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We’ve had a busy past week around here. Last weekend was my birthday, and Kristin and Mike came up from Providence to babysit Charlotte while Brian and I went out for brunch. We had cake and presents too. It was such a nice day. The best part was that Charlotte slept from about 11:30 to 5am the night before my birthday!

My friend Shalon was in town for a few days this week, and we took Charlotte on her first trip downtown. Shalon watched Charlotte at the hair salon while I got a haircut and then Charlotte slept through our lunch out. The baby jogger turns out to be great for navigating sidewalks and curbs and icy snowbanks. We managed to get out for a walk Wednesday in a sleet/ice/rain storm, which Charlotte also slept through.

We have seen a few smiles here and there and Charlotte seems more interested in colorful toys, especially if they make noise. I weighed her today at my mothers’ class and she’s still gaining lots of weight. She’s up to 9 pounds now.

Charlotte has been a very hungry baby lately, which is good since she’s finally catching up on her weight gain. We went to the doctor for another check yesterday and she gained nine ounces this week! So that was a relief. Yesterday was also baby’s first trip to the mall, which went well. We met up with other mothers from my class for lunch, then we shopped a little bit.

We have seen a few little smiles from Charlotte in the past few days. She smiled at my mom this past weekend, and this morning smiled at herself in the mirror. She’s also making more non-crying noises. In general she seems to really, really like being awake. Even when she looks exhausted, with little baby bags under her eyes, she doesn’t like to fall asleep. Lately it’s around midnight to 2 a.m. that she’s really wide awake, although then she will often sleep a longer stretch till 6 or so–last night she slept almost 4 hours straight, which was so nice.

Brian and I got to have dinner out by ourselves last weekend, thanks to my parents. It was great. And Charlotte met her great grandparents and great aunt when Nana, Papa and Auntie drove down Saturday. We have been updating Flickr with more pictures, here.

Today Charlotte and I went on a big trip–we drove to the new mothers’ class I am taking. It was the first class and it went well. It was really nice to meet some other new mothers. They are very encouraging of class members going on social outings outside of class, so, we went over to Panera afterwards with some of the other people. It was Charlotte’s first restaurant visit, though she slept through the whole thing. I had to really bundle her up since the high today was 17 degrees!

This week has been pretty quiet otherwise. Charlotte was 3 weeks old yesterday. We went to the pediatrician again and she has finally regained her birth weight, so she is gaining weight more slowly than they would like. The doctor recommended adding an extra feeding of pumped milk with a bottle every day, so we did that yesterday and today…so far so good. She’s growing out of some of her clothes so that seems like a good sign.

Today I took Charlotte for a walk all bundled up in her baby carrier. It was chilly but sunny and I did a few errands in Roslindale Square. The sidewalks were mostly clear from the last ice/snow/rain storm and it was so nice to get out. We haven’t used the stroller yet but maybe we’ll try that next–although having her in the carrier probably keeps her warmer. She was asleep most of the walk.

The past few days we’ve been trying to figure out why Charlotte spits up so much. At the doctor Wednesday she was still a few ounces short of her birth weight, so we have to go back for another check next week. She is eating a lot and frequently but the doctor suggested cutting her feedings a little shorter to possibly eliminate some of her spitting up, and also raising the head of her crib/bassinet mattress. It seems to be helping so far–the incidents of projectile spit up have gone down! We also went to the cardiologist this week and the news there was good. She had another echocardiogram and the doctor was happy with what she saw. So we’ll go back in two months for another checkup.

Here’s Charlotte on her play mat the other day. She moves her arms and legs so much when she’s lying down that it looks like she’s doing karate.

Big stretch after a nap:

Brian went back to work today, so Charlotte and I were on our own. Luckily he’s still got ten days of paternity leave that he’s going to take over the next few weeks, a few days each week. He’ll be home tomorrow and Wednesday for doctor’s appointments. Today went pretty well, although Charlotte must be having a growth spurt because she’s been really hungry today. A few of her newborn outfits are already looking like they might be too small.

Charlotte likes her vibrating bouncy seat, although she was so fussy tonight the seat didn’t even do the trick. We had our first major diaper blowout today.

She is also getting good at escaping from her swaddling. At night and during naps we can hear her grunting and making noises to get out of the blanket, and sometimes she gets her arms out of the sleeves of her sleepers too.

Here’s to a great 2009!

We posted some more photos today, here. In the past few days we’ve just been hanging out with Charlotte, eating all the food my parents brought, and trying to nap whenever possible. She seems to be getting into a routine with eating and sleeping–she’s hungry about every three hours during the day and about every four at night. She was awake a lot today and fussier than she has been so far. 

It snowed yesterday and today was only about 20 degrees, but we are hoping to get out of the house for a walk tomorrow when it’s supposed to be a little warmer.