6 weeks

Jadyn turned 6 weeks old on Thursday night, and she is growing by leaps and bounds. The changes we've noticed recently are that she has made marked gains in controlling her head, she has begun reaching more purposely with her hands, she follows noises and our faces as we move around her, and she smiles when she sees us and we talk to her. She still sleeps a lot, taking longer naps earlier in the day, with the evenings reserved for most of her fussiness and cluster feeding. Jadyn has always been a good night sleeper, and twice in the last week she has slept for 6 straight hours (midnight-ish to 6am-ish), giving Jenny a large chunk of uninterrupted sleep. Happy Mommy means happy baby!

Jenny had her post-partum doctor visit this week as well, and the doctor assessed her various labor wounds and said everything looks good and well-healed. Jenny's body has shed half of her pregnancy weight gain, and the rest will come off either slowly as breastfeeding continues over the coming months or more quickly after breastfeeding ends. The visit also provided the opportunity to find out what was discovered upon closely examining the placenta (it was sent to pathology after Jadyn was born). The report said the placenta was perfectly normal in every way except that it was small -- in the 10th percentile for placenta size. But it had the right number of vessels in the right places, the umbilical cord was close enough to centrally-located that its position was not a cause for concern, and there was no evidence of any kind of infection in the placenta. The doctor said that a small placenta could still do the job of nourishing a baby, so the placenta's size didn't necessarily cause the need for bedrest. She also said future pregnancies may not require bedrest, though she'd watch growth more closely as a precaution should we choose to go down that road.

Here are some recent pictures of our big girl Jadyn. We suspect she is now over 9 pounds -- it's hard to believe some babies are born this size! Her head seems huge compared to when we met her 6 weeks ago, but a growing brain is nothing but good. Enjoy!

Go Heels! (thanks to Aunt Julie for this timely onesie)


Daddy playing games with Jadyn



Jadyn sleeping in her swing


What Jenny found in bed when she returned from her early morning yoga class







Evidence that Jadyn can hold up her own head!