Our dear darling daughter, Viktoria Summer, is 1 month and 23 days old as I write this. Our lives practically revolve around her and she has us wrapped around her little finger. In between feeling light-headed (because of very little sleep) and waking up in the middle of the night to calm a wailing baby, I am happy to share that we are still surviving and still very eager to get to know her a little better. If you ask me how I feel now, I would still say being a new parent is arguably the most wonderful feeling that I have ever felt thus far.
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Here are some of the wonderful things, albeit rather challenging things about her so far:
1. She loves the sound of the vacuum cleaner.
She loves her sleep when she is in the mood to sleep. She can sleep even when the TV is on or when the neighbor's car alarm won't stop sounding off. However, when she does not want to sleep, you could spend all your time swinging her or carrying her to no avail. The only thing that could put her to sleep when that happens would be the sound of a vacuum cleaner which seemed to be a comforting sound for her. I wonder if my stomach sounded like a vacuum cleaner when she was still inside me. During the night time, we fake the vacuum cleaner sound by using white noise through Spotify. Score! Sometimes when she is not in the mood to sleep, it could also mean that she is hungry so getting her dose of milk (and a good burp) takes her to dreamland in no time.
2. She loves being carried.
She loves it - a lot! I guess all babies do around her age. If she's tossing and turning and can't seem to stay still (arms flailing around and all), what we do is to pick her up and carry her and that would solve the problem. She loves feeling secured in the arms of her mommy or daddy or anyone willing to carry her. On her first month, she loved skin-to-skin contact when carried which I was more than happy to indulge her with.
3. She has a love-hate relationship with her "soothie".
There are times when she would suck on her soothie like there's no tomorrow. She would pull on it when you attempt to remove it. Other times, she just don't want anything to do with it and spits it out. I think she spits it out when she realizes that she is getting short-changed. Smart girl eh?
4. She loves her sleep.
Oh this little one can sleep! And when she does nothing you do will ever wake her up. Like when we applied for her Philippine passport, she fell asleep while we were waiting for our turn to present her documents at the courtesy lane. When it was time to capture her first ever passport picture, she remained asleep. I tried hard to wake her up by nudging her and even using a wet wipe on her eyelids to no avail (sorry little darling mommy's got to do what she has to do). We waited for almost an hour until she eventually opened her eyes and the DFA personnel was able to capture an acceptable picture. I wish she didn't look as grumpy though. Yes, this little one loves her sleep indeed.
5. She loves her bath time.
I can only remember 2-3 times of bath time where she cried and it all happened during her first two weeks. We both have been enjoying her bath time and that's a wonderful thing right? I try to sing to her as much as I can and I tell her what I am doing. I also give her gentle massages to calm her down. biggest reward for mommy would be her happy face and cute smiles.
6. She loves to boss mommy and daddy around.
We are at her mercy, we are her employees at this stage. When she wants to be carried, she would demand it by crying. When she wants her food, she would wake us up in the middle of the night. When she poops, she would grunt and make sounds that makes us just look at her and hold her hand. She demands attention so much - but of course she is only a baby once so no complaints about that. Yes, baby, yes! Honestly, I cried once when I can't seem to figure out what she wants and I was left alone with her. She's that kind of boss - "figure out what I want or else you can't get your rest".
7. She loves being swaddled.
Her swaddle blankets are her "security blankets" literally. She loves the comfort of the soft fabric. She likes being snuggled tight. I love swaddling her too as this prevents jerking movements that could startle her during sleep. I avoid swaddling her during nap times though so she can freely stretch her legs and arms and avoid any hip dislocation since her joints are still developing.
8. She loves nap time in the living room couch.
She loves her nap time in the living room and she could not care less if the TV is in full volume. Christian has christened the couch as "Viktoria couch" in her honor. Haha! There's really no problem putting her down to sleep if she's on her back on the couch. Sometimes we let her sleep on the couch before moving her to the crib in the bedroom and it works. I guess she takes this from mommy because I love sleeping on the couch too.
9. She loves to show off with her sound effects.
During her waking hours, She likes to move around her arms and legs while trying to pout and desperately try to make noises. At her current age (7 weeks), she now loves to smile, squeak and snore. She really never fails to amuse us (or maybe she is really just trying to amuse herself).
I feel so honored to be given the chance to be a mother and I am sure Christian feels the same way as well and he is doing a great job being a first-time dad. Summer can continue to be "demanding" and we will only be more than willing to provide everything that she needs as a growing baby. I am still super motivated that I am a mom now and things can only get better from here on. Sure there will be challenging times but I say - bring it on! I am usually very impatient but I find that I am really patient with her - I don't know where the extra patience comes from but I guess it just comes with motherhood.
Overall, she isn't really that much of a problem baby - she's just normal I guess. Her craving for love and attention and hugs and caresses and of course milk is just but normal.
We love you Summer. We love you very much!
NOTE: This post is in lieu of the weekly "Our Week In Photos" post which was supposed to be published yesterday. Baby and I had visitors at home so I was not able to compose and edit photos thus I opted to publish another entry I wrote instead.
1. She loves the sound of the vacuum cleaner.
She loves her sleep when she is in the mood to sleep. She can sleep even when the TV is on or when the neighbor's car alarm won't stop sounding off. However, when she does not want to sleep, you could spend all your time swinging her or carrying her to no avail. The only thing that could put her to sleep when that happens would be the sound of a vacuum cleaner which seemed to be a comforting sound for her. I wonder if my stomach sounded like a vacuum cleaner when she was still inside me. During the night time, we fake the vacuum cleaner sound by using white noise through Spotify. Score! Sometimes when she is not in the mood to sleep, it could also mean that she is hungry so getting her dose of milk (and a good burp) takes her to dreamland in no time.
2. She loves being carried.
She loves it - a lot! I guess all babies do around her age. If she's tossing and turning and can't seem to stay still (arms flailing around and all), what we do is to pick her up and carry her and that would solve the problem. She loves feeling secured in the arms of her mommy or daddy or anyone willing to carry her. On her first month, she loved skin-to-skin contact when carried which I was more than happy to indulge her with.
3. She has a love-hate relationship with her "soothie".
There are times when she would suck on her soothie like there's no tomorrow. She would pull on it when you attempt to remove it. Other times, she just don't want anything to do with it and spits it out. I think she spits it out when she realizes that she is getting short-changed. Smart girl eh?
4. She loves her sleep.
Oh this little one can sleep! And when she does nothing you do will ever wake her up. Like when we applied for her Philippine passport, she fell asleep while we were waiting for our turn to present her documents at the courtesy lane. When it was time to capture her first ever passport picture, she remained asleep. I tried hard to wake her up by nudging her and even using a wet wipe on her eyelids to no avail (sorry little darling mommy's got to do what she has to do). We waited for almost an hour until she eventually opened her eyes and the DFA personnel was able to capture an acceptable picture. I wish she didn't look as grumpy though. Yes, this little one loves her sleep indeed.
5. She loves her bath time.
I can only remember 2-3 times of bath time where she cried and it all happened during her first two weeks. We both have been enjoying her bath time and that's a wonderful thing right? I try to sing to her as much as I can and I tell her what I am doing. I also give her gentle massages to calm her down. biggest reward for mommy would be her happy face and cute smiles.
6. She loves to boss mommy and daddy around.
We are at her mercy, we are her employees at this stage. When she wants to be carried, she would demand it by crying. When she wants her food, she would wake us up in the middle of the night. When she poops, she would grunt and make sounds that makes us just look at her and hold her hand. She demands attention so much - but of course she is only a baby once so no complaints about that. Yes, baby, yes! Honestly, I cried once when I can't seem to figure out what she wants and I was left alone with her. She's that kind of boss - "figure out what I want or else you can't get your rest".
7. She loves being swaddled.
Her swaddle blankets are her "security blankets" literally. She loves the comfort of the soft fabric. She likes being snuggled tight. I love swaddling her too as this prevents jerking movements that could startle her during sleep. I avoid swaddling her during nap times though so she can freely stretch her legs and arms and avoid any hip dislocation since her joints are still developing.
8. She loves nap time in the living room couch.
She loves her nap time in the living room and she could not care less if the TV is in full volume. Christian has christened the couch as "Viktoria couch" in her honor. Haha! There's really no problem putting her down to sleep if she's on her back on the couch. Sometimes we let her sleep on the couch before moving her to the crib in the bedroom and it works. I guess she takes this from mommy because I love sleeping on the couch too.
9. She loves to show off with her sound effects.
During her waking hours, She likes to move around her arms and legs while trying to pout and desperately try to make noises. At her current age (7 weeks), she now loves to smile, squeak and snore. She really never fails to amuse us (or maybe she is really just trying to amuse herself).
I feel so honored to be given the chance to be a mother and I am sure Christian feels the same way as well and he is doing a great job being a first-time dad. Summer can continue to be "demanding" and we will only be more than willing to provide everything that she needs as a growing baby. I am still super motivated that I am a mom now and things can only get better from here on. Sure there will be challenging times but I say - bring it on! I am usually very impatient but I find that I am really patient with her - I don't know where the extra patience comes from but I guess it just comes with motherhood.
Overall, she isn't really that much of a problem baby - she's just normal I guess. Her craving for love and attention and hugs and caresses and of course milk is just but normal.
We love you Summer. We love you very much!
NOTE: This post is in lieu of the weekly "Our Week In Photos" post which was supposed to be published yesterday. Baby and I had visitors at home so I was not able to compose and edit photos thus I opted to publish another entry I wrote instead.
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