4 Weeks Old

Anabella is four weeks old today.  I can't believe she has been here for a month already.  We are starting to get used to the new addition.  The biggest development in the last week is that she seemed to have figured out that nights are for sleeping!  It is wonderful!  She goes to bed usually between 10 and 11.  Then she gets up once usually between 1 and 3 and goes right back down.  Then she gets up again between 4 and 6.  I have a harder time getting her back to bed this time.  I am sure part of it is that it is light out.  If it is a weekend I can get Sean up around 6 since he usually wakes up at that time anyway and I can get a couple more hours of sleep.  However during the week I am usually up for good.  I can't complain because I usually get about 6 hours of sleep even though it is broken up.  We started using the swaddle blankets this week and I think that helps too.  I am not sure why we didn't use them before.  Probably because she was up and down so much and it can be hard to change her in it.  Plus she really seemed to like having her arms free and by her face the first couple weeks.  She still sleeps a lot during the day but she doesn't seem to have those super long deep sleeps that she had at first.

I am breastfeeding her and it is going pretty good.  She is very similar to Kaelynn in that she wants to nurse when she is awake.  So she might feed every hour or more when she is awake and then go 3 or 4 hours between feedings when she sleeps.  I mostly let her nurse when she wants although sometimes I just can't sit and nurse her for hours!  Luckily she takes a pacifier so Sean is able to settle her down if I am not there.  Actually she seems to go to sleep better for him with a pacifier then for me.  I think it is because she knows I have milk and so she gets mad when I try to give her the pacifier.  So if I can't get her to sleep and she is nursing constantly I hand her off to Sean and she is out in minutes!  Teamwork!

We haven't given her a bottle yet.  For some reason I think she will really like the bottle and it may interfere with breastfeeding.  Sometimes she has a hard time latching and staying latched on.  I think when she realizes how easy it is to get milk out of a bottle she will not want to nurse. Maybe I am wrong though.  I don't want to wait too long to try it plus it would be nice to be able to get away for a little while and know she is OK.  So far I have only left to run brief errands - maybe 30 or 45 minutes at a time.

Kaelynn still loves her little sister.  She wants to see her and hold her a lot.  I am very happy to see how loving she is with the baby.  This has been a hard transition for her though.  She wants lots of mommy's attention so it is hard to deal with both of the girls.  Sean will try to get her out of the house on occasion by taking her shopping or something but sometimes she refuses to go because she is scared to leave me.  It is tough because I need a break on occasion!  She doesn't' nap anymore so I don't get any breaks during the day.

In the past week she has decided to start peeing her pants.  She has been potty trained for an entire year and never has accidents anymore.  But she has had about one a day for the last week.  Sean and I have no idea what to do.  We have tried offering candy for going potty but she isn't that interested.  We have to fight with her to go potty every time.  I hope this phase passes soon.  She was sitting on the couch the other day with a guilty look.  I asked her what she was doing and she told me she went potty but "It's OK Mommy."  She always tells us "It's OK" when she does something that makes us mad.  Then the next day after having an accident she told me she would sing to make me happy and started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  It is hard to stay mad when she can be so cute but I just don't get why she is doing this!


Here are some of my favorite recent pics...