Day 38

 
The weather for the last few days has been gorgeous and we have tried to take full advantage of it. We've gone out on a number of walks in the neighborhood and Kerala has gone to the local park a few times with her buddy, Silas. Silas is our friends JT and Tamra's baby boy who is about 1 week younger than Kerala. We also went to Henry's 2nd birthday party on Saturday. Henry is Silas' big brother. Kerala also had a play date with Silas and her pal Valerie Violet, see the photo of the two girls crying with Silas happily looking on. Kerala also got her first doggy kiss from Cassidy our friends Todd and Brandy's puggle -- who by the way is a boy even with a name like Cassidy. Kerala did not seem to notice the dog but Corey was quite nervous about it. Another first was a minor fender bender that the family was involved in! We were rear ended but the car that hit us was going pretty slowly. No one was injured but Corey was quite worried that Kerala might have gotten hurt and a few calls to the doctor confirmed that Kerala is ok.

Day 33

  Kerala had her 1 month check up this afternoon. She is up to 8lbs and 10oz and has added an inch to her height in the last two weeks, she's 22" now. The doctor said that we can now allow Kerala to go for 6 hours between feedings at night! The doctor visit ended with a vaccination. Kerala was tough though and she cried for a minute or two and then went back to being her happy self.

Tonight Kerala was sleeping quite peacefully until around 11pm when daddy riled her up as he was changing her diaper. She was extremely happy and playful which means that she had no interest in going back to sleep.

This past week, Corey and Kerala have been getting out more. They went to the local park a few times and they had brunch on Sunday with some friends. Kerala also got to witness her first tire changing. Our car got a flat,thanks to a screw, and the family went out around 8:30pm last night and put the old spare on. It was nice enough out that afterwards we took a brief walk around the block.

Day 27

  We keep plowing ahead. We had our first family holiday, easter. It was pretty uneventful. My mom was up again this week to see how things were going. She helped clean up the place and ate some more my pie pizza.

As you can see by the picture we also had a few baths since the last posting. Kerala does pretty well with the baths until she gets a bit cold and then things get interesting. We have trying to bath her top half first, while keeping her bottom half covered up and then vice versa. Usually that works but every now and then it doesn't.

Day 21

 

We are at our three week mark and so far so good. The first three weeks has been relatively smooth for us. Thanks in a large part to the support of friends and family. I've eaten more home cooked meals in last three weeks than in a long time. Not to mention all the dinners, lunches, and snacks that friends and family have bought for us. Our friends and family have also gone on shopping trips for us, helped clean our house, and have made numerous visits. This outpouring of support has really made the transition to parents as easy as it can be. Kerala has also been receiving packages from distant loved ones on a regular basis -- which by the way we are tad behind on the thank you cards. They are coming but with a slight delay.

This week has been fairly low key for us. We had friends over at various times to visit and my mom was up on Thursday. Like any normal visit my mom made sure that she did all the built up laundry and ate a my pie pizza. Kerala appears not to be getting so cold during diaper changes and bath time. She rarely cries during a change and only briefly during her baths. This is a nice change from the first week or so. In the last week, Kerala has realized that not only does she have arms but that she can control them to some degree. She's able to get a finger or two in her mouth at times and when she's getting sleepy she throws her hands all about her face. She has also became more vocal this last week. She makes various squeaks and squawks during the day now while awake as well as while she's sleeping.

Day 17

 

Things are getting smoother here. Since Friday Kerala has been sleeping a good deal more during
the night. She's been fussy for an hour so before bedtime, but once she goes down she has been sleeping soundly for three to fours at a stretch. We stumbled upon swaddling her in two swaddlers which seemed to do the trick. We also put her arms back in the swaddler instead of letting them be outside of the swaddler. She seems to like her hands out, but either they were getting cold or she was waking herself up. So we have been following the two swaddler rule and so far it seems like it is working.

Also, one tidbit I forgot to mention from the doctor's appointment last Friday is that Kerala appears to have my physique. She is in the top 75% for height and the bottom 25% for weight. So it appears that my chicken legs will live on!