Sasha-7 Weeks old

I have been a slacker about posting anything about little Sasha's first few weeks of life, so here we go. Kinda in a hurry, so I will do my best to keep this brief.

SLEEPING:
The hardest part about raising Sasha so far has been her pickiness during sleep. She didn't like to be swaddled from the beginning. She woud just scream and squirm. If she did fall asleep while swaddled, she would still squirm out (Sasha is anythig but the 'Sleep like a baby" type. Her arms flail and she makes a lot of little noises. Cute, but a little unnerving for the first few weeks. )
Since Kaleb had serious spitting-up problems and our two most recent nieces were diagnosed with acid reflux, we were a little wary for our little Sasha. Her doc suggested keeping her propped up a little while sleeping, so I came up with this little nest in her crib. So far it seems to be working great.

Another issue with Sasha's sleeping was her distate for anything slightly chilly. She didn't like breezes while she was sleeping which made it difficult for her to sleep in our room the first few weeks since I am a fan-a-holic. We had to make a fort-type cover on her playpen. Plus, we resorted to using a hotpad to preheat her bed at night since she seemed to hate sleeping at night (we assumed due to the cold). Thankfully it has worked. She consistently sleeps 5-6 hours every night and occasionally goes for 7.

One God-send is the swing Ammon's brother and his wife let us borrow. She will fall asleep almost instantly (as long as she isn't starving), so it has been really nice as a last resort when she just doesn't seem to want to settle down.

HANDS: I've already commented on Sasha's super-long fingers and finger nails. But one great thing is how quickly she has learned to use them... or not use them. Within her first week, Sasha almost never scratched herself. Thank goodness cuz her nails grow like weeds!!

DADDY: Ammon has SOOO looked forward to having a little girl! I get pictures of him with her ALLL the time... but none with me. Go figure.

Anyway, This is when she wore her first dress.

Daddy coming home from work:

And sleeping together at church:

FIRSTS: Of course the first month is filled with many firsts, like her first bath (delayed a bit by a belly button that just wouldn't heal):

Her first time to the park (obviously very exciting):

Her first real smile was the day before she was a month old. This picture was taken more recently. She has been really smiley over the last week or so.

EATING: I have been nursing Sasha as well as giving her formula since her second day, but unfortunately it took quite awhile to get her used to formula. Then, about her third week she started having horrible, noisy gas bubbles churning around in her stomach. Gas drops didn' seem to make a huge difference so the doctor suggested I lay off dairy and maybe try a new formula. So now I keep my milk intake to a minimum and we have her on a special gentle formula. That seems to do the trick, but it gives her really stinky poop. However, I'm really happy to say she hardly ever spits up, so our acid reflux fears seem to be in vain.

ONE MONTH: At her one-month appointment, Sasha weighed 9 lbs, 13 oz and had grown to 21.5 inches, both in the 75th percentile. I like to take comparison pictures in the same outfit so here Sasha is at 3 days old:

And here she is at one month in the same outfit:

I love it when babies cross their eyes!!

Just for laughs we put Sasha in Kaleb's Size 6 diapers:

Blowing bubbles. A new hobby as of week 6.

Sasha can already stand up without help, and she loves to use those cute little legs of hers!!

KALEB: He is the best bigger brother I could ever ask for. He loves the baby (and I will go into more detail in his post. Here is a picture of his first attempt at holding her.

Just for fun, I did a random little photo shoot of my own while Sasha was asleep the other day! We did the wedding ring thing with Kaleb, so I decided "WHY NOT?"

Photo Shoot

When Sasha was about three weeks old, a friend of mine came over to do a little photo shoot with my adorable little munchkins. It was a learning experience for me: Firstly, do photo shoots either after five weeks or before two weeks because you want the baby really sleepy or happy awake, not cranky awake like she was at three weeks. Then again, Sasha isn't the best sleeper, so that didn't help. See a later post about Sasha's first month.

Also, one of the few ways to get Kaleb to sit for a 'stranger' for pictures is to let him have his bear with him and to jump off the furniture:
I also learned that day that Kaleb has a great little fake smile. I would say "Teeth" and this is what he gave us. Not too shabby for a two year old!

HOLY SMOKES THIS KID IS SO FLIPPIN CUTE!!!!!!

OF course, cuddling with the bear!

And with his baby Sasha:

Finally, Kaleb let us take some pictures of Sasha.

This is what I call 'The Lindsey Face'

SOOOOO Beautiful!!

That's right! It's a tutu! The photographer actually made that for her for the photo shoot. Sasha wasn't a huge fan, but it was so CUTE!!

This is the way I see her most often.

And of course, snuggling with the bear!

Thanks, Julie!!!