Two Weeks Old!

Today, Cadence is two weeks old! This means that it’s been more than two weeks since I’ve had a full eight hours of sleep. Wow!

On average I get about 4-5 hours of sleep each night, in two and three hour stretches. It sounds a lot worse than I actually feel. I think that’s the biggest difference between baby number one and baby number two—I have a very real understanding that this is all temporary. Eventually, Cadence WILL sleep in four+ hour stretches. As a first-time parent, it didn’t matter how many people told me that things would change/get better/be different, every day felt like it was going to be my new reality, forever. I’m enjoying this sense of calm and understanding that goes along with baby number two.

Here are some events from Cadence’s second week of life:

I took both girls out on my first solo outing! We went to one of our favorite indoor play areas: Munchkin Playland. It went great! Cadence slept the whole time. I put her in the Baby Bjorn and played with Adelaide like I usually do. This outing was so successful that I did it two more times last week—to the indoor park at the community center and then to art class, followed by the indoor park again. Cadence slept through all of these outings. It’s going to be very different when she starts spending a greater percentage of her day awake.

Cadence’s umbilical stub fell off. Her belly button isn’t completely done healing, but at least that obnoxious appendage is gone. It makes diapering so much easier!

Because her umbilical stub fell off, we were able to give Cadence her first real bath at home! She didn’t seem offended by her bath! haha! I hesitate to say she enjoyed it…but she didn’t cry at all, so I know for sure she didn’t hate it. She’s due for another bath tomorrow, so we’ll see if her opinion has changed.

She is settling into breastfeeding. With Adelaide, both she and I were learning how to breastfeed at the same time. But with Cadence, I already knew how, so it’s just been her figuring it out. Let’s just say I’ve been a little impatient. Bad mommy. Anyhow, I keep reminding myself that she has to learn just like I had to learn. And she’s not Adelaide—Cadence is going to have her own way of eating and I need to figure out what that is and go along with it. Anyhow, my milk supply has FINALLY settled in and Cadence is FINALLY becoming a consistent eater. She’s not on any kind of schedule—still eating on-demand, but at least her routine while eating is consistent. Yay!

Cadence laughs! She smiles and all-out chuckles! It’s always in her sleep, but we don’t care. I can’t believe we get to hear her laugh at only two weeks old! I’m so excited for when her laughs are a reaction to us.

Cadence is still the loudest, noisiest baby we’ve ever known. She is constantly making grunting/snorting noises. She reminds me of a little bulldog only without the drool/snot.

Adelaide looooooves her baby sister. She is still constantly asking for “cuddles with Cadence” and now that she’s healthy, she’s getting to spend a lot of time with Cadence on the couch. Kisses and hugs abound and she is learning she has to take her gentleness to a whole new level.

Cadence is a pretty gassy baby. She’s great at burping, though, and rarely ever spits up. This week, she made up for her lack of spit-up by projectile vomiting…TWICE…from overfeeding. I was the lovely recipient of both “milk baths” and quickly amended my feeding routine to insure she actually gets to digest her milk. So far, it hasn’t happened again.

She’s become more picky about where she sleeps. She sleeps relatively well in her swing and bouncy chair, but her favorite pace to sleep is either in our arms or next to us, in bed. This kid likes to be warm, and being next to a warm body makes her happiest! (and sleepiest!)

Now that she’s “unfolded” more, Cadence is pushing the limits of her newborn size clothing. Adelaide was in newborn size clothing until she was eight weeks old, so it’s pretty shocking to me that Cadence is outgrowing the newborn size clothing at two weeks old. Seeing Cadence in the clothes that Adelaide was wearing at eight weeks old makes me think that Cadence is older than she really is. I have to keep reminding myself that she is ONLY two weeks old and just because she’s not in newborn size clothing does not mean she’s not a newborn.

For the past two weeks we have had friends bringing us meals and meeting our little girl. It has been the biggest help and the best gift we could ask for. We can’t even begin to thank everyone who has come by to say hi and brought dinner. We have LOVED trying everyone’s meals and not having to think about dinner has been awesome. I’m sad that it’s coming to an end, but in just a few days we have grandparents coming to visit! Yay!

Alright, here are some pictures from this past week: