First Bottle

Ada had her first bottle last night. With Josephine, I made the mistake of waiting too long before I gave her a bottle and she refused to take one when she got older (which meant I was the only way she could eat!). So, with Ada, I'm starting early and making sure she gets a bottle every once in awhile (it's breastmilk, not formula).


Nathan and Josephine feeding Ada her first bottle.


Ada kept her eyes on me the whole time. I think she was confused about why she was getting milk, but I wasn't the one giving it to her.

I've been able to resist giving her a passy so far. She would probably use it, but then I think about how I'd have to constantly have to put it back in her mouth for her, especially in the middle of the night.

As of Tuesday, Ada was up to 7 lbs 8 oz! That's 8 oz above her birth weight. She gained 15 oz in 7 days (she dropped down to 6 lb 9 oz after she was born). I knew she was growing quickly, but I didn't realize how much. I wouldn't be surprised if she had gained close to another half pound since then. She's really chunking up quickly!

Her neck muscles are getting stronger. She was able to hold her head up for a little bit after she was born, but she's able to keep it up for longer periods of time now. It's funny when she gets tired because she just lets her head flop.

She hasn't slept through the night again, but she still sleeps well. Two nights ago she woke up every 3-4 hours to eat, which isn't too bad for a breastfed baby. Last night she woke up at 12:30am then slept until 6am. Her stomach must have been upset because she didn't sleep well after 6am. But she's asleep now. : )

Josephine's cold is getting better. Her fever is gone and all that's left is that deep, juicy cough. She slept well last night and slept until almost 10 this morning. She still seems a little tired, though.

We have to take Ada to get ANOTHER heel stick this afternoon. Her PKU stick wasn't sufficient, so we have to do it again. They have to take so much blood for that test and it's very specific how the blood is placed on the card. Luckily, we'll go to the birthing center to have it done instead of Children's Hospital. Ada's pediatrician's nurse isn't comfortable with giving heel sticks like that, so we're going to the birthing center. The birthing center called last night around 7:30 or so. They had us scared for a little bit, because we thought the results showed something was wrong with Ada, but it was just the test itself that wasn't right.

Nathan has a tech-HIDA scan done tomorrow on his gallbladder to make sure it is functioning properly. He should have results right after the test, I think. He will be "radioactive" for up to 24 hours after they give him the nuclear stuff, so the girls and I are going to stay with my parents for the day and night. I would like to go with him, but he can't be around Ada and Ada has to be around me 24/7 right now.

Speaking of being needed 24/7, time to feed the baby.

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I forgot to talk about what Josephine is learning these days. Last night we played a game for about a half hour where Josephine had to tell us whether a certain animal was a mammal, bird, or reptile (we didn't get into the other types of animals). We had worked on it before, but she was really into it last night. We just used basic differences (hair/fur, feathers, scales) to distinguish between the types of animals. She was pretty impressive. Right before I took her up to bed, Nathan asked her if she had hair, scales or feathers. She correctly answered "hair". Then Nathan asked her what she was and her reply was "A Snorton Head!". It was so funny. Nathan and Josephine have a game they play where Jo decides what kind of "head" she is. Sometimes she's a Pooh-head or Horton-head. Lately, she's been a Snorton-head.

Josephine and I were just going through her Atlas looking at the flags. She has her favorites, such as USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and Luxembourg (only Josephine would care about Luxembourg's flag). She pointed to Luxembourg's flag and said "That's where birds live." :) Apparently she hears Luxem-bird when we say it. That cracked me up. Then we had another conversation that I never thought I'd have with a 2 year old. Belgium's flag has the same color stripes as Germany's, but Belgium's are vertical stripes and Germany's are horizontal. So Josephine had a lesson on the difference between vertical and horizontal stripes. She understood the concept, but she never said vertical or horizontal (she just pointed), so I'm anxious to see if she will bring up vertical and horizontal later on.

Just had to share.