1 Month Old

Joanna Frances Porter

1 Month

I can't believe Joanna is already a month old! She has been such a good baby and we are so thankful for her. Below are a few things that describe life with Joanna in her first month.

• She is a great sleeper. We've had a few rough nights here and there, but overall she has been great. At night she goes 3-5 hours between wanting to eat, and usually goes right back to sleep after a diaper change and a meal. Last night she had a 4-hour stretch, a 5-hour stretch, then a 2-hour stretch. Matt and I are so thankful and tell her often how much we appreciate her sleeping habits. :)

• During the day she loves to cuddle up with mom or dad and nap on our chest. Those are the sweetest cuddles.

• She thinks it's funny (that's the only explanation I can find) to pee all over the changing table right after we've cleaned her up and usually just before we put the clean diaper on.

• She has been out on the town quite a bit already! She's been to Tyler with us a few times, has hit up several restaurants and stores in Canton, and been to the baseball fields and basketball gym to watch some of our favorite teenagers play sports. She has been great so far when we've taken her out.

• She is a noisy sleeper. She grunts, squeals, smacks, toots, and oooo's and ahhh's.

• She likes when mom and dad sing silly songs to her. Well, I don't really know if she likes it, but there are a lot of silly songs being sung in the Porter house lately. She doesn't scream when we sing to her, so we'll assume she likes them.

• She likes to be rocked and bounced. If she is fussy, just take a seat in the rocking chair or on the exercise ball (great for bouncing!) and that usually does the trick!

• She loves to be outside. We go outside and sit in the rocking chair and she will just look around and sit quietly for a long time. It is just so darn hot right now, so we don't get to stay out as long as we'd like. She also does great when we go for walks with the stroller. Penny likes to join us on our walks, too!

• She is a great eater! She only nurses for 10-15 minutes, which is great for me! At first we worried that she wasn't getting enough to eat in that short amount of time, but once we learned that she was getting plenty, I realized I could just be thankful for an efficient eater.

• She is starting to get some hair on top of her head, but it is still FAR from catching up to the hair on the sides and back of her head. We tell her she has "old man hair."

• She loves being in the Moby Wrap. It calms her down almost immediately, and it is great for allowing mom to get a few things done!

• She does pretty well in the car. She likes it best when we're moving and sometimes gets cranky at long red lights (and therefore so do mom and dad!).

• She loves to be swaddled, but also loves to stretch out those arms and legs! If she is swaddled she will usually at least try (and is oftentimes successful) to wiggle her little hands out of the top. Dad, who is the master swaddler, gets pretty irritated when she is successful. She can also fall asleep with her arms and legs spread out in every direction (like her mom).

• She likes baths... most of the time. She definitely likes being in the warm water, but doesn't always enjoy actually being WASHED.

• She watches us and follows us around the room with her eyes. She likes to watch dad do a silly dance and mom play with Penny.

• She does a really great job of holding her head up. Sometimes she'll just hang out for a minute or so holding her head up. When we lay her on her tummy we'll lay on either side of her and talk to her. She will pick up her head and turn it toward whichever one of us is talking.

• She makes so many funny faces. She keeps us entertained!

• Lastly, she gets loved on ALL THE TIME. The youth group teens love all over her, the other church folks love all over her, her family loves all over her, and of course mom and dad love on her like crazy. She is one loved little girl! 

Happy 1-month birthday, Joanna Frances!

Aunts, Uncles, & Cousins, OH MY!

Jason and Brad and their families came to meet Ms. Joanna a couple of weeks ago. Matt got some great pictures while they were here of everyone loving on her.

Pictures!

I just moved several pictures off of my iPad to the computer, so I'll just share them here! She might get her picture taken a lot around here... that might not be the case if she weren't so cute!

She likes to nap in the Moby wrap. I LOVE the Moby wrap! In fact, we ordered a second one last week.

 I think I might've been a little frustrated when I took this one, but come on... look at that face!

This is Joanna's fancy Vera Bradley dress. It came with matching bloomers, shoes, and a teddy bear, but we'll stick with just the dress for now!

This girl is a bit of a wild sleeper. She may take after her mom on that one! She likes to be swaddled now and then, but she also likes to spread out when she sleeps. She'll kick her legs straight out, throw her arms around, and I didn't even know babies could be so noisy when they sleep! She grunts and sighs and talks to herself.

One of the teens had a birthday party last weekend so we all went out. Joanna slept through nearly the whole thing! We've taken her out with us several times to various things and she always does great.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I take a lot of pictures of her sleeping. :)

Penny and Joanna were both out for nap time! Joanna was hugging her fox blanket nice and tight!

She had those lips puckered!

I absolutely love these cuddles.

Matt gets in some sweet naps and cuddles with her, too.

