Lydia Update

Lydia is six-weeks-old now, and she is such a delight!  All my newborn babies have been precious, but circumstances are allowing me to enjoy Lydia more than I was able to before.  With Caleb, since he was my firstborn, our initial bonding was shadowed by the insecurity and uncertainty of figuring out how to be a parent.  I had dozens of baby books battling it out in my head as I experimented and struggled to determine my parenting style.  With Ethan, he was a very fussy baby, and we were at a very chaotic and stressful time in our life (we moved from Florida to Alabama when Ethan was two-months-old).  Now, 5-year-old Caleb and 3-year-old Ethan entertain each other very well, and I have so much time just to hold and stare at this precious little daughter who has already added so much to our family.

On to the update on Lydia...she is such an EASY baby!  Caleb was pretty easy, but I was too busy trying to do everything "right" to really appreciate it.  And Caleb was not a good sleeper, in that he woke every few hours during the night for months on end.  Lydia, on the other hand, is easygoing when she is awake and is a champion sleeper, both at night and at nap time.  At night, she sleeps 9-10 hours only waking once (after 6-7 hours) to nurse.  During the day, she is awake for 1-2 hours, and then she's ready for a 2-hour nap.  She sleeps about 18 hours out of 24 right now, and most of that sleep is in her crib or in the Newborn Rock 'N Play next to our bed.  But she is flexible and she will sleep anywhere when needed. If we're out and about, she goes down easily in the baby carrier or the stroller and at church, she sleeps contentedly in our arms.  For her early morning nursing, she nurses in our bed and then goes back to sleep next to me until the boys get up.  I know that she is only six-weeks-old and that she will grow less malleable as she gets older, but I've never had a baby who was  this sleep-flexible at any point, so I'm stoked :).  It is so wonderful to finally have a sleeper!  I have quite a few friends and family members whose babies slept through the night and napped well at an early age, and I've always hoped I would end up with a baby like that someday.

As far as her temperament when she's awake, she is pretty content 95% of the time.  She's not smiley in general (at least not yet), but she does smile consistently when she sees me and sporadically at Marcus and the boys.  She is getting better and better at holding her head up, but she lacks the unusual strength that both boys had (they were both holding their heads up consistently around two-weeks-old).  Her eyes are very communicative and intense: I often think that she is looking at me curiously, asking for a play-by-play of what is going on around her.  She is definitely most content and relaxed in Mommy's arms, but she is happy to be held by the rest of the family and friends, as well.  She fusses after she poops until we change her.  She loves her warm bath, and doesn't even cry when I take her out and dry her off.  She does not like her car seat and regularly wails through car rides. She loves to be wrapped up and warm, but not swaddled: she likes her arms to be free.

My mom has told me for years what an easy child I was: slept through the night by six weeks (without "crying-it-out"), potty trained around 22-months with the whole process taking about 24 hours, very compliant and eager-to-please preschooler, and only needed one spanking my entire childhood (probably could have used a couple more when I was a teen :).  I've listened to these stories and shaken my head at how different my experience has been with the boys.  Now, based on our first six weeks with Lydia, I'm starting to hope that maybe one of our children will follow that path.  I'm not counting on it or anything, but she sure has been a delight so far!