Week 5: Nonni and other adventures

Scarlett hit the one month old mark this week and surpassed her birth weight! She is doing great and gaining weight every day. She is really filling out and is becoming very interactive. She cries more now just because she wants to be held and smiles a lot. Overall, she still cries very little and virtually never without a reason. She sleeps up to 6 1/2 hours at a time too! We think she may have a milk allergy so we switched to soy formula for her supplements. It seems to help. She doesn't spit it up as much and her congestion seems to have improved. I'm not positive that it is related, but I've seen message boards where other babies with congestion had it clear up after making the switch. The three pictures here are all of our newborn photos. Scarlett is on the left, I'm on the top right and Paul is on the bottom right. We think she looks like a combination of the two of us. Any differing opinions?

The biggest event this week was that my mom (Nonni) was here. She spent a few days with my uncle Ray, but otherwise she was with us for about 9 days. It was great! It was again very helpful to have an extra set of hands to help with laundry, dishes, and the supplemental feedings. Scarlett seemed to love her! She was very cuddly and hardly ever spit up. Paul went back to work while she was here so it was also comforting to have an extra pair of hands while I got used to being without Paul all day on a consistent basis. Now we just hope that they move back or at least come to visit again soon!

In other news, as of today (12/14/09) Scarlett is 8 lbs 3 ounces and finally starting to outgrow some newborn/preemie clothes. She has been gaining 1-2 ounces per day. She had her 1 month photos taken on Saturday. Julie Monticello (one of Paul's friends) is a photographer and came to the house to take some portraits in our own environment. We also got some family photos done. We'll share them once they are in! Scarlett stayed with a babysitter for the first time (Donna and Abigail) for a few hours while we went to Nicole's wedding reception. She did great -- basically slept the entire time! She also stayed alone with Nonni for a few hours while Paul and I slipped out for dinner. It is definitely hard to leave her at all, but I guess I need to start building up my tolerance for it a little bit! I have a feeling that maternity leave is going to be over before I know it.