Right after we came home from the hospital, some friends gave us a DVD to watch called The Happiest Baby on the Block. Dr. Harvey Karp instructs you how to soothe and calm a fussy baby by using 5 steps to imitate the womb environment: swaddling, side/stomach position, sucking, shooshing, and swinging. Some babies are satisfied with nursing and being held, while others cry for hours for no apparent reason. Dr. Karp says the latter suffer from the fourth trimester - being brought out into the world in such a violent manner and then missing the cozy womb can all be very disorienting. The logic behind each step really made sense to me, and we have employed all 5 steps at one time or another in this household. We are done with swaddling but the shooshing and sucking (pacifiers) are still both in full force around here. Millie loves to suck; she needs it...it triggers her calming reflex and you can visibly see her start to relax once she has the paci in her mouth. I'm not sure how long she'll continue to use a pacifier or how much longer the shooshing will work on her, but in my mind, we've reached another milestone: it's been twelve weeks and the fourth trimester is over!
With this "womb logic" in mind, we purchased this Graco Sweet Slumber Sound Machine. It plays very loud white noise that sounds like the womb; you can even faintly hear a heartbeat. We have found this thing to be indispensable and even took it to the hotel a few weekends ago when we were out of town. Next time we have a baby, I'm taking this thing to the hospital with us.
Here are some pics I took this morning of our twelve week old girl and those chubby chubby cheeks:
And I also took some video and posted it here: http://youtu.be/BcM_s26LoOo
Today was supposed to be my first day back at work for Walmart. It's kind of bittersweet; I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to stay home with Millie...to be able to see her development and daily changes is priceless. But I'm also sad to be giving up working at Walmart; I really enjoyed my job there, especially the social interaction. I'll miss my Walmart friends, and hopefully we will continue to stay in touch and meet for lunches and sonic runs.
Exciting news: Millie's cousin, Oliver, is to be born tomorrow morning! I'm looking forward to seeing them play and grow together. Love and luck to Lacy & Stephen!
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