Dear Miss Leyba,

Because February is a day short of your one month birthday (Feb 30), I am writing you today instead. You are already four weeks and two days old and I just can’t believe it. We hardly remember life before you, but at the same time the past four weeks have flown by so fast. And you’ve grown so much.

It seems like just yesterday that we were wondering when you’d arrive!

The day before you were born, we all went for a walk in the park. We knew you’d be arriving soon, but we didn’t realize just how soon. Here are the last few photos we have with you still in me:

See how happy I am? That’s because I was thrilled to be carrying you and so excited to meet you.

Our labor started later that evening, with Mama’s water breaking at around 3 am. You were born at home, in our bed, approximately eight and a half hours later. Two incredibly knowledgeable, skilled, and kind midwives guided us through our birth and your dad was an incredible trooper and the most supportive, loving partner your mama could ever wish for.

As soon as you were born, our midwife put you on my belly. Here’s our first family photo — look carefully for your hand!

You entered this world with tremendous strength, your arm raised high like Wonder Woman. From day one you could lift your head, roll from your back to your side, and move your arms with purpose. Now you can easily lift your head and usually do when we’re holding you, so you can look up at us. When we lie on our backs with you lying on us, tummy to tummy, you lift your head up and watch us as well. You frequently reposition yourself, both when you’re awake and asleep, so you get a better view or to feel more comfortable. You especially like to prop your head up with your hands.

You recognized our voices from day one. On your natal day when you were just an hour old, dad was holding you in the living room adjacent to the bedroom and you instantly quieted and turned your head to the bedroom when I called out to you. Now you turn your head towards the door when Dad comes home from work or look towards me when I talk to you from across the room.

You adore time on the changing table, looking around, kicking and stretching your legs out straight. You also really like staring at the headboard on our bed and the wooden beams on the living room ceiling. You love breastfeeding and it is the ultimate way to comfort you. You frequently latch yourself on now, without my help. And you now look up at me while you are feeding too. Sometimes you like to talk to me when you are latched on too — it’s a blast to chat, but not so fun when you gulp lots of air in the process! You sneeze several times a day and still frequently get the hiccups (sometimes several times a day!), just as you did in utero. Occasionally you fall asleep while you have the hiccups (I don’t know how you do that!) and that frequently seems to stop them. You also have such big yawns…

We already have such a bond. In your sleep you’ll move your arms around rather frantically until you find (feel) me and then you’ll settle down again and keep sleeping. If you fall asleep on me, you inevitably wake up when I put you down regardless of how soundly you are sleeping. We’re both pretty codependent on the other and that’s just fine. In fact, that’s how it should be. We are completely in tune with each other and I love it.

In the last few days you’ve started spontaneously smiling at us, which completely melts our hearts. You’ve also started cooing and vocalizing — such fun! We are so excited to see how you grow and change. Every day you’re a little bit different and we understand each other a little bit better.

Darling, your father and I love you so much. We didn’t think it was possible to love you as much as we do. We could never have imagined that we’d care for you so fiercely and be so protective of you. You make our lives so much richer, with much more purpose and meaning. We feel tremendously lucky to be your parents and have you in our lives.

Love, Mama

Evidently all I had to do was complain publicly about our sleep schedule to fix the problem (knock on wood). We’ve had three fantastic, sleep-filled, calm, extremely luxurious, and completely lovely nights in a row. Miss Leyba and I have even been sleeping late together. (So nice to cuddle in bed with my daughter. Wouldn’t have it any other way.) I attribute this major shift in our sleep schedule to the growth spurt we thought was over. Evidently we were wrong! We’re still feeding every hour during the day over here. If this is what it takes to get 8 hours of sleep then I am all for it. Plus, we are loving the awake time.

It’s perfect timing too because some of my stitches reopened earlier this week (major wake-up call to slow down!), so at least I am well-rested to better cope and heal. My father and sister are coming into town today to meet Miss Leyba, so we’ll have two extra sets of hands to help as well. Can’t wait to see them!

