seven weeks

happy seven weeks birthday to Alice. it seems like she's been around a lot longer, but sleep-deprivation tends to mess with my sense of perspective. she's actually a pretty good sleeper for her age. she'll go 5 or 6 hours between feedings at night, so that usually means we're up only once in the middle of the night. if Michelle's back isnt doing well (which is more often than not these days), I'll sometimes change her diaper at these times, although often it's quite grudingly.

it's amazing how my moods are dictated by my expectations. if she sleeps well for a few nights in a row, I'll get all bitter that she's up twice the next night, or that she's super bright-eyed wide awake at 4am. but the night after that happens, I'm much more patient because I assume it's coming. and I think a lot of my moodiness has to do with not spending good time with Michelle, and not taking much time to pray and such lately. we look forward to the day she'll sleep longer, but we know these days of her being tiny and snuggly are going by fast.

overall she's doing well, although the thrush seems to come and go. it was almost all the way gone recently, but now seems to be returning. we've tried everything we can think of, so hopefully it will subside again. she'll often have fussy/gassy times in the late evening, but pumping and running her legs helps her get that out. we think she's a bit more fiesty than Caleb, as she'll loudly let us know her opinion when mama stops her latest meal. thankfully she doesnt spit up much unless she's had a lot more than usual to eat.

we have a baby swing that we call the "seat of power" and "the magic seat" and "the best $10 I've spent on baby junk." if Caleb is down and mama needs a nap but Alice isnt willing, she'll go right to sleep in the swing. a very powerful tool indeed, and sometimes TOO powerful, as she can sleep too much there and not enough later (see above).

the latest thing these days is that Caleb has a cold. nothing too severe, but he's got a nasty cough and lots of snot, and TONS of fussiness. ALL. DAY. LONG. of course this is wearing down Michelle rather quickly, so please pray that he'll be well soon, and of course that Alice wont get sick (she seems fine so far). I've found that, for me at least, when everyone is doing fine, we can do pretty well together. but when you throw in sickness or some other stress, we start to come undone much faster than we used to. it does seem to drive us to our knees, which isnt a bad thing.

Alice will be baptised at SEPC on Feb 5th [date TBA] Feb 5th (2nd service). she'll be baptised by Michelle's dad, wearing a dress that was made from Michelle's mom's wedding gown (and also worn by our niece Casey), so we're really looking forward to it. with 2 babies in the house, we definitely need to be reminded of God's faithfulness to our family.