This girl makes so many funny faces. I tried to copy her face in the next two.

She takes her sleeping seriously... I think I woke her up from laughing so hard at this one!

More posts and pictures coming soon!

3 Weeks Old

Joanna Frances Porter

3 Weeks

 

A 3-week bonus picture!

2-Week Checkup

We took Joanna to the pediatrician for her 2-week checkup. The only concern we had going in was whether or not she was getting enough to eat. She only eats for 10-15 minutes every 2-3 hours. Even though I had read stories online of people in similar situations where everything was fine, I also knew that most babies ate for longer periods of time. We mentioned this to the pediatrician when we went the first time (when Joanna was only four days old) and she said we'd just check her weight at 2-weeks and see. I had been a little anxious about getting there to check her weight. When we went at four days, she weighed 7 lbs 8 oz. When they weighed her at 2-weeks, I was surprised (and excited) when she weighed in at 8 lb 13 oz! I'd say she's getting plenty to eat! We determined she is just an efficient eater, which is fine with me!

They also had to prick her heel to screen for all sorts of things... momma here didn't like that one. bit. Joanna cried quite a bit, but I MAY have cried more. Matt was a huge help and took care of soothing Joanna while I paced and cried and tried to remember that the nurse was doing her job and that it would NOT be nice of me to take out her knees, or something. The first nurse we had ran into trouble getting enough blood for the test, which made things even harder. Three heel pricks, two nurses, and several kleenex for mom later, they finally finished up.

Even though it was a stressful visit, Joanna is healthy and we're thankful for that. She's gained weight, grown an inch, and looks great!

2 Weeks Old

Joanna Frances Porter

2 Weeks

Week 2 Updates

Little Miss is two weeks old!

Earlier this week we decided we would try to keep her awake for a couple of hours before bedtime to see if it would help her to sleep better at night. We actually didn't think it was really possible to do that with a 1 week old baby, but to our amazement IT WORKED. Of course, she wasn't always happy with us as we kept her awake, but we performed dramatic readings of Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Green Eggs & Ham, and Matt rapped Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with some mad beats. ;) Our new routine has worked really well, and we've all been getting plenty of sleep. People will either be really happy for us, or really frustrated with us, but we typically get at least 8 hours of sleep since starting our new routine. Last night was the first "relapse" of sorts, and I ended up holding her for a couple of hours of sleep (rather than her sleeping in her sleeper, like usual). This new schedule has resulted in a couple of fussy times during the day, but I can handle the crying MUCH better in the middle of the day than in the middle of the night!

Joanna has "old man hair." It is so long everywhere but on top! It is especially long on the right side. Sometimes when she sleeps on that side she wakes up with some serious bed head! I'll be happy when she gets more hair on top and things even out some, but for now we get a good laugh at her crazy hair!

On Tuesday afternoon a nice thunderstorm rolled through. Us girls sat in the nursery and enjoyed listening to the rain and thunder. Penny kept watch at the window.

And Joanna let the thunder put her right to sleep.

During a fussy moment, when nothing seemed to soothe Joanna, I just put her down on this play mat to give me a little break. Surprisingly she got very quiet and kept herself entertained for a few minutes. I welcomed the short quiet break. :)

I get the feeling from this picture that she's up to something. "Hmm... should I pee on dad or spit up on mom? Or perhaps both?"

After wearing pink for a few days in a row we decided to switch things up a bit.

I'm not sure if she prefers Superman, or if she is working on her growly voice so she can yell, "I AM BATMAN!"

Being Batman is exhausting. She took a nice long nap on my shoulder after fighting crime all morning. I think she looks like Matt in this picture!

We got out the Moby Wrap this week. I'm still figuring it out. I haven't been consistent in getting it tight enough, and getting Joanna positioned just right, but she LOVES it. We'll keep working on it!

Joanna got to go out to eat for the first time this week. She went across the street to eat at one of our favorite places, Easley's. She did great and didn't make a peep!

She also went to church for the first time on Sunday night, then again on Wednesday. We MAY try Sunday morning services this weekend. I'm a little worried that people are going to be too grabby with her. If we go, she'll either be in the wrap, or buckled up in her carrier. The good thing about living next door is that I can just come home if it is too overwhelming.

She also lost her umbilical cord stump this week. I was really glad, because it was pretty gross. As ready as I was for it to be gone, emotional me started thinking about how that is what connected her to me and I got teary eyed for a short time. Then I thought again about how gross and goopy it was, and I was glad it was gone again. These hormones! I also randomly cry when she cries, when I think about how pretty she is, and I even cried because I miss going to our doctor every week. It's crazy, folks. :)

We're going to the pediatrician later today, and we still need to take her 2-week old picture, so I'll have another post or two up soon!