What a month it's been. My sweet little girl has really blossomed this month...the difference between the baby we have now and the baby we brought home from the hospital is truly amazing. This month has been all about interaction...she makes direct eye contact with everyone and everything...from Mommy and Daddy to her stuffed toys hanging from the mobile above her play pen. She's also communicating more and doing her best to tell us her feelings about things. What used to be frantic distressed huffy puffy breathing has turned into more of a communicative interaction...or maybe we're just speaking her language more? Whatever the case, we're all understanding one another much better this month.
Alia is also so much stronger this month...she's not the little bug of last month...our girl is lifting her head and is much more stable...we no longer handle her like a china doll...more like a carton of eggs now...she can be easily moved around but you still have to be very careful!
Alia is a very discerning girl. She is not what they call an "angel baby" that smiles all the time. You gotta work for this girl's approval. She lets us know what pleases her and what displeases her. For example, she likes Coldplay, but only the mainstream radio type of songs like Yellow and Clocks and Viva La Vida, but definitely does not like the songs at the end of the CDs of the band rocking out. She loves Colin Hay, particularly his later stuff from his solo Man at Work CD.
When it comes to eating and sleeping, Alia is doing pretty well, I must say. Over the last month, feeding time has gone from full-blown panic and rooting on her part...near hysterics before and after feeding looking for food and more food. Now Alia has learned a little patience and is calmer both before and after eating. Although the volume that she would like to eat is somewhat alarming at times (she is already hoping to eat what a 6-month-old is supposed to eat), our pediatrician says her growth is perfect perfect perfect. She is in the 75th percentile of height, and the 25 percentile of weight, so even though I don't want to create a monster that comforts herself with food throughout her life, I don't' think we have much to worry about given her statistics.
Sleep is also pretty good. I read somewhere that some babies at 10 weeks old will sleep for 5-6 hours at a stretch...Alia has accomplished this once. I would like her to accomplish this more often. However, our little one knows the difference between night and day right now...for the moment...so I can't complain. During the day, we follow a 3-4 hour cycle of eat-play-sleep and then at night we eliminate the play time...she does really well. She's been going right back to sleep after feeding for quite awhile now. That said, she does need to sleep right next to me...no co-sleeper, not in a bassinet next to my bed...we're talking in my bed, snuggled right up to me...this girl thinks her crib is an expensive toy box. But you know what? That's totally consistent with her personality since we first met her...she's always been cuddly, and now more than ever loves to be held and will happily be carried around all day long if my biceps hold up.
This month, Alia also witnessed and helped me through a great deal of sadness. She helped me so much to get past the death and loss of my cat Pooh. I had no choice but to focus my energy on the new light that shines from her eyes. I continue to miss my kitty...only an hour ago I thought about cleaning out the non-existent litter box...but Alia's presence has helped me tremendously.
Alia likes to dress up...I mean, well, she's okay with all the dress up I like to play with her. It is typical for me to put up to 5 or 6 outfits on her per day, just to take pictures of all of her cuteness.
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