Nora turns 2 weeks old!

Well time is going by pretty quickly and it is amazing to see the changes that have taken place with Nora already. she is starting to look less like the angry old man when she came out, to a sweet baby girl. She is definitely growing. She started at 6lbs 4oz, and went down to 5lbs 8oz, but has rebounded to almost 7 lbs.

So far she has been a very good baby. Not too fussy,. And when she is, it is only because she is hungry, otherwise she is content to just coo and observe the world. She has taken well to swaddling and will instantly calm down once she is wrapped. In fact at first she hated to be naked. She is a squirmy little thing though. Much stronger than you would think. With her long arms and legs and big hands I feel as though I am wrestling a baby orangutan when we try to cloth her. This, along with the faces she makes has earned her the nickname “Mon Chi Chi.” Which is a cute doll from our childhood era that looks like half human and half monkey.

Sometimes she sleeps for up to three hours at a time at night. plus it is nothing new for us to be woken up in the middle of the night. Our dogs have been doing it for years! Whether one throws up on their bed, or has to go out to potty. Could be they got eaten up by fleas or mosquitos and chew themselves until they bleed so we end up giving them a bath, eventually falling asleep after they calm down. It seems like it is always something. So we have been training for parenthood since we got them.

I remember when they were puppies and getting up every two hours for almost two weeks to take them out. We actually set an alarm so I would not forget and have two puppies covered in poop. Come to find out that Sharon was way overfeeding them and once we fed them the correct amount they could go 4-6 hours. And at that point they learned to make a noise to go outside before they had an accident.

One thing we did with them that I am glad we did, was take them EVERYWHERE. We got them accustomed to the outside world and noise very early. And we are taking that same approach with Nora. So far in her first two weeks she has been to the beach for a volleyball tournament, brunch at the Hilton, 2 walks a day around the neighborhood, cruised around downtown on a Friday night, hit the Seafood Festival, spent a few days back in the hospital, been to Target, ate outside at New York Deli, visited numerous people, been to my client’s offices. And has taken it all in stride.

When the dogs go crazy barking at someone coming in the door, she doesn’t even flinch. TV sound does not affect her. People talking and laughing is white noise to her and she just sleeps through it. I believe it started when she was in the womb and Sharon barely slowed down. We went everywhere without letting her pregnancy hinder us.

Now this might all change as she grows, but for now it has been nice to not entirely change our way of life, we just have more stuff to bring. We have gotten acclimated to packing a load of crap for a day out. In fact I find it kinda fun to load up for a day out. It makes me feel like I am packing for an adventure, which I guess it is for Nora, and I aim to live vicariously through her for the next 18 or so years.