17 Days Old.

Today our Little Girl is 17 days old. We've already established quite the routine during the day and at night. Her two hour cycle seems to be: Wake up, eat, have diaper changed, eat again, and then go back to sleep. Sometimes she'll stay awake for a while, exercising her rapidly developing senses. It's a good thing I have orders to take it easy, because I just want to hold her and stare at her all day long.

Chloë is already so much more aware and alert compared to her first few groggy days in our world. She is learning to use her eyes, although still goes cross-eyed once and a while. Sometimes she will stare far off into the world outside, and must be soaking in the vibrant colors of the trees and sky.

She is quite the active baby, with lots of arm flailing and leg thrashing when she's awake. It almost reminds me of some sort of uncoordinated aerobics routine. And then there's the strong head and back of hers. When she's lying on her tummy, she sometimes uses her arms to push up her upper body, and holds her head up and looks around. If she gets angry (for instance, when she's trying to figure out how to eat), she'll arch her back and throw her head back and do some good screaming. She has quite the lusty cry; I think maybe she has her Momma's lungs. And she definitely has her Daddy's sneezes. They both do a fake cop-out sneeze occasionally before actually following through and really sneezing.

Just in the last few days, she sometimes get fussy after eating. Although I'm really not surprised because of how much she eats sometimes! (I've taken to calling her My Little Piglet occasionally while she eats, although I reassure her that it is really an endearing term.) It amazes me how much she is calmed just by holding her, patting her back, and speaking a few soft words to her.

Waking up and falling asleep are not the instantaneous functions that they used to be. Sometimes she needs quite a bit of patting and something to suck on in order to fall asleep. We have started using a pacifier in the last few days, and once she figures it out, is quite content. Sometimes she'll fall right into a REM cycle of sleep... lots of squeaks and moans, and frowns, grimaces and smiles, while her eyes flutter all about, occasionally opening slightly as if she's peeking at something. Waking up often involves five or ten minutes of grunts and throat clearings and stretches; the same short cycle repeated a dozen or more times. It looks like quite the work-out.

She is so strong and smart and healthy. And getting chubbier by the day.

These pictures are from two days ago when she was 15 days old. I can't believe how quickly she's changing.

Cooling off after being outside. This picture is very Botkin.