2 Weeks Old

Our little Evie has had a good first 2 weeks at home. So far she's been less fussy than both Elina and Eli. We are all hopeful that she won't be colicky (cross your fingers), but we don't like to talk about it too much lest we jinx things. (And yes, I believe in jinxing things...B doesn't really believe in that stuff, but for some odd reason he doesn't talk about it much either.)

Evie's been our sleepiest baby yet. The pediatrician said that it might change in a few weeks because she was born 3 weeks early. I guess the earlier they come out of the womb, the more sleepy they are. During the first week I actually had to wake her to feed her in the middle of the night! We've never had to do that before. She slept SO much during the first week...it was almost like she wasn't there most of the time. And when she was awake, she was alert and quiet. We've never experienced that before either. It was weird to us that she was so quiet since Elina and Eli were crazy criers since the very beginning. My dad referred to them as "monsters" when he heard their incessant cries. Nice, right?
The second week has been a bit different. Evie's more alert during the day and she can get crabby. But even though she gets crabby, it's NOTHING compared to the crying we've dealt with before. The hardest part of the whole day is putting her to bed after her last feeding, which takes place between 10pm and 11pm. Sometimes she goes down without a peep, but the past few nights she's been waking up as soon as we put her down. So we have to rock her, try the binky, and then try to put her back down. If she keeps waking up, then we just resort to sleeping with her in our arms. I know that's terrible, but at this point it's usually almost 2am and we are just too tired to care. Lately, we think Evie has her days and nights confused because she sleeps like a rock during the day, but any little sound wakes her when we try to put her down for bed. But then, I can't complain because she always goes right back to sleep after her middle-of-the-night feeding. And she sleeps about 3-4 hours for 2 stretches after she goes to bed, so what can we really say?
I have to say that so far Evie is a WAY easier baby than her siblings were in the beginning. (But, like I said before, this could all change in a few weeks since crying usually peaks around 5-6 weeks.) It's just great that she can be awake and actually not crying. Since Evie stays up with us at night after the kids go to bed, we've been enjoying our bonding time with her. We love looking at her and snuggling with her. It's been a totally different experience this time. When we used to have to stay up with Elina and Eli as newborns we dreaded the time from 8pm until bedtime because we would spend all our time rocking and soothing them because they were inconsolable. We'd be bouncing on exercise balls, running the sink water, turning on bathroom fans...and they'd STILL be wailing and screaming. It was a nerve wrecking time. It makes a huge difference when they don't cry all the time. I can finally see how some people can actually enjoy the newborn stage.

Evie's also nursing really well. She's our only baby without a real jaundice problem (besides the jaundice we get inherently from being Asian) and she's been gaining weight at a nice rate. At her 1st week appointment she was just 1 ounce shy of her birth weight (5 pounds 14 ounces) and at her 2 week appointment today, she already weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces!

Evie is definitely loved by everyone. The kids are always looking for her and asking to hold her. Elina is actually becoming a pro at holding her. Eli likes to lay down next to Evie and he's always very concerned when she cries. The kids love to hover around the Boppy while I nurse her and they constantly pet her on the head or rub her hands. It's so sweet.