eLLe - week 4

Dear Luciya,


You are four weeks old today! I continue to be amazed by you every day.

You have changed so much already in the last four weeks. Your flakiness is almost all gone, but you still have hairy monkey shoulders. You are developing "baby acne."


You are more alert and your eyes are wide open more often during the day. You have periods of quiet attentiveness and will often stare at a point just beyond my shoulder or accross the room. You are still very much in the heavens.


You coo and ah in your sleep. When you wake up in the morning or the middle of the night it is not with cries but sweet little grunts.


Yes, you are taking a pacifier. Not all the time, but enough to keep your little sucking mouth soothed. I have been wrangling this dilemma in my head, as the book What to Expect the First Year basically says parents who use pacifiers are putting a plug in their babies, ignoring what baby really wants, and making them addicted to sucking on latex for the rest of their lives. Agh! That is the last thing I want to feel. But girl, you are a sucker. And you need to suck. And I only started resorting to the binky after my milk ran dry two nights in a row because I let you suck. On me. (I would love any comments/input on the general pacifier attitude out there!)


This morning was the first time you met and held my gaze as you were nursing. It just about melted my heart.


We are going on a trip, today, Luciya! You and I are going all by ourselves on an airplane to Portland to see Aunty T and Uncle Colby and meet your future husband! I know you will be a champ on the plane and a darling on the mainland. I'm really excited. [Thanks, everyone, for keeping your thoughts with us!]

I love you Luciya!
Mama