5 weeks old

I'm writing this a week late (even though its posting on time), but to document Josie at 5 weeks with pictures...

I've been on the dairy-free diet for about 1.5 weeks and it seems to be doing the trick, although there are still some things that seem to aggravate Ms. Josie. We're not positive of what those are, but Den is basically trying to make bland meals and we read a lot of labels now. I've found that thin mints (girl scout cookies), while they have cocca, have soy products. Not sure what 2 servings of those will do to her, but we'll find out...

She has been bordering on developing a routine. While there is still some variation, she basically has some time of 2-3 hours of wakefulness sometime between 8am and 1pm. It depends on if she wakes up with her brother at 6:30/7 (in which case she sleeps some more), or sleeps in til 8 or 9am, which I guess is when she wakes normally (most of the time). She then usually wakes around 7pm for several hours. Her night routine, which lets face it is what we care about the most, is actually taking on a bit of a rhythm.

She eats around 9pm, while we catch up on TiVo, then goes till sometime between 12:30 and 1:30am, then goes again till between 3:30 and 4:30am. Then she will make it till 6:30 or 7. Not too bad. I'll have to look at my notes, but I'm pretty darn sure we didn't see this pattern with Ed until he was much older, closer to three months?

This picture is of Josephine at exactly 5 weeks old, to the day.

Given that Ed had been experimenting with walloping his sister, Den puts out a protective hand as Ed walks by with his booster chair for the table on the porch. Ed really does have an interest in her. She and I are one unit--mommy and baby Josephine. I guess sometimes we are referred to individually, but it's often a package deal.
About 2 weeks before Josie was born, I went shopping with a friend of mine at a mix of consignment sales and retail stores. She didn't have much luck, but I landed this Graco swing for $5 and it's been wonderful. With Eddie, we could set him pretty much anywhere and had little stations where we could put him down. With Josie, we have to be more selective, as there is the big brother factor, so table tops and countertops are more appropriate (even though the guidelines on the equipment say not to).

I figure I'm making a call between being injured by her brother exploring her eyes as he pokes at them, her foot as he tugs on it, or being injured because she moves the equipment so much it falls off the 48 inch round table.--or she squirms out of the bouncy chair and falls to the floor.

Over the weekend (last weekend), we took a drive to visit a store that carried a line of furniture that billed itself as using low VOC finishes for its kids furniture. This was also a good opportunity to learn how Eddie and Josie would do for longer periods in the car. You could smell the dresser several feet away. Sure glad I didn't order online. Josie started screaming for lunch, right as we finished ours. Perfect timing.

I bought Ed these letters from 'One Step Ahead'. While you have to be careful with the store, as they have an exceptional amount of completely useless junk, they do have some real finds and these letters are one such find. He has played with them ALL weekend. He basically knows all his letters, which is fun. The W/M still confuses him a bit.