They grow up fast...

Gwyneth is getting big so fast!  I can see a change in her almost everyday.  She is still packing on the weight and is filling out.  My guess is that she weighs around 11 pounds now, but we won't have an accurate weight reading until our next appointment on July 1st.  I knew she was getting bigger but it wasn't that obvious until I took her to see my friend Sarah's newborn.

Sarah and Baby Lukas, one week old.

Sarah gave birth to Lukas John Holmes exactly one month after Gwyneth was born.  Gwyneth and I had the opportunity to visit with Sarah and Lukas when he was just one week old.  Seeing Lukas as small as he is next to a 5 1/2 week old Gwyneth really brought to my attention how much she has changed.  Her arms and legs were much thicker than his and her head was much larger too.  Everyone tells you babies grow up fast and of course I believed them, but it didn't really hit me until I saw it with my own eyes.

This week has been a week of firsts for Gwyneth.  Monday she started making sounds and coos that we hadn't heard before.  Prior to Monday her sounds were limited to crying but now she is making all kinds of noises!  Most of her vocabulary consists of vowel sounds like "oh" and "ah."  When she "talks" we repeat back to her the sound she made, as if we are having a conversation with her.

Another first for Gwyneth this week was the use of a pacifier.  We have attempted to get her to take a pacifier for the past two-weeks with no luck.  She was just not interested in it and when she did take the paci it was only a matter of seconds before she spit it out.  Yesterday, she had a breakthrough and took to the paci with no problem at all!  It may be a problem down the road when it's time for her to give up her paci, but I am willing to deal with that battle then for a happy baby now.

Last night Gwyneth had another first, she slept in her bassinet without having to be in her bouncer!  For the past few weeks, the only way we could get her to sleep at night was to swaddle her, lay her in her bouncer, turn it on vibrate, and bounce her to sleep.  The bouncing would sometime only take five-minutes, but there were times I had to bounce her for 30 minutes or more!  Gwyneth loves laying on her changing pad when she has her diaper changed so Mrs. Stepp had the idea that we put the changing pad in the bassinet to see what would happen.  We tried it last night and Gwyneth slept like a...well, like a baby.  It worked so well that I went to the store and bought another changing pad just for her bassinet.  Hopefully this is the start of many peaceful nights to come!