I love being a mommy. Even when she's pooping on me and eating every hour and a half, I still love it. I've been reading The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Karp while nursing. It is an amazing book, I'm really enjoying it. The concepts are so simple but they make so much sense. He believes that for the first four months, it's impossible to spoil babies. He encourages parents to imitate the womb for their babies in the way we hold them, swaddle them, feed them, etc. We've been using his ideas from the beginning and Mary Elizabeth has never really cried for longer than it takes us to take care of whatever it is she's crying about. We've learned for the most part what her cries mean and are usually able to make her happy pretty quickly.
Everyone keeps telling me how big she's getting. I can tell she's gotten longer but since I see her all day, every day, it's hard to tell. I did notice that she seems to take up more of her bassinet than she used to.
Speaking of big girl, she took her first bottle this week! It was still mommy's milk but I wanted her to be able to go back and forth between me and the bottle. The first time she took it, she didn't have any trouble with it but she wasn't too happy about it. I didn't know how much she normally eats so I just sort of guessed based in what is average for her age. I ended up a few ounces short and she was not too pleased! Luckily I was just able to nurse her the last few minutes and it was fine. Parker gave her the bottle and he was so excited to do so! He loved being able to feed her. For me, it was sweet watching him bond with her like that and kind of liberating watching her take the bottle so well. However, it did make me a little sad or maybe jealous. Feeding has always been our special time! I love it that every two to three hours, I've been the only one who gets to take her somewhere quiet and have one-on-one time. I love being the one that meets her needs and makes her happy. I was glad to see I hadn't put enough in the bottle and was going to have to top her off! She looked up at me like she missed me and missed our special time just as much as I did. :)
She started smiling a lot more this week. I can tell that some of her smiles are just gas but the ones that are in response to my voice or my face melt my heart. I'm so looking forward to the giggly smiley phase!
Parker continues to impress (and surprise) me with his amazing fathering. It is pure joy watching how much he loves our daughter. The name Parker means the protector. He's always been somewhat protective of me, true to his name. However, since Mary Elizabeth was born, he has really become a lot more protective, of us both. I asked him if his paternal instincts surprised him. He said that he was definitely surprised at how natural it all came to him. I'd have to agree.
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