1 Week Old

As of yesterday, she's been with us for a week. Yet somehow we already are having trouble remembering life before Gabriela.

I was trying to figure out what I'd been doing for the last week. I feel like I've stayed busy enough, but there really isn't much to show for it. The housekeeper had a small mountain of dirty laundry to do yesterday, dishes were piled up in the kitchen, and the bed hadn't been made since she was here on Friday. I think it was Eric who first pointed out that we've been spending hours out of the day just staring at our new daughter. So I guess between filling my new role as milk cow and changing lots of dirty diapers, I've been sitting in awe of this perfect little person that we somehow created. Who knew someone who sleeps like 20 hours per day could be so captivating!

Livin' the rough life

Little Miss Gabriela has been the most perfect baby. She rarely ever fusses - although she's still not a huge fan of bathtime - and she has been sleeping in her bassinet the whole night waking only once or twice between midnight and 8:00 am to eat. (And even then she usually doesn't cry. She makes increasingly louder sucking noises until one of us drags our sleepy behinds out of bed to get her.) Although no one around here has had an uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep, we're not feeling nearly as sleep deprived as we thought we would. We're really hoping she'll keep this up!

The many faces of Gabriela. She's actually not screaming here, just letting out a little happy squeak. I am completely in love with her squeaks.

Eric returned to work on Monday after spending all of last week with us at home. So we've spent the last couple days adjusting to it being just us girls during the day. We're doing pretty well - yesterday we ventured out on our own for the first time. We went for a stroller ride/walk down to the mall and had lunch at a little cafe. Gabriela made a pretty good date. And I only almost died pushing her up the steep hill beside our apartment. (Note to self: really need to work on getting some aerobic endurance back.)

Poor thing didn't stand a chance of getting a cute little button nose. Maybe she'll grow into her nose though - I like to think her Daddy and I turned out alright despite our big honkers. Right now she has dark grey-blue eyes. Genetically, she has a 50/50 shot of ending up with either blue or brown eyes. (And the same odds of brown or blonde hair.)

We were supposed to have her one week check-up with the pediatrician yesterday, but the doctor was sick so we rescheduled for next Tuesday. According to my scale at home, she has gained about a third of a pound since birth . . . we'll be looking forward to getting her on the infant scale next week though and seeing for sure. Her lab results from her Teste do Pezinho are supposed to be ready this afternoon, so we're looking forward to seeing those.

We've had a great first week. And if I can pull myself away from staring at Miss Gabriela, I might get around to posting updates and pictures a little more frequently in the future!