Today my little one celebrates her 3 week milestone. What have I learned so far about her? When I nurse her, she loves to cross her feet at the ankles. I know she's latched on sufficiently by the loud range of her gulps. The first half dozen swallows are gulps. I have to hold her close and tightly, otherwise she'll pull away because she's going too fast and she'll choke. When she gets ready to feed, she gets down to business immediately. Even though her hands make it somewhat difficult when I'm trying to get her to latch on, it's so nice that she'll either "hold on" or bury her hands in me to get comfortable. I can't properly describe how bonding nursing is. I feel like such a provider for her and we connect again, almost like she's inside of me again. It's pretty amazing. The nurses told me that it would take 2 -4 weeks for her to "get it" and sure enough, at 3 weeks she seems to know when it is time to feed and she'll just get right on. That's not to say we still don't have our hiccups. I know she's an infant, but she knows that if she's angry, she can just bite down and cause a sharp reaction from mommy. Talk about love: she's the only thing that can cause such pain and I'll just love her even more.
Both Don and I allow ourselves time to wind down, mentally. I do mine in different forms: running, cleaning, or even sleeping. He does his by playing video games. About a week or so ago, he bought Call of Duty 4 for PS3. I must say that he's pretty good at video games and I like that he and my brother can bond over them. Well, I have to admit that I think it is pretty cool to watch how he interacts with other gamers and how much fun he gets out of it. Anyway, he doesn't mind watching Mari when he gets home from work. It gives me time to catch up on things around the house or even just to take a shower. On this particular day, I was putting away laundry and I saw this shot and thought it was so cute. I had to grab the picture! Poor thing, her head is all kinds of bent over, but she was so content. We tried to straighten her out and she just fussed and woke up, so I guess she wanted to stay that way. Who knew she'd be so comfortable on Daddy's lap while he conquered the gaming world.
Dinner out with friends: That evening to celebrate her milestone, we went to eat at Posado's with Jorge and Hayley. Don had initially asked them to babysit so we could go to dinner and a movie. It was so spontaneous and I loved it, but I had not prepared adequately. There weren't any prepared bottles and I knew if we were going to be gone that long, she'd need to eat. I told him I wanted a raincheck in the next few weeks and to just give me a days heads up so I can have food for the baby. In any case, it was incredible going to dinner with friends and still doing what we used to do, but had her in tow. I love how patient our friends are and I'm especially grateful how much they all love her. It's a fantastic feeling!
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