Why sleep at night when you can sleep during the day?

We seem to still be on our pregnancy sleep schedule: up all night on Friday, then sleep through the night (and all the evening breastfeeding sessions) on Saturday, then up all night on Sunday, then sleep (we hope) on Monday. Repeat. Over and over again. We used to joke when the little one was in utero that our baby was going to keep to this schedule once she was born. And she has.

Please, start formulating the sympathy comments.

It actually isn’t that bad. We are getting great nights of sleep every other day. And even on the nights when she’s up, we manage to get around 5-6 hours of sleep in short bursts (the key is getting into bed early and sleeping for a few hours before she wakes up at, say, midnight!). Thank goodness for co-sleeping. We can at least sleep during those feeding sessions.

Part of the challenge with Miss Leyba’s sleep schedule is that she’s now up for longer stretches of time. For the first three weeks or so, she’d only be up for an hour or two, whereas now she often stays up for 3-5 hours at a stretch (usually twice a day). She has also been finishing up a growth spurt so she is no longer up and feeding every hour. (Yes, that was a fun few days. My nipples are still recovering… Actually, I loved all the extra time with her.) Unfortunately, last night her awake stretch was from around midnight until 5 this morning. (David and I took turns with her while the other one slept. Or tried to sleep.) We love the extra awake time with our peanut, but we need to figure out a way to have those awake periods be at more reasonable times of day.

We’ve tried to wake her up every hour or few hours during the day, but all she is interested in is feeding and going back to sleep. And none of the standard baby waking techniques seem to work (undressing, cool washcloths, loud music, vertical positions, etc.). The best way for her to stay awake is for her to gulp lots of air while breastfeeding so that she has tremendous burps and spit up and tummy troubles that keep her up. And truthfully, we wouldn’t wish that on anyone, let alone our little girl. Of course, being a baby who is a voracious eater and can empty my breast in ten minutes flat, this is a frequent occurrence. Hence the five hour stretch of awake time last night. Thank you to Harvey Karp for giving us the techniques to at least make the awake time fairly quiet and pleasant.

I believe we’ve settled on a pseudonym.

Meet Miss Leyba.

Yes, it’s not super cute or original, but we feel like it fits. And it’s her. Miss Leyba. Our little girl.

From the archives. David and I are the blond ones.
Meant to post this last month but it got lost in the shuffle.

Someone is in the process of jumping up into the next clothing size!

3-6 month clothing is beginning to fit and her 0-3 month sized clothes are getting quite tight (thankfully most of the organic clothing we have is sized for 0-6 months and still fits!). I better start unpacking and washing the next round of clothes! (In a related note, I’ve updated and added more gift ideas to our baby gift wishlist.)

Our little squirt is in a growth spurt! We didn’t think it was possible, but she’s eating even more now (and going through that many more diapers each day too)! This photo was taken 3 days ago and I swear she has grown since then already. So amazing!

She’s almost three weeks old and I cannot believe how fast the time has flown by. It seems like she was born just yesterday (though, at the same time, we barely remember life before her!). She’s growing so big and she keeps reaching developmental milestones:

– David and I have both seen half-smiles now when she’s been awake and she’s cooing up a storm (especially when we’re breastfeeding — sometimes she gets very chatty).

– She continues to enjoy turning from her back to her side on the changing table.

– She has been able to lift her head up since day one, but can now turn her head from one side to the other when she’s lying on her tummy or leaning against us (it’s unnerving putting her down next to me to nap on her tummy and glancing over to see her head facing the opposite direction!).

– She also often lifts her head up to put her hand or arm under it; she likes propping herself up with her hands.

– She reaches her hands out to us and maintains eye contact.

– She’s perfecting the art of snuggling closer to us by straightening and pushing with her legs and using her arms to move herself around.

We think she’s following in the footsteps of her dad and uncle who were both early crawlers and walkers. Mama and Dada are so in trouble!

A sleepy, darling baby and a good book: a perfect moment.