can make and hold eye contact, and is too tall for her newborn outfits.

Kaiya is an incredibly good baby with a sweet personality. She rarely ever cries, sleeps 4-5 hour stretches in the night (sometimes 6!) and eats like a champ. I love our days together and am sad just thinking about the day that I'll have to return to work :(

In celebration of her 4 week milestone, I thought I'd post some of my favorite shots from her newborn shoot. They all turned out awesome, but I refrained from posting all 90+ of them:) Isn't she such an angel?!

Kaiya- Day 5

Today, I fell even further in love. We've been struggling a bit with getting a consistent latch and it's caused a bit of frustration on both our parts, but today everything clicked, and we're both happier for it. She's such a dream. She sleeps well, has such a happy and calm demenor, and now eats like a champ. I honestly could not have asked for a more perfect baby. She's made being a first-time mom a breeze, and I can't look at her without being in awe of her total perfection.

It was so beautiful out today!! In celebration we took our very first walk outside and tested out Kaiya's Ergo carrier. Daddy liked it, but still isn't convinced that it's not suffocating her so checks on her constantly :)

Kaiya also really exercised her facial muscles today! Most likely she was practicing her parental eye-roll, along with her grimace and smile. I haven't inteacted with a whole lot of newborns, but Kaiya has to be one of the most expressive babies. I caught this little collection over the course of about 3 minutes while she was dreaming <3

Kaiya- Day 4

Day 4 of Kaiya's life started out in a bit of a frantic race to get ready for her first doctors appointment. She took forever to feed, which set us a bit behind, and with a 10:15am appointment, it started out being a bit of a challenge. We managed to get her changed, dressed and in her carseat and only ended up being 15 minutes late to the doctors. The elevator was being SUPER slow and there were about 5 strollers waiting in front of me so ulitmately I decided to just take the stairs with her while John parked the car. Wouldn't it figure that the office would be on the top floor of a four floor building? Being 4 days post-partum, four floors is no small accomplishment, but I arrived at the top huffing and proud of myself for doing it. I'll also mention I beat the elevator and arrived before all the stroller toating women. Reason 13 why I love baby-wearing.

After filling out the paperwork, and waiting a considerable amount of time in the "healthy child" waiting area, we were called back for her first appointment. Our first instruction was to strip her down. Doing so we realized she had a wet diaper (good girl!) and then we both realized that we hadn't brought a diaper bag. As a matter of fact, we had left the house without anything baby related except a receiving blanket. Here we were at our first outing, and we essentially got caught with our diapers down. Total. Parental. Fail. Luckily the office was only a 5 minute drive from our house, so we managed to finish the appointment and drive home without any accidents. Kaiya was very forgiving of her new parents. We totally earned a dirty poopy mess, and she kindly restrained herself. Such an angel.

Her weight was 7lbs and 7oz, so she's gained a respectable 3 oz. since returning home with another 5 ounces to gain by the time we go in for her 2 week appointment. Everything else looked perfect. Her physical exam resulted in no concerns. The doctor even commented on how beautiful she was, calling her "model-worthy." I tend to agree, and refuse to believe that she says that to all patients ;)

Being examined by the Dr. is not her favorite thing.

Being soothed by Daddy after the trama.

Other than the eventful morning, we had a nice relaxing day of naps... and more naps. She's a super good baby, and sleeps through most of the night, but we craziness of the week caught up with us. BTW, how CUTE is this outfit? Thank you Adriana, Max and Sofia :)

Kaiya- Day 3

Today we came home! Kaiya was given a clean bill of health by passing her hearing test, scoring a ZERO on her billiruben test and leveling off with only a 5.5% weight loss (7-10% is normal for a breastfed baby). She went right to sleep as soon as we placed her in her carseat and didn't make a peep all the way home. I want to mention as an aside that city driving has always stressed me out, but having your entire world strapped inside a little plastic seat is enough stress to drive someone downright crazy. I'm pretty sure my bloodpressure was about 20 points higher than normal by the time I got out of the car.

Coming home also meant introducing baby Kaiya to her big brother Cooper. There was a time early on in the pregnancy when I had half a concern about how Cooper would adjust to Kaiya's presence, but somewhere in my heart I kind of knew it would be okay. There was no way I would have predicted how awesome he would be with her. It's like he immediately claimed her as his. This was their initial introduction:

And this is where he will pretty much stay if we let him:

Needless to say, Cooper has taken quite well to his new baby sister:)

Also welcoming Kaiya home were her God parents Els and Jon, and her Aunt Brittany. All in all, it was a relaxing and wonderfully successful first day home.

Kaiya- Day 2

She's utterly perfect. We didn't get much sleep last night, but I think it was more my not knowing her cues more than her being fussy. She's nursing like a champ, and nursing a lot. A matter of fact, she's only lost like 2% of her birth weight already. That's pretty good! We've learned she doesn't like being undressed, changed, or being cold, but other than that, she almost never cries. She LOVES being swaddled, but she will work endlessly while swaddled during her "wakey" times to get her hands out, and she's a determined little bugger.

Mommy feels like she birthed a bus, but is getting by with just the motrin and a Tylonol every 6 hours. And ladies, you weren't joking, these awful mesh panties they give you are just about the most awesome inventions ever. Does Amazon sell these things??

Kaiya had a couple admirers visit in the evening, including her Aunt Liana, cousin Siana, Ahma (Grandma Nancy), and her God Parents Elspeth and Jon. I wish I had taken more pictures, but in my sleepless, pained state I only thought to grab my phone a couple of times :/ Between Liana, John and myself we did manage to get a couple.