Sweet sleepy smile

For the past couple of weeks, Isabel has been doing exceptionally well at night, going to bed in her Moses basket in her cradle between 10 pm and midnight, sleeping for 4-6 hours, then up for one nursing and back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. Last night, she was having some trouble going to sleep the first time, crying when I put her in her Moses basket to carry her upstairs, when usually she just goes right down with no trouble. So, I ended up placing her on my chest and sitting with her for over an hour to calm her down, and as she began to calm down and fall asleep, she briefly opened her eyes right as she was about to fuss, looked into my eyes, and gave me the sweetest sleepy smile I have ever seen. I am still not counting it as her first smile because I don't think she was fully awake, but it was so sweet, and I am glad now that she was a little fussy last night, because it gave me the opportunity to experience that precious moment with her!

Isabel's second week at home

Time with Isabel at home is going well. We had Grandma and Grandpa Christenson here from 12/28 through 1/2, and it was a huge help to Mommy and Daddy to have some extra hands who were ready and willing to cuddle with her anytime! She had her days and nights confused for the first few days, but gradually we are working on that, and there have been a few nights where she has slept 4 or 5 hours at a stretch which feels like a full night's sleep to Mommy! Daddy took two weeks off to be with Mommy and Isabel, and goes back to work on Monday when she is two weeks old, so we hope to get even more of a routine established and work on a bedtime of between 8 and 9 pm (we will see how that goes!) Grandma Kuhlmann is coming tomorrow to visit and do our belated Christmas celebration, so we look forward to spending more time with family! I added another photo album of Isabel's second week at home, as you can see she still mostly sleeps (and eats, but we don't have photos of that! :) She did have her first bath and did not enjoy it much as you can see from the picture!