Today, Cadence is one week new!
Things we’ve learned about her over the past seven days:
- She sleeps a lot. Usually in 3 hour stretches, which is different from Adelaide who wanted to eat every two hours like clockwork. We even got a four hour stretch out of Cadence the other morning. Hopefully these good sleeping habits continue!!
- She loves to be warm…VERY warm. When she sleeps, we have her in a pair of footie jammies and a hat, then swaddled and finally there is a flannel blanket under her and a fleece blanket on top of her. We also usually pre-warm her bed with a heating pad so there is no temperature change when she’s moved from our arms to her bed.
- She makes A LOT of noise! She’s always cooing, gurgling or grunting. It was alarming at first, because we thought she needed something, but once we figured out she was just making noises, we’ve all relaxed and just enjoy hearing her tiny voice.
- She loves being swaddled. We get her all wrapped up and within minutes she’s falling asleep. I’d be ok if this preference continued!
- She’s not a very enthusiastic eater—more of a grazer really. It’s been very different from my experience with Adelaide, who was always done in 10 minutes. Cadence takes her time…latching and un-latching…looking around, then coming back for more. I’d be ok if she started acting more like her sister on this one!
- Despite her grazing, she’s been a good eater! She only lost 4 ounces (3%) of her birth weight between Monday and Friday. She’ll be out of newborn size clothing pretty soon!
Adelaide is adjusting wonderfully to her new baby sister. She is CONSTANTLY asking for “cuddles with Cadence”. Unfortunately, Adelaide caught a delightful cold/cough virus the day we brought Cadence home so it breaks my heart to have to limit their time together. I can’t wait until everyone is healthy and I can let my girls get to know each other.
Despite limited “cuddle time” Adelaide has found other ways to show her litter sister some love. She gives Cadence head and feet kisses (two places she is less likely to pass on her germs) and she sings songs to Cadence. I love watching her sing the ABC’s and Twinkle-Twinkle and Itsy Bitsy Spider!
Matt and I are adjusting to life with two kids. We haven’t had to do much divide-and-conquering. Since Cadence has been sleeping so much, she’s usually quite content in her bouncy chair or swing, which has allowed us to spend almost normal amounts of time with Adelaide. There was one night when Adelaide was up for two hours, which coincided with Cadence wake-up-and-feed schedule, so all four of us were up for a while that night. Noting like family bonding at 3am!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from this week!
I'd love to hear what you think!