Happy One Month, Bethany!

Our sweet and beautiful daughter was born one month ago, today.  She is a wonderful little baby.  She is very strong.  She pushes herself all over her bassinet with her legs and last night, for the first time, she held up her head from her play mat for a good few solid seconds!  She holds her head up off of my and Marcus's chest all the time.  Marcus and I have been pretty much floored by how strong willed and determined she is.  (Not to tip my hat too much . . . but part of that comes from her determined mommy.)  We both think if she had more control over her arms, she would already be trying to crawl.  Once she does become mobile, I think we're going to have our hands full.

Bethany is adjusting well to all the things she once didn't like.  She's fine with diaper changes and doesn't scream during baths.  On most days, she is happy going on her daily walk.  She has just recently started swinging in her swing while awake.  It doesn't last too long, but she's becoming more okay with being not always being held while awake.  She loves sounds like the shower running and the music on the Light Classical Music Choice television station.

She does have her occassional fussy period in the evening.  Some nights she avoids it and I'm so thankful.  Other nights, we bounce and rock and sing and shhhh our way through it.  She's actually very receptive to being calmed which is nice.  It's just hard work for mommy's legs.  Haha.  Oh well.  I've got to get rid of these last few pounds somehow. 

Once she is asleep at night, however, she likes to sleep!  She usually wakes once or twice a night to eat and then she goes right back to sleep.  It's very nice.  During the day, she usually naps for three hour stretches and then I wake her so she can eat.  Sometimes she'll wake up before that on her own.  During the day, she is almost always awake for a good hour or two after eating.  It's fun to interact with her even if all she does is stare at me right now!  

Marcus has got her fixing her eyes on his hand or face and gets her to track.  He's been doing this since birth.  It's become his goal to develop her eye-sight.  He also feeds her a pumped bottle once a day which is so sweet for me to watch.  We're trying to make sure she is used to bottles since she is breast fed. 

She's not on a fixed schedule, but I do write down when she eats and sleeps everyday and everyday is pretty similar.  Before I go back to work though, I do want to get her on a more fixed schedule, so hopefully we'll have an organized morning routine.

On Tuesday, she went on her first outing to Tijuana Flats.  She did well.  She cried a little getting in the car, but was all right once we got going.  She was holding her fists tight, so I was afraid she was nervous and I let her hold my fingers.  I know she is going to have to get used to going places in the car, so hopefully, over time she'll get used to it.  Once we got to the patio outside, however, she was just fine.  She relaxed and looked around.  While Marcus was inside ordering, she started to cry, so I held her for a little bit and she drifted off to sleep.  After putting her back in her carrier, we got to have a nice dinner.  When it was time to go, though, it was definitely time to go and she cried/screamed all the way back home.  (Thankfully, the drive isn't too long!)

We have seen her smile, but we're not sure if she is doing it on her own yet or if it is still involuntary.  We're going to try really hard to see if we can get her to smile soon!   There have actually been a few smiles today that have me wondering!