J&K Rogers: Four Weeks to Six Weeks

Natalie is one month old!

I know babies aren't supposed to start socially smiling until about six weeks, but this little one seemed to socially smile at just about 3 weeks old. My mom and grandparents noticed it too, when they were visiting. She would focus right on your face and give a little grin. Call it a reflex or gas, but either way, it was so fun to see. I even captured some of these early smiles in her one month pictures.

See...

At one month Natalie weighed about 9lbs, 3oz. I had to order more diapers for her (I forgot how fast newborns go through diapers), and I decided to go ahead and order size 1's. It's sad to transition her out of the cute and tiny newborn diapers, but I was buying in bulk and didn't want to end up with a bunch of leftover diapers that were too small. Also, several newborn outfits aren't fitting anymore. Especially in the legs, as she is Miss Long Legs. She's growing so quickly!

I'm feeling recovered, and nursing is going great. I went to my follow up doctor's appointment and was cleared for all regular activity at four and a half weeks. I have been walking daily and have been surprised at how fast my recovery went. Now that I'm six weeks from the c-section, I'm able to actually go on a short jog and feel no pain.

Less smiley, but so sweet.

Natalie likes to be on the changing table in her nursery while looking at her cieling fan, her tree decal, and the pictures on the walls. When she's on our bed, she loves to stare at the black and white silhouette wedding photo we have hanging on the wall.

Sometimes you just have to play dress up with your baby. Cousin Cali passed this dress down to Natalie. Cali wore it on her first New Year's celebration. We don't have any fancy occasions coming up, so we decided to have a fancy dress up session on a regular weekday.

Miss personality!

Then, she dressed up in the outfit that I wore when my parents brought me home from the hospital. At one month Natalie was close to my size at birth. I was certainly a bigger baby-sorry about that, Mom.

Luke is doing really well with adjusting to life with a sister. He wakes up in the morning and asks to see "my baby." In fact, he asks to see her often and wants to wash his hands (which he knows is a requirement) and touch her. In the hospital he said, "Can I touch her nose? Her nose is cool. It is squishy." He also asked, "Can I touch her toesies?" He definitely does not want to hold her, though. I think he's worried he'll her hurt her and he doesn't want that responsibility (which is o.k. as we don't have to worry about him going over to pick her up).

People wonder whether Luke still calls her Catback. In the hospital he did. In fact, he corrected people who called her Natalie. He'd say, "It's Catback." Then, he decided to call her Catback Natalie Rogers. He said Natalie was her, "second name." But, after a few weeks, he dropped the Catback nickname and now calls her Natalie. He says, "Catback is her pretend name."

When we first brought Natalie home, he was a little put off by her spit up. In fact, on one of her first days home, Luke saw her spit up and he started gagging. He said, "that makes me cough," and I quickly took her into her room to clean up. He walked in Natalie's room after he stopped gagging and happened to catch a glimpse of her scab from her cord, since it had not yet fallen off. He immediately starting gagging again. Poor kid has a weak stomach! Now, he is happy to report that she has, "a regular belly button!"

When Natalie first came home, Luke asked if he could bring her to his babysitter's for the day. I explained that she was not quite old enough to go. He said, "Can I bring my baby? I want Shannon to hold her." Apparently after he got to the sitter's house he told her that she would need to be really careful when she held Natalie. His friend exclaimed, "Luke, I think Shannon KNOWS how to hold babies!" After all, she is a babysitter.

One day, I overheard Luke tell Natalie, "You are so beautiful. But, I don't love you when you cry." I explained to him that we still love her when she cries, but we don't like it when she cries. Now, he tells her, "You are a cute baby, and we still love you when you cry."

A fist bump for his sister (while she yawns).

By a month, Natalie was starting to hold up her head pretty well and turn it from side to side. Here she is during tummy time.

Strike a pose!

I think she's going to have Jacob's smile, because in his baby pictures I noticed this same wide open grin.

Three of my favorite people!

We made a trip to Slater to see grandparents. Natalie was so happy to meet GG.

We also made a trip to see family and celebrated my Mom's birthday. Natalie slept most of the drive, which was wonderful. We were prepared for her to cry and gave Luke our noise canceling headphones to wear-just in case. He was very appreciative! It was a great visit, but right before this trip Natalie started not wanting to be set down at all. The easy going baby we had for the first month, became more challenging for sure. At six weeks, we are only able to get her to nap while being held upright or while wrapped next to me in my Boba wrap. She does seem colicky at times. Late at night, she sleeps well...if she is nursing and snuggling with me. This is challenging, but Luke wasn't a great sleeper as a baby, and at least we know things will eventually get better.

At five weeks, the smile is certainly social...look at this one!

Prima ballerina went for a visit to my work at five weeks.

Now at six weeks, she's mastered two looks:

Serious and silly!

We put some finishing touches on Natalie's nursery.

I was happy to get her name up above her crib.

We were able to transform Luke's nursery to Natalie's nursery with just a few changes. The yellow hanging poms were changed to pink, a pink rug was added, and pink flowers were added to the tree decal.