Our Hazelnut
Today marks Hazel’s 7th week as an outside baby. She has grown so much in the past few weeks, and not just physically! One of the most dramatic changes we have noticed lately is her ability to socialize. She’s not quite hosting backyard barbeques yet, but she is definitely giving us plenty of social smiles (where she smiles in response to our smiles or ridiculous goofy faces). In addition to the smiling, she has also started to grasp things intentionally with her hands. She used to grab at things randomly, but now she will actually grab onto things and not let go until she is done with them!
We seem to be coming up on yet another growth spurt- I’m not sure that this one will be as much of a physical growth spurt as it is a developmental spurt. Hazel has been cluster feeding, which basically means that she and I are attached for most of the day and a good part of the night. Usually when she feeds like this she is also more fussy between feedings and sleeps a lot less. These times are probably the most trying for us, as she is awake a great deal but isn’t easily soothed or settled. Fortunately, when we have experienced these spurts over the past few weeks, they don’t last long. Usually within 2-3 days she is back to her usual calm and content self. I think we are on the tail end of this spurt, since Tuesday her sleeping has been pretty erratic and she has been very fussy in the evenings. She seems to fight sleep all the time. Usually she falls asleep after she’s nursed, but over the last few days she has resisted sleep, to the point where she becomes frustrated because she’s overtired. We are hoping she will soon be over this little spurt of growth- I know I am feeling pretty exhausted! The great thing about these times, though, is that after each growth spurt some new thing seems to emerge. These new things are usually pretty awesome: at around 2 weeks it was the ability for Hazel to be awake for more than 20 minutes without eating, at a month she started becoming more alert during the day and her visual tracking got much better, around 5-6 weeks we got our much anticipated first smile- who knows what is in store for us this time!
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